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Students look at picture of object and read word. If the word needs a silent then they write it correctly.

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This is a set of 25, 1st grade math and literacy printable worksheets is a No Prep, fun way to continue to enjoy fall and celebrate the month of October. All of the sheets are ready to be copied and passed out. I created them in black and white to save on ink when you're printing them out for the class. It also gives early finishers the option to color the adorable fall and Halloween themed pictures.

**BUY THE FULL YEAR BUNDLE AND SAVE $$**

Teachers are using these printables as morning work, homework, math and literacy center activities, or as part of a lesson plan. The themes for this month are fall, Halloween, witches, candy, and monsters. Topics covered include addition, subtraction, measurement, place value, number order, writing, parts of speech, digraphs and lots more.

Here is a list of the 1st grade worksheets in this set.

October 1st Grade Math Worksheets
* Roll, Add & Color - Witches Brew Recipe
* Fill in the Blank Equations
* Monster Math - Count by 5s
* Longest Broom Measurement
* Pumpkin Time Clocks
* Pumpkins Greater Than Less Than
* Monster Subtraction - Multiples of 10
* Broom Shop - Place Value
* Trick-or-Treat True or False Equations
* Spin and Color Shape Fractions
* Pumpkin Number Order
* Pumpkin Patch Word Problems
* Roll, Write & Subtract
* Witch World Search & Graph

October 1st Grade Worksheets
* Sentence Patching Conjunctions
* Diary of a Monster Kid - Pronouns Practice
* Bug or Not - Word Sort
* Monster Contractions
* Spooky Things Nouns or Verbs
* Alphabetical Order - Halloween Word Search
* Trick-or-Treat Digraph Bags
* Does it Need a Silent e?
* Oops!! I Drank a Witch's Brew - Narrative Writing Prompt
* Would you Rather be a Monster or Witch - Opinion Writing Prompt
* How to Make a Ghost Costume - Informative Writing Prompt

I hope you find these worksheets engaging and helpful in your classrooms. Let me know if you have any questions. I am happy to help.

Amy

You might also like these products:

More Great 1st Grade Math and Literacy Printables

Lots of Great Writing Prompts

Addition and Subtraction Word Problems

Kindergarten Reading Comprehension Passages

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1st Grade Math and Literacy Printables - October

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1st Grade Math and Literacy Printables - October This is a set of 25, 1st grade math and literacy printable worksheets is a No Prep, fun way to continue to enjoy fall and celebrate the month of October. All of the sheets are ready to be copied and passed out.

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Ask students to read the words displayed on the Short and Long Vowel Poster, and document which words they read correctly.

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Silent E: 1, 2, 3! | Lesson plan | Education.com

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It's easy as 1, 2, 3! In this lesson, students will explore the long vowels A, I, and O and learn how a silent E turns short vowels into long vowels. Students will use technology, music, and body movement to learn all about silent E.

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Know final -e and common vowel team conventions for representing long vowel sounds.

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Student reads each word and selects the ones with the long vowel.

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All Long Vowels Please Stand Up! | Lesson plan | Education.com

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In this reading and writing lesson plan, All Long Vowels Please Stand Up!, first graders will practice differentiating between long and short vowel sounds in an entertaining game show format.

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Student looks at picture and and matches the correct spelling. 20 question quiz.

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"Phonic elements should be assessed several times throughout the year in grades one through three to help guide instruction"

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In this article:

Most of the assessments here should be given one-on-one. It is important that you have a non-distracting, comfortable testing environment for students, and that the rest of the class is engaged in a task or assignment and working quietly. It's even better if you can arrange for another teacher to be present while you are performing assessments.

This list of informal assessments is not all-inclusive; there are components of reading that these tools do not assess. This information is also available in chart form.

Letter/sound recognition

About this assessment

Familiarity with the letters of the alphabet is essential to the development of reading skills. Instruction should be geared towards unknown letters and their sounds. Students should be able to recognize the letters in both uppercase and lowercase forms.

What it measures

Ability to recognize letters and sounds.

Examples of assessment questions

Show student one letter at a time and ask:

Can you tell me what letter this is? (Record the student's response)

Can you tell me what sound it makes? (Record the student's response)

Age or grade typically mastered

Many students enter kindergarten with the ability to recognize letters. Fewer students recognize the letter sounds. Both are taught in kindergarten.

When should it be assessed?

Assess letter/sound recognition three times during kindergarten, at the start of school, at mid-year, and at the end of the year.

Concepts of print awareness

About this assessment

Concepts of print are usually learned incidentally as children are exposed to books and story readings at home and at school. Concepts of print include an understanding that: print carries meaning, that books contain letters, words, sentences, and spaces. It also includes understanding what books are used for, and that books have parts such as a front cover, back cover and a spine. Eventually, students learn more sophisticated ideas such as understanding that we begin reading on the left and read across the page to the last word on the right, and then we got to the next line, begin reading on the left, and so on.

What it measures

If a student understands:

That print has meaning

That print can be used for different purposes

The relationship between print and speech

There is a difference between letters and words

That words are separated by spaces

There is a difference between words and sentences

That there are (punctuation) marks that signal the end of a sentence

That books have parts such as a front and back cover, title page, and spine

That stories have a beginning, middle, and end

That text is read from left to right and from top to bottom

Examples of assessment questions

Give the student a book and ask the following questions. "Can you show me:"

a letter?

a word?

a sentence?

the end of a sentence (punctuation mark)?

the front of the book?

the back of the book?

where I should start reading the story?

a space?

how I should hold the book?

the title of the book?

how many words are in this sentence?

Age or grade typically mastered

Some students enter kindergarten with an understanding of print concepts, but other will master it as the school year goes on.

When should it be assessed?

Assess concepts of print twice during kindergarten, at the start of school and at mid-year. In addition, as you model story reading techniques to help guide instruction, identify students who need additional support, and determine if the pace of instruction should be increased, decreased, or remain the same.

Phonological awareness

About this assessment

Phonological awareness is a necessary part of reading instruction. Children can show you they have phonological awareness in several ways. It is necessary as the classroom teacher to determine strengths and weaknesses to plan instruction.

What it measures

Recognizing a word in a sentence shows the ability to segment a sentence

Recognizing a rhyme shows the ability to identify words that have the same ending sounds

Recognizing a syllable shows the ability to separate or blend words the way that they are pronounced

Understanding onset-rime shows the ability to blend the first sound in the word (onset) and the rest of the word (rime)

Examples of assessment questions

Word
How many words are in this sentence? "I am happy." (Correct response: 3)

Rhyme
Do these words rhyme? big, fig(Correct response: Yes)

What about key, tree? (Correct response: Yes)

Syllable blending
I am going to say a word in parts. Listen: o...pen What word did I say? (Correct response: open)

Syllable segmentation
Can you tell me the two word parts in open? (Correct response: o...pen)

Syllable deletion
Say open without the -pen. (Correct response: o)

Onset-rime
What word do these sounds make? /s/ - /ee/ (Correct response: see)

How about /h/ - /op/? (Correct response: hop)

Age or grade typically mastered

Word: Age 3

Rhyme: Age 4

Syllable blending: Age 4

Syllable segmentation: Kindergarten

Syllable deletion: Kindergarten

Onset-rime: The middle of kindergarten

When should it be assessed?

Typically, phonological awareness is assessed during kindergarten and throughout first grade. During the beginning of kindergarten, assessment should be limited to recognizing words, rhyme, syllable blending, and segmentation to help guide instruction.

Phonemic awareness

What it measures

Phoneme matching is the ability to identify words that begin with the same sound.

Phoneme isolation is the ability to isolate a single sound from within a word.

Phoneme blending is the ability to blend individual sounds into a word.

Phoneme segmentation is the ability to break a word into individual sounds.

Phoneme manipulation is the ability to modify, change, or move the individual sounds in a word.

Examples of assessment questions

Remember, when a letter appears between slash marks, you should say the letter sound, and not the letter name.

Phoneme matching
Which words sound alike? man, sat, sip (Correct response: sat, sip)

Phoneme isolation - initial (first) sound
What's the first sound in sat? (Correct response: /s/)

Phoneme isolation - final (last) sound
What's the last sound in sat? (Correct response: /t/)

Phoneme isolation - medial (middle) sound
What's the middle sound in sat? (Correct response: /a/)

Phoneme blending
What word do these sounds make? /h/ - /o/ - /t/ (Correct response: hot)

Phoneme segmentation
What sounds do you hear in hot? (Correct response: /h/ - /o/ - /t/)

Phoneme manipulation - initial (first) sound
Say mat without the /m/ sound. (Correct response: at)

Phoneme manipulation - final (last) sound
Say mat without the /t/ sound. (Correct response: ma)

Phoneme manipulation - substitution
Say pig. (Correct response: pig)

Now change the /p/ in pig to /f/. (Correct response: fig)

Age or grade typically mastered

Phoneme matching: The middle of kindergarten

Phoneme isolation - initial (first) sound: The middle of kindergarten

Phoneme isolation - final (last) sound: Late kindergarten or early first grade

Phoneme isolation - medial (middle) sound: Late kindergarten or early first grade

Phoneme blending: Late kindergarten or early first grade

Phoneme segmentation: First grade

Phoneme manipulation - initial (first) sound: First grade

Phoneme manipulation - final (last) sound: First grade

Phoneme manipulation - substitution: Middle to end of first grade or early second grade

When should it be assessed?

Phonemic awareness assessments should be done three times during the kindergarten and first grade years to help guide instruction.

Informal (qualitative) reading inventory

What it measures

Grade level reading

Fluency

Comprehension

Vocabulary

Oral reading accuracy

Examples of assessment questions

Choose a grade level passage for the student to read. As the student is reading complete the oral reading accuracy and reading fluency assessments. After the student finishes the passage, check for understanding through explicit and implicit questions. Also, ask open-ended questions about the vocabulary found in the passage.

Age or grade typically mastered

This assessment can be given to students in grades one through twelve. Students should be expected to master age-appropriate material.

