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Key takeaways from FLOSS sharing:

- Jason further emphasised on the “l” in “doll” after Iza identified the picture - good to re-emphasise on the ending sounds.

- The table is a very good checklist, brings student through the process in a systematic manner. It presents steps in a manner that isn't too overwhelming either, and makes it easier for the student to remember.
- The game was a really interactive way to get student to practice what they learnt! I was very engaged myself even though I wasn't physically playing it.

Key takeaways from Multiple Spelling sharing
- The use of Elkonin boxes with this strategy was very clear, and gave me a clearer picture of how to implement it with students.

Key takeaway from the tutorial:
- It's important to not merely have a successful withdrawal session. What makes intervention successful is when information taught can be related to class activities, so that students can feel empowered across all classroom/teaching & learning settings.

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First of all, I would like to thank you for the heartfelt letter Dr. Liz! I am truly amazed by how much effort you put in to write a letter for each one of us ❤️

Another thing I always look forward to are the presentation by our peers! I feel that everyone that had presented up till now has done really well in breaking down the concepts and teaching us in a way that is easy to remember! I am sure the others will do just as well over the weeks to come and I am keen to learn more from my friends💯

The two things that I learnt this week was the floss concept, which was explained really well by Yus and Jason, so good job guys!! I especially liked the interactive demo during role play, as well as the step by step demo on the whiteboard using the table. Thank you for sharing 🙏🏼

The presentation on multiple spelling was particularly helpful because personally, I am not sure how I would teach spelling to my students in an easier way. The group provided us with good guiding questions and I appreciated the examples they provided us with. While there is more to learn, this was a good starting point!

While I continue to brush up on my phonemes and think about my AHA moment for this week, I can’t wait to see what this week’s tutorial will teach me😊 I know with the current changes from f2f to online tutorial, the group presenting this week has had to suddenly adapt. You can do it guys!! Rooting for you 💪🏼

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Dear Dr Liz,

Thank you for the letter. Really appreciate the effort that you have taken to write for each one of us :)

Sharing by Jason & Iza:
The sharing on Floss rule by both Jason and Iza was very interactive.  The 3 conditions for the floss rule was clearly taught.

Sharing by Lina, Radhina & Stephanie:
After their presentation, I have a better understanding of when to use 'tch' and 'ch'. I like the part where Stephanie used the Elkonin to sound the letters.

Letter names are indeed confusing, not only for children but for adults too. There are many rules to rule and apply. I do wonder at times how much can our students absorb, not to mention our SEN students. I do agree with the statement that rather than teaching the rules to the students, it is easier to expose them to variety of words that follows a particular pattern.

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Thank you Dr. Liz, for the encouraging letter and constant reminder to put our students first in all that we do.

Iza & Jason gave a very clear presentation on the Floss rule and I liked how they linked the physical worksheet to the digital board game. Effective use of ICT tools is something that I need to learn more about, so I'm always thankful when our TG mates share their knowledge of interesting tech resources.

I'm also very thankful to Lina & Radhiana for our group's presentation on multiple spelling. It really was a team effort and as I was doing the teaching role-play, I realised once again how confusing phonics can be for those who have little to no exposure to it.

Similarly, the article also highlights how letter-sound relationships in English can be confusing with the multitude of sounds and letter combinations. Point #2 is very true though - that English is more systematic than we realise. Hence, teaching our students to recognise letter-sound patterns and equipping them with a systematic way to 'attack' words would still benefit students with literacy difficulties.

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My two takeaways for today were:

Takeaway #1: Integrating two modes of representation to engage and enhance learning for my students

1.       The FLoSS rule

Amazing job done by Jason and Iza! They really picked the right tools to use not only to teach, but also to engage us as the students. They listed out what were the conditions for the floss rule, before putting it in a table form. I love how systematic the entire lesson was. The game was also done up professionally and I like how Jason and Iza integrated the game with the table. This dual-mode of teaching was seamlessly done. This is definitely going into my repertoire of teaching strategies, though I am not very IT savvy, but some necessary adjustments need to be made to keep up with the times and probably to engage our students.

Takeaway #2: Tapping on student’s prior knowledge to teach a new concept

2.       Multiple spelling

It was a very smart move by this team to leverage on our prior knowledge of the Elkonin box to teach the /ch/ and /tch/ sound. As the presentation of the Elkonin box was a few tutorials ago, this presentation was like a refresher for us. It also showed us the versatility of the Elkonin box such that it is not necessarily used only for blending, but it also helps in segmentation and giving us a clearer picture of the letters before the /ch/ or /tch/ sound. In addition, like what you pointed out, Steph was also able to ask Radihana guiding questions that contributed to her successfully choosing the correct phonogram, even though both phonograms have the same sound. This will help Radihana to gain confidence in trying out the question of the new concept she is learning.

