Week 11: components to phonics instruction
P H O N I C S I N S T R U C T I O N:
Has a student ever asked you, "How do you spell ____?" and as you begin to sound out the word for them you realize that you may not be sounding it out the best so you just start to spell the word for them instead. I will admit I am guilty of this. As stated in Stahl's article, "Phonics merely refers to various approaches designed to teach children about the orthographic code of the language and the relationships of spelling patterns to sound patterns."
proaches designed to teach children about the
orthographic code of the language and the re
lationships of spelling patterns to sound pat
ter
The NINE guidelines:
1. Builds on a child's rich concepts about print functions: teach letters and sounds first and then blend them in words2. Builds on a foundation of phonemic awareness: sounds in spoken words
3. Clear and direct: explain what you mean very clearly
4. Is integrated into a total reading program: phonics instruction should not dominate reading instruction
5. Focuses on reading words, not learning rules: using previous knowledge/ use common patterns of words you already know to decode the new word
6. May include onsets and rimes: onset is the part of the syllable before the vowel and rime is the part from the vowel onward
7. May include invented spelling practice: practice within writing due to the learning being done "naturally"
8. Develops independent word recognition strategies, focusing attention on the internal structure of words: *different for each student
9. Develops automatic words recognition skills so that students can devote their attention to comprehension, not words: students need to learn how to recognize words- quickly and automatically so then they can focus on comprehension of the text. If too much time is spent sounding out words then the overall comprehension will be lost
Below are some ways to instruct phonics within activities for our students.
- Say the letter name and the letter sound:
- You start by saying the letter name i.e. 'M' *while you say the letter name you trace the upper case 'M'
- The image of an M&M was used because it literally is the saying the name of the letter 'M'
- Next you say the letter sound i.e. "/mmm/ *while you say the letter sound you trace the lower case 'm'
- The image of the macaroni was used because you hear and say the sound of the letter when saying "mmm-acaroni"
- BAM Game:
- You have a popsicle stick for every letter in the alphabet and they are in a jar where the letters are facing down so you can not see them. There are also a few popsicle sticks with the word "BAM" on them.
- Students come up one by one and when the student picks their popsicle stick they have to say the letter and the letter sound.
- If they say it correctly then they get to keep the popsicle stick. If it is said incorrectly then the popsicle stick has to go back in the jar.
- If the student gets the BAM stick, the whole class yells "BAM!"
Review and Retain:
Every week it is a good idea to review with your students so you can get the understanding if your class is retaining the information or not. Common strategies or activities include images that start with a certain vowel or letter sound and the students have to place where the images belong.
Questions:
1. What guideline stuck out the most to you? Do you think this guideline is something you will be sure to implement in your classroom when using phonic instructions?2. I have played the BAM game in a classroom before. As it is a interacted and often fun game to play, I do not think the students often understood the meaning of why we were playing it (they really just wanted to yell BAM as much as possible). What is a game or activity you played either when you were a student or with your students that can be used to instruct phonic teachings?
3. As stated in Rethinking Early Literacies, "The motivation to learn language comes from social, intellectual, and emotional pursuits as children explore the world, connect with others, and express themselves." Do you agree or disagree with this statement? What motivated you to want to learn more?
The seventh guideline is stated as, "May include invented spelling practice: practice within writing due to the learning being done "naturally". This is a guideline that I would like to focus on in my classroom. I used to have trouble during spelling tests, and I would easily forget how to spell that word the next time I hear it. Phonics would have helped me really listen to how a word is said by narrowing into each individual sound. Phonics should be used in correlation with spelling.
ReplyDeleteSpelling tests were often hard for me too. Especially when I realized I just need to memorize the spelling for a quick quiz on a Friday and then I could forget all about the words afterwards! So, I was often not retaining much.
Delete3. As stated in Rethinking Early Literacies, "The motivation to learn language comes from social, intellectual, and emotional pursuits as children explore the world, connect with others, and express themselves." Do you agree or disagree with this statement? What motivated you to want to learn more?
ReplyDeleteI 100% agree with this statement. There is no meaning to learning something if you think that it doesn't benefit you. Part of the reason that I always loved to read so much was because it connected me to my siblings and my friends. All my siblings loved to read, and so did my friends. I would've probably not read as much as I did if I thought that maybe my siblings or friends would make fun of me for it. The same goes for learning language. If the process is fun and connects you with your friends, you have every reason to do it and no reason not to.
I think another thing that motivated me to learn more was the approval of my parents. My parents have always held academics high in their parenting, and I think that's also a reason that I learned so much when I was little.
