Since this activity requires supporting evidence and more lengthy written responses, this would be appropriate for instructional readers. This could be used in any stage of the gradual release of responsibility, but it could easily be utilized alongside a “thinking out-loud” approach as the teacher models predictions and then shifts to allow students to predict individually or in pairs midway through the text.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Making-Predictions-Worksheets-Paper-and-Digital-Reading-Graphic-Organizers-5277160?st=6e6ad1457ed480863b972aa5303b2165 

Story Retell Hands connect back to class since summarizing is a difficult skill for beginning and emerging readers. This activity provides support by helping students retell the story using finger prompts for: characters, setting, beginning middle and end.  The gradual release approach is also applicable to this activity as teachers must first model it themselves before students can use it independently.

The story hand can be used for emerging and beginning readers during read alouds and beginning readers can also use the Retell Hand independently for Primer level texts. 

The students use the provided sentence cards to make silly sentences. Three different stacks are formed for each part of the sentences. Students choose one card from each stack to form a complete sentence. After students build the sentence, they must write the sentence down and illustrate it on the provided sheet. The website includes all paper materials needed. 

This activity connects back to the course because it teaches one of the many comprehension strategies we have discussed. Comprehension is the ultimate goal of reading instruction, so introducing these skills must begin in the primary grades in order for readers to eventually be reflective metacognitive readers. Visualizing is a great skill to practice in primary grades and students would enjoy doing so in such a silly and entertaining way. The sentence by sentence structure and the funny nature of the sentences makes this a low pressure way to practice visualization skills which will resonate with emergent and beginning readers. These readers are often used to approaching comprehension through listening to stories as they develop their listening comprehension skills, but this activity could give beginning readers the chance to comprehend something they are reading themselves as well. This activity could also be easily adapted to fit specific reading levels to ensure the level is exactly right for improving comprehension skills.  

https://www.fcrr.org/sites/g/files/upcbnu2836/files/media/PDFs/student_center_activities/k1_comprehension/k1_sentence_meaning/k1_c004_silly_sentence_mix_up.pdf 

How It Works: Book Recommendation Speech Bubbles help to peak students' interest in reading and promotes trying new books as well as tapping into those pesky comprehension skills we have discussed this week.  

Both chapter and picture books should be displayed in the classroom library using these speech bubbles. The teacher would begin modeling by recommending one or two of the books - introduce the book with a brief summary, give some background information on the author (other books they might like), or read a small snippet to spark an interest. The teacher writes that particular recommendation on the bubble and leaves it in the book for students to review. After some scaffolding, students start making their own recommendations that can include the gist of the story, a storyboard, or visualizing (drawing their favorite part/character/setting, etc). This FREE download includes two resources - one PDF with the pre-written speech bubbles and one Power Point presentation with the editable speech bubbles.  This file is in black and white but can be copied on bright colorful paper to make them pop.

How it works:  Choose a topic that you would like for the students to activate their prior knowledge of before reading a text.  Write that topic in the middle box.  Pair students up and give them each the text to preview.  Encourage them to look at the pictures and headings.  Then have student take turns writing down a word or phrase that connects to that topic.  At the end, have students write something that they learned about the topic from their partner.

This connects back to our course because this is a pre-reading strategy that will actively engage the readers with the text.  It will allow the students to build meaning before they begin reading as well as interact with vocabulary that may be challenging.  This particular activity is setup so that the partners are supporting and feeding off each other.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Student-Learning-Video-INFERRING-Reading-Comprehension-Instruction-5684137

This is an affordable LINKtivity. This short animated video teaches the strategy of inferring.

How do I use it ?

1. Purchase ($3.50) 

2. Download the video on any digital device.

3. Click play to watch

(Optional:) Follow up by reading to your students. Stop along the way to provide an opportunity for students to practice this strategy. 

This student learning video connects to our course because it is about inferencing. It is designed to teach students how to infer. This is one of the many reading comprehension strategies that we have been learning about. 

Explain Connection: In week 2, the discussion focused on how to enhance Beginning and Instructional Leveled Readers. Visualizing is one of the strategies that can be used to teach and foster the "during reading" process. We discussed Doodle-a-Story and Storyboarding. I felt that this activity would just piggyback on those instructional resources and provide additional materials, rubrics, book suggestions, and another perspective.

Critique - I enjoyed reading Rachel's blog and exploring her website. I look forward using some of her resources provided in her extensive reading comprehension bundle. I like that you do not have to purchase it all together. Each component runs about 8 bucks. I know this exceeds the five dollar budget but I felt is was worth the extra three dollars and I hope you do too!

Description – This is a blog post created by Jenn. Jenn is a teacher who provides resources for teachers and helps them save time. She offers resources in reading, math, writing and grammar, holidays, technology and other classroom ideas. 

 

As a middle school English teacher, teaching inferencing can be difficult due to the varying experiences that my students possess. I was intrigued by Jenn’s variety of activities, suggestions, and freebies that she provided for this extremely important comprehension skill.  She gives 8 activities that can be used during instruction in the classroom. 

 

How it Works – 

1.     How do we use inferencing daily? Classroom Discussion

2.     Making an Anchor Chart

3.     What is going on in this Picture - https://www.nytimes.com/column/learning-whats-going-on-in-this-picture

4.     Use Pixar Short Films

5.     Picture Task Cards

6.     Teach with Wordless Books (This was also suggested in our targeted lesson this week)

7.     Making Multiple Inferences with the same picture

8.     Thought Bubbles with text

Critique It - I liked that all of the 8 suggestions that I mentioned were absolutely free. Then she also does provide more intense, area focused (fiction and nonfiction) activities that can be purchased for less than 10 dollars on teacherspayteachers.com. I particularly will incorporate The New York Times site, number three listed above. A new picture is uploaded without the caption every Monday that can be used for students to make inferences.