My takeaways from reading the article you have uploaded for us were:

1)      Systematicity does not necessarily mean simplicity

-          Often times we treat English like a math subject, we apply certain equations and expect almost every example that fits into this equation to follow the same rule. But from the various tutorials and this article, it showed that there are many anomalies in the English language. The language itself is a mixture of different languages and origins. Perhaps, a better way (or how I will do it in the future) will be to expose the students to words that follow a similar pattern (the example given was words with oo like book, look, took) before introducing the rules. Giving them some prior knowledge to these words might perhaps help them to associate and understand the rules better.

2)      Sometimes sounds can be represented in more than one way

-          From this short segment, my takeaway would be to validate the student for his effort. Just like how Jelani wrote uv for the word of (I tried to sound it out and uv indeed sounds like of), Mr. Acker did not disregard and tried to correct him, instead, he validated and then just taught him the correct spelling. Many times, I will jump straight into correcting the student and give him/her that ‘are you sure’ look. Next time, I will seek to understand first, before showing the correct spelling of the word to my student.

On a side-note: From the entire learning and teaching of phonics experience thus far, I realised that I am someone who is not that sensitive to sounds. It is hard for me to pick out certain distinctions in sounds that are similar E.g. /m/ and /n/. I really rely a lot on prior knowledge to sound out the words accurately. But the learning has also caused me to be more aware of the way I pronounce certain words (or how I speak in general). It really does feel like I am relearning something all over again and being more aware of myself. Perhaps, only when you are more aware and reflective, will you be able to think from the perspective of your student and assess not only their needs but also how you can support them overall as an individual.

Lots of Love, Clare

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Thank you  Dr Liz for the love letter. I am fond of written letters and it is a rare occasion for me to receive a written letter. It reminds me of the time I use to write letters for my high school sweet heart.

My take aways:

From the Aha moment:

Boon Ee mentions that it was a given when creating lesson to include images but for this particular assignment she wondered why she did not. From this I gathered that it happens to me too at times when I'm making things and I tend to leave out certain things. Perhaps having a checklist at the start would be good.

I'm assimilating what Giin Yang said and that is he realised- "When I finished and after I slept, I realised I could have done that. I realised then that learning does not happened then and there, it’s a reflective process."

Dr Liz on Lesson observation: It does not matter who is observing. The important thing are your students. Do not try to move away from your lesson flow to impress. Do not placed your student facing the observer, just treat it like a daily lesson.

Floss rule sharing by Jason and Iza:

[What is Floss rule:

Single vowel
F, l, s
If, gas,
Has, is, was

Prerequisites: knowledge of consonant, vowels.

Recap:
Is a
one syllable word
Word has a short vowel
The word ends with f, l, s and sometime z. ]

These were my notes from the floss rule my take aways are:

-Include the element of fun.
-Student should be given choice, such empowerment would keep the children going.
e.g. which colour markers, which scenario you want to do first.

Multiple spelling by Stephanie, Radiana, Amalina.

[ai, ay follows the long vowel sound and ai does not end of a English word.

Ch, tch
Follows the short vowel sound = tch]

My take aways from multiple syllable are:
-Use of elkonin boxes to teach.
-Example chosen relates to students interest.
-Work in tandem with teacher. What is the English department covering in that week?

Phonogram practice with group
-I always look forward for phonograms practice with my group. Many Aha moments happen here.

Article:
My take away for the article is that in teaching phonograms one has to make connections to the students prior knowledge. Many of the suggestions written in the article suggest inclusion of associations and patterns.

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First and foremost, thank you Dr Liz for the personalised letters and your insightful stories!

The sharing by the different groups last Friday was really interesting. It was also thoughtful of Yus and Jason to infuse some game element to the lesson which, in my opinion, will definitely attract the attention of the student. The other team also provided a very hands on experience for the students which I feel is key - active learning. Some of the things they taught i didn't even truly understand prior haha

So the two learning points would be the importance of active learning and that there's always more to learn!

As for the article, it shows how complicated and complex the English language is - many rules, many exceptions. Having said so it's important for us to draw from the student's prior knowledge. We should also be providing students with lots of examples both positive and negative. It's through these mediums that students will be able to understand better and meaning make!

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Sharing by Iza and Jason:

The Floss Rule template that was shared by the group makes it simple to understand. The template is also very appropriate to be used by our students.

