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February/March
Newsletter
By Dr. Cindy Cupp
Dear
Educators,
Welcome
to the February/March 2003 Dr. Cupp Readers® Newsletter!!
Be
sure and see our new Hop’n
Pop Cheer Cards on the web page. Teachers
are reporting great success with these Hop’n Pop cards.
We have also just added AlphaMotion® Desk Strips.
Please
let everyone know that Dr. Cupp Readers® and Ten Minute Phonics™ are both on the State of Georgia
Approved Textbook List. The Georgia
State Board of Education unanimously approved both programs at the September
2002 Board meeting.
If
you would like to review our research, please see the section of this web page
under Results.
We
are now updating research on our programs.
An independent reading consultant, Cathy Puett Miller is conducting this
evaluation. Please take a moment
and complete the attached survey.
Just click, complete, and email
your survey to us.
Educators have permission to make one copy of this newsletter for classroom use. If you would like to make more than one copy, please email me at cindycupp@mindspring.com
Wishing
you great success,
Cindy Cupp
This month our Newsletter includes:
Section
1
Three Teaching Tips and Games
Section
2
Feature School of the Month
Dames Ferry Elementary, Gray, Georgia
Section
1
#1
Teaching Tips and Games
Side-by-Side™
Hop’n Pop
Objective
– To help students’ transition from reading words on cards or on lists to
reading words in text.
Why
will this game help some students?
If students have been practicing sight words using index cards or word
lists, some students have trouble reading the same words if the words are placed
side-by-side on a page of reading text.
Students are not accustomed to seeing the sight word with other words
coming before or after.
In order to help students make this transition, Side-by-Side™
Hop’n Pop has been helpful for some students.
Material needed:
Timer
and Side-by-Side™ Hop’n Pop
practice sheet.
Steps
to make this game:
1.
Select the sight words students will practice.
2.
Make a Side-by-Side™ Hop’n Pop
practice sheet (see below).
Line one has four spaces between each word; line two has three spaces
between each word; line three has two spaces; and lines four and five have one
space.
3. Each student has a copy of the Side-by-Side™ Hop’n Pop practice sheet. One child is selected to read the lines. The teacher sets the timer for 30 seconds and the selected student tries to beat the 30 seconds. If the student can read all words in 30 seconds, the student catches Hop’n Pop. Each child in the group will have a turn.
Side-by-Side™ Hop’n Pop
1.
my
cat
can
see
you
Can
2.
you
cat
my
see
can
Can
You
3.
can
you
cat
You
see
my
Can
4.
Can you see my cat?
5. You can
see my cat.
Student’s
name_______________________
Directions:
Set the timer for 30 seconds. Students
try to read all the words in 30 seconds. There
are 30 words. Enter the number of words read within 30 seconds.
Begin in box one and write the score for the first attempt at reading all
30 words. Continue to enter the
score in boxes 2-10 or until they can read all 30 words in 30 seconds.
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#2 Teaching Tips and Games
Sound
blending
Are
your students having trouble sound blending?
If so, try the strategies described below.
Note
to teachers from Dr. Cupp:
If
you want 100% of your student to learn how to sound-blend, use onset and rime.
Period.
Students should practice blending the short a sound with
consonants. Students
should automatically be able to read the following:
ab, ac, ad, af, ag, am, an, ap, as, at, av, az.
As
students learn to read each of the rimes listed above, then begin making new
words. For
example: If
the word is tap, students must make the /t/ sound first, and then the
rime /ap/. The
/ap/ must be pronounced smoothly with no pause between the /a/ and /p/.
Common
errors:
1.
Problem – For example: Student
sounds out /t/ /ap/ and then says another word like cap or map.
Students may also just guess any word.
Solution
– Place pictures of the word the student will sound out on the table.
For example: Place a picture
of a cat, rat, and bat on the table. Ask
students to name the pictures after you. When
you are sure students know the names for the pictures, then show them the word cat.
Point to the word cat and tell students to sound out the word cat.
After the word is sounded out, the student should point to the picture of
the cat. Continue with students
sounding out words and matching the word with a picture or an object on the
table.
Problem
– Student sounds out /t/ /ap/ and then says pat.
