Comp 6: Phonics and Sight Words: Instruction and Assessment Flashcards
Direct, Explicit Teaching of Phonics: Instructional Approaches
Whole-to-Part Approaches (Analytic Phonics) WPA
o Start w/ sentences that include words with similar sound patterns (ex: My mom went to the store with cash, We went to the store to buy fish, I helped mash the potatoes)
o The teacher asks what pattern they see and start with that pattern as a focus (words that have sh pattern)
o Students reread the target words one more time
Part-to-Whole Approaches (Synthetic Phonics) PWS
o Lessons begin with the sound and then students use this to blend the sounds to make words
ex: sh
o The teacher writes down the sound to focus on and has students repeat aloud the sound
o Teacher adds letters that can be added to the sound to create words like ca-, fi-, ma-
o These letters are added to create the words cash, fish, mash and student repeat words
other approaches to teaching phonics: Analogy Phonics
o Students are taught unfamiliar words by comparing them to known words, usually onsets and rimes (students learn brick by looking at kick and tick first)
other approaches to teaching phonics: Embedded Phonics
o Phonics is embedded into another lesson (Reading a book with rhyming words and going over words in the story that follow the same rime pattern)
Systematic, Explicit Instruction in Phonics at the Beginning Stage
There are 4 categories of word identification lessons that should be taught for beginning readers:
1) Teaching Sounding Out and Blending of Regular VC and CVC Words
o Regular VC and CVC words, the sound is short (man, pet, am, it, up) and should teach individual letter sounds with these words first /m//a//n/, /p//e//t/
o Follows part-to-whole approach of blending sounds to create words
2) Teaching Single-syllable, Regular Words and Some High-Frequency, Irregular Sight Words
o Students will gain knowledge from VC and CVC words, but should be introduced to some high-frequency words with irregular spellings such as the, to, is, you, was, have
3) Using Decodable Text for Practice
o These are texts that include carefully selected vocabulary that reflects the phonics instruction taught
o This reinforces the sound-symbol relationships children have learned
4) Spelling VC and CVC Words
o This challenged students to encode words in writing VC and CVC words by using the taught phonics pattern
Systematic, Explicit Instruction in Phonics at More Advanced Stages
The RICA has 6 categories of word identification lesson for advanced learners:
1) Teaching CVC, CCVC and CVVC Words Containing Common, Regular Letter Combinations
o Similar to beginning lessons, teacher would introduce spelling pattern (ai) and possible letters added to beginning and end (b, t, l) and create words such as bait, tail à part-to-whole
o Whole-to-part: Include sentences using the spelling pattern and reread keywords to target pattern
2) Regular CVCe Words
o Long vowel sound with a final silent e
3) Words Containing Phonics Elements that are Lesson Common
o Consonant digraphs such as ch (chair), sh (hush), wh (which) and th (with)
4) Continued Use of Decodable Text
o Include CVCC, CCVC, CVVC, CVCe and irregular sight words
5) Words Formed by Adding a Common Inflected Ending
o Teach suffix in isolation (-ed, -ing, -s) and use either pert-to-whole or whole-to-part approaches
6) Phonics Knowledge to Spell More Complex Orthographic Patterns
o Spelling lists should include words from the CVCC, CVVC, CVCe patterns along with words with less common phonic elements (ph, kn) and inflected suffixes
Systematic, Explicit Instruction in Sight Words
1) Sight Words
o Best to follow whole-to-part approaches where teacher selects words to be learned (who, want, there, your) and write them in sentences with word underlined
o Teacher asks students to repeat the word aloud and ask how to spell it out
o Students add these words to their word bank or flash cards where they can review it later
2) High-Frequency Words
o Words that do not conform to regular patterns will be more difficult to learn and should have more lessons devoted to them
3) Factors that Affect the Sequence of Instruction for Specific Sight Words
o Teach words that appear most frequently in the students’ basal reading
o Teach high frequency words that are visually similar (i.e. the, that, they, then because of the “th” digraph)
4) Explicit Strategies for Helping Students Master the Spelling of High-Frequency Sight Words
o Visual, use of color: Effective with words with vowel digraphs, using red for the a and green for the i
o Auditory: Write the target word, while pronouncing each letter each time
o Tactile: Write the word on a textured surface with their bare finger (i.e. sandbox)
How to help Struggling Readers and Students w/ Reading Disabilities with phonic skills, sight words, and spelling skills
1) Focus on key phonics skills and high-frequency sight words
o Teach the needed and most important skills first before moving on
2) Reteach Phonics Skills and Sight Words that are lacking
o Use diff. materials or work at a slower pace, use different methods
3) Use concrete examples
o Use wood letters, letter tiles
4) Provide Additional Practice
o Word sorts or games to reinforce concepts
How to help EL’s with phonic skills, sight words, and spelling skills
1) Capitalize on transfer of relevant knowledge and skills from the primary language
o B, d, m, p and t have the same sound in most languages and can be easier to teach
o Cognates
2) Explicitly teaching sounds that do not transfer
o J, x, y and h have different sounds than the English language and should be directly and explicitly taught
3) Explicitly teaching the meanings of sight words, if needed
o Many ELLs need to be taught the word, how to spell it and what it means
4) Analyze Patterns of error
o The most important pattern to note are those errors that would make it difficult for the child to understand what they are reading
How to help advanced learners with phonic skills, sight words, and spelling skills
1) Increase the pace and complexity of instruction
o Have multiple objectives for the student to meet
2) Build on and extend current knowledge and skills
o “skip” prerequisite lessons and “extend” the lesson, by making words where there are given a root word and asked to make smaller/larger words with it
Assessment of Phonics and Sight Words
o Assessments should include decoding in isolation and in context
1) Decode in isolation (Word List)
o Student reads aloud words such as map, mat, cat to assess their knowledge of the short a in medial position
2) Decode in context (Running Record)
o Informal Reading Inventory where students are asked to read a story and teacher makes notes of the sounds they are able to pronounce
3) Sight Words
o Similar to phonics, sight words can be assessed in isolation (reading aloud sight words) AND in context (reading passages from IRI)
Entry-Level Assessment, Progress Monitoring Assessment, and Summative Assessment for Phonics and Sight Words
o Individually administered tests where students are given a list of words so the teacher can see what students already know
o Progress monitoring by reassessing after teaching a lesson
o Summative by providing a decoding in isolation test and also in context
How to Teach: Phonics
o onset/rimes charts
o decodable reading
o blending/segmenting games
o Word sorts/Word families
o Exposure
o Elkonin Boxes
o Manipulatives/Interactive activities
o Analogy Phonics
How to Assess: Phonics
o IRI
o Nonsense Words
o Letter-Sound Assessment
o In isolation/In Context
o Word List
o Running Records
o Matching
How to Teach: Sight words
o see and say
o air writing
o arm tapping
o table writing
o Flash cards
o Songs