Conditions to apply the rule:
1. A one-syllable word.
2. Contains a short vowel.
3. Word ends with 'f', 'l', 's' or 'z'.

The interactive game is engaging! Without a doubt, I would like to create something of such at a later stage of lessons as a form of assessment and to check for understanding of the students.

Sharing by Linda, Radhiana, Stephanie:

The sharing on multiple spelling rules is much needed; for my own learning! I struggle a lot with 'how do I teach this' when it comes to language.

For 'ai' its applies in the middle of the word while 'ay', at the end.

Likewise, for 'ch' and 'tch', respectively.

The use of Elkonin Boxes strategy drills the concept of phonemes.

Take-away from Journal Article - Letter Names Can Cause Confusion and Other Things to Know
About Letter–Sound Relationships:

The ten tips shared to understanding English writing is so crucial in equipping me with the necessities to plan future lessons. It gave me the perspective of the child and how confusing it can be for them.

Essentially, building on their prior knowledge and provision of familiar words help students be more confident learners and thus rekindle their interest in learning.

Take-away from Tutorial 5:

'We learn from children'. This hits different. We as adults are so busy focussing on how do we teach and how will they learn from us that we overlook that children are our mirrors; to being reflective adults. Thereafter, we will then be able to improve to be a better version of ourselves.

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Floss rule

The online game for floss rule is a great tool even for HBL. Students learn well when they are engaged. Iza and Jason did a good job in explaining the floss rule well. The scaffolding was done in such a way that the student will need to ask themself if it is a one-word syllable, if it is a short vowel or if there is a consonant f, l, s, or z after the vowels.

Multiple Spelling

The use of Elkonian boxes were used to make the sounds of the alphabets. It was confusing for me to at first to know when to use ‘ai’ and ‘ay’. How I remember which one I can use for words towards the end is, the alphabet y is towards the end. Hence, ‘ay’ is used at the end. I think English have more rules than Maths formulae. Like when to use ‘ch’ and ‘tch’.

For the article reading.

Expose children to pattern using example such as cook, look, and book. This is because learning English is well organized.

Some letters represent different sounds in different words. It comprises of 2 sounds. Hard and soft. When the student is reading loudly and is uncertain of which sound to apply, the student can try both sounds and eventually pick on the word that sounds right and makes sense. This approach is at times described as vowel flexing when used with vowels.

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It is wonderful to learn from our classmates on their strategies. Sometimes, we run out of ideas and these sharing are like a collection for future lessons.

Floss Rule

I liked how the team introduced the game from Genially. Excellent site for me to explore. They explained the rules very clearly. Simple and easy to understand. The quiz at the end is a good way to summarise and to check understanding of the student.

Multiple Spelling

The usage of Elkonin boxes for auditory drill is useful for students to hear the sounds and identify the letters of the phonemes. It is good when teaching monosyllabic or multisyllabic words. Good use of guiding questions and praises. The rules for 'ai' and 'ay' are simple to understand too.

Takeaways from article

In English language, there are many complicated words with many exceptions to the rules. As an adult, to remember the rules is a bit daunting, what more our students. So, to have a list and follow a particular pattern is easier for our students to follow and remember.

1)      Focus on sound-letter pattern eg. look, cook, book.

2)      c & g
– soft sounds followed by e, i or y.
– hard sounds followed by a, o or u.
3)      Usage of gestures when teaching th (thumb), sh (quiet sign) and ch (cheeks)

4)      Any vowel can be a schwa – teach students words they already know that has a schwa sound in it.

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After reading the article, I noticed that there are always recommendations given when confusion is present. The idea is not to escape from making mistakes but to expose students to sounds, letters, rules, and pattern when they are young. Showing examples of the rules when explaining and being explicit in your teaching helps students build a stronger foundation.

Multiple spelling
-Using boxes to set apart the sounds scaffold students when they are learning to use ch or tch.
-using visuals(objects) which are familiar to student helps student relate

Floss rule
-using a graphic organizer to check if word fits the floss rule is beneficial for young learners
-the use of games to engage students prolongs their attention to learn

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floss rule:
- love the idea of interactive platform teaching.
-the quiz at the end was a great closure session and i like the idea of them not displaying our name, the weaker students wont feel left out.
-video was good too

multiple spelling:
-the elkonin boxes is a great way to teach multiple spelling
-guiding the question gives the child confidence in answering the question
-praises were given in specific manner

Take away:
-there are different method in teaching. various method can be experimented by teaching to suits the child's learning ability.
-instead of teaching students the rule, it is better to expose them the list of words and allow them to see the pattern

thank you dr Liz for the love letter, love it so much:)

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t’s exciting to be receiving letters! Perhaps my pupils may feel the same way too. Definitely a strategy to ignite excitement in our daily interaction!