The guideline that stuck out to me most is #2; Builds on a foundation of phonemic awareness. This particular guideline stuck out because while reading “saying the “p”.” it was stated, “phonemic awareness is easily taught, but absence of it leads to reading difficulties.” The statement basically tells the importance of how phonemic awareness is essential to reading. I would implement this into my classroom by making sure I’m teaching phonemic as correctly as possible because the slightest of chance I teach it incorrectly can cause a delay in my students reading that will follow them into the next grades until the next teacher corrects the problem.
ReplyDeleteTo answer question three, I would have to agree. I think for me, I always wanted to learn more when I was having fun or doing an activity that was hands on. I hated when we were just sitting in our seats doing worksheets. I think a lot of students learn better when they are allowed to be up moving, active, and doing something hands on. Therefore, I think any kind of phonics activity that involves movement and active learning would be the best way for students to learn and retain information about phonics.
ReplyDeleteI agree as well. Movement and active learning is really essential and critical to a lot of people and how they learn or enjoy learning. I think the BAM game would be a great game to use for this thinking method!
DeleteI would have to agree with the statement given for question three. For me, something that motivated me to learn more was being more active within the work given to us. I like getting up and being active with activities because I feel as if doing worksheets all the time can become boring and students just tend to do the worksheet just to get it done. I know for a very long time that was me because I knew it didn't matter if I really knew the material, just as long I got the right answer for it. Being more active and hands on activities always motivated me to learn more because I was having fun with it.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Samantha. I remember being in elementary school learning phonics sitting at my desk was so boring to me. One day my teacher told us to get up and go to the rug in a circle and we played a card game with phonic. I remember that I learned the sounds and the words for our spelling test that week. When I took the test I just kept thinking of the fun activity we did. I believe students learn better when the actives are fun and have the students being active and engage into the lesson.
DeleteThe guideline that stuck out to me the most is 9). Develops automatic words recognition skills so that students can devote their attention to comprehension, not words. This reminds me of the conversation we just had in math regarding fluency, understanding, and problem solving. As for word recognition and oral language comprehension, children can focus more of their attention on reading for meaning instead of just word reading. Something the article mentions that is important to remember is, “Quality phonics instruction should be a part of a reading program, integrated and relevant to the reading and writing of actual texts, based on and building upon children's experiences with texts” (p. 625). In other words, teaching phonics must be done in productive and purposeful ways, and a perfect example of this is in the activities you’ve provided for us, so thanks for that!
ReplyDeleteAs many people have said already I do have to agree also to your 3rd question because what motivated me to read was my friends recommending books that they had personally read and loved, so I wanted to try the book out and see if I would like it too. For other subjects my motivation was my parents. Specially for me I did not want to disappoint my parents because they decided to move countries and leave their family members behind so I could get a better education and live a better life. So I do think the people you are surrounded by determine weather you will like a book, subject or school in general. If students are surrounded by people who think school is lame then they will start to believe that as well and not want to learn anymore.
ReplyDeleteAs stated in Rethinking Early Literacies, "The motivation to learn language comes from social, intellectual, and emotional pursuits as children explore the world, connect with others, and express themselves." Do you agree or disagree with this statement? What motivated you to want to learn more?
ReplyDeleteI agree with this statement because I wholeheartedly believe that children need to experience things for themselves in order to be effectively learning the material we are trying to teach them. If we want to motivate our students to learn we have to put in the effort to make it interesting to them. Who wants to learn about something that doesn't excite them? What has motivated me to want to learn more is my desire to be the best teacher I can be and when my professors engaged me and I had a chance to interact with things I enjoyed the class a lot more.
To answer question number three, I completely agree with the statement. I think the best way for a child to learn is by connecting with the world, and with connecting to others. When children can express themselves, they will feel more comfortable with the world around them, and with making new connection with new children,
ReplyDeleteI wanted to repsond to your first question that stated "What guideline stuck out the most to you? Do you think this guideline is something you will be sure to implement in your classroom when using phonic instructions?" the fifth guideline "Focuses on reading words, not learning rules: using previous knowledge/ use common patterns of words you already know to decode the new word" is what really helped me understand and improve my reading comprehension skills. By knowing how to blend and sound out each constant letter and learning different homophones helped me see the patterns of words. I want my future students to be able to keep certain sounds in mind so it can help them increase their knowledge to attain bigger words and eventually grow to become fluent readers.