 

https://brownbagteacher.com/making-predictions-1st-grade-read-aloud/

Activity description: 
Making predictions throughout a story helps students better understand what they are reading and keeps them actively engaged in a book. This “making predictions” activity can be used to support students’ comprehension by teaching them how to make and support their predictions during a story. There are two different activities in this blog. One of the activities can be used as a whole group using sticky notes and chart paper. The second activity can be used as an independent activity to check for students’ understanding. The independent activity allows students to make their prediction while also explaining why they think the event may happen in the “because” portion of the activity. This allows for deeper thinking and understanding of the story. Both of these activities can be used with either emergent or beginning readers. Emergent readers can listen to the book as it is being read aloud and then they can draw pictures of their prediction on a sticky note for the “making predictions” chart during the whole group activity. They can also draw their prediction on their independent activity page while the teacher writes down their prediction as well as their “because” reasoning. Beginning readers can also listen to the book being read aloud, or they can read a book independently during a guided reading lesson. Beginning readers can then write their predictions on a sticky note to place on the “making predictions” chart during the whole group activity and can also write and draw their predictions on their independent activity page. 

 

How it works: 

Before the lesson begins, the teacher marks off a few places in the book where s/he would like the students to make predictions. As a whole group (or during a guided reading lesson), the teacher stops at each spot that s/he has marked and asks the students to make a prediction based off of the words or the pictures in the story, asking them what they think might happen next. To prevent students from using each other’s ideas during the whole group activity, each student is given a sticky note to write his/her predictions on (emergent readers can draw their predictions instead!) and then s/he then places his/her sticky note onto a “making predictions” chart. At the end of the book, the teacher asks the students one last prediction question. This time, the students will write and draw their predictions while also writing and drawing WHY they think that event might happen in order to support their idea (emergent readers can draw and the teacher can write their predictions instead). 

 

My critique:

I really like this activity. I have used a similar “making predictions” independent activity page and it really helped my students understand the story better and also helped them make connections during the story. The creator of this blog didn’t really include emergent readers since this activity was geared more towards first graders; however, I have used this activity with emergent readers as well. Emergent readers can listen to the story being read aloud and they can draw their predictions while the teacher writes their ideas down for them. I also like the prediction chart sticky note activity. I think it’s a great way to keep students from using each other’s predictions and also allows the shy or less confident students share their ideas anonymously. 

All materials needed for a successful lesson are included with the lesson plan directions. This instruction would happen across a week beginning with an introduction of the words, a read aloud that uses the words in context, and a chance for students to anchor the new terms to a kinesthetic motion created by them. Over the next couple days, students will have discussions surrounding the words, use the words to describe pictures, answer yes/no questions about the words, and imagine scenarios where those terms would be appropriate to use. Toward the end of the weeklong vocabulary lesson, the students would use graphic organizers to make sense of the words and use the words in their own writing. 

This activity connects back to the course because it is an example of how Marzano’s six steps can be used in a vocabulary lesson similar to what we watched Anita Archer accomplish in her lesson. Throughout the lessons, the terms are described and explained with an example and then thoroughly discussed. Students construct a representation of the term with a hand motion created related to the term and use graphic organizers to explain the word in a visual way. Additionally, students interact and engage with the word in several different activities such as describing pictures using the word, finishing sentence stems involving the word, and using the words in their writing to help give them multiple meaningful exposures to the words. The graphic organizers used also reflect the Frayer Model in which students define the word, describe it, and come up with examples and nonexamples of the words. Word maps are often used with tier three words, but this lesson takes certain aspects of the Frayer Model that relates better to tier two words and uses it to deepen students understanding of the words. I really like this lesson because it is clear that it was created with the intention of students learning the concepts around the word, not just how to say and define it. 

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Vocabulary-Routine-with-Read-Aloud-The-Apple-Pie-Tree-by-Zoe-Hall-K-5-5999775?st=e06d7bd11b6d08a00af94d634510c228 

This activity is great for upper elementary and secondary students to dig deeper into the meaning of a word.  It also encourages students to explore the word’s relationships to other words.  For this activity, divide your class into groups and give each group a word and the interview sheet.  The students will work together to answer the questions as if they are the word.  Then, bring the class back together and interview each group by asking them the questions on the sheet.  The other groups will then guess the word based on the way the questions were answered.

This activity builds student’s vocabularies by having them identify synonyms, antonyms, and variations of the word.

To play “Guess Who” the teacher (or students) will print out or write the vocabulary words on cards that the class will be reviewing.  Tape words to the students’ backs, not allowing them to see their word.  The rest of the class will read the word and give clues that will help the student guess their word.  This could also be adapted to be played as a game with the whole class or on teams and used in other content areas.  Students could also give clues using drawings, actions, synonyms, antonyms, and examples/non-examples.

Also included in the blog, are other games that make vocabulary acquisition more engaging like, “When in Doubt, Bluff” and “Fast Talker”

This activity connects back to our course because students can use multiple strategies from Marzano’s 6 Steps including: restating in their own words, providing examples, constructing representations and engaging in activities and games. 

How does it work?

1)      Choose an editable template to use (.doc or PDF)

2)      Print the template

3)      Students will write the vocabulary term on the outside

4)      The student will complete the form on the inside

·         write the definition of the term

·         non-example

·         example 

This concept can be differentiated for any student. Depending on their level, you can have them draw their responses, cut/glue pictures out of magazines, write, type, work with a partner, work alone, add categories, reduce the categories to aid in successful work completion.

This connects back to this week’s course of study because vocabulary is our current focus. We have been learning about various strategies to help students develop vocabulary concepts.  This activity reminds me of Marzano’s 6 Step Process. I like the idea behind this foldable because it provides an opportunity for student’s to engage in the activity.  

First, print a stack of vocabulary comic strip activity sheets for each student, as well as the “vocabulary power journal” front page and back page so that you can make a vocabulary book/journal for each student. Next, print off the vocabulary words or however many words you would like, fold them up, and place them into a jar. Twice a week, pull out a word at random and teach the students the word (give them the definition, examples, use the word in a sentence, etc.). After you have taught them the word, the students will begin their work in the vocabulary journal. The student will write the definition of the vocabulary word in their own words into the first box. Next, the students will draw a picture to describe the word in the second box. Then, the students will write a sentence using the word in the third box. Last, the students will write (and draw a picture) of a word that means the opposite of the vocabulary word in the fourth box. 

