Teaching Tip for Oct, Nov, Dec '09
Our tip this term focuses on phonological awareness (PA) skills. Research shows that children with strong PA skills, especially rhyming, tend to be successful readers. There are six main PA skills – rhyming, segmentation, isolation, deletion, substitution, and blending. You can download an overview of the skills and examples of each in the downloads section of the website (icon at bottom of each page).
I encourage teachers to use stories they read to their students as a base for PA practice. Prior to reading the story, check through the book to look for words that would work for one of the skills and list them down (you might want to start a file for future years) – eg. multi-syllable words work well for segmentation or blending; many books have rhyming patterns; list a few key words from the story to have children identify the initial/final sound, etc. This practice time can be as short as 1 – 2 minutes.
It also helps to pick one of the skills and focus on it for a week or two then add a second one, remembering to review the first one on occasion.
If children are having difficulty with these skills, be sure to do lots of modeling of the correct response and have them repeat.
There are commercially-produced PA activities and kits on the market, but using your storytime as a base is quick, easy, and usually daily.
Teaching Tip for July, Aug, Sept '09
Many of you are already looking at preparations for the upcoming year. I thought this would be a good time to discuss the importance of review (drill and practice) and encourage you to be sure to include review time in your lessons. We all learn things through practice and children are no different. I'm sure my granddaughter has done her Diego puzzle at least 50 times since we bought it a few months ago and still gets it out every time she comes over! We must keep in mind that, although we may get bored doing these simple activities repeatedly, it is valuable learning time for children.
Reading is no different than learning a sport or an instrument - you have to practice the skills in order to improve. When teaching the sounds, always try to include a brief review of the other letter sounds already taught. The consonant drill (from Blackline Master 8 - Accuracy and Automaticity Drills for short vowels) which is available as a download on the website, is a great way to drill and practice the letter sounds once all have been introduced.
All of the Accuracy and Automaticity Drill packages offer quick and easy 1-minute timed drills of the various phonics skills and sight words children must be able to identify automatically. If you have volunteers available at school, that is a great program to get them involved in. You can also copy appropriate drill pages for each student and send the books home. It gets parents involved but doesn't require a lot of time on their part. I've seen classroom teachers put these drill sheets up on an overhead projector or Smartboard and do a group drill with the students on a regular basis. Don't hesitate to get in touch if you need help in getting a drill program started in your class or school. learn@itchysalphabet.com or 1-877-368-7890
Teaching Tip for July, Aug, Sept '09
Many of you are already looking at preparations for the upcoming year. I thought this would be a good time to discuss the importance of review (drill and practice) and encourage you to be sure to include review time in your lessons. We all learn things through practice and children are no different. I'm sure my granddaughter has done her Diego puzzle at least 50 times since we bought it a few months ago and still gets it out every time she comes over! We must keep in mind that, although we may get bored doing these simple activities repeatedly, it is valuable learning time for children.
Reading is no different than learning a sport or an instrument - you have to practice the skills in order to improve. When teaching the sounds, always try to include a brief review of the other letter sounds already taught. The consonant drill (from Blackline Master 8 - Accuracy and Automaticity Drills for short vowels) which is available as a download on the website, is a great way to drill and practice the letter sounds once all have been introduced.
All of the Accuracy and Automaticity Drill packages offer quick and easy 1-minute timed drills of the various phonics skills and sight words children must be able to identify automatically. If you have volunteers available at school, that is a great program to get them involved in. You can also copy appropriate drill pages for each student and send the books home. It gets parents involved but doesn't require a lot of time on their part. I've seen classroom teachers put these drill sheets up on an overhead projector or Smartboard and do a group drill with the students on a regular basis. Don't hesitate to get in touch if you need help in getting a drill program started in your class or school. learn@itchysalphabet.com or 1-877-368-7890
Teaching Tip for April, May, June '09
I often get asked how long I recommend spending on each letter. There isn’t a definitive answer to this – your students may dictate the time frame more than you. Generally, if you feel the children have learned the sound, it is time to go on to the next.
That said, a general rule of thumb is probably about 3 days on each letter. I would spend the first day reading the story, making the picture cue/letter sound connection , listening to the song and singing along, and perhaps making rainbow letters with Blackline Master 5. My Kindergarten teacher usually did a picture chart with words the children generated that started with the letter. The second day could involve a second reading of the story with the phonological awareness practice, review of the sound and song, printing practice with Blackline Master 2, an art activity with the picture cue or a drill and practice with the game cards or Interactive Games CD. On the third day, begin with another review of sound and song, initial sound identification with Blackline Master 4, more drill and practice if necessary. As letters are learned, the words to read and spell activity can be done on day 3 with individual white boards or gelboards. On each day, I would also encourage a quick review of all sounds learned to date. The Teaching Guide also suggests alternate books and follow-up activities for each story and you can incorporate these into other times during the day (circle time, math time, art, story time, etc.) to further reinforce the picture cue concept.
As more letters are learned, you may find you want to take an extra day occasionally to do a thorough review of all sounds and formations. HAVE FUN WITH ITCHY!