When should it be assessed

The informal reading inventory is an on-going assessment, and should be completed several times throughout the child's schooling. In kindergarten, perform the informal reading inventory twice per year, at mid-year and at the end of school. In first and second grades, it should be done three times, at the beginning of the school year, at mid-year, and at the end of the year. If a child is struggling, the inventory should be done more often in order to have an accurate picture of the child's progress.

Reading comprehension

About this assessment

Reading comprehension assessments are the most common type of published reading test that is available. The typical type of reading comprehension assessment involves asking a child to read a passage of text that is leveled appropriately for the child's age or grade, and then asking explicit, detailed questions about the content of the text. An example of a common reading comprehension assessment is the Informal Reading Inventory (IRI), also known as the Qualitative Reading Inventory (QRI).

There are variations on the basic reading comprehension assessments. For example, instead of questions about facts found directly in the text, the child could be asked to answer questions about information that is implied in the text, or the child might be asked to retell the story in the child's own words.

Oral reading accuracy

About this assessment

This assessment provides a measure of a student's oral reading accuracy by giving teachers insight into a student's individual reading level. It allows the teacher to listen and record reading behaviors such as the number of errors a student makes, if the student substitutes words, or if the student needs prompting from the teacher.

The information offered by this assessment is limited. For example, it does not measure phonological ability, vocabulary, or comprehension. This is why it is often given in conjunction with other assessments such as the informal reading inventory. It should never be used in isolation.

Note: When children read orally, they usually concentrate on reading accurately and do not pay as much attention to comprehension of the content. It is also important to remember that if this assessment is used with students who are new to learning English, it should be given both in English and the child's primary language.

What it measures

Oral reading accuracy. It also provides the teacher with insight into a student's ability to use strategies to decode unfamiliar words.

Examples of assessment questions

Choose a passage for the child to read aloud. As the child reads, take notes on words read correctly and incorrectly.

Age or grade typically mastered

First through third grade.

When should it be assessed?

Reading accuracy assessments can be given as part of an informal reading inventory or combined with a comprehension assessment to yield more information. Reading accuracy should be assessed several times throughout the year to help you plan on-going instruction. Are students reading on grade level? Do some students require additional support? Do your students have rich vocabularies? Are your students able to read age-appropriate material?

Steps in administering this assessment

1. Choose a book that is age appropriate, but unfamiliar to your student. (This gives a more accurate picture of a child's ability in handling texts.)

2. Ask the student to read the story aloud to you and then at the end tell you what the story was about.

3. You should familiarize yourself with the following scoring information prior to administering this assessment:

Reading behavior

How to score

Read correctly (no error)

Check mark over word

Omission (one error)

Long dash over word omitted

Insertion (one error)

^ at point of insertion with the inserted word written above it

Repetition of a word (no error)

Mark above word with a capital R

Repetition of a phrase (no error)

Capital R with a line and an arrow stretching across phrase repeated

Self correction (no error)

Capital SC above the word to indicate child has self-corrected

Unable to read word (one error)

T for Teacher prompt

Decodes a word in an obvious manner (no error)

Mark individual sounds read within the word followed by a check mark if eventually read correctly or a circle if read incorrectly

Read incorrectly (one error)

Circle word

What should you count as an error when giving this assessment?

Substituting a word

Passage reads: The tall fir tree.

Student reads: The tall far tree.

Omitting a word

Passage reads: The tall fir tree.

Student reads: The tall tree.

Inserting a word

Passage reads: A dark and stormy night.

Student reads: A dark and stormy winter night.

Needs prompting (if the student has to be told a word by the person administering the running record)

Passage reads: I wish that people...

Student reads: I wish that... (pauses) that... (teacher prompts "people")...

4. As the student reads, mark each word on the form by using the symbols above. Place a check mark above the words read correctly.

5. If the student reads a word incorrectly or substitutes a word, record what is said above the actual word.

6. As the student reads, pay attention to his or her behavior. Is the student using context clues (from the sentence or pictures), structure (language sounds correct) and visual cues (using beginning sounds, familiar word chunks, etc.) to read words and gather meaning?

7. Intervene as little as possible when a student is reading.

8. If the student is stuck on a word, wait 5-10 seconds before you tell him or her the word.

9. After the reading, ask the student to tell you about what he or she has just read. Make notes on the following:

Can the student tell you what happened in the story in his or her own words?

Does the student include the different parts of a story (the characters, setting, events, problem and resolution)?

Can the student identify the main idea and supporting details?

Does the student use some of the vocabulary found in the text?

Is the student's retelling minimal, adequate or very complete?

What do I do with the information obtained from this assessment?

The information gathered while completing an oral reading accuracy assessment can be used to determine error, accuracy, and self-correction rates. To calculate a student's reading accuracy rate, divide the total words read correctly by the total words read. For example, if a student read a passage containing 100 words and made 5 errors:

95 (total words read correctly) / 100 (total words read) = 95% word accuracy

Use the accuracy rate along with the information gained in the student's story retelling to determine whether the text the student read was too easy, just right, or too difficult for the reader. Below is a general breakdown to use to help guide you when choosing texts for students:

Oral reading accuracy

What this says about the text

95-100%

Too easy; the text does not present a challenge

90-94%

Just right; the text is challenging but manageable

89% and below

Too difficult; the text is frustrating for the reader

If a student can read a book with 100% word accuracy but can only give a minimal retelling of the story, do not choose a higher leveled book. We read to get meaning; if a child is not getting meaning from a text they must be instructed on comprehension strategies. Word accuracy without comprehension is not acceptable.

What should I be looking for when I give an oral reading accuracy assessment?

Giving an oral reading accuracy assessment and asking a child to retell reveals many things about a child's reading ability. There are other things to be on the look out for and can be taught in the moments following this assessment:

Has the student mastered directionality, letter-sound correspondence, return sweep, etc?

Did the student make "good errors" when phonetically reading a word (i.e., reading island as "is land" instead of "eye land")?

Was there an attempt to self-correct errors?

Did the student attempt to decode an unknown word?

Was the student's reading slow and labored, or fluent?

Did the student use expression while reading?

Reading fluency

What it measures

How many words a child reads correctly in one minute.

Examples of assessment questions

Choose an appropriate passage for the student to read aloud. As the student reads, complete a record for one minute.

Age or grade typically mastered

Students should be expected to master age-appropriate material.

When should it be assessed?

Fluency assessments should be completed throughout the year to help guide instruction.

Word recognition

What it measures

Sight word vocabulary at a given grade level.

Examples of assessment questions

Ask a child to read from a list of words.

Age or grade typically mastered

Students should be expected to master age-appropriate material.

When should it be assessed?

Word recognition should be assessed three times during the year for students in kindergarten through second grade to help guide instruction.

Phonic elements

What it measures

Phonic elements at a given grade level.

Examples of assessment questions

What sound do the letters 's' 'h' make? (Correct response: /sh/)

How can I turn cap into cape? (Correct response: Add an 'e' to the end of the word.

Age or grade typically mastered

Students should be expected to master age-appropriate material.

When should it be assessed?

Phonic elements should be assessed several times throughout the year in grades one through three to help guide instruction.

Portfolios

About this assessment

Portfolios can be used to document students' achievement and progress. Portfolios give an accurate picture of an individual's strengths and weaknesses. Instruction on how to pick a piece of work to place in a portfolio (does it show a concept that was struggled with then understood, does it demonstrate an understanding of a concept? Is it something you are proud of?) is beneficial for students. This type of instruction engages the student to reflect on his or her own work. Portfolios encourage students to take an active role in learning information they feel they have not yet mastered.

Portfolios can help guide instruction. Through looking at a piece of child's work, a teacher can quickly see what lessons are further needed. For example, by looking at a student's writing a teacher may determine lessons in using commas correctly need to be revisited.

Types of portfolios

Collection
The collection may consist of a folder that holds samples of a student's work. The collection should include representative examples of the various types of student work, such as tests, writing samples, and homework assignments.

Display portfolio
A container or box containing a selection of work documenting a student's progress may hold work in this type of portfolio. This type of portfolio may be used to share with parents at conferences. Pieces of work are carefully selected by both teachers and students to show and share with parents/guardians during conferences.

Teacher/student assessment portfolio
A collection of documentation including copies of work in the student's display portfolio, tests, anecdotal notes, conference summaries, contacts made with parents, etc. This portfolio is used by the teacher to aid in discussions with administrators, other teachers, parents, etc about a particular child.

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Types of Informal Classroom-Based Assessment

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Most of the assessments here should be given one-on-one. It is important that you have a non-distracting, comfortable testing environment for students, and that the rest of the class is engaged in a task or assignment and working quietly. It's even better if you can arrange for another teacher to be present while you are performing assessments.

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"Present clear, consistent definitions of the syllable types." Definitions and examples are listed in a chart that also provides an order in which to present the syllable types.

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Examples of Multi-Sensory Phonics Activities

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Examples of Multi-Sensory Phonics Activities

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"Students say each sound in the word and place a manipulative (e.g., a tile with a letter or letter pattern on it, such as sh, ch, ck) to represent each sound in the word."

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Phonics instruction teaches common letter-sound relationships, including sounds for common letter patterns, so that readers can apply them in decoding unfamiliar words.

The purpose of phonics instruction

Only a small percentage of English words have irregular spellings and letter-sound relationships. This means that nearly all English words can be read by applying knowledge of letter-sound relationships and blending sounds together to form a whole word.

Being able to decode words effortlessly (convert spelling into speech sounds) means children are able to focus their attention on comprehending what they read.

Beginning phonics lessons

Regardless of grade, start phonics lessons with consonant letter sounds that are easy to pronounce and less often confused with similar letter sounds. This enables students to master one letter sound before having to learn a similar letter sound. For example, students may confuse the letter sounds for t and d. Since the letter t is more common, instruction should introduce t many lessons before introducing d.