This activity connects back to the course because it is used like the circle map that we learned about. This activity includes different vocabulary exploration tools that we also learned about such as: “in your own words”, an example or illustration of the word, finding the antonym or non-example of the word, and using the word in a sentence. 

My critique:

I really love this activity. I think it would be a great activity for any of the primary grades as it would help them learn and retain new vocabulary words because they are applying it in so many different ways. I think that this activity would be a lot of fun for the beginning readers in my Kindergarten classroom and I would love to use this activity with my emergent readers by modeling the activity for them and allow them to copy my sentences. Although my emergent readers wouldn’t be completing this activity independently, they would still benefit from learning new vocabulary words while also working on their writing skills. I also like how it’s a journal, so they can go back through it to review vocabulary words that they have already learned. 

 

Overview/Description:

In virtual teaching, many teacher overuse kahoot, quizlet, and quizizz to review vocabulary. There are other ways to get students to think about vocabulary and definitions that will keep them engaged while learning and retaining meanings. 

How it connects to the course:

In our reading, CTW, the text talks about how our brains make connections with words based on our personal experiences. This will help with retaining definitions and comprehension as students make connections with new words based on prior knowledge. The text also suggests to teach vocabulary with "real things." These ideas give students the opportunity to find real things.

How it works:

1.       Who/What Am I?

Students are assigned a word given a description, definition, or example. The student must create a description using the first-person point of view. (This helps with personification practice, too.) Students then take turn either whole group or small group to share their description while others guess the vocabulary word.  Differentiation and support can occur by having students work in pairs.

2.       Virtual Bingo

A link to a bingo card maker is attached to the site. The teacher would create an online card that will allow hybrid students to work together/at the same time. This is played like tradition BINGO; words and definitions are used instead of numbers. 

3.       Show and Tell Analogies

Using 2-4 words, the teacher challenges the class to quickly find something at home that can represent each word. Students are allowed to share and explain any connections between the word and the object. This can be differentiated and students can take pictures or find images online and create a t chart with a column for the picture and a column for the description or definition. 

4.       Vocabulary Pictionary

Each student is assigned a word and asked to draw it either on paper or digitally. As a class, the students would try to figure out a word’s meaning by the picture.

 

Critique: 

The majority of my students remain in the virtual setting. These four ideas are free and can be immediately implemented into a classroom alongside in-person students. This could also be assigned as an asynchronous assignment to be used later during a live instructional session for review and to allow students to talk and share ideas. I appreciate that these activities engage students and allow them to review without multiple choice questions or recopying definitions. 

 

This game does a great job of allowing students to put the definition of a word into their own words.

This website has several other great games and activities with tons of free pintables including: word of the week, vocabulary journals, vocabulary memory/concentration, vocabulary display, vocabulary bingo, roll a word, vocab short stories, draw a word, etc. 

The website is designed for young readers, however; many of these activities can be used in all stages of readers.

Memory (also known as Concentration) can be played two different ways.  Students can have two stacks of vocabulary words and take turns turning over two cards in an effort to get a match.  Each time a card is turned, the student turning the card has to read the word aloud and use it in a sentence.  If the student gets a match, he/she can keep the match and go again.  If the student does not get a match, the next player takes a turn.  Another variation of the game would be to have one copy of cards have the vocabulary words printed on them.  The other set of cards has the definitions printed on them.
I really like the idea to put the words on one card & the definition on the other card. This would really benefit higher level students. Pictures could also replace the definition for lower level students. Having the students correctly use the word in a sentence also helps them put the definition into their own words. This activity could also be adapted to use other parts of Marzano's 6 steps (provide a description, provide an explanation, provide an example, restate in their own words, etc.).
This is a vocabulary activity that connects back to our vocabulary component. It can be changed to fit content specific words or used as a review game. All of the ways to use the game aid in the importance of vocabulary implementation for comprehension.

This activity provides a multisensory experience to new vocabulary words. Students are given one new word, which they quickly look up in a dictionary. They think of a motion that goes along with their new word, and circle up as a class. Students go around saying their word and making their motion (like when playing a name game like Going on a Picnic). Once everyone has shared their word and motion twice, begin playing the game. Students say their word (and make their motion), then “call on” a classmate using a new word and motion. Students receive the turn, saying their own word, and then pass it along. Students should aim to pass around the room as quickly as possible. 

I like this activity because it encourages students to take ownership of their own learning. Immediately after reading the definition, students must get creative with the word. It also helps introduce students to words in a fun way and gives a bit of context as they continue to learn about the word. 

This activity should be only used as an introductory activity; it does not help the students use a vocabulary word in a meaningful way. It is used out of context, so would be helpful in pre-teaching a word, but students may not have enough experience with the word to understand and use it if the only exposure they have is a classmate’s action. 

Description: This is a FREE fluency reading strategy called Fluency Diamonds. It consists of seven Fry words that are arranged in a diamond shape.  This reading tool can be easily differentiated and used in multiple ways. 

How to use: Print the fluency diamond and allow your students to have fun with these simple, quick, fluency practice ideas:

1.       1:1 Time the student as they read

2.       Group: Have students practice whispering (diamond words) to themselves before the group reading

3.       Game: Project the fluency diamond (through use of a document camera) Call out a word, student will come up and slap the word with a fly swatter

4.       Partner Read: Have students pair up with a buddy and take turns reading the words to one another 

This activity connects back to this week’s course because we are studying fluency. In chapter 4 on page 48 we learned that when students come across an unfamiliar word, they have to stop and use whatever decoding strategies they have to figure out the word(s). When students have to stop to sound out a word it not only interrupts their fluency, it also interferes with their overall comprehension. I like this activity because it can be used in a variety of ways. It would benefit a student if the teacher created a list with unfamiliar words from their weekly science or social studies lesson. By doing that, students can practice in a fun way, so that when they re-read their lesson material they will be more confident because hopefully they won’t have to stop to decode.

