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Showing posts with label long vowels. Show all posts
Showing posts with label long vowels. Show all posts

Sunday, June 22, 2014

Phonics Through fluency

So I tried a few new things with phonics last year, and I think it worked out really well.  I needed to add more fluency practice into my day and I did not know where to put it.  So, I thought of phonics.  After introducing the phonics of the week and sorting words by phonics chunk, nouns/verbs, singular/plural  etc... I decided to add fluency to the mix.  I wrote passages that had the chunk that we were studying.  I wrote several versions with the chunk inside so that the kids would have 4 new passages a week (Friday was review/test day).  I also wrote 2  versions of each passage (one at a lower level and one at a higher level).  I wanted the kids to have as many opportunities with the words as possible.  During word work (Daily 5 time) later they would also have the opportunity to find the phonics chunks in texts.  I also was having a hard time fitting sight word practice into the day.  So I had the kids sort out the phonics chunk and pull out and sort sight words.  This latter part, the sight words, gave me more than I bargained for.  Since the kids were reading the passage, pulling out the sight words, and writing the sight words daily they became SUPER at writing and reading those sight words, and I loved that it was all in the context of a story.  We added other things like phonics games in word work Daily 5, but for the most part the fluency routine and sorts were the bulk of it.  This class I had did remarkable on our end of the year fluency and I think teaching phonics this way was part of it.  If interested I added some links to the units on TPT.  I just bundled the long vowel units in 2 versions (1 just a few no prep games/centers and 1 with a large variety of centers/games).  I'm going to write units for the short vowels this summer so I can start my year with it.  Below is one story from the oo unit that one of my students highlighted.  They then wrote the words in the sort.  I like the written sorts because it really helps them with their fine motor and writing fluency.





Sunday, April 20, 2014

Making Phonics Fun


I've been searching for ways to increase student engagement this year along with maintaining rigor and covering the Common Core standards.  It's been sort of like a puzzle to see what has worked and been successful for my fabulous first graders.  We've tried A LOT of new things, and this group of students I have this year are awesome, adventurous, and it makes for a "laboratory" full of ideas.  Here are some of our favorites!  The kids love playing Slap it!  There are many versions, but ours is best played with 4 in a group.  So much fun!
The next video and photo shows a Guess My Word game.  The word pages are differentiated so that all students can play regardless of language or reading level.  Having the different versions of the I have a word page helps a ton.  The kids love it because they get up and walk around having their friends trying to guess their words.
This kids love reading about the "Phonics Friends".   They get interested in the characters, and they love highlighting and sorting words from the stories.  To the left is an example of one of the oo stories in the oo word work packet.  I always include several versions of the same story to accommodate all learners.  I even put simple pattern text mini-books in the units for emergent readers.
If you are interested, the following products explain these fun phonics activities in more detail and include many more ideas and resources.  They are centered around the combination of learning phonics through reading and Common Core Reading Foundational Skills.

OO Word Work
Long e Word Work

Oi/Oy Word Work



Friday, February 14, 2014

First Grade Phonics

This is my phonics or CCSS Reading foundational skills wall.  This wall displayed when we studied ways to spell long vowel i.  Along with this work the kids work on differentiated sorts in word work and for homework available at my TPT store.  There is a 60 page set that goes through all long vowels for only $5.  Each vowel has 10 sorts!
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Long-Vowels-Super-Sort-Pack-1111233