Start explicit phonics instruction with short vowel words because these vowels have one predictable spelling (with few exceptions) and are the most commonly occurring vowel sounds in English. Because the short vowel sounds are highly confusable, they should be taught individually, not all at the same time.

Also, learning sounds for letters is basically rote learning, and for rote learning, the use of memory cues can be very helpful. For instance, for short a, children can learn that the letter a looks like an apple with a broken stem, and short a says /a/ as in apple. Multi-sensory activities, such as repeatedly tracing the vowel letter and saying its sound, are often useful as well.

Phonics Terms

Phoneme
The smallest unit of sound in our spoken language. Pronouncing the wordcat involves blending three phonemes: /k/ /ae/ /t/.

Grapheme
A written letter or a group of letters representing one speech sound. Examples:b, sh, ch, igh, eigh.

Onset
An initial consonant or consonant cluster. In the wordname, n is the onset; in the word blue, bl is the onset.

Rime
The vowel or vowel and consonant(s) that follow the onset. In the wordname, ame is the rime.

Digraph
Two letters that represent one speech sound. Examples:sh, ch, th, ph.

Vowel digraph
Two letters that together make one vowel sound. Examples:ai, oo, ow.

Schwa
The vowel sound sometimes heard in an unstressed syllable and that most often sounds like /uh/ or the short /u/ sound as incup.

Morpheme
The smallest meaningful units of language. The wordcat is a morpheme.

Kindergarten phonics lessons

Phonics lessons in kindergarten focus on students becoming automatic at letter naming, single-grapheme letter sounds, and reading single-syllable words with short vowel spellings. Instruction may include common digraphs ( ch, sh, th, wh, and ck). For some kindergarten students, articulating some consonant sounds may be difficult, but this does not prevent them from reading and comprehending words with those sounds.

First grade phonics lessons

In first grade, phonics lessons start with the most common single-letter graphemes and digraphs ( ch, sh, th, wh, and ck). Continue to practice words with short vowels and teach trigraphs ( tch, dge). When students are proficient with earlier skills, teach consonant blends (such as tr, cl, and s p).

Ensure students understand the difference between blends, digraphs, and trigraphs: that each letter in a blend retains its own sound, while the letters in digraphs and trigraphs represent one sound.

In first grade, teachers may also include two-syllable words with short vowel sounds (e.g., cat∙fish, pic∙nic, kit∙chen). Inflectional endings such as ing, er, and s would also be included. When students have mastered short vowel spelling patterns, introduce r-controlled (e.g., er, ur, or, ar), long vowel (e.g., oa, ee, ai), and other vowel sound spellings (e.g., oi, aw, oo, ou, ow).

Teaching of common syllable types is also very useful for first graders. By the end of first grade, typical readers should be able to decode a wide range of phonetically regular one-syllable words with all of these letter patterns and syllable types, including one-syllable words with common inflectional endings (e.g., sliding, barked, sooner, floated).

Teaching syllable types in first grade

Teaching children about syllable types is useful because vowel sounds in English vary, and knowledge about syllable types can help children determine the vowel sound of a one-syllable word. Later, once they have learned some rules for dividing long words, children can also apply their knowledge of syllable types to decode two-syllable and multisyllabic words.

Instruction in syllable types should focus on children's abilities to classify words correctly (e.g., sort one-syllable words that are closed from one-syllable words that are not closed) rather than on children's abilities to recite rules or definitions. However, it is very important for teachers to present clear, consistent definitions of the syllable types, in order to avoid inadvertently confusing instruction.

The six syllable types common in English are closed, silent e, open, vowel combination, vowel r, and consonant- le. The chart below lists these syllable types along with their typical vowel sounds, definitions, some examples, and some additional comments.

The specific order in which syllable types are taught can vary substantially, depending on the phonics program being used. However, the closed syllable type is usually taught first, because closed syllables are common in English, and it is virtually impossible to write even a very simple story for children that contains no closed syllables. Conversely, consonant-le syllables always occur as part of two-syllable (or longer) words, so that syllable type would often be taught last.

Syllable Type (Synonyms)

Vowel Sound

Definition

Examples

Comments

Closed

Short

Has only one vowel and ends in a consonant.

splash, lend, in, top, ask, thump, frog, mess

The main prerequisite when children learn the closed syllable type is that they first have to be able to classify letters as either vowels or consonants.

Long

Has a -VCE pattern (one vowel, followed by one consonant, followed by a silent e that ends the syllable)

plane, tide, use, chime, theme, ape, stroke, hope

Words like noise, prince, and dance are not silent e, even though they end in a silent e, because they do not have the -VCE pattern; noise has a -VVCE pattern and prince and dance have a -VCCE pattern.

Open

Long

Has only one vowel that is the last letter of the syllable.

he, she, we, no, go, flu, by, spy

This syllable type becomes especially useful as children progress to two-syllable words. For example, the ti in title, lo in lotion, and ra in raven are all open syllables.

Vowel combination (vowel team)

Varies depending on the specific vowel pattern; children must memorize sounds for these individual vowel patterns.

Has a vowel pattern in it (e.g., ay, ai, aw, all, ie, igh, ow, ee, ea).

stay, plain, straw, fall, pie, piece, night, grow, cow

Vowel patterns do not always involve two vowels but can also consist of a vowel plus consonants, if this pattern has a consistent sound (e.g, igh almost always says long /i/; all almost always says /all/). Also, some vowel patterns can have more than one sound. For example, ow can say long /o/ as in grow or /ow/ as in cow. For these patterns, children learn both sounds and, when decoding an unfamiliar word, they try both sounds to see which one makes a real word.

Varies depending on the specific vowel r unit; children must memorize sounds for these units (e.g., ar, er, ir, or, ur).

Has only one vowel followed immediately by an r

ark, charm, her, herd, stir, born, fork, urn

Does not include words in which the vowel r unit is followed by an e (e.g., stare, cure, here) or in which the r follows a vowel combination (e.g., cheer, fair, board). These words can usually be taught as silent e (in the first case) or vowel combination (in the second).

Consonant- le

Schwa

Has a -CLE pattern (one consonant, followed by an l, followed by a silent e which ends the syllable)

-dle as in candle, -fle as in ruffle, -ple as in maple, -gle as in google, -tle as in title, -ble as in Bible

Consonant- le syllables never stand alone; they always are part of a longer word. Also, they are never the accented syllable of a longer word.

Video: Learning 'b' and 'd' and Reading Short Vowel Words with Aiko, Second Grader

In this video, reading expert Linda Farrell works with Aiko on a common letter reversal - confusing the letters 'b' and 'd'. Ms. Farrell coaches Aiko to look at the letters during b/d practice and to look at the words while she works with Aiko to read short vowel words accurately. See more videos here: Looking at Reading Interventions.

Second grade, third grade, and beyond

As students enter Grade 2, they should be learning to decode a wide range of two-syllable and then multisyllable (i.e., three syllables or more) words. Instruction in decoding these longer words should include attention to common syllable division patterns and syllabication rules.

Common syllable division patterns

To decode words of more than one syllable, children need a strategy for dividing longer words into manageable parts. They can then decode the individual syllables by applying their knowledge of syllable types and common letter-sound patterns, blending those syllables back into the whole word.

The chart below provides some useful generalizations for teaching students how to divide (syllabicate) two-syllable words with various common patterns, in order to decode them. These generalizations also are useful for decoding multisyllabic words, those with three or more syllables.

Compound

In a compound word, divide between the two smaller words.

back/pack, lamp/shade, bed/room, bath/tub, work/book

To be a true compound word, each of the smaller words must carry meaning in the context of the word (e.g., carpet is not a compound word, because a carpet is not a pet for your car or a car for your pet).

VCCV

If a word has a VCCV (vowel-consonant-consonant-vowel) pattern, divide between the two consonants.

or/bit, ig/loo, tun/nel, lan/tern, tar/get, vel/vet

There is an exception if the two consonants form a consonant digraph (a single sound), as in bishop, rather, gopher, or method. In these cases, treat the word as a VCV word, not VCCV (see below).

-CLE

If a word ends in a consonant-le syllable, always divide immediately before the -CLE.

ma/ple, stum/ble, i/dle, nee/dle, gig/gle, mar/ble, tur/tle

-VCV

If a word has a VCV (vowel-consonant-vowel) pattern, first try dividing before the consonant and sounding out the resulting syllables; if that does not produce a recognizable word, try dividing after the consonant.

hu/mid, ra/ven, mu/sic, go/pher;

plan/et, com/et, tim/id, bish/op, meth/od, rath/er

To recognize the correct alternative, the child needs to have the word in his/her oral vocabulary. If the student does not recognize the correct alternative, the teacher can have him or her try both options (e.g., hu/mid with a long u vs. hum/id with a short u). Then, if necessary, just tell the child the correct pronunciation of the word, with a brief explanation of its meaning.

Prefix

In word with a prefix, divide immediately after the prefix.

pre/view, mis/trust, un/wise, re/mind, ex/port, un/veil

See below.

Suffix

In a word with a suffix, divide immediately before the suffix.

glad/ly, wise/ly, sad/ness, care/less, hope/ful, frag/ment, state/ment, na/ture, frac/tion

Depending on its origin, the base word in a word containing prefixes or suffixes will not always be a recognizable word. However, the key point is that, when dividing a longer word, prefixes and suffixes are units that always stay together as patterns; never divide in the middle of a prefix or in the middle of a suffix.

Continue explicit phonics instruction through second grade with increasingly complex spelling patterns. By third grade, shift explicit phonics instruction mostly to explicit morphology instruction. Students move from learning about letter/sound relationships to sounds for prefixes, suffixes, roots, base words, and combining forms.

Vocabulary and spelling can be integrated with instruction in reading words. For example, as children learn to read the root geo, they learn that it means earth and that it will have a stable spelling across related words such as geology, geologist, geological, geography, geographic, etc.

Although many word-reading skills are developed by the end of Grade 3, children may be learning some of these skills even beyond Grade 3. Developing an understanding of etymology (word origins) is one example of this more advanced kind of skill for reading words.