“Hashtag Fluency” is an activity that will grasp the attention of a middle school student, and allow him or her to practice fluency. Hashtag reading is really just a new twist on an old method--sight word and sight phrase reading. Because middle school students enjoy social media, this activity will get the “buy in” from a struggling reader. It allows students to connect and set a purpose for reading. The objective is for students to practice reading commonly used phrases repeatedly to increase their fluency. This activity is for students who have mastered the basic sight words or middle school students who read below grade level. It has a list price of $8.50, but it is often marked down to $4.50 and includes: 

*10 Student Lists & 1 Parent Letter
 *20 In Class Fluency Lists for Fluency Center
 *13 Student Progress Tracking Graphs
 *10 Fluency Passages--called Hashtag Strings
 *10 Award Certificates & 1 Class At-A-Glance Table
 *20 Spin, Read, Highlight Activity Sheets & 2 Spinners
 *40 Flashcard Sheets with 200 Hashtags & 7 Game Suggestions
 *11 Hashtag Slideshows (10, 1 for each list & 1 with all 200) 

 

 

How “Hashtag Fluency” works:  Students are given phrase lists to practice reading at home or to be kept in a folder at school for use during an allotted practice time. The lists are differentiated and leveled from easy to difficult. The students then interact and read “Hashtag String Passages.” These are passages created with the hashtag phrases from the student list, and students are to read as much as they can in one minute.  These “hashtag passages” are merely hashtags strung together for repeated exposure and practice. Student scores are tracked on graphs that students fill in to take ownership of their growth and progress. The download also includes a hands-on spinner fluency game that gives students more practice for repeated exposure to reading. The download includes certificates of improvement and completion, so students have a tangible representation and recognition of their progress.   

 

This connects back to the course because it gives students practice on reading words in context at a quick pace with expression. Teachers must, “Provide your struggling readers with a lot of easy reading opportunities and watch them become fluent readers.” (Cunningham & Allington, 2016, P.47) These hashtag phrases and readings will meet the students at their appropriate levels, make them feel comfortable reading aloud, and give them the repeated experience with text. This “provides an engaging rereading opportunity” as mentioned in the text; they practice reading fluency phrases in a fun, current, and relevant way. 

 

This activity also can be used to spiral other reading strands because many of the phrases include example of figurative language and literary devices like sarcasm, irony, hyperboles. Furthermore, students will be able to make connections with some of the pictures related to the hashtags. I am excited to use this with my students. 

 

The buy my sentence activity is an engaging way for students to count and recognize the words in a sentence. I do this activity with students in my own class and they are always extra focused on identifying the number of words because the inclusion of “buying” each word adds an extra element of hands on fun. I like that this activity can be adapted to work best in your classroom. The sentence length or use of multisyllabic words can be altered to meet each students’ level and extensions can be done to increase difficulty or include it across content areas. In my own classroom, I have the students look at a picture, come up with a sentence, and draw a line to represent each word in their sentence. When they “buy” their sentence they touch each line as they say the words. Then, after they have paid for the correct number of words, they use the guidelines they wrote to write their sentence, often just writing the beginning sounds for each word as they are still developing complete letter knowledge. 

This connects back to our course because we know many early literacy skills depend on concept of word such as acquiring sight words, developing phonetic spelling, and demonstrating phoneme segmentation. Concept of word is a strong indicator of reading success and should be promoted and practiced whenever possible in a classroom with emergent readers. This activity encourages students to pay attention to word boundaries and also connect these concepts to their writing. According to Morris’ Developmental Sequence, concept of word is a very early skill that must be mastered on the way to becoming a true reader.

https://pals.virginia.edu/public/pdfs/activities/cow/buy_my_sentence.pdf 

These fluency task cards are an effective resource for your transitional readers to practice intonation.  Each card has a brief scenario followed by a quote.  The student will first determine the feeling based on the scenario.  Then the student will read the quote using emotion and intonation.  The task cards are differentiated by supplying choices for the feelings on half the cards whereas the other half are open ended.  There is a total of 40 cards for a reasonable price of $3.00.

These cards could be used as a station during reading groups or you could have students practice in pairs and providing feedback to one another.  Another option could be that you send this home for extra practice with certain students that are struggling with this particular skill.

This activity links to what we have been learning in class about fluency.  Fluency is not just how fast and accurate you read, but also the use of prosody and intonation.  Like Beers (2003) mentions in one of her suggestions, sometimes students need direct instruction on correct phrasing and intonation.  This activity provides a resource for teachers to use to directly teach intonation and then have the students practice it.  

I also like how this activity requires students to be fluent while maintaining comprehension.  Requiring them to think about the meaning of what they are saying and the emotion that should be heard shows the students that fluency and comprehension should happen simultaneously. 

https://www.forwardwithfun.com/post/how-to-teach-sight-words

Description: 

This blog focuses on hands on activities that involve and engage children into their sight word learning instead of just waving a card in their face and having them redundantly repeat it. The blog offers fourteen different activities using things that can be easily found around the house, classroom, Goodwill, or at the Dollar Tree that are inexpensive or can be homemade. These activities can be targeted toward emergent or beginning readers because very few sight words can be sounded out and most do not follow a normal sound pattern. So, even if emergent readers haven’t learned all of their letters or sounds, they can still practice sight word recognition and automaticity to develop and build fluency and beginning readers will be learning sight words all throughout elementary school. These activities can be modified depending on the student’s reading stage. Students who have mastered sight words can use these activities with new sight words and students who are still working on learning old sight words can practice with sight words already taught. Once students have mastered certain sight words, those words can be taken out and new ones take their place. These activities connect with our fluency modules because when students learn their sight words, they develop automaticity and therefore can become more fluent readers. 

How it works: 

There are fourteen different interactive activities, but they all function in about the same way: the child reads a sight word card, and then matches it to the same sight word on a bag, wall, muffin tin, floor, steps, etc. Below are some examples of how some of these activities work:
-Sight word cards are taped onto paper bags and the student is given objects (the blog uses pretend food, but anything can be used) with the same sight words attached to them. The student reads the sight word and puts it to the bag with the same sight word.

