Revised Sounds Book strand - unit 6

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debbie
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Joined: Mon Oct 08, 2007 2:28 pm
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Revised Sounds Book strand - unit 6

Post by debbie »

Revised Sounds Book activity sheet strand - unit 6

We have added a number of sheets which 'gather' all the letter/s-sound correspondences of the sounds addressed in unit 6 and in the previous units.

The additional Sounds Book sheets brings unit 6 in line with the Sounds Book activity sheets format in units 7 to 12.

For example, the first unit 6 Sounds Book activity sheet is headed 'ce, ci, cy' and this was followed by 'ge, gi, gy'.

Now, however, two A4 sheets (landscape) have been added to 'gather' the previous '-ce' introduced in unit 5 and the latest ce, ci, cy graphemes introduced in unit 6. The headings of the columns of the new grids are therefore '-ce, ce, ci, cy'. Words to read are provided in each column and then an additional blank proforma grid is included to add words found in wider reading or given by the teacher - or to provide a proforma for 'grapheme searches' using the I can read text level material and for spelling tests/practice or handwriting practice.

Similarly, two A4 sheets (landscape) follow the next group of letter/s-sound correspondences, and the next and the next and so on.

It is up to the teacher to decide whether to use these additional sheets or not.

This decision may be based on the age and stage of the learners. The teacher needs to consider the level of the vocabulary and whether it is appropriate to develop the Sounds Book lessons.

The teacher may decide to use the additional material at the time of introduction of the new letter/s-sound correspondences - or at a later date for revision - or simply to create a 'word' or 'spelling' file for the learner/s to build up their bank of spellings and vocabulary.

These are the type of decisions that are the responsibility of the teachers with their many varied settings and learners. At least by having the material and proformas available, this will be labour-saving and may inspire ideas for good use of the programme's resources.
Last edited by debbie on Wed Mar 26, 2008 8:38 am, edited 1 time in total.
Debbie Hepplewhite
Kat
Posts: 14
Joined: Sun Oct 21, 2007 12:05 pm
Location: Ireland

Post by Kat »

Hello Debbie,

I've just glanced at this new material and it looks great.

I know my Y6/7 colleague in particular will love it- I don't think any of the the rest of our staff will get as far as it with our EXPLICIT teaching this year.

However I intend to print out and enlarge the 'landscape' sheets and do some revision work on them with my class- as they do 'draw' together' some material from earlier units,which we will have covered

They also provide extension incidental blending material to be used if/when one of the alternative correspondences arises. As many frequently occuring words involve these correspondences, I regularly find myself pointing to the relevant rows on the Alphabetic Code Chart, revising the familiar alternatives and incidentally introducing or revisiting the 'not as yet explicitly taught' correspondence.

Next time this happens, I will then draw their attention to the relevant column on the 'landscape' chart and challenge them to sound out and blend to read the words- depending on ability


Some of the words are perhaps a little complex for the age 4-6 group that I teach- but I love having the opportunity to extend their vocabulary in this way - even though only a small number of children will retain specific words immediately.

The fact that the words are on display, will provide the opportunity to revisit them each time the correspondence crops up and so more children will begin to retain them. The children will also learn to put these words into context in sentences.

I know the higher ability children will enjoy browsing these charts independently.

Incidentally, for many Irish accents, as I've said before, the schwa /u/ effect isn't really relevant as we do in fact tend to pronounce words such as centre, colour, sister with a pretty definite /er/, but teachers can simply adapt the charts and lined templates to accomodate this.
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