ReplyDeleteClear and direct. This guideline, in my opinion, is the one that I would use initially in the classroom. Some people believe that playing games will get the students to better understand different topics, while this is true, it isn't true for all students. Before a game, I believe that students should know the meaning of phonics before they play the game. The meaning should be clear and it should be told directly to the students before putting it into a game that you then ALSO will have to explain to the student. For example, you wouldn't give a student to cards and tell them to add them together if they don't know how to add yet.
ReplyDeleteThe guideline that stuck out to me the most was #5. "Focuses on reading words, not learning rules: using previous knowledge/ use common patterns of words you already know to decode the new word." I would implement this into my classroom because of my experiences and feelings when I was in school. I remember my teachers focusing on rules above all and I wonder how different reading would be if we were just using previous knowledge and patterns.
ReplyDeleteI don't specifically remember participating in phonics games when I was a child. Although, after some research I found this game where it is bingo but with phonics. I would like to try that out with students of my own.
I definitely agree with this statement because learning for children happens when they go out and explore the world. When I was younger, I remember trying to learn Spanish from my cousins and I was curious about random objects and I would ask them how to say it in Spanish. What motivated me in this situation would have been the world around me and the new language.
To answer number 3, yes I agree because students need to be able to make connections when they learn. If they are participating in something they enjoy like a game or hands on activity they will most likely retain majority of the information that they learn. What helped me learned was more hands on activities or games because I enjoyed my time during the lesson while gaining the information.
ReplyDeleteI wanted to answer your question, As stated in Rethinking Early Literacies, "The motivation to learn language comes from social, intellectual, and emotional pursuits as children explore the world, connect with others, and express themselves." Do you agree or disagree with this statement? What motivated you to want to learn more? I agree with this because when students can connect with activities that are connected to them or something they are interested in, they will most likely retain the knowledge. It is important to learn about the students background and make sure we can add their identities into the lesson so they will want to be more engaged.
ReplyDeleteFor question three, I agree. As a child I always wanted to impress adults by using words they didn't think I would know. I would try to learn the words by hearing them say it and question what the meaning is. I remember the first time I heard the word "correct". I dad told a lady at the gas station that something was correct. I then asked him "Does correct mean yes?". He told me that it was kind of like yes but it's more of saying something is right.
ReplyDeleteI would like to answer number three. "As stated in Rethinking Early Literacies, "The motivation to learn language comes from social, intellectual, and emotional pursuits as children explore the world, connect with others, and express themselves." Do you agree or disagree with this statement? What motivated you to want to learn more?" I agree with this statement. Social, intellectual, and emotional interactions/pursuits help child learn about their environment and the world that surrounds them. Home life can affect whether a child wants to pursue school or find other means to fill their time slot. My motivation and love for learning came from listening to my grandfather and his hopes and dreams of having the opportunity that I was having (at the time). And how he and his friends, who were in fifth grade, had to riffle through garbage cans at white schools to get their discarded textbooks that had been written in and pages torn out to learn...did I mention the books were for second and third grade students. HIs desperation and dedication to education pushed me to be more and really utilize the educational opportunity that so many of my ancestors fought and died for. I am grateful for the conversations that I have had with him that propelled me onto my current career path.
ReplyDeleteTo answer your third question, I completely agree with that statement. There is no better way that a child will learn and feel comfortable in learning language than through social interactions. Taking the stance from an ENL student, if they feel motivated by their teachers and supported by their peers they will only keep pushing forward to get better to learn English. When I was in Elementary school, what motivated me to learn more was getting praise from my teacher or reading wise, being able to understand and read harder books as I advanced in my reading skills.
ReplyDeleteTo answer question 3, I do agree that the motivation to learn language comes from social, intellectual and emotional pursuits as children explore the world, connect with others, and express themselves. I agree with this because when children have a connection with someone/ something or enjoys doing something they are more intrigued which helps them remember the information better. I am motivated to learn when I am interested in a topic.
ReplyDeleteTo answer question number 1, a lot of the guidelines stuck out to me because they all seem very important. The two I found that stuck put to me the most was guideline number one and guideline number 5. Number 1 is the pure basics of teaching phonics which is teaching letters and sound which leads into blending them into a word. This is how a student will truly be able to understand why a word is pronounced the way it is pronounced. Number 5 really stuck out because I remember all the rule I learned in elementary school. The one I still think about to this day is i before e except after c.
ReplyDelete- Deja Shelton
DeleteFrom the guidelines, I think it is very important to be clear and direct with your students so they can better understand what you are wanting them to do. I also think that building on previous knowledge is important for students to be able to connect back to what they already know. I do agree with the statement from the textbook. What motivated me to learn more was so I could talk to a variety of people. I was a very social kid.
ReplyDelete