Inquiry 2019: A Literacy Focus

After reviewing the general number knowledge, reading and writing ability levels and letter identification of my new group of students for 2019, it was obvious that I needed to focus my Inquiry on literacy and in particular on phonemic awareness.

At the beginning of the year I looked carefully at all my students reading and writing.  In writing, if they had ideas to write about, and were attempting to write a simple sentence, I looked at what strategies they used when they came to an unknown word.  For many in this group they were unable to sound out the word to even record an initial letter and could therefore not use a class spelling resource.

Similarly, when looking at reading strategies at unknown words, I found that many of the readers were trying to memorise texts and their patterns.  In many early texts the word "Look" is followed by "at".  When the text changed to  "Look, said Mum", they were thrown.  When prompted what they would expect to see if the word was "at" they were unable to say.

Testing alphabet sound knowledge showed 3 children had a reasonable grasp of letter names and sounds and that letters had to be put together in certain sequences to make a word.  Another  child knew all the letter names but had no knowledge of letter sounds.  The other children's ability ranged from not being able to identify any letters (not even the initial letter of their name) to seven letters or sounds.

All this information pointed to the need to help the children, and in particular my focus group,  to develop a basic phonemic awareness and to see if this would be an effective strategy to move my focus group at least three reading levels by the end of term 2.

So I have started at the very beginning.  Skill building in phonemes does not come naturally but must be taught so I choose letters that have some meaning to them such as the initial letter of their name.  At a class level we work on two letters a week, introduced one at a time.

These letters, both upper and lower case, along with pictures of things that begin with the same initial letter are posted on the white board.  The children can sort these pictures as well as an array of letters into the two letter categories, saying the letter sound or name as they move the letters.  Beside the whiteboard are books with the initial letters and sandpaper letter forms the children can trace over to feel the shape.  The children have access to these letter displays as part of their literacy activities.

Tracing letter 

Letters, pictures and book

Letter sorting, "I found one like that."

For my priority learners, during group reading teaching there is more time for individually tailored teaching of alphabet letter sounds at a slower pace.  I have been making the children more aware of how sounds are articulated or to translate how sounds are put together to make a word, and using prompts such as "What can you see... what can you hear...?", "Which sound can you hear first?"  Also asking the question "What do you notice...?" is getting the children to actually look at letters.  We use our ears along with our eyes and our brain.

We also play alphabet games in those odd few minutes before home time or break time.  The children love the competition and are learning to give others "thinking time" or are finding different ways to give clues to help their buddies such as writing in the air with a magic pencil, saying a word that begins with the initial letter, or a little poem about the letter or even saying how the letter is formed. for those who have trouble in recognising a letter.

Each child has been given an alphabet sheet to take home along with their reading book.  It has upper and lower case letters as well as a picture of an item beginning with the letter.  They are encouraged to remember some of the poems we say about a letter which include the sound the letter makes.

Being aware of the deficit, and commenting on sounds or letters we encounter, modelling new sounds, correcting any errors promptly, helping to develop strategies to show the link between the spoken word and the written word, I am trying to grow my students knowledge, getting them to notice and to see the importance of knowing their alphabet sounds to both their reading and writing.  Hopefully using this knowledge the children will be able to "hear" different sounds that letters make and listen and respond to what they hear thereby increasing their reading levels and writing ability.