Teaching Tip for Oct, Nov, Dec '08
I recently created a new product - Blackline Master 11 - Listening for Initial Blends. The purpose of this set is to train students to listen to the beginning of words to identify whether they hear an initial blend sound or not. I used to find that my students would typically leave out the second letter of a blend when spelling (eg. blend was bend, trick was tick). I'm not sure why this was happening - whether they didn't hear it, didn't pay attention to it, or were just rushing through to get finished - but I saw it frequently. With this set of Blackline Masters, children listen to a word, identify if they hear a blend or not, and then trace over the corresponding letter pattern. For example, on the b/bl page, the teacher would say the word blink. The child would decide whether they heard a 'b' or a 'bl' and then trace over the dotted letter pattern for 'bl'. The set covers all the 'l blends', 'r blends', 's blends', 't blends, as well as the triple letter blends. Word lists are provided for each consonant and consonant blend pattern. Our goal is to train students to listen carefully to the beginning of words and be able to discriminate between words that contain consonant blends and those that do not.
I didn't find children had as much problem with the final blends, except for the 'ck', 'nk' and 'ng' patterns. I have created similar worksheets for these sounds and have provided them as downloads on the website. If you don't already have them, please go to the Download Conference Handouts page, enter the username brenda, and the password itchy123. Look for the 3 Listening for 'ck', 'nk' and 'ng' pages as well as the word list for these sounds. Don't hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions about the pages.
Teaching Tip for July '08
I know I have mentioned this topic in previous tips, but thought, as a new school year approaches for most, it was a good time for a review. I encourage you to set a goal for yourself for this school year to 'talk sounds' with your children. It can be tough, as we are so in the habit of referring to letters by their name, but the results will be well worth it! When it comes time to start blending, your children will find it much easier to master this concept if they only have one sound to associate with a letter. (Don't worry about long vowels, soft c and g and other irregular sounds – these will come later.) If a child has learned to look at the letter 'a' and associate only the sound /a/ they will be more successful than if they have to decide – do I use the name here or the sound? Usually we teach the names first and, since typically we remember best what we learned first, it stands to reason that the name will pop into their head. By 'talking sounds' we eliminate this potential confusion. Some programs teach children a little rhyme to repeat when they see a letter, eg. A A apple /a/ (name, name, word, sound). If that is what a child has been trained to do, that will be what pops into their brain each time they see a letter. Imagine how confusing that must be when you are trying to blend the word 'can'.
If you haven't done this with me in a workshop, take a few minutes and do it now:
- Fold a piece of paper in half
- Label one side 'name' and one side 'sound'
- Under each, list what we use letter names for and what we use letter sounds for
- Keep this paper as a reminder of how important it is to 'talk sounds'
Good luck with this one, and please let me know if you see it making a difference for your children!
Teaching Tip for April, May, June '08
At my presentations, I often give attendees a homework assignment - go back and look through your alphabet books and analyze the phonetic aspect of them. Try this yourself - I think you will be surprised! It has been my experience that the majority of alphabet books are lovely picture books and very poor phonics books.
Here are things to watch for:
- upper case letters only (since lower case is what children see in reading, they must be shown)
- long vowel sounds (it is the short vowel sounds we should be introducing first)
- irregular and r-controlled vowel sounds (eg. owl or onion on the 'o' page, art on the 'a' page, urchin for 'u', etc.)
- consonant digraphs and silent letter patterns (chipmunk or chair for 'c', knot or knuckles for 'k', shoes for 's', etc.)
- soft 'c' and 'g' sounds (city for 'c' and giraffe for 'g')
- words containing consonant blends, especially r-blends abd l-blends (drum for 'd', tree or train for 't' - many children do not pronounce the 'd' and 't' sounds correctly in these words)
I always enjoy hearing back from teachers with words they have found that do not accurately represent the initial sounds we teach children. Let me know if you find any good ones! Enjoy your last term!
Teaching Tip for January, February, March '08
The Correct Sound for /r/
The sound for the letter 'r' is probably one of the trickiest to enunciate, but it is important that we say it correctly when instructing children. More often than not, we slip into the habit of using the /er/ sound for /r/. /er/ is the sound made by the letters 'er' as in teacher.
To make the /r/ sound correctly, I suggest saying the phrase 'red roses' several times. (You will notice that we do not say /er/ed or /er/oses). As you repeat the phrase, listen carefully to the sound you are making and also feel what your lips are doing. Practice isolating this sound from the rest of the word – say 'red' then say it without the 'ed'. Do this with the children as well, as it will help them differentiate between the two sounds. This becomes especially important when teaching initial 'r' blends. Again, listen for the difference at the beginning of the words 'prim' and 'perm' or 'trim' and 'term'.
You also don't want the children putting the /uh/ sound on the end of the /r/ to make it 'ruh'. Again, practice isolating with 'red roses'. If you have difficulty with this, don’t hesitate to give me a call at 1-877-368-7890 and we can do it together on the phone.