The student flips the last letter to the front of the word.
Solution
– Sit beside the student and take the student’s left hand in your hand.
Have the student point to the word with his or her index finger of the
left hand. As the student sounds
out the letters in the word tap, the student moves his or her index
finger under the letters. As soon
as the letters are sounded, the student moves his or her index finger back to
the front of the word and “hits” the first letter of the word with the index
finger. This “hitting” of the
first letter causes the student to focus back on the beginning sound. It works.
#3 Teaching Tips and Games
Free
Comprehension Games to
use with very beginning readers
Sunday
Cartoons
Teacher
notes from Dr. Cupp:
The January/February/March 2003 edition of Reading Research
Quarterly (Volume 38, Number 1) has a great research study on using wordless
books to help beginning readers develop comprehension strategies and oral
language. The
title of this research article is “Assessing Narrative Comprehension in Young
Children.”
Problem:
In order to implement many of the strategies mentioned in this article,
the teacher needs wordless books.
I have found it
both expensive and difficult to find a large selection of books without
words.
Solution:
The cartoon section in most Sunday papers is in color.
Ask your friends and family to save the Sunday cartoon section for you
each week. If
your largest reading group has eight students, you will need eight copies of the
cartoons each week.
In
the cartoon section of last week’s Atlanta Journal and Constitution, I
found three cartoons I considered appropriate to use with five-and six-year-
olds to develop oral language and comprehension strategies.
The cartoon should show a story line that the young child can follow.
One cartoon had a few words.
I used white out and eliminated the words.
Steps
for preparing the cartoons:
1.
Read the cartoons and decide the ones appropriate for your students.
Cut out the cartoons you have selected, glue the cartoon on cardstock and
place a number in the box of each picture segment of the cartoon. For example:
If the cartoon is divided into six segments, then number each segment
beginning with one in the first box and ending with the number six in the last
box. By
placing a number in each box of each cartoon, you can discuss with the student
what is happening in that particular box.
2.
Laminate your cartoons for the week and place them in an 8x10 mailing
envelope with one copy of the cartoon pasted on the outside of the envelope.
Place a number on your new Cartoon Comprehension Activity.
Steps
to use during instruction:
1.
Give each student in the group a copy of the cartoon.
2.
Have students look at each picture from the beginning of the cartoon to
the end.
3.
Tell students there are many possible stories that describe the cartoon.
Students need to know there is not one right answer.
4.
Each student takes a turn telling what he or she thinks is happening in
the picture.
5.
Variation
– The teacher may have students cut the cartoons in segments and put
the cartoon back together back again.
Section 2
Feature
School of the Month
Dames Ferry, Jones County, Gray, Georgia
Dames
Ferry is located halfway between Macon and Milledgeville.
Dames Ferry began using Dr. Cupp Readers® in August of 2002.
All kindergarten, first grade, EIP, and Special Education students are
now Jack and Jilly stars.
If you would like to visit Dames Ferry, please contact Lucinda Simpson
at: simpson_kyellow@yahoo.com
Dianna
Blizzard
Principal
of Dames Ferry writes:
We have all been so pleased with the progress our children have demonstrated
this year. Our projected retention rates in Kindergarten have been cut in
half at the mid point of this year. As an administrator, I was
able to see first hand the gain that the kindergarten students have made because
I gave the LEXIA test to each
student. I was impressed with the confidence of the students - they were ready
to attack any word that was thrown at them. One child told me (when
confronted with a VERY long word) to hold on a minute and she would get it and
sure enough SHE DID! Comprehension was also up for the Kindergarten
students. Thank you Dr. Cupp for providing us the opportunity to display the
successes of our students and faculty!
Lucinda
Simpson
Kindergarten Teacher and Parent of a Kindergarten Student in Jack and Jilly!:
For
the first time, in my 12 years as a Kindergarten teacher, I feel that I am
finally teaching for each individual child. In the past, we have been
locked into phonics programs that did not allow for individual differences. We
plowed ahead and hoped that everyone would get it! We over taught phonics
- I was frustrated and did not know what to do. I was sending students up to 1st
grade that I KNEW were not ready BUT I did not know what to do! I had students
who could sound out m--a--p all day long but NEVER make the connection to
bring it together and they certainly could NOT read sentences! 1st grade
teachers were frustrated also, because although we sent children up knowing
letters and sounds they were not making that jump to become readers. Then
a wonderful gift was put right at our fingertips!!! Dr. Cupp's Program!