Preparing for Floss Rule presentation was exciting as I get to explore new IT tools. Working with Jason was great as we get to bounce ideas on our own free time. We are exposed to flexible discussion platform and time. I like how laying our expectations clearly, helps in the team’s processes.

I love the how Amalina, Stephenie and Radhiana presented Multiple Spelling.

My content takeaways from the presentation are:

1. ‘ai’ in the middle of a word, ‘ay’ at the end of a word

2. (consonant)+’ch’ in the middle of a word, (short vowel)+’tch’ at the end of a word

I like the idea of using the Elkonin Box to separate the letters. 👍🏼

However, I find the introduction of spelling rule very overwhelming.

Hence I agree with the reading article that says ‘rather than teaching children rules, expose them to lists of words that all follow a particular pattern’.

Example: MIxed the words consisting of ‘ai’ and ‘ay’. Get pupil to highlight the ‘ai’ and ‘ay’ then categories them according to ‘ai’ and ‘ay’ so that they can see the pattern. =)

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Two takeaways for today:

1.       Thank you to the 2 groups who presented.  The floss rules help learning and remembering the rules much easier.  The quiz which is at the last part of the lesson is a good idea of checking student understanding with fun and excitement (time limit to give answer).  Multiple syllabus spelling taught me to remember when to use ‘tch’ and ‘ch’ vividly.

2.       Remembering all rules of 2 or more letters phonogram take time.  I realized I had pronounced some of the phonograms wrongly in daily use.

Takeaways after reading the article:

It is not easy to remember all the rules, so to our students. I’ll apply the rules below and let students understand how to use the rules. I will let them learn the rules progressively.

1         show students a list of words that follow a same pattern and help student focus on sound-letter pattern eg look, book, cook etc

2         Teach diagraphs explicitly, tell students that sometimes 2 or 3 letters join together to make only one sound.  In order to make them understand better we can show picture like “keep quiet “sh” sound.

3         Teach students word chunking especially multisyllables words.  eg e-le-phant.

4         Teach students to see the relationship of the word eg magic and magician.

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a) I learned a lot from today's lesson from the two groups. Firstly, I got to know a new online tool that gamifies lessons from the first group's presentation! I was so impressed by their board game! After taking a look at Genially, I was thrilled to discover a more convenient way of creating games!!! Thank you for that!

Secondly, the second group's teaching was so clear. I think if they teach me all the phonograms and their rules, I would remember all of them very well. Haha.

b) To be honest, I tried teaching my 2-year-old phonograms after the previous e-learning activity and he actually burst into tears because I think he was very confused about why I was not saying the alphabets 'right' and it really stressed him out haha.

When Stefanie was teaching us the sounds of each phonogram, I actually saw how teaching these could help a child who is struggling with Spelling and Decoding. Having a system is always good. I was starting to accept the usefulness of phonics until I read this article...which affirmed my thoughts at first but by the time I was at point 7, I am lost again about why phonics would be useful at all if there are so many exceptions and so many rules. I learn other languages too like Mandarin and Japanese and I don't find them as complicated in the sounds and spelling.

Growing up, I did not find English difficult either. I did not learn phonics but most words made sense to me. I learned all my words through chunking. 'sun-flo-wer' was easy to break down and remember; as how 'chry-san-the-mum' was too.

When I was teaching my P5 student with Dyslexia, he struggled with words like 'nostalgic', 'reminisce' and 'necessary'. I sought help from my mentor whether phonics could help this student remember these spelling words and she said that unfortunately, phonics cannot explain some words.

In the end, we broke down the words and tried to remember them in our own funny ways.

From the article, the way some kids spelled their words...it would have never occurred to me. For example, spelling 'hrh' for 'church'? Even if I were in kindergarten, without any knowledge of the word or phonics, I would somehow know that 'church' begins with the letter 'c'! Another one - 'uv' for 'of'??? I have never seen that in our kids either. To me, those spelling are so far off.

The only time I could remember I had such a far-off spelling was when I was 6 and writing a birthday card to my uncle. For awhile, I forgot how 'uncle' was spelled. I tried very hard to use the sounds I know to spell it out and came up with 'Ang-ker'.

Even though it was totally mis-spelled, anyone could have understood what I was trying to spell...right? Haha. Anyway, it looked so strange to me that the correct spelling suddenly flew into my head! Haha! So I corrected myself in the end. I don't know why this memory stood out to me so much. I think it is because I hardly made mistakes in Spelling. Haha!