-Sight words are randomly written on a piece of paper and students are given yard sale stickers with the same sight words written on a sticker. The student chooses a sticker, reads the sight word on it, and then places the sticker on the same sight word on the piece of paper. 

-The pom pom toss sight word games uses pom poms (from the craft aisle) and a muffin tin. The teacher writes a different sight word on an index card and tapes it to the wall. The teacher then puts the muffin tin against the wall where the words are directly over the muffin tin wells. Students throw a pom pom onto the tin and whichever well the pom pom lands in, the student must read that word. This activity reminds me of the Skee Ball game at the carnival.

Critique:

I have honestly been searching for different sight word activities that are hands on and interactive and I really like how the blog offers such a plethora of ideas, especially ideas that can be made, found, or bought at very little cost from the dollar store. As a Kindergarten SPED teacher, I think that these activities would work really well with some of my kinesthetic learners, those who learn by touch and movement. I believe that most of the activities will help them develop improved recognition of these words because of the movement aspect. The only drawback to some of these activities is the COVID sharing restrictions. In normal years, I would implement this activity as a small group center during reading centers and let them share the activity and work together. It’s a bit more difficult and time consuming to have to make an activity for each student to avoid sharing. 

 

The link I attached is to a free Teachers Pay Teachers resource. It includes two activities that would be very helpful for emergent readers because it focuses on sorting skills with letters, words, and sentences. This activity addresses students ability to differentiate between different kinds of print. I like that this resource has a variety of classroom uses. There are options to use this activity in whole group, in a small group, or independently.

How it Works: The first activity is a sort, where students sort to create groups of numbers, letters, words, and sentences. This sort could be done as a whole group activity, in a small group station, or even done independently, as the author of the resource included a cut-and-paste sort page, too. The second activity is adaptable to each child; the teacher writes in letters, and students sort the letters by whether they are in the students’ name or not. The teacher could use adapt this activity to use just uppercase, just lowercase, or mixed case letters, providing practice for the students to identify and connect different way letters are represented.

This connects back to class because concept of print is an early but important aspect of fluency. In order for students to learn how to be fluent readers, they need to be able to identify the barriers between words and learn that different kinds of texts convey different amounts of information. An emerging reader needs this repeated practice to be able to move into concept of word, and ultimately, read.

Fluency Battles are a fun way to introduce the superheroes and villains and provide engaging fluency practice. Introduce the superheroes to students prior to beginning the battles. Explain to students how the superheroes help us read fluently.

Each battle will begin by the teacher modeling fluent reading using a short passage. The teacher will read the passage both as the superhero and then as the villain.  The students will vote which one sounds better.

Partner Practice: After modeling these battles with students, provide opportunities for fluency practice with partners. Provide partners with the Superhero Battle cards. 

One student reads a short passage while practicing that hero’s strategy for fluent reading. While the second listens and decides if the student was successful in sounding like a superhero or if a bad guy won the battle.

Fry Fluency Phrases: Fluency phrases are a great tool to increase automaticity and provide fluency practice. The Fry Instant Phrases include the first 300 words in Fry’s list of high frequency words. Print the Fry phrases on cardstock and laminate.  Add phrases to a ring to help keep them together by level. Students can improve their automaticity by practicing with the phrases. The phrases can also be used as a progress monitoring tool. 

Fluency Data Graphs are also included in this bundle!

This bundle helps target all 3 aspects of fluency (accuracy, speed/rate, and prosody) as mentioned in this weeks modules.

. Record students’ growth with their fluency rates on a data graph. You may choose to have them complete a one minute read on a weekly or monthly basis to monitor their progress.

 

To use Fluency Karaoke in the classroom, select a song that is appropriate for your students.  This blog even mentions certain songs for certain word patterns.  Once your song has been selected, you can print copies for the whole class to follow along with. Most song lyrics can be found on google. I also like to pull the song with lyrics up on youtube.com and assign certain students to use classroom microphones.  It is especially helpful for beginning readers to use songs they are already very familiar with like Disney or popular TV Show songs.

This activity connects back to the class because students are given an opportunity to practice fluency in a way that is engaging and catchy.  Singing and following along with the lyrics as they are highlighted on the board, gives students extra repeated exposure to the text and can be considered a repeated reading if done a few times.  We constantly hear students singing the words to songs stuck in their heads, so when they can pair that with the actual lyrics in text, they are given an opportunity to connect that speech with print.

How to use:  Print the Word Building Mats and set aside for your gifted learners who are always finishing their work early (brain exercise). Send copies with students who leave for small group or 1:1 remediation/tutoring.  This activity can be differentiated and used in multiple ways. Laminate for long term classroom use.

1.       Identify the start word

2.       Begin reading in either direction: clock-wise or counter-clockwise

3.       Read the clue beneath the blank lines

4.       Write the answer above the clue 

·         Note:  you will change only one letter in each word  - to form a new word

This activity connects back to this week’s course because the activities and reading in chapter 5 from Classrooms That Work are about teaching phonics and spelling patterns.  On page 71, students are discovering secret words through clues to make words. This activity teaches the described framework, teaching children the common spelling patterns, in a different, but similar way.  I like this particular strategy because children get to experience using multiple strategies to figure out the new word. After students read their clue, they visualize it and activate their prior knowledge to define the word before writing it down. Given the blank word building templates allows for designing one’s own Word Ladder activity. The possibilities to use and differentiate this activity are truly endless. This specific activity was created for grades 3-5, but with a little modification it could benefit readers in all grades (K-12). 

Description: This is a word building strategy called Word Ladder. It was designed to help students practice spelling, word recognition, decoding, phonics, problem solving and vocabulary.  

 How to use:  Print the Word Building Mats and set aside for your gifted learners who are always finishing their work early (brain exercise). Send copies with students who leave for small group or 1:1 remediation/tutoring.  This activity can be differentiated and used in multiple ways. Laminate for long term classroom use.

