Moving On
I have begun to move on from teaching single letter sounds towards more advanced phonetic skills to help the children learn the 44 sounds in the English language. Teaching letters that frequently occur together such as in blends and digraphs, helps children to recognise the patterns in words. Common consonant blends are two or more letters that are blended together but each sound can be heard in the blend. They can be either at the beginning of a word or at the end. Digraphs are two consonants that represent a single sound such as sh, ch, th and wh.
We still have both whole class practise as well as small group teaching where instruction meets more individual needs. It is great to see the children moving beyond recognising single letter sounds and that they are learning to put two or more sounds together for a blend and know that two letters make a certain sound in a digraph. When working on an unknown word it is exciting to hear the children "problem solve" saying things like "those two letters say oo like in food so in this word (boo) it might be the same." Many sight words contain digraphs so it provides a way of helping the children read new and unfamiliar words as well as how to spell it when they hear it. They are aware that the spoken language is broken down into smaller units of sound and that there are rules about how words sound but there are also exceptions to help trip you up!
It is with hearing and distinguishing the two different letters in a blend that many of our children have difficulties. They also have trouble articulating the sounds.
Two of the children have noticed that some words sound the same but look different when they see how they are written down. On the first occasion this was noticed we had an interesting discussion on how to differentiate between the two words. Finally one child asked me to write the words down so they could compare them. The penny dropped as they noticed that the spelling would tell them what the meaning of the word was.
Reading levels continue on an upward trajectory. There did not seem to be any significant drop off during the holidays as three of the children continue to take home more than one book to read each night. All four children are very much engaged in our spelling programme. Continuing to practise each night gives them confidence and at the higher levels there are more words introduced at a faster rate so it is very helpful that these children have high expectations of their reading.
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| Reading levels showing movement in first two terms of Child A and C |
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| Reading progression for Child B and D beyond 40 weeks |
My priority learners all seem to be becoming more competent readers than writers. They are attempting to write more than basic sentences independently using their phonemic skills to sound out and locate words but they often get bogged down on one particular word. Instead of just recording what they can hear, and moving on to at least complete the task, they become completely stuck and find it hard to move on. I am looking forward to the children feeling confident enough in their phonemic awareness to be able to make an attempt at writing an unfamiliar word.
Games, reading to the children, dictation and fun with words continue to be part of our routine in an effort to expose them to language in many different ways. Where to from here will be about continuing a similar programme as the children are all feeling confident about reading and writing and continue to put effort into their practise.