So, what I am asking myself is, "Would phonics have helped me spell 'uncle' correctly?"

Another memory I have is me having a phase of wanting to read every word I saw when I was in kindergarten. I was in my father's van when a Trans-Island bus stopped beside us and I read 'Island' as 'Is-land' and asked my father if I was right. He pronounced it the correct way and I was bewildered by how it was pronounced. It made no sense to me. What was the 's' there for if it is being ignored by everyone in the world? The word was on my mind for the longest time. Not believing my father was right, I sought clarification from my mother, my cousins, my aunts, my neighbours, my grandma, my grandma's friends, my grandma's neighbours and my grandma's helper until I finally decided to accept it.

Here's another word in primary school that I was intrigued by - chaos. I could not believe the word I was always hearing was actually spelled like that. I had seen the word so many times in storybooks and I always pronounced it as something like 'charles'. When I heard 'chaos' being used in conversations, I always thought it was a totally different word that would be spelled something like 'kayyos'. HAHA!

Ok, going back to the article, I still found some things useful like points number 1, 2 and 4. I would keep them in mind for my teaching next time. For example, I would present children with a list of words that focus on the sound-letter pattern. It is fun to learn and 'clear' so many similar words at one go! I have seen such words in some P1 or P2 Spelling lists. I think it is beautiful to let children learn Spelling in this way, to assure them of a system when they are still young and beginners of Spelling.

Anyway, I also really appreciate your romantic way of replying our previous exit ticket using letters haha. I think there is so much effort there. I handwrote letters to my first form class before they graduated and I never want to do it for any other class ever again. Haha. So much effort, so thank you! :)

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Preparing for the floss rule with Iza was very meaningful as we had similar idea before we discussed, and she taught me on the online slides and the interesting interactive quizzlet game which we can check our answers after the game.

For multiple spelling, the lesson taught was clear and we understood when to insert the ch and tch and refresh the term Elkonin box which we will be using as LBS.

When I was learning English in Primary school, learning English wasn’t so difficult for us probably we were exposed to the words and we had to memorize them by hard.

The first article says that the letters can be confusing… So are the rules! Took me a few secs to realize what the YD meant.. :p Therefore some children will need the help to correct it if not they will continue to make the same mistake of pronouncing the words.

With the different sounds for each letters in different words and so many combination of letters and so many others in the articles we have read, I do agree that instead of focusing of the rules, exposing them to words that follow patterns will help greatly as I do feel it will benefit me in learning a lot as well. Although teaching of the rules is still a must ensure that they are reading correctly and their spelling is right.

Using various methods of teaching, strategies and different approaches in this article to engage the children might help them more than we think.

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Thank you Dr Liz for the snacks and drinks. And your wisdom!

My takeaway from the lecture today I learn about the Floss Rule which I never knew and using game application to create wonderful interactive learning for students. And using the Elkonin boxes to teach and scaffold multiple spelling is good strategy that I will adopt in the future.

My takeaway from the article, It create confusion for me and I believe I would need more practice and application to understand them. To conclude from all the points from the article we must create simplicity in teaching. Exposure new words but not to much. Double check with the phonics we teach to the student and the phonics the learn.

One thing that resonate from Dr Liz's wisdom is to focus on the student and engage the student. Do not care others around him. Same sentiment I do with my kids.

Regards,

Sofian Adnan

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Floss rule
I find the floss game interactive and fun. It helps to check the student's understanding immediately and it enables the teacher to correct student on the spot! I also find the floss game rule recording sheet helpful as it reminds the student of the rules each time they solve the questions.

Multiple Spelling
The use of Elkonin box help student recognise the number of words in the box.
It sets apart the sound of each letter. Using visuals also help students to see better especially for the visual learners.

Article reading takeaway
There are different method / ways in teaching students to suit their learning abilities. The 10 rules mentioned in the article, provide useful tips to teachers on how to teach those rules to their students. I think most importantly as teachers we need to constantly motivate them so that they are hungry to learn new things and exposing them to new words and sounds in a fun manner will help excite and ignite their curiosity.

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Dear Dr Liz,

Thank you for letter that you gave us. It sure was fun reading your letter. :)

My takeaways from the lesson are the Floss Rule and Multiple Spelling Rule.

1. For the Floss rule, I liked how the team explained the 3 conditions that applies for the rule explicitly which made it easy for me to grasp the concept. I learnt that the 3 conditions are that:
- the word must be a 1 word syllable.
-the word must have a short vowel.
-the word usually ends with f, l, s and somtimes z for us to double the last consonant.

