Wednesday Words: Clear Articulation

When children are learning to read, it's important that they can hear and speak words clearly, so that they can distinguish individual sounds in words. Spoken speech is often unclear: words are often slurred together and vowel sounds are not always clearly articulated. Children who are lacking in confidence may also find it difficult to speak loudly and clearly enough to be properly heard.

To encourage children to speak distinctly, I use poems, songs and nonsense words. Poems and songs can be said or sung using slightly exaggerated articulation and rhythm, without seeming odd. Children can learn simple rhymes and songs, and can have a lot of fun reciting or singing them together, or even individually as they gain confidence.

You can find children's songs easily on the Internet. If you play guitar or ukulele, that can help to maintain a rhythm, to encourage children to sing audibly and to make the songs more fun. If you're just learning, don't be scared to have a go with your children - it's good for children to see adults learning a new skill and even making mistakes! I have a site for beginner or more advanced guitar/ukulele players (cathyschords.com), with a page of children's songs: 

Poems can also be lots of fun; I've already posted (here) about poems and alliteration and my poems-for-children.webs.com site. You can make up simple rhymes with children, and of course they love to have one about themselves. I used to have a book of 'personal poems' for my pre-schoolers, with their own illustrations; the children took great pleasure in 'reading' them to the group.

Nonsense words are also great fun for children as well as being a good way to develop awareness of the sounds and structure in words. You can make up a list of nonsense words that all rhyme with one word or name, then make up a poem using the words, and read it out with varying expression and lots of facial movements. 

One challenge for my 'expressive language' group was to make up the silliest word they could think of, then say it 3 times so it sounded different each time (they could write it out in different styles, too). This is a quick activity that can be repeated as often as you like.

Remember, when you are speaking to children, to articulate words clearly, and make sure the children are facing you so that they can see your mouth. This not only sets a good example, but of course helps them to differentiate words and sounds - valuable for developing their speech and their reading skills.

Wednesday Words - Sight Words to practise

Some sight words seem to be very tricky for children to learn. Here are some that I have found to be especially difficult, although they are very common.

I developed these sheets for children to colour in or decorate and to display somewhere where they will see them frequently.

You can print these off if you like for your children. Click on the thumbnail to open a PDF document:

    

  

  

The sheets can be decorated with coloured pencils or felt pens, stickers, paste & glitter/ confetti/sand etc… anything that makes the word stand out and does not obscure the outlines of the letters.

Wednesday Words: new Sight Words board game for February

This week, I'm posting a new printable board game to use with Sight Words cards. 

I've done a Hearts theme for Valentine's Day.

You can use the game with a small group, or with an individual child (to see how quickly they can finish the game). 

You will need to print the game on light card (laminate for best results), and you will also need little 'movers' or tokens, a die (dice) and word cards. You can use any words that you want the child to practise (see Jan 21 post for tips on sight words cards).

Here is the game to print (click on the picture to open the .pdf document): 

You are welcome to use this game for your personal home or classroom use. It will be available during February.

Small Group management strategy: 'Good Group Work' sheets

Working as an Intervention teacher, I have taught small groups of children at times, in order to work on specific skills or areas of learning.

These groups need to be very focused, but often the children who need intervention are those with other behavioural or focus issues. A calm, attentive atmosphere can be difficult to achieve.

One group I had was particularly inclined to be restless and to disrupt each other’s learning. I realised they needed a tangible reminder of the expected behaviour of the group, as well as a ‘reward’ for making an effort.

These are the ‘Good Group Work’ sheets I devised. We discussed the expected behaviours in the group (‘extra work’ - at home- was not compulsory but was well worth recognising). 

The children chose their preferred colour sheet (easy enough to photocopy onto coloured paper). They decorated them as they wished.

At the end of each session (after reminders/prompting if needed), each sheet was stamped in the relevant columns if the child had succeeded in that aspect (or if they had made a real effort– some would find some aspects quite challenging). The children were encouraged to work as a team (or tribe, as the ‘Tribes’ program was in use), so that they would help each other and we would all celebrate their successes in this area as well as in the reading skills learnt.

After several sessions, the reminders were far less frequent and the feeling of achievement was high. The children had better control of their behaviour and they were proud of their increased self-control and their increased learning ability. No further ‘reward’ was needed.

Here is a copy of the ‘Good group Work Sheet’; you are welcome to print it off for your classroom or home use (print/copy in black and white onto coloured paper/card; you can of course use stickers/stars instead of stamps): 

Click on the picture to open the .pdf file

Wednesday Words - Assessing Reading - Running Records

My teaching year begins this week, so I will have new Reading Intervention students as well as catching up with some from last year. I will be assessing the students’ reading levels, using levelled books/reading sheets and taking running records, as well as using other tests.