For instance, j is pronounced /h/ in words of Spanish origin, and this pronunciation is retained in English words borrowed from Spanish, such as jalapeno and junta.

As another example, words that end in -ique such as boutique, antique, and mystique are borrowed from French and retain the French pronunciation for this pattern, /eek/.

Children do not need to learn sounds for all letter patterns in every language, but if they understand that many words in English are borrowed from other languages, and that these words often retain at least part of their pronunciation in the original language, this can benefit their word reading as well as their spelling.

Phonics lesson planning

Lesson plans for explicit phonics instruction start with a clear, achievable objective. An objective may be learning two to three new consonant sounds, one new vowel sound, or a new phonics concept (e.g., in one-syllable words, ck spells the sound /k/ after one vowel letter and only at the end of a word). Lesson plans will likely span many days and include multiple layers of instruction and practice.

Lesson plans can start with a review and include previously taught concepts throughout the lesson. Lessons pull forward everything taught previously.

New concepts (e.g., letter sounds) are explicitly taught before being practiced. All practice should include an "I do, We do, You do" practice. In "I do," model the activity. In "We do," guide the group through practice. In "You do," have students practice individually and model proficiency.

Build scaffolded instruction and practice into activities. Each subsequent practice activity contains less scaffolding until students are independently proficient. Practice activities move from isolated skills to skills that are more complex. For example:

Students read and spell letter name and letter sounds in isolation.

Students read words sound by sound.

Students read word chunks and word patterns.

Students read whole words, sounding out only to resolve reading errors.

Students spell words sound by sound, and practice spelling chains where only one letter changes from one word to the next (e.g., sap to lap to lip to lit to slit)

Students may learn word meanings to understand sentences and passages, but vocabulary instruction is typically outside the phonics instruction block.

Students read decodable phrases, sentences, and passages once for accuracy and again for fluency.

Students spell short decodable sentences.

Have students read individually for accuracy and again for fluency while reading lists as well as sentences and passages. This need not be included in every activity.

Assess each student's skills individually before introducing new concepts. When individual students have not mastered the objective, use your best judgment. Should the group move forward? Should the individual student receive extra practice? The answer will vary based on the composition of the group and the proportion of students in it who are struggling.

Sample beginning phonics lessons

Phonics lessons flow naturally out of phonemic awareness activities. For example,

In phonemic awareness, ask students to segment words with the sounds short a, /m/, /p/, and /t/.

Explain that the letter m spells the sound /m/, etc.

Have students individually practice saying letter names in isolation.

Have students individually practice reading letter sounds in isolation.

Introduce three to four irregularly spelled high frequency words to learn by sight.

Ask students to segment words with the sounds short a, /m/, /p/, and /t/, and then arrange letter tiles to spell the segmented words.

Demonstrate how to point to each letter and say the sound. Then blend the letters to read words (called "touch and say" or "touch and read").

Have students individually practice sounding out three to five words, then re-read the words they sounded out previously.

Ask individual students to read a list of words (comprised of only the sounds explicitly taught and practiced to date).

Students read once for accuracy and again for fluency.

When a student misreads a word, guide the student through sounding out the word. Then the student re-reads the whole group of words to the end by reading accurately.

Lead students in a review of the irregularly spelled high frequency words taught earlier in the lesson and from prior lessons.

Guide students through reading phrases, sentences, and (eventually) passages comprised of decodable words with the sounds explicitly taught and practiced to date along with some irregularly spelled high frequency words.

Students read once for accuracy and again for fluency.

When a student misreads a word, guide the student through sounding out the word. Then the student re-reads the whole phrase, sentence, or portion of the passage to the end by reading accurately.

Students spell letter sounds, decodable words, and short decodable sentences.

Beginning phonics lessons introduce only three or four new consonant sounds and only one new vowel sound in a lesson. Continue with this lesson until all students in the group are reading at 95-98% accuracy on a first attempt. Move to the next lesson, introducing another three or four consonant sounds and another new vowel sound.

Children in a general education classroom will vary widely in how easily they acquire phonics skills. Teachers should make use of flexible groups to meet the needs of children who can move ahead quickly in their word-reading skills, or conversely, the needs of those who require more practice.

Children who consistently perform at a high rate of mastery in their phonics skills can focus on other valuable literacy activities such as independent reading and writing, while the teacher is working with flexible groups who require continued phonics instruction.

Phonics lesson routines

Include instructional routines in lesson activities. Instructional routines are repeatable routines used to practice a new skill.

For example, guide the reading group to use "touch and say" to read a list of words containing the lesson's focus letter sounds. The steps for the activity are:

1. Model "touch and say" with one word.

2. Have the group use "touch and say" to read three words together.

3. Have each student use "touch and say" to read five words and then re-read the list without "touch and say."

4. Ask the whole group to read the same five words chorally. Use this routine daily during the phonics lesson as the activity that precedes reading whole words.

Instructional routines reduce students' memory load. Students do not have to remember the steps in a routine while simultaneously remembering the new concept. As a result, routines provide support and stability and improve the pace of the lesson.

Moats, L. and Hall, S. (2010). LETRS Module 7: Teaching Phonics, Word Study, and the Alphabetic Principle (2 nd ed.). Longmont, CO: Sopris West.

Instruction for all: the value of a multi-sensory approach

Teaching experience supports a multi-sensory instruction approach in the early grades to improve phonemic awareness, phonics, and reading comprehension skills. Multi-sensory instruction combines listening, speaking, reading, and a tactile or kinesthetic activity.

Phonics instruction lends itself to multi-sensory teaching techniques, because these techniques can be used to focus children's attention on the sequence of letters in printed words. As such, including manipulatives, gestures, and speaking and auditory cues increases students' acquisition of phonics skills. An added benefit is that multisensory techniques are quite motivating and engaging to many children.

Multi-sensory activities provide needed scaffolding to beginning and struggling readers and include visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and tactile activities to enhance learning and memory. As students practice a learned concept, reduce the multi-sensory scaffolds until the student is using only the visual for reading. Employ the multi-sensory techniques to fix errors and then practice without the scaffold.

Examples of multi-sensory phonics activities:

1. Dictate a word using say, touch, and spell. Students say each sound in the word and place a manipulative (e.g., a tile with a letter or letter pattern on it, such as sh, ch, ck) to represent each sound in the word.

For example, when the teacher saysfin, students move the letter tiles for f, i, and n, to spell the word, while at the same time saying and stretching the sounds orally. If the teacher then says fish, students replace the tile with n on it with one that has an sh.

Subsequent examples of words in the chain could bewish, wig, wag, bag, brag, and so on. The activity should use only letter sounds/pattern sounds that children have been taught.

Letter tiles also should represent sounds at the phoneme level. For example,fish would be spelled with three tiles (f, i, sh), because it has three phonemes, whereas brag would be spelled with four tiles (b, r, a, g), reflecting four phonemes.

Place ending spelling patterns and beginning consonants (or consonant blends) on cards. Have students work in pairs and arrange as many words as they can on a table. Do a table walk and have each pair read the words they created. Give other teams an opportunity to create a new word.

2. Organize spelling around the vowel letter. Assign a gesture to each vowel sound. Dictate a word and have students make the gesture for the vowel sound in the word.

3. Assign a gesture to /sh/ and /ch/. Dictate words. Ask students to individually make the gesture associated with /sh/ or /ch/ when they hear those sounds in a word.

4. Paddle pop: Teach letter clusters such as ing and ink. Write these clusters on card stock and staple to popsicle sticks. Dictate words and ask students to pop up the paddle containing the letter cluster in the word.

5. Sounding out words:

Single syllable "touch and read": Students touch each letter with a finger or pencil point and say the letter sound, then sweep left to right below the word and read the word.

Multi syllable touch and read: Students touch each syllable with a finger or pencil point and say the syllable, then sweep left to right below the word and read the word.

Include two or three of these multi-sensory activities in each lesson: speaking, listening, moving, touching, reading, and writing. They fully engage the brain and make learning more memorable. These activities can be fun games or part of a daily practice routine.

Multi-sensory activities are the scaffold for early practice. As students become proficient in the new skill or concept, reduce and then remove the multi-sensory scaffolds.

Adapting instruction for different readers

Research supports explicit phonics instruction for beginning readers and for struggling readers whose reading skills did not develop as expected. Two areas that affect reading acquisition are working memory and executive function.

Working memory refers to the memory we use to hold and manipulate information. For example, when a beginning reader sounds out a word, the student holds the letter shapes, sequence, and sounds in working memory to first sound out the word, then blend the sounds and read the word. Information held in working memory is fragile and held briefly (approximately 10 seconds) unless actively engaged.

If not attended to, the information in working memory vanishes. While this is true for all people, some people sustain information in working memory for seconds longer, some for less time. There is (at present) no scientifically proven method to increase the strength or length of working memory. There are, however, techniques that help students practice attending to information in working memory.

Executive function refers to the part of the brain that governs attention, impulse (starting and stopping), organization, reasoning, processing speed, and other higher order functions. It is the area of the brain that gets things done. It is also the last the area of the brain to fully mature (mid to late 20s).

To support students who struggle with working memory, attention, executive function, or processing speed issues, the following instructional adaptations can be helpful:

Itemized instructions

Hand out itemized instructions, and discuss what is expected in each step. Teach students how to check each step in a process off the instruction sheet to track work completed. Students with working memory and executive function weaknesses benefit greatly from learning how to use lists.

Intermittent instructions

Whenever possible, provide intermittent instructions so students do not need to remember a long list of steps. Remind the class to check any itemized instructions.

Instructional routines

Use repeated routines to practice skills and complete assignments. Repeated routines are not boring to students. They reduce the memory load on students and enable them to focus on new skills or concepts.