2. As for the multiple spelling rule, I have learnt when we should use "ch" and when we should use "tch" in a word. For example in the word sketch, since there is a short vowel (e) before the /ch/ sound, we need to use the "tch" after the vowel. However, if there is a consonant before the /ch/ sound,, for example, in the word munch, there is a consonant (n) before the /ch/ sound, we need to use "ch" instead of "tch". Using the boxes to get the student to identify each sound definitely makes it very easy for the child to be able to spell the word.

These 2 spelling rules are my biggest takeway from this lesson.

My takeaways from the article:
The article covered many tips that educators can apply in their teaching. However, I would want to dive into the 3 takeaways which I would want to use for my future lessons.

1. Teaching my students letter sounds explicitly.
In future when I teach my students, I would teach the letter sounds explicitly to them. As much as recognising the letters is important to children, it is equally important for them to learn the letter sounds as well. And for letters that have more than 1 letter sound, it is very important for students to know each letter sound.
Thus, I will spend an ample amount of time teaching my students the letters follow by each letter sounds and give ample of reinforcement for these.
For example when I introduce the letter a, as much as I will ensure my students are able to identify upper case and lower case a, I will teach the short vowel /a/ sound and the long vowel /a/ sound. By learning the associations between the letter and its sound, students will be able to remember the letter sound better thus, I will teach them this in detailed.

2. Exposing students to word patterns:
Also when I teach my students in the future, rather than explaining to them about the rules straightaway, I will expose them to word patterns first and will highlight the patterns first before introducing the rules. Reason being, personally, I feel understanding rule patterns can be challening for children especially the younger ones. Thus, getting them to see the pattern in words first before introducing them to the rules might make it easier for them to grasp the rule better.
For example, I will show them words such as day, may, say, clay to draw them to the "ay" pattern and tell them that all these words end with "ay". Then later I will introduce them to the rule that "ay" makes the long vowel /a/ sound. Understanding the rule might be easier for them once they see the patterns in words.

3. Acknowledging my students when they spell a word wrongly
Another thing which I will want to apply in my future lesson will be to acknowledge my student if he spells a word wrongly instead of immediately correcting him. For example, for the word chef, if my student spells it as "shef", as much as I want to teach him the correct spelling for the word eventually, I will not insist only the correct spelling at the start. Because from a student's point of view "sh" makes the /sh/ sound rather than "ch". So he has actually written the spelling based on his understanding of letter sounds which still makes the same sound as the correct spelling. So by me not correcting him and acknowledging his spelling, I will be supporting his development of the phonics knowledge. Of cos this does not apply in situations whereby he spells the word totally different, for example, "pet" for "chef".

These are the 3 main things that I want to apply in my future teaching.

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I never knew there was such a cool game to teach something potentially complex like the Floss Rule!! Thank you Jason and Iza!!

Lina, Radhiana and Stephanie thanks for showing us how multiple spelling can be taught - the part about -tch and -ch was really helpful!

Indeed, letter names can cause confusion! When I initially opened the file, I thought about finding a way to remember all 10 points. However, as I went along, I came to a realisation that being aware of what they are is the first step. No one expects me to remember them (haha at least I don't). Ultimately, it is most important to build a collection of materials that we can always refer to when the time comes.

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Ng is my surname. And after reading the article, I understand why my previous LSC pronounce my name that way.

When I was in school, I hear my dad saying the same thing too but in school, my colleagues were pronouncing it wrongly - Mdm  Erng. And I just left it as I did not know how to explain the pronunciation. Now thanks to this course, I have written proof!

The article also gave me some suggestions to teach children pronunciation and spelling. I like the part about finding patterns because I have always played word games with my kids and while I commute, to keep myself occupied on the long journey, I like to look for word patterns in the ads on the train.

English can be a difficult language to learn but there is also a system to make it easy.

Floss
The presentation helped me understand the rule better. I will look out for
1) one syllable word
2) the short vowel
3) the consonant after the vowel if it is f, l, s or z
4) exceptions (sight words)

Multiple Spelling
Another wonderful sharing because I learnt more rules to help me understand when to use 'ch' and 'tch'.
ch - when there is a consonant (branch)
tch - when there is a short vowel (batch)

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I learnt a lot from the two presentations today. I did research on Floss Rule and Multiple Spelling when choosing the topics for presentation, and was thinking of how to make learning easier. The presentation today was really helpful, definitely my AHA moment. It makes me realised that teaching can be done in so many different ways and that learning shouldn't be made too complicated.

I love how Jason and Iza use an interactive platform for teaching. Instead of using the term "checklist", they named it a game sheet, which doesn't sound too intimidating for the student. The quiz that was done at the end of the lesson was useful too. Although we need to key in our real names, but fake names were reflected on the screen instead. This is extremely helpful for weaker students as it can be stressful to have their names at the bottom on the list.