It has truly been like a fabulous gift that we opened up and let our children in
with.
The
key to reading has been found! THIS IS IT! For the first time every student in
my class and our other 6 classes are READING and comprehending what they
are reading!! Dr. Cupp's program has finally given us what we need to teach 100%
of our children! I am able to break my children into groups and teach to the
needs of each child! We move at the pace that the child is ready for. I do not
see tears of frustration anymore - I see smiling, excited children begging to
get started on groups in the morning!! If our morning routine gets off, the
children start asking when are we doing groups, when are we doing Hop ‘n Pop!!
NEVER has this happened before! When I pulled out the phonics program that we
taught - I heard moans and groans!! I was ready to cry from boredom and
frustration, too!!!! I feel like am finally
teaching!!!! It is wonderful!! The children want to play the games and they
don't even realize how many skills they are learning!!!
Further
proof can be seen in our LEXIA scores - overall the whole kindergarten scored on
the average in the 17-22 range - This is amazing for this point in the
year. On another note, we as teachers did NOT test our own children. Our
administrators did this for us so no teacher biases can be factored in at all!
In my room, I had five students who scored 1,2, and 3's coming into my room and
their scores now are 17's and 18's! Do you realize how wonderful this is?!
If we had been teaching the "old" way, their scores would have been stuck at
10-12 (maybe! - if that much) This group is already in book 6 of Dr. Cupp
Readers®!
Further proof of the success can be seen in our GKAP results.
I
actually gave the blending-sounds-to-read-words and the sight-word sections to
my class before the Christmas Holidays and 100% of the class passed BOTH
sections! This has NEVER happened - Usually we are struggling to pull these
sections out in April! I have in the past sent up MANY students who did not pass
either section! NOT ANY MORE!
As
a parent, I am thrilled to see my own child’s success! She LOVES reading and
LOVES Jack and Jilly! She begs every night to Hop ‘n Pop and read!
We
welcome anyone to come visit our school and see the wonders of Dr. Cupp's
Program! It is truly a joy to teach and we would love to share it with everyone!
We will not quit until 100% of our students are able to read and you shouldn't
either! The answer to illiteracy is here - Dr. Cupps' Program!!!
Please
feel free to contact me at simpson_kyellow@yahoo.com
Debbie
Cox
Parent of a Jack and Jilly kindergarten student writes:
My
daughter has had a wonderful kindergarten year. I was a little worried before kindergarten because I did not
feel she was interested in reading.
Since she began Dr. Cupp Readers®, I have been amazed at her progress.
She loves to read!! Her
sight word recognition is outstanding!! As
a former first grade teacher, I know how prepared she will be for 1st
grade. Dr. Cupp Readers® have played
a large part in my daughter’s success in reading!
Linda
Elkins
Kindergarten
teacher writes:
“Hats
off to Dr. Cupp!”
Our
class this year has gained major success in reading.
Their enthusiasm and confidence with phonemic awareness, spelling,
decoding and sight word recognition has been fantastic.
The children love to play the games, especially the Cheer Cards.
Students don’t even realize they are learning important skills.
When I announce we will play Hop’n Pop they scream!
They feel as though Jack , Jilly, Miss Sound-O, and Dr. Detective are
members of the class.
We are in Book 18 now and they are discovering that they can read books from the library BY THEMSELVES. They are pleased and so am I!
Return this survey
by Fax to 770-345-2292, or by mail to:
2740 WOODRIDGE CHASE
CANTON,
GA 30114
Thank
you!
© 2003
Cupp Publishers, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
If you are a
teacher using Dr. Cupp Readers® and you would
like to have your suggestions or ideas posted in the Monthly Newsletter, please
send them to Cindy Cupp at
cindycupp@mindspring.com
Webmaster:
Picture Perfect Productions.
Copyright 2002, Cupp Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.