Repeat-safe environment

Build into the explicit instruction, practice, and assessment an opportunity to repeat instructions or information. It can be as simple as, "Anyone need me to repeat that?" or "Can I repeat the instructions for the next steps?" or "Remember. You can always ask me to repeat something." This creates an environment in which students with attention or working memory weaknesses feel safe asking for instructions or information to be repeated.

Rehearsing

Rehearsing can include having students state something aloud before writing. It can also include briefly practicing an activity that will later be assigned as homework. By rehearsing, a procedural memory or episodic memory is created which later supports students when they attempt to work independently.

Note taking

Explicitly teach note taking and build it into classroom routines. Every student will benefit by note taking as a study skill, as a stage of writing, and as an organizational tool. There are different note taking strategies depending on the task. Explicitly teach those note-taking strategies, and build them into lesson procedures. If students learn multiple note-taking strategies, you will need to review with them which one to implement in each setting, especially for students who struggle with working memory or executive function.

Writing aids

Provide a list of words pertinent to the writing assignment which have new or difficult spellings. This reduces the load on working memory by helping remove an obstacle to writing.

Provide an itemized rubric of the things the writing assignment must contain and explicitly teach the class to review their writing for each item on the list. Students with working memory weaknesses cannot easily review their writing for multiple things (e.g., check punctuation at the same time as checking for at least three supporting details and the reasons they support the topic sentence).

Organizational and place-keeping strategies

Being organized and knowing how to break a complex task into subtasks are not always innate skills. This is especially true for students with working memory and executive function weaknesses.

Teachers support all students by taking time to explicitly teach how to be organized: how to organize a binder, how to break a complex task into logical steps, how to allocate time on homework, etc. This requires more time at first, but as the school year progresses, less time is required. Students will benefit from this skill set through the rest of their academic careers.

References

Barkley, R. (1997). Behavioral inhibition, sustained attention, and executive functions: Constructing a unifying theory of ADHD. Psychological Bulletin, 121(1), 65-94.

Gathercole, S. and Alloway, T. (2008). Working memory and learning: A practical guide for teachers. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Giedd J., Blumenthal J., Jeffries N., Castellanos F., Liu H., Zijdenbos A., Paus T., Evans A., & Rapoport J. (1999). Brain development during childhood and adolescence: A longitudinal MRI study. Nature Neuroscience 2(10), 861-3.

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Phonics instruction teaches common letter-sound relationships, including sounds for common letter patterns, so that readers can apply them in decoding unfamiliar words. The purpose of phonics instruction Only a small percentage of English words have irregular spellings and letter-sound relationships.

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Students will read words with long vowels A, I, and O with a silent E.

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Silent E: 1, 2, 3! | Lesson plan | Education.com

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It's easy as 1, 2, 3! In this lesson, students will explore the long vowels A, I, and O and learn how a silent E turns short vowels into long vowels. Students will use technology, music, and body movement to learn all about silent E.

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Students will identify and read words with long vowels.

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"It's not about simplifying, its about amplifying"

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Instructional expert and esteemed blogger Larry Ferlazzo wants you to know: Differentiation isn't as hard as you might think.

In an animated video published by Education Week this fall, he explained that differentiating instruction is really about getting to know your students and being flexible with the ways they demonstrate their learning. It is not, in fact, about spending your evenings planning a separate lesson for each student.

Today, we're publishing two more videos about differentiation featuring Ferlazzo and veteran teacher Katie Hull Sypnieski. (They recently co-authored a book called The ELL Teacher's Toolbox.)

In the video below, Ferlazzo and Hull Sypnieski describe techniques they use to differentiate lessons for English-language learners. Those include strategies like pairing up students of different language levels and playing classroom videos at slower speeds.

And in the other video, below, the teachers talk through the kinds of questions they ask themselves when planning a lesson for a multi-ability classroom. What will students do if they finish early? How can the materials be modified to make them useful for all types of learners?

The goal with differentiation is to make any single lesson accessible to all students. "Not everybody will get the same exact text or use the same strategy," Hull Sypnieski explains in the ELL video, "but it's fair because you're meeting every student where they are."

For more information (and tips) on differentation, see Differentiated Instruction: A Primer and this collection of blog posts from Classroom Q&A With Larry Ferlazzo.

You may also want to check out this widely read 2015 opinion piece by educational consultant James R. Delisle about why "Differentiation Doesn't Work" and the response from education professor Carol Ann Tomlinson.

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How to Differentiate Instruction (Without Losing Your Mind)

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Instructional expert and esteemed blogger Larry Ferlazzo wants you to know: Differentiation isn't as hard as you might think. In an animated video published by Education Week this fall, he explained that differentiating instruction is really about getting to know your students and being flexible with the ways they demonstrate their learning.

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"Effective technique that allows ELL students time to process their thoughts"

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"Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen."
John Steinbeck, US novelist (1902 - 1968)

Background

When I mentored student teachers I told them, "If I could offer one piece of advice for every teacher - it would be to do think-pair-shares in the class every day." The think-pair-share is a very simple, yet effective technique that allows ELL students time to process their thoughts - often in two languages - which takes more time.

To understand how this works, imagine you are an ELL student and the teacher has just asked the class a question such as, "Why did the ancient Egyptians create pyramids?" Immediately students around the room shoot up their hands and offer answers. As an ELL student, you are still searching your memory banks to translate the words "ancient" and "pyramids." You've finally got the meaning, now you are thinking about the possible answers - again searching your memory for what you've learned in class and read in the textbook. You think you have a viable answer, but you're not sure if it's right or exactly how to say it, and if you make a mistake others might laugh at you.

At this point you may decide to offer an answer, but the teacher has already moved on and asked two new questions. The average wait time for teacher questions is one second! For an ELL student it may become a habit to sit back and listen while others engage in class discussion. While listening to the discussion, the ELL student may or may not understand what is said, and the teacher may be hesitant to call on the student in order to avoid embarrassment.

Steps of a Think-Pair-Share

This kind of situation, where both the student and teacher are hesitating to increase interaction, is the reason why think-pair-share is so effective!

In a think-pair-share, students are given think time to reflect on a question silently, so that they have more time to process the question, the language, or think of the language needed to convey the answer. By then discussing their answer with a partner and the class, students have the opportunity for increased interaction, and teachers can monitor comprehension. In order to use this activity, follow these steps:

1. Ask a thought-provoking question of your class.

2. Give students some time to think about the question on their own, as well as the language they will need to respond.

3. Have students share their thoughts with a partner; this gives the students the opportunity to 'check out' their answer with another student or hear another possible answer. If confused, the students can ask their peers for help.

4. Finally, ask students to share thoughts with the whole group, which serves as a form of accountability for the students. In this discussion/explanation, the teacher gets feedback on what the students do or don't know though informal assessment.

In the example given above, the teacher asks the class,
"Why did the ancient Egyptians create pyramids? Let's do a "think-pair-share." Everyone take a moment and think about the question."
The room is silent for a minute while everyone reflects. At this time the ELL students may be putting together language and content concepts. Next the teacher instructs the students,
"Now turn to the person next to you and tell them what you are thinking."
The ELL student has an opportunity to offer his/her idea in a relatively comfortable setting - perhaps with grammatical errors - or to get more information from his/her partner. This can reinforce the student's confidence in his/her thinking and provide modeling for how to say the idea correctly in English. The teacher lets students share for a couple of minutes and then brings their attention back.
"Okay, I heard lots of good ideas. Who would like to share what you talked about?"
At this point, when students offer an answer, they have had some time to work with the concepts and also may feel that they are not offering the idea "on their own" but as part of a pair, which may not seem so intimidating.

Benefits

A benefit of the think-pair-share is that the teacher has an opportunity to hear from many students - including the "quiet" ones. I have seen some of my shyest students offer wonderful answers after they had an opportunity to do a think-pair-share. It also gives the teacher the opportunity to observe all the students as they interact in pairs and get an idea of whether all students understand the content or if there are areas that need to be reviewed.

Circle Chat

A "circle chat" is another activity for student-to-student interaction that is a little more involved, but always fun and informative. In this activity every student speaks with a variety of partners, which allows for greater exposure to other thoughts and students. I have often used this as a pre-writing exercise to really get my students' imaginations going. Here is a step-by-step guide to the activity. It may be a bit confusing the first time you try it, but once the students get the hang of it, you'll be able to start it easily. For younger students the teacher may want to ask simple questions and make the discussion time much shorter.

1. Clear a space in the room large enough for all the students to stand together in two concentric circles.

2. Take the total number of students in the room and divide it by half. This is the number of students you will call forward. Let's say in this example it is 10 students.

3. The 10 students stand in a circle.

4. Call the next 10 students to come forward and form a circle around the first circle of students.

5. Tell the students in the inside circle to turn around and face their new partner in the outside circle. Everyone should have a partner. (If there is an odd number of students the teacher may form one group with three students).

6. The students will have two minutes to talk to their partners about the question they are asked. The teacher will want to use a bell or another sign to get the students' attention when the two minutes are up.

7. At the two minute signal, the teacher asks student in the outside circle (make sure students understand that only the "outside" circle moves) to take one step to the left. Now each student has a new partner to talk to.

8. Continue this process - asking a new question each time new pairs are formed - until the students have worked their way around the circle.

This activity is quite noisy and usually generates energy and laughter. For some pairs - quieter students, emerging English speakers, or those without much to share on the question - the conversation may be short and teachers may observe them standing quietly waiting for the bell to signal a change to a new partner. This is okay, because new partners and new questions bring new opportunities to interact. Teachers may also enjoy circulating among pairs as they talk in order to hear what great ideas students are sharing.

Conclusion

Creating an interactive classroom environment is very important to the success of ELL students. Just as it would be difficult to become a good piano player by listening to someone play, with no opportunity of your own to practice, ELL students need more opportunities to practice language skills in an academic environment in order to become more successful students. When teachers create a variety of opportunities for students to interact and use English, language and content learning is accelerated.
Icebreakers for Students
On About.com's Secondary Education website, you can find many icebreaker ideas for starting the school year and new classes. Many activities can be used for the elementary level, as well.
National Geographic Photography
This site offers many intriguing photos, including a photo of the day, news photos, photo gallery, and short video clips. These can be useful for supporting content instruction, fostering dialogue with emerging English speakers, and creating writing prompts.
Interactive Classroom Activities
Provides ideas for a variety of interactive student activities, such as information gap, ordering and sorting, problem-solving, and conversation grids.

