MrsL Posted January 20, 2009 Share Posted January 20, 2009 Hi there, hope someone will have some advice for me or at least some reassurance! In my reception class I have a lot of children who can still not hear middle and final sounds in words. I have never had such a large portion of children getting to this stage in the year without being able to do this. Usually it is just a few children who are often very immature. I have been teaching the letters and sounds as I did last year, with phonics everyday and often a lot of sound talk dripped through the day. I feel I really have done absolutely loads of sounding out! is there anything else I can do, or is it just a case of carrying on and plugging away until it clicks with them? x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 20, 2009 Share Posted January 20, 2009 Hi I have the same kind of problem- so many children are at a inital sounds stage. My frustration is that some of them can hear the sounds in the L and S sessions but when it comes to independent work, reading or writing they are only 'hearing' the inital sounds. Thye dont seem to be transfering the skills. I am just keeping going and hoping that it will click- I have also been putting out independent activities which encourage them to thread the word or copy the words out usign magnetic letters, use magnetic letters or foam letters to 'write' words underneath the pictures etc. But its a long process! At this stage should we be encouraging our children to write any of the HF words down? or is it just magnetic letters and sound talk and sounding out orally? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kittycat1279 Posted January 20, 2009 Share Posted January 20, 2009 Do not worry - we have a good portion of children that are not doing that either. Sounds like you're doing all the right things. It just takes some children longer than others. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrsL Posted January 20, 2009 Author Share Posted January 20, 2009 I've been doing the same with the independent activities, and I know what you mean about not transferring the skills. That is why I am worried, they don't seem to be the children that I would expect to be finding it tricky, they are children who cope well it seems, and are mature and have good motor skills and form letters well, and read really well with the high frequency words. But the blending and segmenting just doesn't seem to be there! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 20, 2009 Share Posted January 20, 2009 Sounds very similar to my class as well - I think we are probably doing all the right things and with plenty of opportunities to practise these skills then it will click in the end - I think I have the same issue in that they can do it in the discrete letters and sounds session but find it difficult to transfer this into other activities too - think I probably need to make the links a lot clearer when I am teaching! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrsL Posted January 20, 2009 Author Share Posted January 20, 2009 I think I must have been blessed with a very bright class last year, as they were a lot further ahead by now! Anyway, it's good to know I'm not the only one, I will try to stop beating myself up about it. Thanks guys! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 20, 2009 Share Posted January 20, 2009 We do lots of 'robot' talk so much that my family think I'm developing a stammer!! It has certainly helped a lot with sounding out especially hearing all the phonemes within a word.We made a robot from a box who happened to turn out to be female so is Roberta. We feed her the letters and talk the robot talk and fish them out the back and build them into a word and read back.We swing our arms alternately with each phoneme. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrsL Posted January 20, 2009 Author Share Posted January 20, 2009 As it's mostly boys who are struggling, I might well try the robot thing, thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 20, 2009 Share Posted January 20, 2009 It's a Sue Palmer idea from one for her books. I've looked on youtube to see if there is someone doing Robot talk but no joy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marion Posted January 20, 2009 Share Posted January 20, 2009 Letters and Sounds calls it "sound talk" and PIPs called it talking like a robot... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrsL Posted January 20, 2009 Author Share Posted January 20, 2009 Thanks for that. We have been doing loads of the sound talk, but I like the robot idea, as I want to make sure I am keeping it new and fresh as we have been doing it for so long! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 20, 2009 Share Posted January 20, 2009 the little voices in my head all talk at once so it could have come from anywhere Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 20, 2009 Share Posted January 20, 2009 There are some interesting snippets in this video clip! I love the boys digging in the garden at the very end - also love the boys writing his easter card. http://nationalstrategies.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/node/85817 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 20, 2009 Share Posted January 20, 2009 HI, are you attached to a Nursery? We are teaching phase 1 letters and sounds all the way through lower foundation, and this has made a MASSIVE difference to the children being able to hear all the sounds when they join my full time reception class! I also am a great believer in robot sounding out, the kids love it!!! Keep plaodding it will suddenly click for your children xxx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alison Posted January 20, 2009 Share Posted January 20, 2009 when I went on the letters and sounds training they showed a clip of the robot talking on the DVD that came with the letters and sounds pack (from the DSCF), my preschool children arent anywhere near at this stage but we did find it was a great idea for developing our home corner into a robot theme and encouraging the children to play at speaking like robots Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrsL Posted January 21, 2009 Author Share Posted January 21, 2009 Thanks for all your ideas and words of wisdom! Yes we have a nursery and they do phase 1 all the way through. We have been doing a lot of sound talk, but I think I will put the robot slant on it! I will look at the video clip too Retlaw, thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest kelh81 Posted January 21, 2009 Share Posted January 21, 2009 I'm so glad you posted this as I've been worrying about the same thing! During phonics sessions the kids are great at blending and segmenting but when it comes to actually applying these skills in guided reading & writing sessions it's as if they've never had a phonics lesson! Even my brighter ones are just writing the initial sounds of words when I know full well that they are capable of making CVC words during phonics! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrsL Posted January 22, 2009 Author Share Posted January 22, 2009 Thanks kelh81, good to know others re in the same position, isn't it! I'm sure they will get there eventually! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marion Posted January 22, 2009 Share Posted January 22, 2009 Do you do daily dictation? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrsL Posted January 22, 2009 Author Share Posted January 22, 2009 Marion, tell me more!! I'll try anything! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 22, 2009 Share Posted January 22, 2009 We used to play group hangman with cvc and high frequency words and we had a weekly teacher v children tally....must try it with current class Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marion Posted January 22, 2009 Share Posted January 22, 2009 I use JP and the suggestion is that the children are dictated letters, words and sentences to improve segmenting skills Using CVC frames to write words can help too. Some children have problems blending simply because they don't have the auditory skills to hear all the sounds in words. Lots of activities with rhyme and syllables can help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 23, 2009 Share Posted January 23, 2009 I was going to say a daily dictation would work wonders. I think children struggle with writing because they have too much to think about. They just want to write their ideas and they just aren't at that level to be able to write automatically. I have taught letters and sounds up to phase 6 (I work from year one - year two) and I do a dictation for the children to write. So yes start off at letter level and then word level. Then try a simple caption for the children to write. When they are confidently doing that then try sentences. The more they do the more automatic the segmenting and writing will become, eventually they WILL transfer it their writing. Our school began phonics teaching a few years ago and we piloted synthetic phonics teaching beginning in reception. There is a huge difference by the time they hit juniors with this teaching. We no longer have SEN children who can't blend and segment at least cvc words going into juniors. We used to have loads of children who didnt even know their sounds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrsL Posted January 23, 2009 Author Share Posted January 23, 2009 I love the hangman idea, well definitely do that one. We sometimes do dictation type things on white boards, but i think it's like you say greenteaaddict, they can do it in that situation maybe because they only have that word to think about, instead of a whole sentence, and their letter formation etc. I will try a bit more of it I think. Thanks so much for your ideas! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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