Teaching Tip for October, November, December '07
Check your alphabet books!! Many of the alphabet books out there are beautiful picture books but poor phonics books. Here are things to look for:
- both upper and lower case letters are presented - not just upper case! (our focus should be lower case)
- the vocabulary used is child-appropriate. Many theme books have a limited word base and end up using words far above a child's vocabulary.
- the vowel sounds presented are the short vowel sounds. These are the sounds we first want to introduce to children. Many alphabet books use long, irregular and r-controlled vowel sounds on the vowel pages.
- the consonant sounds are represented by pure consonants rather than blends or digraphs. The 'r' and 'l' blends can be especially problematic, 's' blends aren't as bad as the 's' is the dominant sound. I found one book that used the silent 'kn' pattern for the 'k' page! Abadaba Alphabet by Sheila Moore (abadabaalphabet.com) is a good alphabet book with a focus on letter sounds and lower case letters.
Teaching Tip for July, August, September '07
Even though most of us are enjoying a well earned summer break, many teachers are already giving thought to the new school year. One thing you will want to be sure to be prepared for is doing an initial assessment on your student’s letter and sound knowledge to get a baseline prior to instruction. Following instruction, you will want to do a post-test to determine both growth and concerns. I have developed a pre-test/post-test form which you can download from the website. Go to the HOME page and click on DOWNLOAD CONFERENCE HANDOUTS. You will get a security window: enter brenda as your user name and itchy123 as your password and you can access these forms as well as others. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions about any of the information.
WISHING YOU A RELAXING AND FUN-FILLED HOLIDAY!
Itchy's Teaching Tip of the Month - April/ May '07
As the year end approaches, it is time to start thinking about assessments. Be sure you have assessed your students for letter sound identification and letter formations. Remember, it is the lower case letters they need to recognize and be able to print. That is what they see most and use most in reading/writing tasks. If they are struggling with either of these skills, focus on lower case and letter sounds for the next couple of months. If your assessments require you to test upper case and letter names, I suggest you identify those children as at-risk and put them on an IEP. Your rationale can be the fact that most of these children have short and/or long term memory issues and will probably struggle to remember 26 letters/sounds. We don't want to burden them with 52 of each so let's focus on what they most need.
Itchy's Alphabet game cards or our Interactive Games CD are great for providing the necessary drill and practice, in a fun way, to establish these skills. They are great for parents to use at home, too!
Itchy's Teaching Tip of the Month - January/ February/ March '07
We are going to continue discussing some of the position-in-space words that can cause confusion for children when printing. This session we will cover "down". Typically, children look at up and down in the vertical plane. When printing, we often want children to form letters from the top down, but if they aren't sure of "down" on the horizontal plane, they will be confused.
Try this: have 2 students stand side-by-side and point up - their arms will most likely go above their head and point toward the ceiling. If you have them point down, they will point to the floor.With their arms still at their sides, have one student lie down on a piece of chart paper and show the children where that child points when his arm is ‘down'. It is a completely different position-in-space on the horizontal plane. When wanting children to make a line ‘down' the page, I give them the clue "bring your pencil down to your tummy". This gives them a physical place to move their hand to. You can practice this whenever you hand out a paper with a quick 5 second drill. "Everyone, put your finger (thumb, baby finger, etc.) at the top of the paper. Now, slide it down to your tummy. Where are you sliding?" (down)
Itchy's Teaching Tip of the Month - October/ November/ December '06
We have been working on letter formations with our Grade 1 and 2 students this month and I have noticed many of our students with improper pencil grips. Many students tend to grip their pencil with too many fingers or with fingers extended straight out. This hampers finger movement and flexibility. I teach my students to pinch their thumb and index finger tightly together to form a circle with knuckles pointed out. Once they have formed this circle position, have them extend their thumb and index finger straight out then return to the circle.
Repeat this so they can feel the difference between the two. Also, encourage them to watch what they are doing so they can ‘see' the difference as well. You can then have them try to pick up a small object such as a toothpick with fingers extended (difficult to do) and then with fingers pinched (easy to do). This emphasizes the increased flexibility of the pinched grip. Next, have them place their pencil between the pinched thumb and index finger so it rests in the ‘well' between the thumb and first knuckle. Drop the middle finger down so it hides behind the pencil. Have them repeatedly raise and lower the middle finger so they can see it/not see it. Do these drills on a daily basis to reinforce the position. They will need frequent reminders initially, but it will pay off in improved neatness and proper letter formations.
Itchy's Teaching Tip of the Month - June/ July/ August '06
My apologies for those of you looking for the April/May/June tip. I did one up but must not have saved it. So, here it is again! I recently created Blackline Master X, Accuracy and Automaticity Drills for basic sight words. In the package, I've included many tips for spelling basic sight words and thought I'd share some of these with you here. come - Teach the children to say "Come over to see me." The 'o' in 'over' reminds them to use an 'o' and the 'me' reminds them of the 'e' at the end. some - teach 'some' as a partner of 'come' and they can usually spell it easily from - most children know how to spell 'mom' - encourage them to say "from Mom" to get the 'om' ending