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Increase Student Interaction with "Think-Pair-Shares" and "Circle Chats"

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"Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen." John Steinbeck, US novelist (1902 - 1968) When I mentored student teachers I told them, "If I could offer one piece of advice for every teacher - it would be to do think-pair-shares in the class every day."

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Common academic intervention options

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"We worry about what a child will be tomorrow but we forget that he is someone today." - Karl Meninger

Samira's Story

A number of years ago, Kristina taught a Somali English language learner (ELL) named Samira who was dedicated, attentive, and friendly. Kristina thoroughly enjoyed teaching her as they worked on Samira's English skills. When it came to assigning final grades, though, Kristina had a dilemma - Samira wasn't able to successfully complete assignments. She came to the classroom often, asked for additional help, and did her best to understand the directions and complete the work. Kristina felt discouraged every time she corrected her assignments because she realized that, despite her best efforts, Samira either wasn't able to do the assignment or she had copied someone else's work.

Samira was obviously struggling, and at the time Kristina attributed it to her refugee experience and lack of formal education. She thought that she just needed more time and English language exposure.

Now that Kristina has had the benefit of collaborating with Special Education teachers who have experience working with ELLs, she believes it is likely that Samira had a learning disability that went undiagnosed because she and her colleagues had not received training in how to recognize and address special education needs for ELL students.

Kristina also remembers a student who was having significant struggles with learning; when his teacher met with the family and a bilingual interpreter, she was told that the boy had had a brain injury in his home country and that learning had always been difficult for him. There were no special supports available to him in his prior school, so his parents never thought to ask for them.

Eyeglasses Needed!

On the other hand, Lydia recalls a story told by Education Week reporters Lesli Maxwell and Nirvi Shah of a San Diego teacher who referred six ELLs for special education evaluation; after some initial health screenings, it turned out that all of them needed eyeglasses, and one needed a hearing aid. None of the students, however, needed special education services.

Educators know how confusing this issue can be, and in our work, we frequently hear the question "Language or disability?" The authors of Special Education Considerations for English Language Learners: Delivering a Continuum of Services, . (Caslon, 2013) suggest, however, that a more appropriate question would be, "What are this student's needs and how are they being met?"

This complex question of identifying the reasons why students are struggling is one of the most difficult challenges for teachers of English language learners to address. While it is tempting to look for easy answers, solutions are unlikely to come from a single checklist, workshop, meeting, or intervention; rather, they are more likely to come over time and with the help of a team that includes family members working together on behalf of the student.

It sounds like a lot of work, and it is! The extra time and work are worth it, however, as a misdiagnosis will may result in students:

continuing to struggle without the services they need

regressing without the right support

getting tracked into inappropriate programs for the remainder of their school career

A holistic approach

This article is meant to serve as a broad introduction to some of the important issues to consider when determining whether a student's educational needs are being meant. Rather than laying out a series of steps to follow, we offer suggestions and guiding questions to a holistic approach that look at each individual student's situation in lieu of quick decisions about testing or program assignments. For additional in-depth information about putting together a support team, language learning factors, cultural considerations, and instruction for ELLs with disabilities, please look at our in-depth resource section on special education and ELLs.

We also highly recommend the above mentioned Special Education Considerations for English Language Learners and our video interviews with experts in this area, including Dr. Alba Ortiz, Dr. Debbie Zacarian, Dr. Nancy Cloud, and Dr. Lynn Shafer Willner.

Webcast: ELLs with LD

Video bonus: For a great introduction to this topic, take a look at Colorín Colorado's webcast featuring Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan on the topic of ELL students with learning disabilities.

In addition to the suggestions offered in this article, we also strongly encourage educators working with ELLs to:

Educate themselves as much as possible about the process of language acquisition and other important factors in working with ELLs so that they become familiar with typical patterns of language development

Request the support and training needed to provide effective instruction for students, conduct accurate assessment and evaluations, and manage interaction with diverse families effectively

Review and revisit the assessment, evaluation, and screening procedures currently in place in the school or district to determine whether they make sense for ELLs

Seek out collaboration with school or district colleagues who specialize in ELL and bilingual education, special education, speech-language therapy, and parent outreach in order to pull together different areas of expertise as part of a team

Update and improve evaluation processes if needed with input from colleagues who have relevant experiences as well as staff from other districts

While it may seem like these are changes that you can't make on your own, taking small steps to collaborate with colleagues and administrators can have a significant impact for students. The more information all educators have, the better informed their decisions will be and the better their chances are of finding ways to help their students succeed.

Why Do We Need to Get It Right?

As indicated in the introduction, there are two troubling trends when it comes to identifying the services that ELLs need to succeed: over-identification for special education, which results from assigning students to special education programs who do not actually need those services, and under-identification, which is what happens when students who do have learning disabilities or special education needs do not receive appropriate services. It is important to note that an awareness of one trend can sometimes lead to an over-correction towards the other, which is why it is essential to establish a process that focuses on each individual student rather than a vague sense of what has or has not worked it the past.

In the above-mentioned Education Week article, Lesli and Nivri report that a 2003 study commissioned by the U.S. Department of Education found that over-identification tended to happen in districts with small numbers of ELLs (less than 99 ELL students) and under-identification occurred in districts with a large ELL population. More recently, though, research suggests that under-identification is a bigger problem nationally. Yet at the same time, high numbers of special education referrals don't indicate that a district's evaluation program is working and that students are getting the services they need.

Case Study: San Diego

Lesli and Nirvi share the story of San Diego, a district faced with class action lawsuit in 2007 due to its poor special educations services. The district asked Harvard's Thomas Hehir to evaluate their program, and he found that Latino ELLs were 70% more likely to be referred to special education than Latinos who were not ELLs. Two years later, bilingual educator Jaime Hernandez followed up in San Diego with additional research and found that there was still limited use of special education assessments in students' native language as well as a lack of evidence of efforts to take "extrinsic factors" such as health, family conditions, or previous academic experiences into account.

Following these reports, the district began to create a more comprehensive evaluation process that would "slow everyone down" and "look at all the features of a child's life" before making a special education referral. Lesli and Nirvi write, "The goal was valid referrals and accuracy of special education decisions for ELLs, so educators and specialists from across the district - bilingual teachers, special educators, psychologists - developed a set of procedures for district staff members to follow when students are flagged as possibly needing services."

It is easy to understand why under-identification is problematic when students don't receive the services they need, particularly if valuable time goes by when the student could be receiving the necessary help that would address their difficulty or information could be gathered on the student's academic experiences over time.

It is less obvious to understand why over-identification is a problem. In fact, many students have been placed in special education with the best of intentions so that they will receive "some kind of help." The wrong placement, however, is not only unhelpful; it can also be harmful.

The authors of Special Education Considerations for English Language Learners outline a number of reasons why over-identification of ELLs in special education is problematic:

ELLs without special education needs and those students with special education needs require different kinds of support. Even though ELLs and special education students are frequently grouped together as "special populations" and some support strategies that help one group may help another, their needs are quite different. In this excerpt from their book, the authors explain that "interventions that are specifically geared to help processing, linguistic, or cognitive disabilities often do not help children acquire second language proficiency. In fact, special education services can limit the kind of learning that ELLs need."

Misdirected special education placement can actually result in a reversal of achievement. The authors note in this second excerpt from their book that "(s)tudies have shown that Hispanic students who were classified as learning disabled performed at a lower level after three years of special education placement."

There is the question of stigmatization and lowered expectations. ELLs with special education needs may find that their entire academic trajectory, as well as expectations for their success, have changed even though the school has determined that the student's needs have been met. As a result, students may be restricted in their access to challenging academic content and the appropriate language instruction that would address the root cause of their difficulties. (pg. 2)

In addition, when an ELL has difficulties, the authors note that "there is a tendency to assume something is intrinsically wrong with the student," particularly if difficulties are described without any specifics, such as saying a student "can't read." The authors encourage teams of educators to "answer the question 'What' before attempting to answer the question 'Why'" in order to take the appropriate next steps (pg. 36-37). Approaching this issue from the assumption that something is "wrong" with the student also misses an important opportunity to build upon student strengths - an important resource in looking for ways to help students succeed, as described by Lynn Shafer Willner in her article about using a "Can Do" approach in the classroom.

Note on ELL and Special Education Services

If the district does identify an ELL student as also requiring support from special education, then the student should get both kinds of services - it's not a question of one or the other. For example, if the district develops a more culturally and linguistically responsive RtI process / Multi-tiered System of Supports (MTSS), then the district will need to intensify the ELL-appropriate support a child/children receive. If the student then additionally qualifies for special education services, the collaboration that began in RtI would continue so that all the child's needs are met (both ELL and special education.)

Physical Difficulties or Disabilities

There are, of course, situations in which immediate action is needed. If a child has obvious signs of cognitive or physical issues such as those listed below, they need to receive immediate support. Factors leading to immediate referral include (but are not limited to):

Documentation of known previous medical condition(s)

Known brain damage

Problems with hearing or vision

Physical disability

Cleft palate

Cerebral palsy

Brain injury

Polio

Post traumatic stress

Documented severe malnutrition

A concern or concerns shared by parents, family or the student herself/himself

An accident/injury

Information from family members may provide more background on these conditions. See our tips for working with diverse families around questions of special education below for more guidance, as well as information about the various categories of disabilities under the special education legislation IDEA.

What Information Do We Need?

When the cause of difficulty is not so obvious, where do educators begin to look for answers? Here are some questions to ask about the student.

Student background

How much do you know about your student's previous educational experiences?

Has the child switched schools or language programs?