Running records are very valuable for getting a quick overview of the strategies children use as they read, and for picking up areas needing to be worked on.

You can use unfamiliar text (but always tell the child the title), or you can use familiar text or introduced text. I prefer to use unfamiliar text but I will do a quick introduction with the main story line, names and any difficult or unfamiliar vocabulary or expressions used in the text.

Here is a blank Running Record form that you can download, print and copy. You just need to use a tick for each word the child reads correctly; write in words that the child gets wrong (errors = E) and self-corrections (= SC). Note if the child repeats words or phrases.

In the E and SC columns (if there are any errors or self-corrections on the line), note the strategies the child used to attempt to decode the troublesome words: M = using the meaning in the text/pictures; S = using the structure in the text/sentence/phrase; V = using visual information (the letters in the words, guessing a similar-looking word).

Work out the ‘accuracy’ as a percentage: You need have an idea of how many words you have recorded on the record. If you have recorded 100 words, or 150, it’s easy to work out the percentage of errors (you don’t need to count self-corrections here, and an error with a names is only counted once, even if the error is repeated). 

If you have a text with fewer than 60 words or with a lot of repetition, you may want to do a couple of texts to give a better idea of the child’s skills.

Once you have worked out the percentage of errors, you can subtract that number from 100 to get the ‘accuracy’, and you can grade the text as

Easy - 95% accuracy or better

Instructional – 90-94% accuracy

Difficult – less than 90% accuracy.

Note general strategies used and if there is a mix of M, S and V; also if more than one strategy is used to ‘cross-check’ when decoding a word. Pace, phrasing, expression and fluency are all worth noting. 

It can also be useful to note if the child is reversing words, using a finger to point (using left/right hand -or both), or showing any indicators of possible problems such articulation difficulties, missed words/lines, face very close to the page, etc.

You may want to circle (or note on the back of the page) any areas to follow up with your teaching or referrals to specialists.

Remember that one running record is only one glimpse of the child’s reading ability, and more testing will be needed, but a good running record at Instructional level (or a little harder) can quickly and easily give you quite a lot of information and it’s a handy record to keep for future comparisons.   

Wednesday Words - Sight Words Practice - free printable game for January

This week I'm offering my latest printable board game for free download in January - February. It's designed to be printed on A4 paper or light card (laminate for best results).

Use the game with 'sight words' cards (use thick paper or light card, and write the words with pencil or light felt pen so the writing doesn't show through). You can use words that your child is learning at school or that he finds difficult, as well as some that he 'almost' knows - and a few easy ones as well.
Here's a sheet of blank cards that you can print if you like on white or coloured light card (or just cut up light card to use). Click on the picture to open the .pdf file:

A suggested balance of words for the cards would be: 4 'new' or hard words, 7 'don't quite know' words, and 4 easy words.

You'll also need a die or spinner and some little tokens or 'movers', e.g. counters, little buttons, little coloured card squares etc.

Here's the game to print (click on the picture):

You can use this game with one child or in a small group. It doesn't take long, so you may want to play it twice to give more players a chance of winning. If you want to make it less competitive, explain that the goal is for all the players to reach the end... and that a player can ask for help if he doesn't know a word.

Wednesday Words - Early Reading Skills: shapes and relationships - jigsaws

Jigsaw puzzles are fun for young children, and they are also great to help develop awareness of patterns, shapes, lines and detail as well as eye-hand coordination. These are all useful skills for reading and writing.

You can make simple jigsaws by cutting up old Christmas or birthday cards*, or pictures glued onto card. 

 (*TIP: glue the card closed before cutting for extra strength).

You can also find many jigsaws online that your child can do on a computer, when they have mastered using a mouse, touchpad or touchscreen.

I have made a range of ‘computer jigsaws’ for my reading students, from very simple 4- to 16- piece puzzles to harder jigsaws; some are a challenge even for adults. They work as an .exe file on Windows computers. 

Most of my ‘intermediate’ jigsaws have a word or words to piece together as well as the picture, so the children are practising making words without really realising.

You can download computer jigsaws for free from my site www.ePuzzlEd.net

including First jigsaws- 4-16 pieces and 20-20-piece jigsaws here: epuzzlejigsawslinks

and Melbourne Zoo animal jigsaws, 20-35 pieces here: newharderjigsaws

(Note: when I downloaded some of my jigsaws, the security on my computer didn't want to open them...I had to click on 'open anyway').

You can find many other jigsaws, and even make your own jigsaws from your favourite digital pictures or family photos, on www.jigzone.com.