1.       Identify the start word

2.       Begin reading in either direction: clock-wise or counter-clockwise

3.       Read the clue beneath the blank lines

4.       Write the answer above the clue 

·         Note:  you will change only one letter in each word  - to form a new word

This activity connects back to this week’s course because the activities and reading in chapter 5 from Classrooms That Work are about teaching phonics and spelling patterns.  On page 71, students are discovering secret words through clues to make words. This activity teaches the described framework, teaching children the common spelling patterns, in a different, but similar way.  I like this particular strategy because children get to experience using multiple strategies to figure out the new word. After students read their clue, they visualize it and activate their prior knowledge to define the word before writing it down. Given the blank word building templates allows for designing one’s own Word Ladder activity. The possibilities to use and differentiate this activity are truly endless. This specific activity was created for grades 3-5, but with a little modification it could benefit readers in all grades (K-12). 

“Word Frame Phonics Spelling Game” is a free activity that includes a total of 50 frames that are missing the beginning, middle, or end sounds. It uses pictures as a reference, and it also has additional blank frames that allow students to construct whole words. With this activity, students can learn or review letter sounds and blend letters to create words.  There is also a sorted list of CVC words that the activity uses. 

 

How Word Frame Phonics Spelling Game works: The students have to blend sounds and match the correct letters in the missing boxes. The students fill in the blank boxes with the letter to match the missing sound and can use magnetic letters, write them on a printed sheet, or use a dry erase marker with laminated pages or pages in a dry erase sleeve. 

 

This connects back to the course because this directly relates to our reading on phonics and spelling patterns. Students need “letter-sound instruction.” (Cunningham & Arlington, 2016, P.81) This frame will complement that instruction by help beginning readers practice specific patterns. They have to break down sounds and match letters to the specific sound to form the complete word. 

 

Critique: This word frame is a good tool that will give students additional practice. I think activities like this are best done in a small group, so that the teacher can see exactly where a student struggles with specific sound-letter relationships. While creating a blank frame is easy, this could be edited to include them, so a teacher can use them for other words. This will help differentiate for students’ needs as some may be ready to move on to other patterns.

FREE Frame Phonics Spelling Game - Literacy Center by My Teaching Pal (teacherspayteachers.com)

Vowel slides are a great phonics tool for a wide range of readers.  After the teacher assembles the vowel slides, the students will read the medial vowel or vowel team and then slide the beginning and ending letters to create a word.  The student then must determine if the word is a real word or nonsense word.  If it is a real word the student will write it down.  They will continue sliding the letters until all real words are recorded.

This resource provides multiple slides to fit your students’ needs.  There are short vowels for your beginning readers and then there are vowel teams, diphthongs, and r-controlled vowels for your transitional and intermediate readers.  It also has a blank slide so you can create your own.

This activity could be used as an extension or variation of the Using Words You Know activity mentioned by Cunningham and Allington (2016).  Like their activity, this activity also encourages students to change the onset of a word to create new words, therefore, strengthening their word recognition.

The “I’m Thinking Of” activity as an engaging way for students to focus on a word recognition area that is hard for them. For instance, if a beginning reader pays attention to the beginning and ending sounds and letters in a word, this activity can be used to draw attention to the medial sound. For example, the teacher may have five CVC words each with a different vowel in the middle. Then, the teacher may say, “I am thinking of a word that has the middle sound /a/.” The student would be forced to focus on the medial sound and medial letter in order to identify the word. 

This connects back to our course because this activity allows teachers to adapt a word recognition activity to their student’s appropriate stage of Ehri’s phases of word recognition. Phases can occur simultaneously, but essentially readers gradually apply pieces of the alphabetic system to read and recognize words until their recognition of the words becomes automatic. The example I gave in the above explanation of the activity would work with a reader in the partial alphabetic stage of Ehri’s phases of word recognition where they may use some letters and sounds to “read”, but need help focusing on vowels. I love that this activity can be adjusted to meet readers’ needs along the phases. As teachers recognize where a students is then they can realize where to take them next instructionally. 

https://pals.virginia.edu/public/pdfs/activities/word-recognition/im_thinking_of.pdf 

https://www.fantasticfunandlearning.com/cvc-word-building-mat.html

Description:

 “CVC Word Building Mat” is a great intervention activity for beginning readers who need extra support learning how to decode words. This activity can be used in a small group setting or independently. This activity should be used in a small group with a teacher when a student is in the process of learning to decode. Once the student has mastered decoding, they can use it independently for practice.  This activity focuses on both the reading and spelling aspect of word recognition. This activity can also be modified to include blends and diagraphs for students who have mastered CVC words and are learning (or have learned) blends and diagraphs. For example, the teacher can find a picture of a “sock” or a “chip” on Google, copy and paste it to Word, and print it out. Sound boxes can be added where the student moves the letter tiles and writes with the marker. 

How it works: 

 This activity requires some preparation. The mats and picture cards first need to be printed out and the pictures need to be cut. The teacher can either laminate the mats or put them in sheet protectors so that students can write on them with Expo markers. Magnetic letters or letter tiles are also needed for the activity. If the teacher doesn’t have magnetic letters or letter tiles, letters can be written or printed on paper and cut to size. 

Students pick a picture that they would like to work on. After the picture is chosen by the student, the student then moves on to the segmentation dots. Students touch each dot and simultaneously say the sounds. If the word is “box”, the first dot says /b/, the second dot says /o/, and the third dot says /x/. After the student has segmented the sounds, they will move onto the magnetic letters or letter tiles and now spell the word “box”. After they have spelled the word, they will draw a picture of the word for a visual representation. Lastly, the student will write the word “box”. This activity directly links to a beginning reader’s word recognition letter name stage because they have learned their letters and sounds and are now working on segmenting the sounds in a word and putting letters with them to be able to read and spell that word. This activity also helps students with the writing aspect where beginning readers are moving from spelling and writing words with just the beginning sound or just the beginning and ending sound; it helps reinforce beginning readers to include the vowel when writing their CVC words. 

Critique: 

I really like this activity. I use sound boxes very often in my guided reading groups and this activity can easily be made to include a sound box where students put the magnetic letters and also where students write the word. I am going to start using this in my guided reading groups with my beginning readers who are now learning to decode words. I am also going to modify the mats to include sound boxes and also modify them for students who have learned diagraphs and blends for the extra challenge and practice. 

