Making words

This week a group of students in my class worked on making words. These students all have letter sound knowledge but are unable to recognise high frequency words.
I found these alphabet blocks in the library and I made up some word cards where they could practice making familiar words. This week we did CVC words from the "at" family.
This activity could also be done with Lego blocks or cubes.

Elkonin Boxes

Two of my students currently struggle with decoding words during writing and sounding out words during reading. I saw Anita (http://sfsanitaunka.blogspot.co.nz/) use Elkonin boxes with a group of ESOL students in her classroom. I have yet to visit her in action but i couldn't wait to implement them as part of my reading programme.
After a bit of research online i found a strategy that i thought would be beneficial for James in particular as he has recently moved up to yellow. James is frequently appealing for help as he is overwhelmed with the amount of words in his current books (he was stuck on Magenta for many years).
If he is stuck on a word he uses a red dot to put in each Elkonin box as he sounds out the word slowly. Next he is given some cut up letters and has to put them in the boxes to spell the word out. Already i can see James gaining confidence in his reading again as he is reading with more flow.

Article i used as a guide : http://www.readingrockets.org/content/pdfs/Phonics-Sound-Elkonin-Boxes.pdf

Working with Words

Evan is a very competent reader but has limited understanding about grammar. I am working on "filling in the gaps" in his understanding he can  however  get anxious when learning anything new if he doesn't immediately know the answer.

I found a resource in our library with printable games to teach different skills which fits in with his literacy goals this term. They are games that are motivating and engaging, Evan was unaware that he was learning a new skill. Towards the end of the lesson he was able to circle the adjective in each sentence after playing the game. 

Below is a video of how Evan used the adjective cards to make an appropriate sentence with the winter picture scene. 

How often should we be reading in our classrooms?

How often should we be reading in our classrooms?

In many special education classrooms it can be challenging to have the same demands as a mainstream classroom would. My students need regular movement breaks which takes time away from the classroom. My students cannot cope with a typical classroom timetable however i try to implement as many literacy opportunities as i can. It has taken 2 years to be able to put this many demands on our timetable and as you can see our day is split into "mini-lessons" to weave literacy throughout the day. Other classrooms at Sommerville have fewer reading opportunities because the needs in their classroom are much higher or they have different reading goals related to concepts about print.
I have included a timetable of all reading based activities (not including other curriculum areas) as one of the many questions i have been asked is how often i read with my students. Below is a brief explanation about what each activities looks like in my classroom.

Time	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
8.30 – 9.15 9.30 9.45 – 9.55 9.55 – 10.30	Morning work box Morning Message Word wall games	Morning work box Morning Message Word wall games	Morning work box Morning Message	Morning work box Morning Message Word wall games Individual literacy skills	Morning work box Morning Message Word wall games Library
MORNING TEA AND PLAYGROUND
11.20 – 11.35	Shared reading	Shared reading	Shared reading		Shared reading
LUNCH AND PLAYGROUND
1.40 – 1.50 1.50 – 2.10	Self-Selected Reading 1:1 reading	Self-Selected Reading 1:1 reading	Self-Selected Reading 1:1 reading	Self-Selected Reading 1:1 reading

- Morning work box: a TEACCH inspired workstation where children work completely independent with activities they have learnt to master
- Morning message: Each morning i write a message to my students including words from the word wall
- Word Wall games: different whole class games, each student works on different skills
- Individual Literacy skills: a block focusing on making words, grammer etc
- Library : reading to and with the students with books they engage in
- Shared reading: one book a week with a different focus/activity each day eg, "read the book to find the main characters in the story"
- Self-selected reading : completely independent reading, they choose books from the computer, library or i-pad
- 1:1 reading: students read 1x book a week with a different activity/focus each day. I make up reading packs for each student (see previous post)

I try to make sure that students get the opportunity to...
Be read to - morning message, shared reading, library
Read with - 1:1 reading, individual literacy skills
Read independently - SSR, morning work box, library

Inflectional Endings..

James is currently reading at level 5. Now that the books are becoming more challenging he is noticing the difference in word endings. Sometimes he will read the base word only and skip the ending. I have started to add some inflectional ending activities to teach him the different variations in a word. This was the first session i did with him and i haven't yet touched on past or present tense.

First i pointed out words in his reader and asked him to repeat them, then i asked him to say the sound at the end of the word. We started with the word "looks" which he read correctly after being prompted to pronounce the sound at the end. I asked him to find a word that looks the same on our word wall, he found the word "look". 

Some of the words in his activity are in his reader and some are additional words added to the activity. I was so impressed at how fast he picked it up. 

Making Words - Update

This week i started Evan on a programme called "Making Words" (see previous post). Evan was able to spell most of the 3 letter words but once the words started to increase in size he needed help. I gave him 'hints' to guide him but never gave him the answer. He enjoyed finding rhyming words and commented on how many words he could make with only 5 letters!

I thought that he may get upset once he couldn't spell a word on his own as this is what generally happens during writing tasks but because the programme is very specific he felt confident that he would be able to complete the task. 

Each lesson has a 'secret' word using all of the letters provided. Throughout the activity he was excited to find out what the secret word was. He was so motivated that he asked me what secret word he is going to spell next week. I love his enthusiasm for learning. 

Making Words - Mini Lessons

I have a student in my class (Evan) who is a very confident reader but when it comes to writing tasks or attempting to spell words he shuts down and refuses to complete his work.
This term i have been reading a book called "Making Words" which entails a very specific phonemic awareness and spelling programme.
This week i am going to implement a mini-lesson after each guided reading session for Evan to practice making words. The book breaks down each step with small tasks which doesn't require Evan to write but uses his letter-sound awareness to make words.
The book has set lessons however i am going to split one lesson across the week so that Evan has time to process what he has done and doesn't get overwhelmed with the workload.

Decoding Skills

James is currently reading at Red 3. For the last year James has been working on his initial sound knowledge to work out words he doesn't know. Now that he has got this skill i need to move him onto making words as well as identifying middle and ending sounds.
I started him on this activity which he was able to do with support. He was able to find the beginning letter independently and i helped him to sound out the end sound by slowing the word down as i repeated it back however he needed much more support for the vowel sounds. James struggles to hear the difference between similar sounds like "i" , "a" and "e" due to his speech impediment. For his reading this term i will focus more on vowels to bridge this gap in his reading and writing.