CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.3.C Read common high-frequency words by sight (e.g., the, of, to, you, she, my, is, are, do,does).
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.2.B Count, pronounce, blend, and segment syllables in spoken words.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.2.D Isolate and pronounce the initial, medial vowel, and final sounds (phonemes) in three-phoneme (consonant-vowel-consonant, or CVC) words.1 (This does not include CVCs ending with /l/, /r/, or /x/.)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.2.E Add or substitute individual sounds (phonemes) in simple, one-syllable words to make new words.
These are all reasons why a small word group is helpful.
I work with four children during reading time. I reviewed their scores from an assessment and I am focusing on four kids who all got about 8-9 out of 26 sight words. Apparently that score was completely expected for Kindergartners last year around the same time, but this year it is viewed as being behind. So that's fun...On Tuesday, we simply went over sight word cards and I had the group get familiar with the ones we would be working on. Two of the children were a bit unfocused (they're bouncy kids), but two were rather engaged and wanted to play with the words even after the allotted time, making "sentences."
The second day, we played word memory game, but I think I made it a little too challenging by adding too many cards to work with. I tried again Thursday and we played with fewer cards which seemed to keep them engaged during the game. Another accomplishment was that on Friday, one of the little boys in my group was listening to a picture book with me and was shouted out two sight words he spotted within words. For example, seeing the word "and" in the word "sand." Pretty neat!
A big cause for celebration this week for me, however, was watching a specific little girl remember how to write the letter R. She has been working on remembering the letter R for the past two weeks. She is quite behind in the class, as she still doesn't have some letters. She is on the track of getting special services. Her memory is really poor, as she can't remember the name of a letter that you have been working on every day for a week straight. So...with that background, this was a big deal. This week we opened the "Post Office" in the classroom, encouraging children to write notes and letters to one another that will then be delivered to their mailbox. Caught up in all the excitement, this girl, Marisa wanted to join in on the fun and write her own message to her mom and dad. She told me, "I want to write 'I hope you are having a good day mommy and daddy!'" She knows the letter I, H, O, P and "you" is on our sight word so she got to "I hop you" then the needed "are."
"What letter do you hear in the word are?" I ask
She looks at me and shrugs. "I don't know..." She says, but then goes, "Oh Wait! R!" and writes a letter R. I shout, "MARISA!!!!! YOU REMEMBERED THE LETTER R!!!! I AM SO PROUD OF YOU!" She looks up at me with this huge smile and we run over to my mentor teacher to relay the excitement. Here's the artifact:
So that was exciting! (Her b's are supposed to be d's to spell daddy. It phonetically sounds like dade. She was looking at our sight word chart which has mom and dad on it.)
One more rant before I go. We have a new para in our room as of two weeks ago so the dynamics of the classroom are shifted a bit. She is very odd and I do not think she should be in this educational role. To give an example, Ronald came in one morning and throws all his stuff on the floor. The para goes, "Oh, Ronald, let's not throw that." and my mentor teacher sends him to his table so he is out of the way while the other children get ready. He often gets rowdy and kicks or throws things when there are two many people in the cubby so this is a logical consequence. "You can get your stuff put away when the area clears out," my mentor teacher says. And THEN! The para comes over and says to him, "Aw, Ronald, I feel bad that I got you in trouble!" in this dramatically sad voice. She proceeds to sit down next to him and have this sweet buddy buddy conversation! What!? This is just one example, but she is consistently putting herself on the child's side even when they are doing something bad. She'll try to coddle and baby them and does things for them that they can do themselves. It's just frustrating and my mentor teacher is freaking out a bit about the new dynamic.
Signing off,
Miss Meghann
PS: Next week, Sonia (my mentor teacher) will be out of the classroom Monday afternoon, all day Tuesday and all day Monday! AHHHH. I am not the official sub, but I will be pretty much in charge since I know the routines now. Wish me luck!
No comments:
Post a Comment