What you will need:
A pen.
To make the slider (the template is attached to this post) 
For the first slider, you will need a rectangular piece of card with one set of slits in it, and a longer strip that fits in the slits.
For the second slider, you will need a rectangular piece of card with two sets of slits in it, and a longer strip of card that fits within the slits.
 

To assemble the spelling slider:
Write the part of the word (‘ai’, ‘ay’) that will not change on the rectangular piece of card. ‘ay’ needs to be on the slider with one set of slits and it needs to be written on the right of the slits. ‘Ai’ needs to be in the middle of the card with two sets of slits.
This a great visual to show readers that ‘ay’ would be used at the end of the word and ‘ai’ would be used in the middle of the word.  This is true for other vowel teams!
Write the letters that will slide up and down on the longer strips of card.
Thread the strips into the rectangular piece of card.

How to play: After discussing the letters ‘ai’ and ‘ay’ create the sound /a/, move the sliders to start making real and nonsense words. Have students read and record the words they make.

This activity could be used as an intro or expansion to the activity “Using Words You Know” as mentioned in Classrooms that Work.  This activity focuses on similar word patterns as well as rhyme to help readers identify words they they already know and make the connection to unfamiliar words.

How It Works: Similar to tapping out a word, students would sound out a word and grab the letters to spell the word. Then, students would practice blending the sounds together as they link the Legos together. Students could use these Legos in conjunction with sound boxes for a  multi-sensory, high interest activity. 

This connects back to class because it can help students build 1-1 sound/letter awareness. Students have to focus on hearing all of the sounds. Because vowels are all red, and no other letter is, it can particularly help students in Ehri’s partial alphabetic phase. Students can be reminded that every word they make must have a red letter. This visual may aid students who are struggling to consistently enter the full alphabetic stage. Teachers could adapt this activity by permanently linking some Legos to create digraphs and vowel teams, which would expand this activity to be appropriate for transitional readers.

This activity allows students to practice identifying the number of syllables in a word.  After the cards are cut and laminated, students will look at the picture and clap out the number of syllables they hear.  They can then use clothespins, bingo markers, or dry erase markers to choose the number of syllables they heard.

This activity supports the syllable level of the phonological awareness hierarchy as they are segmenting each word.  Emergent and beginning readers can be successful at this activity since they are not required to read the word in order to count the syllables.  
My one critique of this activity is that it includes the printed word with the picture.  True phonological awareness activities should only rely on the sounds in the word; however, I still feel like this activity would benefit students as they develop their ability to segment a word into syllables.

 

Digital Phonemic Awareness Games works: “I Spy:” The teacher shares his or her screen with the student(s), and he or say or the students may give the “I Spy…” clues.  After the correct word is called out, drag a star over that picture until all the animals are covered.  The focus of this game is syllable counting.  “I spy a 1-syable animal.” “I spy an animal with 4 syllables”.  Since there are two animals each for 1 and 2 syllables, the teacher could also add in beginning sounds.  For example, I spy an animal with one syllable that begins with a /b/ sound. Answer: Bird. For Syllable Blending: For this slide, give “I Spy…” clues saying the separate syllables of each pictured word, pausing a few seconds in between.  When students say the correct word, drag sa star over the picture.  Clues: I spy a rain - bow, bas - ket, drum - stick, wa - ter - mel - on, juice - box, cup - cake, chip - munk and sand - wich - es. For Syllable Deletion; this slide allows the teacher to give clues requiring syllable deletion in compound words. For Rhyming: On this slide the teacher would say, “I Spy rhyming clues.” The other slides allow for practice with Initial sounds, Initial Phoneme Deletion, and Initial Phoneme Blending. 

 

The Tic Tac Toe slides allow the class to be split; Divide students into teams or play students versus teacher. Students pick an animal and name how many syllables it has.  If they get it right, drag the X or O over the picture.  Continue until someone gets 3 in a row.  Drag the line to show the winning tic-tac-toe. On the next game board students pick a picture and name the beginning SOUND to claim a square, and the last one allows students pick a picture and segment it into its beginning consonant sound and the rest of the word or pick a picture and must remove the 1st sound.  

 

This connects back to the course because this directly relates to our module for this week. It aligns with the sound level in the Hierarchy as it focuses on Phonemic Awareness and targets several skills with both isolation and identity tasks; individual sounds, isolated sounds, segmenting, blending, and changing sounds to make new words through deletion and addition. 

 

Critique: I am shocked that this is free. The download is an excellent because will give students additional practice with multiple skills. I think activities like this are best done in a small group, so that the teacher can see exactly where a student struggles with phonemic awareness. I appreciate that it can be shared virtually, and I like that it can also be used in person on a SMART or Interactive Board and students can actually drag and drop the game pieces. This will keep students engaged as they are able to manipulate pieces by dragging and dropping. I would like to see if sound can be added. I think sound will make it “fun.” Students may like the option of clicking on a picture and hearing a sound or even just some type of game show sounds or zings for correct responses.  This could also be adapted for older students by making the picture reference items more suitable for their age; I’m sure the would not mind practicing with pictures dealing with social media, electronics, and popular games or tik-tok references. 

The “Sounds in the Words” activity is an engaging way for students to work on blending phonemes together. Younger learners, which is typical of beginning readers, love to engage in singing songs. In this activity students are doing just that as they sing to the tune of The Wheels on the Bus. The teacher would sing this song, “The sounds in the word go /c/ /a/ /t/; /c/ /a/ /t/; /c/ /a/ /t/. The sounds in the word go /c/ /a/ /t/ Can you guess the word?” Then, students would use their phonemic awareness skills to blend the three sounds to form a word and sing that back to the teacher. Students would get exposure to blending words in a fun and low pressure way. Teachers could adapt this activity to focus on specific sounds students are learning that week or even make it more challenging by including digraphs. 

