Blending

[Guest]

We are in our first year of using the letters and sounds. We have done satp inmdgo. We have practised orl blending and segmentation. Thhis week we have been tryinf (and i stress TRYING!!) to blend the words it, is, in, at. I only have 2 out of a class of 15 who seem to have any idea. We've played lots of the games from L&S to practise oral blending such as Goergies gym etc... and i have done that much sound speak (c-a-t) that i'm now talking it in my sleep! They just dont seem to be geting it i'm getting random comments such as c-a-t garage!! or word association p-i-n sewing! needle! thread! cotton! I'm at a loss as to what to do next is it just a case of practise practise practise or does anyone out there have any handy tips!!

Yours desperately!!!

 

Lola x

[Susan]

I think this is quite normal!

Keep plugging away and dont expect too much too soon. Children also find it easier to blend CVC words, nouns to which they can relate ie cat, dog as they have a visual image. Go back to the little words later. Also do your children really understand what a word is?

[Guest]

Hi Lola

don't panic - we did letters and sounds last year for the first time and it took the children a while to pick up the skills- when we came to assess our children at the end of phase 2 last year ( around end of November) we had the higher ability and some middle abilty children able to do it and others giving us words such as chocolate when we said - f- i -s- h for example and they found segmenting harder . Any way we continued and by the end of the year even the lower abilty were confident with blending cvc words so they will get there. It sounds like your doing lots of great things and as Susan said the little words are always tricker - we're starting' in it is at 'this week so know doubt I'll be sympathising with you by the end of the week

[Guest]

Hi Lola,

 

I'm laughing as I read your post, thinking about my own kids today. We did sound buttons p o t (and they yell back at me) TAP - err no... Keep on plugging. I piloted the letters and sounds before it was published. It is really good and it does really work, but what I find best is to plug away at it as per the programme and then I identify six children per day to do small group work with and if necessary, I break them down to individuals to go over what we've done.

 

My last class before the summer were amazing at it by the time summer came and really knew their stuff. Just laugh along, enjoy it and keep trying. It does eventually sink in.

[Guest]

Wow - you have got that far already - i feel a failure as we are just starting with 'a' &'s' I only attack two letters a week at this stage and spend time working in Phase 1 to ensure that oral blending and initial sonunds are firmly embedded - and I don't move at the pace set up in Letters and Sounds as i feel that my children need longer to assimulate the information and to feel confident to use it - I do think, however that the Letters and Sounds programme is fantastic but I see little point at steaming ahead at a rate of knots so that I can complete it in a set number of weeks as I am a confident writer and can cope with that pace but my children are not and cannot - i would rather take my time use lots of games and stories and work within what the children tell and show me they can do before moving on- With blending I have used Successfully last year large A4 letters children have stood up as each phoneme is spoken e.g. i then t then they tiptoed towrds each other with us all saying each letter until they were touching and we made i t into it, the next step was to play hunt the letter in the garden to make the word this also enabled me to include children who found making relationships difficult as they needed to work and play with others - have fun

[Guest]

Don't panic! Mine are exactly the same. I have been practising oral blending and segmenting loads and have introduced s, a, t, p, i, n, m, d, g, o, c and k tomorrow! And they are at the moment awful! I have about 5 that are ok- well ish i suppose! Last year when we started using letters and sounds it took a little whle to get in. I think after half term it kind of made more sense and it all came together. The child are picking up the phonemes quickly so I just have to keep plugging away at it and it will all fall into place! Keep going and keep making it fun so the children have a reason to apply it all!

[Guest]

hello, I haven't started blending yet, I've introduced satpinmd so far, is that really bad that i've not introduced blending??? what i did last year which worked wen we introduced blending was fingers and thumbs, they make like 'L' shape with their thumb and forfinger, i tell them to get their water pistols ready - they seem to like this- and then the first phoneme is on the thumb, the middle is the middle join beteween your thumb and forefinger and the last is on the forefinger - they point to the tip of each saying the phoneme and then eventually slide thefinger along all 3 to blend... i hope this makes sense...?!

 

X

[Guest]

Don't worry mine are completely the same and they were last year too and then it all just clicked. Just keep going and it will all pay off. I couldn't believe the difference it made to my class last year! Lots of games and fun activities and they will be fantastic by christmas.

[Guest]

Hi Lola

I am so very relieved to have read your post. I started blending last week and with my class and felt really worried at my own teaching ability when children came back at me with really random words. This year is the first year we have used letters and sounds at the full pace, I think last years cohort of children picked up blending faster because they had a little more time to really get to grips with phonemes. I will continue at the fast pace because the children are really enjoying learning the phonemes and are retaining them :-)

Its reasuring to kow that others are going through the same and that there is light at the end of the tunnel.

[Guest]

I don't tend to introduce letters until Term 2 (6 term year). The first term is focusing on speaking in 'sound talk': having pictures/objects and saying one of them in a segmented way - 'Can someone come and find the c-a-t' etc; 'Let's count all the sounds we can hear in 'ship', holding up a finger for each one'. I find that spending the first term listening for sounds and how words are constructed makes introducing the letters and what we do with them much simpler.

 

When I start introducing the letters I begin with 'c', 'a' and 't' - this way I can make a word which is something that all the children are familiar with - 'sat', 'pin', 'nip'...are all very well but I worry that they're quite abstract things for young children. I teach a letter a day and on the third day I'd say something like, 'You're doing brilliantly with learning your letter sounds. Today we're going to learn to use those letters to spell the word 'cat' (producing a picture of one with a flourish!). Let's count how many sounds we can hear in 'cat' (we'd all say 'cat' in 'sound talk', counting the sounds on our fingers). Ooh - that's 3 sounds isn't it? I'm going to draw 3 spaces on my board, one for each sound. I'm going to put up all of the letters we need to spell 'cat' but they're all in a muddley order. I wonder if you can help me put them in the right place.'

 

I'd then arrow the first space and say 'I'm going to say 'cat' in sound talk, running my finger under these spaces. I want you to listen really carefully and tell me the sound you can hear when my finger is under this space' (the one with the arrow). We'd then talk about the sound they could hear and I'd pick a child to come and select the letter that we need to show that sound. I'd continue like that until the word was built and then say, 'Great - you've spelt 'cat'. Now we're going to read it, we read by saying the sounds we can see in a word and then listening for the word that those sounds make.' We'd then say the sounds and I would say at the end 'cat'. This helps to make it really explicit what children need to do when they're reading: say the sounds and listen for the word. Children often seem to find isolating the sounds easier than hearing the word and having lots of practise at knowing what the word is beforehand and HOW you, the adult, are able to work it out is really useful - making it an acquirable skill rather than a guessing game.

 

I love phonics - can you tell?!

Edited October 15, 2008 by Guest

[Guest]

Have you tried splitting them into small groups based on their ability? We have all practictioners taking a group and it's fab having them in small groups. I've got a group of 9 who don't know many letters (we're still on the first 10 or so) but they are getting really good at blending words like s-i-t and j-u-m-p, h-o-p, etc, I tend to play a quick movement game every day and most really get it!

 

Up until last week we were teaching the whole class together and this week it's been soooo much more fun! (For me and the children!)