| Subject: Unfamiliar or Archaic Words |
Author:
Pamela Christie
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Date Posted: 06:57:41 01/30/08 Wed
The ‘Bangers and Mash Phonics Programme’ has a phonic reading scheme, which is well established at our school. ‘Sound Start’ has been introduced recently through being carried out by the local linked Infant School. They found the reading book scheme successful with their pupils and recommended its continuity for pupils transferring to our Junior School from their school.
Bangers & Mash
Bangers and Mash base their core reading books on a careful structure to provide continuity and progression in reading and phonic awareness. I found there were words that the children did not recognise or understand their meanings some examples were: –
· Flop
· Prods
· Plop
To support the children I used a multi-sensory approach to explain the meanings of the words by using: -
· A Kinaesthetic approach: Flop – I said to the children “ I’m tired, (yawned) I’m going to flop on to the chair”. I encouraged the children to observe my movement and say the word ‘flop’.
· A Tactile/Visual approach: Prod – I asked a child to* poke a teddy bear with her finger and I asked the other children to say, (playfully) “ Oh don’t prod teddy he won’t like it”! *I did explain to the children that poke meant the same as prod.
· An Auditory approach: Plop – For this word I filled a bowl with water and dropped a stone into the water. I asked the children to listen and say what sound they heard when the stone was dropped into the water; each child said it sounded like ‘plop’.
Through using these multi-sensory approaches to learn the unfamiliar words the children could make sense of the words and know their meanings. It also gave them a way to remember them if they came across them in the text again when they were reading. I did check if the children had remembered the words in the next learning session; each child could remember the words and how they learnt them.
In each reading book there is information to the parents/teachers about the aim of the series being presented in the reading scheme. The aim lists the main sounds and language under the headings of short vowels, double consonant endings, rare phonic words and sounds etc. There is no heading for unfamiliar words in the text the children would come across when reading the books. As this reading scheme is familiar to our Learning Support Assistants we know that these words exist in certain reading books. To resolve this problem we use a multi-sensory teaching approach and methods to support the children with learning unfamiliar words.
Sound Start
Soundstart is a carefully levelled reading programme, which combines a clear phonics structure. The reading scheme creates a gradual approach with decodable texts that introduce phonic patterns, sight vocabulary, speech and sound-letter correspondence,
which is recognised by children. I looked through a wide selection of the phonic books at different levels and found more than a few words that the children would find unfamiliar e.g.: -
· Indeedy
· Whether
· Boomed
· Bobbing
The words ‘whether’ and ‘indeedy’ are words that we don’t really use much in modern English language. Children with Dyslexia would get confused between the words ‘whether’ and ‘weather’, (as would other children). The strategy I would instigate to support the children would be a drill and practice approach, by using flashcards of the words (segmented) and their meanings, To double-check the children are able to recognise the difference between the words ‘whether’ and ‘weather’ give the children both words and their meanings. Another way to distinguish between the two words would be word and picture association e.g. picture of the sun, snow, and rain to represent the word ‘weather’. For the word ‘indeedy’ a picture of a cowboy with a speech bubble saying Yes indeedy! To emphasise the word say it in an exaggerated American accent, (word meaning also would be included on the flashcard). The children then could be given a challenge to learn the words, their meanings and say them to an adult.
In connection with the words ‘boomed’ and ‘bobbing’ these words are onomatopoeia words. The word ‘boomed’ can be learnt through voice tone to show them it means loud by saying the word. It then can be explained that the word sounds like the thing it is describing. To support the children further use word and picture association showing a picture of a ringmaster in the circus arena standing by a cannon with a speech bubble with the word b o o m! written in it. To reinforce the word ‘bobbing’ use movement and ask the children to move up and down saying the word bobbing. It would be a good idea for the children to write these words in a notebook and the adult supporting them check each session if they can say and remember the words and their meanings. These are the strategies and methods I’d use if carrying out this phonics programme. The programme did not have a glossary to tell teacher /parent about unfamiliar or archaic words that children would come across in certain reading books of the phonic scheme.
Giving the children a multi-sensory choice to learn will encourage and motivate them, as they are learning through their own preferred learning style. It also creates a learning environment where children want to learn and are confident enough to try through being supported appropriately.
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