This connects back to our course because this activity allows teachers to focus on blending in an engaging way. We have learned that skills in phonological awareness are an indicator of future reading success and we also know that phonemic awareness is the level that matters the most for reading. Blending is a skill that is part of phonemic awareness and is one of the most important skills students can acquire along with segmenting. This activity encourages students to play with the sounds in words and make it engaging and fun through the use of a song. Since teachers in kindergarten should spend an average of 20 hours through the whole school year working on phonemic awareness it is essential to keep the activities fresh and fun by working on the same skills in new ways. 

https://pals.virginia.edu/public/pdfs/activities/blending/Blending_the_Sounds_In_the_Words.pdf 

Description: This interactive activity includes twenty-two free printable pages designed to teach and reinforce the letter A – all week long! 

How does it work: Students will work through a variety activities to learn all about the letter A.  All week long, students will be able to learn about the same letter!! A. They can color the letter A, write the letter A a, identify and count images that start with the letter A. Of course, this is an example of an activity you should never use. 

This connects back to class because Dr. Powell talked about this in her module. Remember? We promised to never teach the same letter all week long. This link isn’t an entire shame though. The worksheets and different activities can still be used in the classroom. However, always teach at least two at the same time so students can have something to compare.  Just remember not to study b,d on the same week or m,n. A good combination of letters to use together would be h and x.

*Note: Although the title has “Easter” in it, it is not “Easter” religion themed (none of the pictures or mats have anything to do with Easter) and therefore can be used with all students. *
“Easter Syllables Phonemic Awareness Activity” is an activity that teaches and reinforces syllables. Since this activity is focused on syllables, it is geared toward emergent readers. The objective is for students to look at a picture card and clap/count out the syllables that they hear. The printable is very organized and therefore easy to cut and organize for the students. The printable is very easy to use and organize, cutting prep time for the teacher. It has the picture cards organized by how many syllables are in the word (the pictures are grouped with a “1 syllable”, “2 syllables” and so on) so it does not create extra work for the teacher. There are four syllable mats per printable (a “one syllable” mat, a “two syllables” mat, a “three syllables” mat, and a “four syllables” mat). 

How it works:

This activity involves some prep work. *If this activity is being implemented in a small group reading center or as an independent activity, it’s important to make sure that students can be successful while avoiding student frustration so the intended stimulus of this activity can be fully met. I would suggest that a lesson on clapping and counting syllables be covered so the students have some basic understanding of the concept. I would also suggest that the teacher models for the students how to complete this activity, so expectations are in place for student success.*
According to the blog:
-First, the teacher needs to print out the syllable picture cards and the syllable number matching mats. The teacher needs to gather some syllable counting manipulatives for the students to use with this activity. The blog suggests jellybeans, pom-poms, etc. 

-Next, the teacher lays the mats and manipulatives out on a table and gives the students the pictures to sort. The blog doesn’t suggest how many mats to give the students at a time, but the “how to” pictures provided show the teacher using two mats at a time (the mats are labeled with one, two, three, and four syllables). This is a good idea so that students don’t become overwhelmed. 

-Then, the students pick up a picture card, say the name of the picture, clap out the syllables, and for extra support can move the one manipulative while saying each syllable. 

-Lastly, the student identifies how many syllables were in the word and moves the picture to the corresponding mat. 

**For example, the teacher lays out a three and a four-syllable mat. The teacher gives the students three and four syllable pictures to sort. The teacher also gives the students their own manipulatives (four jellybeans). The students pick up a picture card of an “umbrella”. The student says the word “umbrella” and claps out “um-brel-la”. They then move each manipulative to match the sounds “um-brel-la”. They have moved three jellybeans or pom-poms. The student then puts the “umbrella” picture on the three-syllable mat. The student continues this process until all pictures are sorted. 
This activity can be done is a small group of two to three students or one on one with a teacher. If this activity is done in a small group, I suggest that the students have a good understanding of clapping and counting syllables so that the activity is meaningful for them. One on one with activity is good for teaching and also practicing syllable clapping and counting. 

My critique:

I really like this activity and will be using it in my classroom. With COVID restrictions, it much harder to use it this year because of sharing and student using it together or using it with students in different groups. It would be too time consuming to wipe down each individual picture and mat. I really like the use of the manipulatives for visual reinforcements. 

One thing that I don’t like about this activity is the title of it. I almost didn’t click on the activity because of “Easter” in the title. As a culturally sensitive teacher, it is important for me to stay away from anything that has any aspect, pictures, or mentions of religion in it for the respect of my students (all students, not just ELL students!). Luckily, the thumbnail showed me that it wasn’t at all Easter themed…none of the pictures or mats had anything to do with Easter so I’m not sure why the author of the blog named the activity “Easter Syllables Phonological Awareness”. When I introduce this activity to my students, I will simply tell them that this is a syllable counting activity. 

Print and laminate your Alphabet printable using card stock. After laminating, cut out the dresses and add Velcro dots to the backs of each dress as well as adding Velcro dots to the dolls. Spread out all the dresses and have students pick a large card (doll printed on the card). Each large card has a letter on it.  Students can match uppercase or lowercase dresses to the correct doll (both sets are included in this download).  I have this center in my classroom and it is a favorite for all of my students!  

You can adjust it by offering all letters, only offering a handful of letters, matching upper case to lowercase, or matching uppercase to uppercase. As mentioned in the module, you can use it to introduce a new letter while reviewing previous letters taught by only giving students 4-5 specific cards, or it can be used as a review for all the letters.
This is a FREE activity!

How to play “Dinner Time:” Print out the placemat and food cards for every student that is playing.  To start, point to a food card and ask the students to pass you the ­­­­________ and change the beginning phoneme to make a non-sense word (meese/cheese, lam/jam).  The students will reply with “not meese, but cheese!”  After a few turns, the teacher can then name some more non-sense words without pointing to the correct food for an extra challenge.  To differentiate the activity, phonemes can be deleted, added or substituted for blends, digraphs, vowels, etc.

This website also includes many other phonological awareness activities for students to practice which include: counting syllables, word boundaries and rhyming words.

This activity connects back to the class because it is a phoneme manipulation task where students have to listen and recognize a word that has had a phonemic substitution in the beginning, or middle and end if the activity is adapted for higher level practice.  Since no print or writing is required, students are simply asked to listen and hear the difference between two words with one change in phoneme.