Lina, Rahdiana and Stephanie's lesson on Multiple Spelling is straight to the point and easy to understand. As usual, Stephanie displays the quality of a great teacher. Calm, encouraging and gentle. The use of Elkonin boxes help to break the word into sounds, and it is an effective way for teaching multiple spelling.

The article helped to address some questions that I have in mind. There are so many rules to learn and I have reservations when it comes to teaching our students with SEN. How much can they remember or understand? Is this really useful for them? When we were practising on the phonograms during the tutorial, my group got quite confused and we can't help but to ask why are there so many exceptions?

English language is complex and there is so much to learn. Like what Dr Liz said during the start of our tutorial, attitude is important. Although the learning process can be challenging, but I will do my best to learn! We can do this!

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Dear Dr Liz

Reflection on today’s tutorial

Thank you for today’s lesson and the food <3. There are so many things to reflect on today. At the start of the lesson, you said something along the lines of “student always come first and to always remember that you are doing it for your student.” It made me relate back to what Dr Carol said the other day in class. She was also saying that we should always think of our student. When planning for our students, we should always think how the lesson plan would benefit our students. The most important thing is that they understand what we are trying to teach them. For today’s group presentation, it was another AHA moment.

For floss rule, I was amazed that there was more than one method to teach floss rule. There was even a game that can help us assess whether the student understood the rule. For multiple spelling, I really liked how Stephanie taught the different sounds by using the Elkonin box. I really learnt a lot of things from my class which I am always grateful for.

When looking through the phonics, I realised how confusing English is as there are many rules and exceptions. This is also why as an educator we should make it a point to understand so that we can teach our students well.

The one thing I always tell myself is “If it is difficult for us, it is harder for our kids.” That will always be my motivation factor to make sure that I can give my students the best that I can so that even if it’s not much, I can make a difference by making it less challenging for them.

Reflection on journal article

While I was reading the article, I had many thoughts. “Wow that’s a lot of things to remember”.  I was wondering how I will get my students to remember all this. That is when I realise how important it is to repeat the things that we have taught the students by doing a recap of the previous lesson at the start if the lesson or doing a summary at the end of the lesson.

The few takeaways that I can use in the future is

1.       to always ensure to pronounce the word correctly even if the letter does not make the sound they are supposed to make. When we are assisting the student with spelling, we should make the correct pronunciation of the word instead of changing how a letter will sound to make it easier for the student to spell. If we change the sound to make it easier for the student to spell, it might cause the student to get confused over the true pronunciation of the word. It may help them with spelling but during their oral reading, it will affect them.

2.       When students spell or pronounce the sounds inaccurately, we should validate them first. We should recognize their effort for trying to recognize the sound. Afterwards, we can repeat the word again and ask the students to guess what other letters make such sounds. After all that, we will then correct their spelling and ask them to repeat it back to us to ensure that they understood.

3.       As we are teaching the students, we may come across words that they will mispronounce, and we might have not taught them the rule behind those sounds. It is okay to correct their pronunciation and teach them the correct sound and rule. I feel that it is important for us to correct the student at once when we heard them mispronouncing it so that they can unlearn and relearn fast

4.       Lastly, teach the students on the rules slowly. Use visual aids to make them understand better. Go through the lesson over a few sessions to ensure that they understand everything before moving on to the next rule.

Sorry it’s such a long reflection. Thank you for taking time to read our thoughts and comment on it. I really appreciate it. Thank you for the letter too. It made me feel warm. I hope you enjoy your weekend and please rest well!

Best Regards

Norsara

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Post-tutorial takeaways:

1. Gamification is a possible way to make lessons fun for younger students. Checklists can be boring and plain for a student, but a game helps them to get the student to follow the steps implicitly just by following the rules of the game. This is a good way to make the "I do" portion less intimidating for the children.

2. Elkonin boxes are a helpful tool to help with practising phonemes and phonemic segmentation. Conversely, they can also be used to practise blending. Since Elkonin boxes work as a visual aid, students can also tick or point to help guide their steps in segmentation/blending.

Post-article reading takeaways:

Use different methods to teach. Phonics alone is not sufficient, there are tips and tricks to help students learn and read better, such as morphology, word patterns etc

It is important to get the students exposed to a wide range of words and uses of the language in many contexts. Besides building vocabulary, the way words are pronounced and used can help them process and remember.

