LoginTeaching 44 sounds
Submitted by Fiona (10-10-2012)
I teach a year 1/2 class in Australia. I work on a different sound each week. We have a chart with the 44 sounds on it and I start off the lesson by hunting for different sounds. I then give the children clues to find the sound we are going to do. We then brainstorm all the words we can think of that have that sound. I display these words on a cut out of the sound itself, eg, all the 'th' words are written on a 'th' shaped poster.
I display this on the wall with a poster underneath that has room for the kids to write words they find containing the sound. It also has boxes for alternative ways of making the sound. For example, when we did the 'ar' sound it had a big box for 'ar' as in shark but had two small boxes for 'a' as in raft and 'al' as in palm.
The children love finding words in books and writing them up on the charts. We have had to have a few follow up lessons on listening to the sounds and not just looking at the letters (eg, scared) but they have pretty much got it now.
Some of them have also started referring to the chart when they are writing. We use our sound of the week as the basis of our spelling words, complete worksheets on the sound and play games involving the sounds.
This is the first year I have done it this way and so far it seems to be working quite well.
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Hi
Teaching phonemic awareness and letter name recognition is crucial to beginning reading - don't forget vocabulary, comprehension and fluency.
I use THRASS as a tool to develop understandings of phonemes and associated graphemes. In my school we begin this in Transition (4 year olds) and continue through the grades. THRASS is a tool, not a programme! It provides the resources, teaching aids, ideas etc, but your programme will be based upon the syllabus and your students needs.
I begin by teaching letter name recognition and automatic recall. At the same time, I teach phonemic awareness (blending and segmenting two and three phoneme words, moving on to four, five and six when students are ready), reminding students that letters do not have a sound until they are in a word. At all times I use the correct language (phoneme (speech sound), grapheme (spelling choice)graph, digraph, trigraph, quadgraph, letter name etc) as do all of the teachers, so we are all on the same page. Correct letter handwriting is also taught, to ensure students develop automaticity and can concentrate on reading and writing rather than letter formation. Once students are ready, I move onto teaching the graphemes that represent the phoneme, one phoneme at a time initially. This assists in decoding and encoding when reading,as well as spelling. For example, the phoneme [a] can be represented as a, ai, ay, eigh, ey and so on.
Teaching one letter one sound will limit children's understanding of the English language - that's why you have children spelling 'was' as 'woz',and 'said' as 'sed' and then teachers and students wonder why they can't spell the word!
Sight words are taught, with children saying the phonemes, reading the word and spelling the word. There are no tricky words, as all words can be said phonemically - and the appropriate grapheme taught. If in doubt, have a look in a dictionary that uses IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet). I use one all the time, especially when working with my older students.
This works !!!!!!!!
I have used this method for years with great success with students of all abilities.
Remember that the quality of the teaching is so important(systematic and explicit, with quality feedback), and opportunities for teacher modelling, guided and independent practise (the effective teaching cycle).
To teach this way successfully, you must have a good understanding of how the language works. Professional development is crucial, as is being willing to embrace the teaching of reading and spelling from a different perspective to that traditionally taught.
This is just a brief outline, as there is so much to the teaching of reading. I recommend to teachers to continue reading their professional journals and to keep up with current research - a google search is the easiest way.
Sue
Sounds like you are on the right track but I was wondering if you have heard of THRASS - a total program that teaches everything that you are trying to do. The kit includes fun things like raps, flash cards and charts that teach vowel and consonant graphemes and phonemes.Our whole school staff has been trained in the use of THRASS. You can easily make up your own games using the pictures provided in the kit.Check it out.
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