Are there any traumas or difficult family situations that you should know about?

Do you have access to accurate records of the student's previous school experience, the location of previous schools, and length of time at each school?

Tips for learning more about your student's background information can be found in Getting to Know Your ELLs: Six Steps for Success.

Family background

Another source of information about the student's background is the family, and it may be most effective to conduct a family interview to gather additional background. Parents have a legal right to interpretation for IEP notifications and meetings, and it is extremely important that a highly trained interpreter be available to assist in this conversation, as well as to explain any information in a way the family can understand. For example, in the Somali language, there is no direct term that means "Special Education." If the interpretation is not done sensitively, the family may believe the staff is referring to the student as "crazy" or "mentally defective."

If there is no trained interpreter at the building, it is possible that the district has a central interpretation staff that has had training in special education assessments. If the district does not have such staff, the state may have resources to assist with translation or a local technical assistance center may be able to help. Ideally, the translator will have experience interpreting about these topics and within a particular cultural setting.

How can administrators help?

There are a number of ways that administrators can support this process, including allowing time for collaboration. It's also important to begin to increase the number of multilingual staff to reflect the languages and cultures of the students at the school.

As a pro-active action, this helps give families and students access to the school and curriculum much earlier in the process, possibly preventing some challenges in the future. This also allows schools to build a commitment to cultural reciprocity (Kalyanpur & Harry, 2012). This is also true at the district level; hiring bilingual professionals who have received training and/or are certified in Bilingual/ESL education, which can have a significant impact for students.

At the interview, a special education staff member and an interpreter can ask many in-depth and background questions to get more insight into environmental or physical factors that may be affecting the child's learning. Example questions might include:

Have there been any serious health problems in the family? Parents? Grandparents? Aunts and uncles?

What is the formal educational level of the parents and of the child?

What was the child's educational experience prior to coming to the U.S.? At previous school districts? At other schools / classrooms within the same district?

Has there been any trauma in the family? For example, has the child been involved in a violent situation, or witnessed violence and death in a war situation?

Has anyone in the family ever had psychological issues such as depression? (This may need to be described more in behavioral ways, such as describing someone who was sad or slept a lot.)

Have there been any other identifiable behaviors in the family such as stuttering or dyslexia? (Again, the behaviors may need to be explained.)

Families may be hesitant to answer these questions, particularly if they are newcomers to the U.S. Assure them that their answers will only be shared with staff who support the students as well as social workers and are only meant to guide decisions for providing the best possible services for their children.

The process of acculturation

Another factor to keep in mind is that ELL students need time to adjust to their new surroundings and language and to have an opportunity to demonstrate their learning over time. This process may take quite some time when accounting for cultural adjustment, a silent period, and the development of literacy skills in a second language. This is why familiarity with the language acquisition process can help provide some context for the student's language development. What appears to be slow growth in learning English may actually be quite typical for the child's age and educational background.

Student work and behavior

Over time, it is important to track the student's work and behavior in order to establish some benchmarks. It can be tricky to determine if the challenges the ELL student is experiencing are a result of the normal developmental process of learning a new or additional language or if he/she has special needs because at the surface many of the behaviors displayed appear to be the same.

This excerpt from Special Education Considerations for English Language Learners shows some example of contrasting explanations for similar observed behaviors:

Has trouble following directions

Not enough English proficiency to understand what is being said

No demonstrations or context given for directions/procedure

Can't process the entire set of directions with sufficient speed

Distractibility

Memory limitations

Not able to understand the temporal or spatial concepts

(Table 3.2, pg. 47)

For example, if during English instructional time, a teacher observes an ELL student who refuses to answer questions, makes inappropriate comments, has poor recall, comprehension and vocabulary, and struggles when sequencing ideas, the teacher might be concerned that the child needs special education support. While that may be the case, it's important to remember that these behaviors can also be explained from the perspective of an ELL student in the process of developing academic English. In the case of "refus(ing) to answer questions," ELL students may often not participate in class because while they might have proficiency enough to understand the message, they might not have enough proficiency in English to answer. Here are two examples of questions you can ask to tease out whether a student's difficulties may be part of learning a new language.

Is the disability present in both languages?: One important clue is to see whether the disability is present only in English. If the student only shows the difficult behavior in English settings and not in his/her non-English language(s), then it cannot be an indicator of a disability. A true disability will manifest across all the child's languages and in most settings. If an ELL "struggles to retell events" in English and not in his/her home language or in a bilingual retelling, then this cannot be evidence of a disability.

How does the student compare with his/her peers?: Another initial question to ask is whether the student is making academic progress at about the same rate as other ELL students from similar backgrounds (students who share similar linguistic, cultural, educational, or refugee experiences) and to compare that progress over time.

Academic interventions

It is essential that different academic interventions are tried and the results recorded before any formal special evaluation assessment is requested. This process may be part of a Response to Intervention approach. (You can learn more from this RtI framework developed by Cristina Sánchez-Lopez for WIDA.) This is important because students may have very different learning styles or comfort levels with the U.S. educational environment, or may be struggling with literacy skills. When a teacher does intentional interventions to provide support and documents the results, valuable information is then available if an assessment is needed in the future. Here are some common academic intervention options:

Give ELL students access to the content by having them read multiple level readings (in English and in students' non-English languages) and other resources (brochures, websites, outlines, Powerpoints, podcasts, etc.) on the topic of study.

Write hints or reminders in the text. Analyze text structure of the materials read and highlight/bold key characteristics and content.

Use real life experiences when discussing the reading material.

Using Language Experience Approach / Shared reading/ Shared Writing across the content areas and grade levels to build on students' linguistic resources and bridge to literacy.

Pair ELL students with other ELLs.

Use manipulatives or hands-on materials and visuals to build content area schema and to support oral academic language development.

Use a tape recorder to play books on tape. Have students develop podcasts / recordings of their own dual language stories, memoirs, reports, etc.

Have students preview content visually, orally and through literacy (when available) in their non-English language before reading/learning about content in English. Actively invite students' languages and cultures into the classroom.

Explicitly teach study skills/habits, as well as effective ways of using educational resources and materials.

Use the student's name in instructional examples. And use culturally and linguistically relevant materials, books, as well as multicultural literature

Provide visuals to support academic work.

Encourage re-reading of tasks/instructions. Or, using multiple texts and other resources on the same topic to give access and to deepen comprehension and build vocabulary.

Provide more time to finish assignments/tests.

Pair the English Language Learner with a gifted or older same-language student in tutorial situations.

Once those options have been exhausted and the student is progressing much more slowly than other ELL students with a similar background, or needs a lot of repeated instruction when other ELLs with similar educational experience do not, it is time for the team get together to examine the data gathered and determine if the student is eligible and entitled to receive special education services.

Who Should Be Involved?

Creating a team

In examining a student's needs, a collaborative team approach is best. Background information on why coordinating support services for ELLs is provided in this tip sheet from the Michigan Department of Education. Someone who speaks the child's native language must be involved in the process along with colleagues with expertise in ELL and/or bilingual education, special education, speech-language therapy, and parent outreach. Even if your school doesn't formally use a team when assessing or evaluating students, creating an informal team is a better option than trying to figure it out alone, and informal steps may lay the groundwork for more formal processes in the future.

This vignette from Special Education Considerations for English Language Learners highlights the ways in which bilingual professionals can provide valuable insight into how students are using and learning language. A bilingual coordinator recalls an instance of a kindergarten teacher who was preparing to refer a student to special education screening because she thought he didn't understand her questions about the sounds that letters make. The bilingual coordinator was able to determine that the student was in fact answering the teacher's questions correctly - but he was answering them in Spanish.

In Palm Beach County, Florida, Lesli and Nirvi report that the multicultural team that works on evaluating ELLs for disabilities includes bilingual psychologists and speech-language therapists and that the district hires interpreters and consultants when necessary to work with students and families who speak other languages.

Working with families

Families are a valuable source of information about their children and an important part of a student's support team. It's essential that ELL families are kept informed about their student's progress so that they understand each step of the way, just as would be done for monolingual English students. Keeping families informed also builds trust so that if evaluation or referral are needed, the family understands what is happening and why. This is another reason why getting to know ELL families throughout the year is a key part of student success since it builds a positive foundation that makes it easier to find solutions together!

What Happens If Special Education Assessment Is Needed?

If your team determines that special education assessment is needed, the next question is to ask which evaluation methods will be used to determine what kinds of services the student might need and to learn more about the language used in those tools. According to expert Kathy Escamilla, who Lesli and Nirvi interviewed for their article, "When most of the tools that are used to assess learning disabilities are in English and were normed on monolingual English-speaking kids who are part of the dominant culture, you can't rely on that to tell you if a child with a different primary language has a learning disability or if they just don't know the language." An added complication is the evaluation of long-term ELLs who were born in the U.S. but don't have strong literacy skills in English or Spanish. Ideally, the evaluation process will include multiple sources of data that can take those realities into account.

Here are some questions to ask:

Does documentation show limited or no progress or change resulting from instructional strategies, alternative instruction, or interventions?

Do ESL and/or bilingual staff support the position that the student is performing differently than his/her cultural peers?

What evaluation measures are most appropriate for this situation (even if those are different than what the district typically uses)?

What is our evaluation plan and parent communication plan?

Parent conference

If the interventions have not been effective up to this point, then further information must be gathered and an initial conference must be held with the parents of the student. In the initial conference, it is important to share with the parents (and make sure that they understand) the interventions that have been tried in the classroom, an explanation of what is involved in an initial assessment, what support would be available to the child if he/she qualifies, and the parent and student rights. Find out from a bilingual staff member or interpreter if there are any cultural considerations that will need to be addressed during the conversation.
Special Education Support
If the child qualifies for special education services, then due process is followed, and an Individualized Education Program (IEP) will be created based on the services and instruction that the student needs. This information from the National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities offers IEP considerations for ELLs. (Note: This document will be online through September 2014.)

