Teaching > Theory and Practice

Phonics works...even in the ESL classroom

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travelinpantsgirl:

--- Quote from: sonicmail on May 10, 2012, 12:45:17 AM ---I definitely need to start focusing more on phonics. My third and fourth graders (it's a combined class) are very sharp, but they're taught spelling by rote--listen and repeat, "Goat" "Goat!" "Spell it" "G O A T". They know how to spell it and they know how to say it but they have no idea what the relation between the two is. It was easy to miss at first because they CAN do both. X|

They're pretty quick to declare just alphabet activities "not fun", though. I wish I knew a song for every letter that's as fun and catchy as "Vowel Bat" :P


--- End quote ---
Are you kidding? Here's is the most awesome video ever! My kids ate it up! ATE IT UP! They begged for it for over a year now they're a little tired of it but still ask for it. It's a challenge at first so only do three letters and then stop. I used to it with whatever letters we were teaching. If we were teaching ABC, I would stop at C and and restart and repeat until they could do the signs. Children love to be engaged and challenged physically and mentally and this video does that. :-)

travelinpantsgirl:

--- Quote from: nzer-in-gyeongnam on May 08, 2012, 10:48:14 AM ---
--- Quote from: weirdgirlinkorea on May 07, 2012, 02:34:23 PM ---
--- Quote from: nzer-in-gyeongnam on May 07, 2012, 11:17:04 AM ---weirdgirlinkorea, would you be interested in sharing the alphabet workbook you made for your students? I'd be very interested in trying to implement this in my elementary classes, and try and get my grade 1-3's into this... I've been searching for something that would promote 'fun' for my students, but I've been struggling so far.

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nzer-in-gyeongnam,

I'll have to scan it in, because I created it from a hodge podge of different things I found. I got the basic book from here, but I have to tweak it to suit my needs. I'll post it as soon as I can.

 ;D

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If you can, that'd be great, if not, thanks anyway. It sounds like a great resource. I've tried using things like Starfall but my students just see it as a game, so I wont use it with them now, because they are too easily distracted by the pictures. I've tried making games using letters, and all sorts, but they just count through them on their fingers or guess, so I'm trying to find something more to encourage learning.

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I've scanned them but I need to merge them into one PDF binder. I'll probably post tomorrow or Saturday.  ;D

ahess.wisc:
I would also reccomed the alphabet videos from havefunteaching.com (http://havefunteaching.com/videos/alphabet-videos/). They get extremely tiring to me (as they are all the same), but my kindies first and second graders don't seem to mind that they lyrics are extremely boring. When it comes to the vowels I think they are a bit lacking, but I think they do a very good job at showing the different sounds the consonants make.

ilovelanguage:

--- Quote from: travelinpantsgirl on March 07, 2012, 08:16:53 PM --- I know it seems like an obvious thing to say but...it really does. I just wanted to share my experiences on this from today.

Last school year I decided that my (3rd grade) students needed to be taught their ABCs and phonics. The books, when they even attempt the alphabet, do a crappy job. My poor kids (quite literally) were frustrated and unhappy with English class; because honestly how much would you like a subject when you can't understand anything except listen and repeat??? So, last term, I made an ABC workbook covering 3-4 letters per lesson. Finishing the book in one term. Interspersed in between were phonics worksheets and activities showing them the connectivity between letters - sounds - words. The result: An extraordinarily enthusiastic grade 3 with a fever for English. They loved their workbooks, and they would ask whenever we came to class, "Is it ABC time?"
Now that same grade 3 is now grade 4 and we will now teach them full on phonics. They have phonics workbooks that I got from here: http://www.funfonix.com/
We started the books today and to my CT's and my amazement they knew the words right off and they did the work no problem. They could read them and what's more they understood my instructions in English. They have also had the advantage of having 85% English classroom, where only complicated instructions are translated and the difference is amazing.
If you are teaching really low level and are struggling for them to understand classroom content, my suggestion is introduce the idea of phonics to your school...my students couldn't be happier and more well behaved.
It is a lot of work though and requires a good relationship with your CT. You also have to condense your book lessons to leave one class open per lesson to teach it.
If you choose to do it... I wish you luck and happy students!
If anyone needs any help or advice on this, just msg me!

--- End quote ---

So, when they were 3rd grader did you start them off with the intro to phonics first so that once they hit the 4th grade, you did the FULL phonics book?

Also when you said you were showing them the relation between word-letter-sound with activities, just what kind of activity did you do? All I can help thinking about is reading! :(  LOL. Sorry, first time teacher here and spanking new at this.  Thank you for your clarifications! :D Btw, I know you asked that we message you, but I wasn't sure how to do that on waygook.  Sorry! :D

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