Kindergarten literacy jargon?

[beetiger]

My son is talking to me about there being "pop-up" words in books, and telling me that "the" and "I" are some of them, but can't articulate to me what that actually means. Is this a term for early sight reading words or something?

It's very confusing. I have a son who is quite literate, but seems to be learning all these pre-literacy/early literacy learning methods, and is convinced he's learning something new and essential about text, like that vowels can be written in different colors and there are "pop-up" words.

I'm confused.

Comments

[perlandria.livejournal.com]

Synesthetic?

[beetiger.livejournal.com]

No, kindergarten literacy tools, I'm pretty sure.

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

He's learning popcorn words. They're a short list of the most frequent sight words in English, and include all the pronouns, "is," "are, "have," "said," most of the prepositions, and a bunch of others. There are actually a bunch of lists progressing in difficulty from the very first sight words they need to know, up to include the eight hundred or so most common words in English to be known by grade four.

Here's a link: http://lilteacher.com/popcornwords.html

They're way below Rhys' level, though. This is a case where the standard kindergarten program isn't going to help him at all. I'd counsel him to participate in carpet time practice of these words, but maybe ask his teacher for a more advanced reading activity for centre time that's supposed to focus on them.

[beetiger.livejournal.com]

OK, that's what I figured. See, the weird thing is, he thinks this is *content*, that being "pop-up" is a special fact about "the" that he didn't know before.

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

Ah, I see. That makes sense from a five-year-old's perspective. It makes sense to correct that impression as soon as possible, though. Popcorn words are simply the name teachers give to the words he's most likely to see and use.

[ladyperegrine.livejournal.com]

It sounds like he's almost treating it like we would want him to think of parts of speech or something. Maybe he's ready for a bit of grammar? Or would that only confuse the issue?

[walkertxkitty.livejournal.com]

Ever thought he might be synesthetic? Synesthetes like myself see words with color, texture, and even flavors. It's a kind of brain malfunction or an extra sense/gift, depending on how you look at it.

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

It might be a good opportunity to introduce parts of speech, with an emphasis on, "These words are all used the same way." You can then work on dividing up his popcorn words into categories based on parts of speech, and salvage a workable activity from something otherwise far below his level.

Just out of curiosity, has anyone mentioned a reading level to you - maybe they called it a DRA level? I would expect him to be around a 20, which I believe translates to an L in the letter version of the same scale. That would put his reading level in the mid-grade two range. I may be wrong on that, though, and I'd be interested to see if his teachers have bothered being that specific with him yet.

[lesliepear.livejournal.com]

As someone said above, they are "popcorn" words because they pop-up all over. Alan's kindergarten class does one a week, although I've gone over the list we were given for the year with him already. I thought we were the only place with that odd term for sight words.

It does sound like he's an advanced reader though for his age, I'd talk to his teacher about that.

[robocoon.livejournal.com]

I was about to mention synesthesia, as I have that "gift" (i would call it an "issue" but now isn't my place to rant) and that REALLY sounds like the way i would describe it, but after looking at the other comments I'd say that is probably WAY off base and the other folks are accurate with the "popcorn" words.

it also makes me really happy to see you using that icon. i'm so sorry it took so long. if you want, now that i have a computer to futz with on my own time, would you like another for free? or one for rhys?

[beetiger.livejournal.com]

I'll bet Rhys would love one. He seems to be a dragon-boy this month.

[beetiger.livejournal.com]

I actually tried that this afternoon, in the car. Told him that grownups didn't usually talk about popcorn words, once they learned how to read most words, but did he want to talk about whether a word was a noun, which was a naming word? He seemed pretty interested.

As far as reading level, they've been sending him home with "D" books, which is the most advanced they have in the classroom. The teacher tested him on them and supposedly he decoded them perfectly, but could not report the content well. (Of course, the problem is not that his comprehension is low, but that his attention is, but from their POV they feel he hasn't mastered them.) I've gotten them to at least send home non-fiction so there's content we can talk about even if the reading level is low. And he's taking books closer to his challenge reading level out of the library -- Rainbow Fairies and Geronimo Stilton, I think?

[beetiger.livejournal.com]

Synaesthesia would be cool, but unfortunately he's just talking about the teacher color-coding letters in the classroom.

[robocoon.livejournal.com]

okay! does he have a favorite color or animal or anything you think he would like incorporated in with the dragon design? or just run wild with it? :U

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

He's reading Geronimo Stilton and they have him pegged at a D? I revise my estimate - I'd ask them to talk to the grade three teachers and start testing him around a 24 (M or N, I believe - I'm not sure because most of my kids start higher than that.) If they pegged Elizabeth at a D, I'd believe them because it meshes with what I've seen of her reading, but in my professional opinion, Rhys' independent reading level is at least grade two and probably higher.

The kindergarten teachers may not know how to conduct the higher tests if they've never taught grade two or three, so push for them to have a spec. ed. teacher or one of the grade two classroom teachers do that testing. He'll need access to their classroom libraries, too.