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The Floss Rule

The video shown was concise

Pre-requisite was clearly stated at the start of the presentation

Students were given a choices to choose from the game

Multiple spelling

Position of the phonogram in a word

Elkonin Boxes created associated with the sounds

Spelling words given were the student familiar with the daily context

Guidance with questions

Specific praise was given.eg. good job for remembering

Takeaways from the Article ‘Letter Names Can Cause Confusion and Other Things to Know About Letter–Sound Relationships’

This article guides teachers on how  to support students in language acquisition

When interacting with children, look out for the influence of letter names and address this explicitly.

Rather than teaching children rules, expose them to lists of words that all follow a particular pattern.

Magic and magician are different in pronunciation but they are related by their spelling

Teaching some beginning morphology to children in kindergarten, they are much exposed to the daily context word.

When the child is reading aloud, if they are unsure which sound to use, make them practically use both the sounds and guide them to decide which sound is suitable.

Encourage children to learn spelling with a growing number of words correctly over time by following the guidelines with specific expectations for spelling at each grade level.

Teaching digraphs explicitly by showing a photo or sign language, and it’s a reminder of the sound associated with each of the digraphs.

Teach young children phoneme structure awareness as they are writing.

sound made by the letter ‘s’ that follow or precede another letter matters is one of the reasons teaching phonograms beginning in kindergarten.

Once children have some basic letter-by-letter decoding skills, help them use knowledge of known words to solve unknown words.

Directing children to similar words they already know can help them with their spelling.

When giving a spelling, teachers or parents encourage not to mispronounce the word.

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I found both presentations for the Floss Rule and Multiple Spellings extremely helpful. It helped me break down the rules into simple digestable components. I especially loved how the group teaching Multiple Spelling used Elkonin's Box to teach -ch and -tch because I was very confused on how the rules were specially applied.

The game for the Floss Rule was very interesting as well as it made a lesson seem like an activity rather than an academic task.

The reading that was posted on the 10 rules provided a lot of tips on how to teacher these rules to children and one thing that I took away from it was how the focus was on how we need to as much as possible activate student's prior knowledge and use as much familiar words as possible to supplement their learning of the rules.

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Floss Rule

like the video, simple and succint, relevant to the teaching

Worksheet to help reinforce the teaching on floss rules

Games app to enegage the pupil

Teacher-pupil relationship is established throughout

Overall an excellent lesson

Sharing on Multiple Spelling

like the use of Elkonin boxes during the teaching

good fluency of the lesson delivered

usage of specific praise

review the learning

Takeway on the Literature review
"Letter Names Can Cause Confusion and Other Things to Know About Letter–Sound Relationships"

Key takeaways
This is central to the whole literature:
"Rather than teaching children rules, expose them to lists of words that all follow a particular pattern."

Teach morphology to children in kindergarten; use -s to make a word mean more than one even if we say it with /z/. Also use -ed to make a word indicate that something happened in the past, whether we say it with a /d/ or with a /t/.

Some letters represent different sounds in different words

Encourage child to use vowel flexing and decide which sound is more correct, eg word leak may try both the short e sound (as in head) and the long e sound (as in leap).

Sometimes sounds can be represented in more than one way

1.     Don’t insist on correct spelling early on;

2.     research strongly suggests that engaging children in listening for sounds in words and inventing/estimating/approximating their spelling supports their literacy development

Sometimes pairs or groups of letters represent a single sound.

Teach digraphs explicitly. Children don’t have to know that they are digraphs.

Examples of explicit teachings;  take a digital photo of children showing thumbs up for th, making the quiet sign for sh, and pointing to their cheeks for ch, and they post those along with the digraphs as a reminder of the sound associated with each of these digraphs.

Sometimes pairs of letters represent a special kind of sound. (dipthongs)

Teach dipthongs explicitly. Children don’t have to know that they are dipthongs.

Use high frequency word eg boy, toy (as a reference point for learning dipthong)

The letter or letters that immediately follow or precede a letter matter.

Teach phonograms in kindergarten. Expose them to words that have the represent the same sounds. (ight as in sight, light, bright etc..) Thus exposing the children to chunking. This is more preferred way than teaching each letter sound in isolation than blending them.

Position of Letter “Y” in a word matters

Position in a letter affects its sounds. Y in the beginning of a word sounds the y itself (consonant) eg Yoga, yellow . In the middle or end then it sounds like a vowel eg funny, happy.

Suggestion: Use more words examples in both situations will help children to recall. This is the most preferred mode of teaching than to remember the rules.

Words with Schwa sounds
Never try to breakdown words containing Schwa to its phoneme (as Schwa is silent). Choose instead to show pupils more examples of words with Schwa and get them to pronounce them.