I have recently begun doing some introductionary phonics work for my class – 4-5 year olds with English as a second language.
Whether or not this is a right time to start is a deeper topic than what I cover here. Ultimately an individual will learn to read when they are ready. There is certainly no rush to begin. My educational context and the background, cognitive development and interest of my students led to my decision. It is only for ten minutes each day.
All this in mind, it is still the case that I want to make it a much broader experience in support of language and either other development. I share some experiences in this series of posts.
We have so far covered around ten letters and their corresponding direct sounds, following the Jolly Phonics sequence, here, although my students do have background experience that they are able to bring in.
Slowly introducing blending at the same time, I was slowly writing letters, and had “san”. We blended these three together and led by several students, we were able to read it. One students immediately pointed at the sand in a learning centre in the classroom and exclaimed, “sand”. Here, we are already practicing the skill of thinking and making connections. Other students followed to say, “sand”.
Then one goal began saying both the words “san” and “sand” to her friend. emphasizing the different pronunciations. Noting this, I said that the girl had an important point to make and elicited that we should listen to here. Here now, we were practicing focused listening, and the girl had the opportunity to to stretch herself in a more daunting setting, explaining to the class.
Acknowledging what she said, I wrote “sand” on the board, underneath “san” and we compared the words together. Here we were able to focus in to practice on clear pronunciation.
On another occasion, after we had introduced the hard c sound from both c and k, I wrote the word “snack” for us to blend. Second language learners, this is still an everyday word, as we refer to small meals we have as “morning snack” and “afternoon snack”. Indeed, starting with words we are familiar with will prove effective in early letter and sound recognition and then reading due to their being more connections. Upon reading the word, many of us made the connection with the word we knew.
We had introduced letter names and letter sounds formally, as students had previously had some familiarity with both. This was a very interesting word for differentiating. I first asked, “How many letters does it have?” Here another developmental moment as my youngest student immediately said “5”. Here was a confidence building moment. We practiced the sentence, “Snack has four letters.” We later went on to also practice, “Snack has four sounds.” We slowly counted both sounds and letters together. Practice with counting in the second langauge. We were able to deepen our understanding of the words “letter” and “sound” and practice full sentences – second language development. We have previously done the same with “This letter is big ________.” and “This letter is small _______.”, here also practicing the broader adjectives, “big” and “small”.
A student commented, “snack” sounds, allowing us, from the curiosity to have focus to note that c, k and ck, although not all the same number of letters can all have the same sound, and ck is in fact only one sound.
On another occasion, reading the word “mat” – another connection as we have mats in our classroom, we were able to elicit and practice the sentences, “We are sitting on the chair.” and “The chair is on the mat.”
On another occasion, I wrote the word “pick” for us to blend together. Now, I hade developed a routine of leaving time for “questions” and “comments”, even during more direct instruction – “If you have any questions, or want to say anything about this word.” it is time now. This incorporates free expression and helps to develop the student centred nature of the environment, without disrupting flow when this is necessary.
On this occasion, a student put up his hand and said, “I like picnics.” I was able to hone in on this, saying yes, “pick sounds a bit like picnic”. Underneath “pick”, I wrote “pic _ _ _” and noted that her we only had c for the hard c sound, not ck. Then I was able to elicit first the sounds and then the corresponding letters to slowly spell the rest of the words with students. I slowly said “picnic”, first eliciting the n sound which came after the first “c”, at which I asked, “Now what letter is that?”, to which I was able to get the answer. Following a students comment, we had found the opportunity to practice together a more difficult skill of identifying sounds to spell words, deepening our awareness.
We went further here, and in a langauge practice activity, two students came up to be the teacher, asking their classmates “What do you like to eat at a picnic?” – communication practice. I was able to differentiate here also, with one asking “What do you like?” and the other, who had more experience in English, the longer question. Indeed, the first student here was still developing confidence with English and had the opportunity here to push himself out of his comfort zone off his own volunteering, another developmental experience.
Now most recently today, I wrote the word, “sip” for us to read. This was a new word, and so we had the opportunity for vocabulary development, as I showed and modelled what a “sip” of water was. A student then said, “and a sip of coffee”. I allowed a short time then to practice a further new sentence with free expression – “I drink a sip of _________.”
Some students then began referring to sitting down. I now highlighted in on the fact that “sip” was not in fact “sit”. They were two different words. “Sip” was already on the board. Now I wrote “si_” leaving a blank space at the end. I was able to elicit the final sound and then letter of “sit”. Then we could point out the different. A student then said, “They both have s and i. Two are the same. Very similar.” Observation and connection practice.
With these continual experiences, what could we learn? What can we always remind ourselves? Of course, with any sort of teaching and learning, it should at least start from what is relatable – in learning to read – with words we know and have a deep connection to. There are constantly opportunities for all types of learning. This can go even when teaching a more specific skill. Always be open and aware of how instruction can be enhanced and broadened, with more type of learning brought in to make the overall experience more meaningful. Allowing specific times for it if necessary, ensure students have the opportuntity to ask questions, and express their curiosity and observations, to help build the personalized and more student driven direction of progress. If we stop and reflect, we may see that there is much we are already doing.