This quote was posted in Clark's article, "What can I say besides 'sound it out'? Coaching word recognition in beginning reading." I love that Clark focused on coaching students rather than teaching. By coaching, you encourage students to learn for themselves while encouraging them to apply the topic to their own lives.
Specifically when coaching, Clark recommends:
- Providing "general cues to promote thought" - Rather than giving your students the correct answer, give them guidance questions such as "Why?" questions to initiate their thought processes.
- Engage all students in the discussions. When one student asks a question, ask for the other students to respond with what they think.
- Small groups are a great way to coach a smaller group of students for a shorter period of time (10-15 minutes).
In Cunningham and Allington's textbook, they suggest the following ideas to teach word recognition:
- Write a sentence on the board. Cover the last word and see if the students can guess the word based on context clues. If they are struggling, show the first letter of the word.
- List words the students know. Then list words that rhyme and have a similar spelling. This will help the students recognize the words.
- Play hangman. Draw blank spaces on the board and allow the students to guess the letters that make up the word.
Here is a sample lesson idea to coach word recognition:
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| http://www.mpmschoolsupplies.com/ideas/3128/bubble-wrap-sight-words/ |
On the bubble wrap, write different sight words. As the students recognize a word and pronounce it correctly, they can pop the bubble. This provides a fun interactive way to learn!
1. Do you have any ideas for ways to encourage word recognition in the students' everyday lives rather than only teaching it during the daily lesson?
2. I have trouble remembering what it was like when I first started recognizing sight words. Do you remember when you began recognizing words and what that was like for you?
Casey, I love the bubble wrap idea! Something I would recommend is just to have high frequency words available in the classroom. If that is at a station or on the wall, just have them handy for the children to see. Something else could be to have some sort of log they keep with them so when they come across a word that was new to them, they could log it! I also do not remember sight words as a child so I am not a lot of help in that category.
ReplyDeleteTo answer your first question, I found a great quote: "Children's ability to recognize words can be developed by teachers' pointing out the words, by a variety of game-like activities, and by writing those words. However, it appears that instant recognition of words, especially high-frequency words, develops best when students read large amounts of text, particularly text that is relatively easy for the reader" (Cunningham, 1995). Therefore, I feel like the best way to encourage word recognition is to provide print rich environments.
ReplyDeleteThe bubble wrap idea seems really fun and interactive! Maybe a good, similar idea would be to write sight words on balloons, but that might be a little loud. When I was learning how to read sight words were a struggle for me too!
ReplyDeleteI love the bubble wrap idea! That is such a fun and unique way for the students to feel like they are making progress and really see the effects of their learning. Interactive learning is always much more beneficial than a simple worksheet.
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