Again, it is very important that the family have a skilled interpreter at the meeting when they consent to service and for all future IEP meetings. It's important that professionals continue to collaborate in order to support all of the student's needs as an ELL student as well as a student with particular special education needs.

Your district or state may be the best source for figuring out what guidelines to follow or how to create an IEP for an ELL. These statewide resources, modules, and guidebooks also have extensive information, support materials, and translated forms:

You can find additional information in these resources, as well as those that follow this article:

Concluding Thoughts

As educators begin to collaborate more and look more deeply into students' experiences and needs, there is a better chance that students will get the support they need to succeed. Building a more culturally and linguistically responsive RtI / MTSS process will help to address the needs of ELLs who are having significant challenges in a more timely manner as well as provide a framework for making more informed decisions about ELLs who may also have special education needs.

Even if you feel like you don't have all of the answers, we encourage you to come together with colleagues and think about what steps you can in the short-term and long-term to improve these practices in your setting, ensuring that students like Samira get the services they need to become successful.

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Addressing ELLs' Language Learning and Special Education Needs: Questions and Considerations

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"We worry about what a child will be tomorrow but we forget that he is someone today." - Karl Meninger A number of years ago, Kristina taught a Somali English language learner (ELL) named Samira who was dedicated, attentive, and friendly. Kristina thoroughly enjoyed teaching her as they worked on Samira's English skills.

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Strategies for teaching phonics to ELL students

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Phonics for MLs - A World of Language Learners

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Learn about some of the differences between teaching phonics to ELLs and native English speakers. Also discover some new resources.

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Effective Phonics Strategies to Implement

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Effective Phonics Strategies to Implement

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Let's Help Students Break the Code!

Strategies

1. Intense Systematic Explicit Instruction

Skills must be directly taught (modeled)

Students should be guided and have time for independent practice.

More teaching and learning opportunities throughout the day

Small group instruction

More supportive

Scaffolded instruction through gradual release

Follow a research based sequence

(Torgesen, Joseph)

2. Modeled, Guided and Independent Practice

The teacher must explicitly teach and model what the student will be doing. Next, the teacher will help guide the student to use the skill taught. Last, the student will practice the skill independently.

Categorizing words that are the same

4. Word Boxes

Picture with connected boxes the length of the word being taught

Use letter tiles to place inside the box

5. Onset/Rime (Word Families)

Onset is the first sound in a word

Rime is the ending group of sounds

37 most common word families

Children with learning disabilities need repetition to retain knowledge.

Put flashcards of words that you are wordking on into a can. The student must pull out a word and read it. If they can read it, they keep the card. If they can't read it, it goes back into the bin. There are two cards in the can that say "BLAST". If a student pulls out a "BLAST" card, they must put all their cards back in the can. The students with the most cards at the end of group work is the winner.

(Fox, Robyn)

7. Kinesthetic method of Sounding out words

When children are sounding out words, they can tap their arm. Starting at the top of their arm with the first sound and ending at the last sound by their wrist.

Teachers can create a word wall or anchor charts to continue adding words to each week. The words will be from what you are teaching that week and your focus (vowel diagrams, short vowel, long vowels).

10. Word Sort Concentration

Make a bunch of cards that have the same letter patterns or blending sounds. Place the cards upside down and take turns flipping over the cards with the same sound. The student must be able to explain the link between the two cards.

Students sort words based on their shape.

12. Cut and Make

Have words that students can read. Cut up the letters and try to make new words from those same letters. For example in the word mad, you can make am and dam.

(Fletcher, Trevor)

13. Auditory and Visual Closure

Teacher has the letters far apart and gradually moves them closer together and says sounds faster (Terry, Bonnie).

Johnny is an 8-year-old boy in second grade. He enjoys playing outside with his friends at recess and playing sports. Art is one of his favorite classes because he enjoys painting but has weak fine motor skills. He has difficulty concentrating and staying on task at school. Johnny has trouble reading words. He often confuses short vowel sounds and has difficulty rhyming words. Johnny often guesses at words only paying attention to the beginning sound.

Record Answer in Learning Log

Question: What strategy would you use to help Johnny? Why?

Activities

1. Watch this video clip: Sounding out words

Guiding Question: Why is this strategy beneficial and explicit? Learning Log

2. Create a lesson plan to help Johnny develop his phonics skills.

Use this lesson plan format: Lesson Plan Template

Reflection/Discussion

What did you learn from this course? What strategies will you implement in your classroom? https://todaysmeet.com/Unit3Reflection

Additional Resources

Video Overview of Phonics Strategies

Phonics Activities

Activities, Online Games and Worksheets

More Activities

References
Fletcher, Trevor. "Literacy teaching guide: Phonics". NSW Department of education and Training Learning and Development https://my.vanderbilt.edu/specialeducationinduction/files/2011/09/1-Literacy-teaching-guide-phonics.pdf Fox, Robyn. (2015). Research-based Strategies for Students with Learning Disabilities: Focus on Phonics and Fluency. http://opus.ipfw.edu/grad_research/31
Terry, Bonnie. "(Teaching Reading)(Phonics Lessons)(Sounding Out Words)." YouTube. YouTube, 2009. Web. 30 Apr. 2016.

You are Finished!

Excellent job! You have completed the course! Please look over your learning log to see how much you have learned throughout the course. Learning Log Check over your lesson plan as I will be assessing your lesson plan based on the needs of your students and strategies mentioned in the course. Thank you for your participation!

Click here to go to go to Homepage

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Unit 3: What are effective phonics strategies to implement?

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Let's Help Students Break the Code! 1. Intense Systematic Explicit Instruction Skills must be directly taught (modeled) Students should be guided and have time for independent practice. More teaching and learning opportunities throughout the day Small group instruction More supportive Scaffolded instruction through gradual release Follow a research based sequence (Torgesen, Joseph) 2.

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Website also has article titled "Silent E Background Information for Teachers, Parents and Caregivers." If parents and caregivers can be provided with information that students are struggling with, they can focus their support at home.

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These classroom activities are designed to complement the Silent E topic on BrainPOP Jr.

The Long and Short of It
Have your students make signs that say "long" or "short." Then call out different words with short or long vowels and have students hold up their signs. They can write the words down in a chart to sort the words. Then have volunteers call out words.

Suffix Chain

Write words with silent e on some index cards and suffixes on others. Then give a card to each student to pin to his or her shirts. Have them mingle throughout the classroom and pair up words and suffixes together. The pairs join their word and suffix together to write a new word together. Remind them to drop the silent e when they add suffixes that start with a vowel.

Clap, Clap, Clap

Have everyone sit in a circle and clap a slow rhythm. Then have each student call out a long vowel word in time with the rhythm when it comes to their turn. Those who cannot name a word with a long vowel word in time are "out." These students can take turns writing down the words that are called out. You can increase the difficulty of the game by making the students think of rhyming long vowel words, or using only one long vowel, or clapping a faster beat.

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Classroom Activities: Silent E | BrainPOP Educators

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In this set of activities adaptable for grades K-3, parents and educators will find ideas for teaching about phonics and the silent e. These activities are designed to complement the BrainPOP Jr. Silent E topic page, which includes a movie, quizzes, online games, printable activities, and more.

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Introducing Magnanimous Magician: Magic "e"

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14. Teacher says: "Magnanimous magicians are generous magicians because they help the magic 'e' give its voice to the middle vowel. Your job today is to act as a magnanimous magician to find the magic 'e' in words and help them give their voices to the middle vowel, so when you read the words aloud, the 'e' is silent."

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Learning vowels can be very challenging for our young readers and writers because they make different sounds in different words. Vowels can either make a short sound such as the /a/ sound in the word "cap" or a long sound, such as the /a/ in the word "lake". When reading, children must decide whether the vowel in the word makes its short or long sound. There are several ways to make a long vowel sound in words. One way is to add the Magic e at the end of a word. The Magic e usually changes the short vowel sound into a long vowel sound. Teaching children this rule helps them to determine which sound the vowel will make.

A simple explanation of the Magic e rule is " An 'e' close behind another vowel (with no more than one letter in between) usually makes the first vowel say its name, and the 'e' is usually silent." Using a story to teach this rule is often helpful. Here is the story that we often use with our students:
Magic e has magic powers! He flies over the consonant and when he comes to the first vowel, he taps the vowel on the head with his magic wand and shouts, "vowel, say your name! Make the sound you say in the alphabet!" Now, Magic e is so tired. He flies back to his spot. He has no more energy so he goes to sleep without saying a sound.
We typically teach the magic e rule in the middle of first grade. Teaching the rule is actually a lot of fun. You can have your students make their very own Magic e wands and act out the story. Below are a few activities that can be used when teaching the Magic e rule in your small group instruction or within your literacy centers.

The Clip The Magic e is one of my favorite activities to use when beginning to teach the Magic e rule. It is available on my Teachers Pay Teachers Store. There are 12 cards with picture cues and 13 cards without picture cues.

Click the following link to download the FREE Magic e 4-In-A-Row template. This template addresses the long a vowel sound. Magic e 4 In A Row Activity

Be sure to visit my online Teachers Pay Teachers store to download these FREE Magic e Game Boards.

The Magic e Activity Pack contains 15 hands on activities designed to teach the Magic e rule. The Activity Pack includes step-by-step directions for teaching the rule as well as a teaching manual with directions for each activity. The Magic e Activity Pack is available in my TpT store (119 pages!). Click HERE to check out the activities.

Delivered right to your front door in this sturdy Sterilite container! All 15 activities printed in color and on 90 lb card stock with all materials needed to assemble your kit. The kit can be found either on the Make, Take & Teach website or within my TpT store. This kit is also available for parents. The Magic e Parent kit contains 10 activities for use with one child.

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Activities for Teaching the Magic e Rule - Make Take & Teach

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Learning vowels can be very challenging for our young readers and writers because they make different sounds in different words. Vowels can either make a short sound such as the /a/ sound in the word "cap" or a long sound, such as the /a/ in the word "lake".