I am not happy to admit this but its true… when I first started teaching I had no idea how to teach reading. I had great books to use but I really had no idea what I was doing. Most of the kids in that class learned to read that year despite my lack of knowledge. Shortly after my first year I did learn how to teach reading and now I feel confident in my techniques.
PHONICS
I am trained in the Wilson Reading System and that has taught me a lot. It was a real eye opener for me. I didn’t know what I didn’t know. Digraphs, closed syllables, words that end with v (they don’t exist). I was amazed and excited to learn all these rules.
Today I am teaching first grade in two groups because of the pandemic. It is a challenge to say the least. Since I only see the students for half of the time I feel they are not really retaining the information. This group is lucky because they have Fundations. It is a systemic approach for teaching phonics. I do feel like it is helping them to really learn the sounds and blending those sounds into words. I am struggling with having them read text. They need decodable text which is not readily available in my school. How can I teach them to read if I’m giving them text that they cannot read. Texts that throw in long vowel words frustrate them. Texts with too many “sight words” also make them tune out. I want to provide my kids with some practice decodable texts that won’t cost a ton. It also has to follow the sequence I have already taught. Short vowels, digraphs and suffix s are the skills my first graders have mastered and so that is all I want to include in these passages.
So Many Programs
In my 20 plus years of teaching I have used many programs. I have taught with anthologies that contained no rhyme or reason to their sequence. I used the workshop model where students read only leveled text. I also used programs with a systematic phonics approach. I have worked with all different grades from first grade up to sixth grade. I have taught students in sixth grade that did not even know all 26 letters. I have first graders that cannot even identify the first letter in their names. Some spell their first name wrong almost every time they write it. It is so hard to watch students struggle. How can teachers help students overcome the struggle.
Starting Out
The first step is to build phonemic awareness. This should begin at home but if it doesn’t you can weave this in all day long. My daughter’s amazing preschool teacher did this all the time. She gave nicknames that rhymed to the students like Brookie Cookie and Lily Cabilly. She did this so much that my daughter gave all her dolls rhyming names, we had Sarah Cabarah. Rhymes were never a problem for her even at 4 years old. The teacher also reinforced first sounds and first letters. When we would say to our daughter do you want a drink of juice? She would answer /j/ for juice. This may seem silly to people who have never watched a fifth or sixth grader struggle to learn sounds and rhyming.
After they learn phone ic awareness they need to learn the phonemes. Did you know that English has 44 phonemes. It seems like that shouldn’t be that hard to master but for many students this is so difficult. Start by introducing the letters of the alphabet with their sounds and keyword to help them remember the sound. Once the have mastered a few letters they can start blending sounds together. Use multi-sensory activities to do this. Tapping for each sound is my favorite. You can have them squish play dough for each sound they hear. When they master two sounds- it, at, up, in, on you can add the third sound. Blending cards are a great way to help students practice this skill.
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