Check Point #2 - After 3 weeks of using 'clapping hands - phonemic awareness' to help my students write their story without stopping!

What exactly happened in class with my students?

Students stopped whenever they can’t spell an unknown word. They talked during discussions time with the help of the sentence frame but in terms of writing, it was really hard to keep them motivated once they got stuck with a word that they don’t know its spelling.

How did I do it in class?

For 15 minutes every morning, we read a rhyming poem/story, and sang songs. We used some words from our poem to demonstrate clapping hands and record sounds at the same time (on the board). Practice doing that for a while with a small group or the whole class, and allow children to help each other through playing and exploring with peers.

Critique (Pros & Con)

- some students pronounce words differently / wrongly  eg. very as fery, think as fing, with as wif etc and so they record it wrongly (Teachers need to be aware of this and praise the child for the effort)

- however, clapping hands enable students to hear sounds

- clapping is fun and children are engaging because it’s like playing

- it was hard for new entrants because they need to know the associate sounds for each letter first (However, I believe that it is fun for them to try and learn from their peers - they don't have to know all sounds and letter names before doing this)

Final Thought

I think overall, clapping of hands to hear sounds help students write their story independently without stopping.

• PV, JJ, PL (3 students) - I need to think of ways to motivate them to be able to do this independently. They can do it with others but lack of courage to transfer what they know and do it when they write independently.
• Need to make children clap and say the unknown words slowly in order for them to hear sounds.. I have noticed that some students are hearing & recording lots of sounds because they are saying words slowly.

• I also believe that with movement, students learn faster and remember things easier than trying to learn without. For example, clapping of hands is a movement that helps students to remember and identify the sounds of unknown words easily.....WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Next Step:

Next learning goal - adding descriptive words to make their story sounds interesting, and give more details to their story.

Share students problems and successes with parents in a way that it helps students and parents to practice doing the same at home.

Check Point #1: After 3 weeks of using 'sentence frame' to help my students improve their paritcipation in writing.

What exactly happened in class with my students?

During oral discussions with students about a particular topic or whatever, I provided a sentence frame for them to use as a starter. Often students talk but not in a sentence, it would be in one word or couple of words and that's all. Using 'sentence frame' was to help my students to talk more and increase confidence to write more as well.

How did I do it in class?

As I mentioned above, I provided the chn with a sentence frame most of the time during whole class/group discussions. I wrote the sentence frame on a piece of paper and read it to the chn and then we read it together. I gave them an example before I let them start talking.

1. Talk with a pair (Teacher listens to each pair - sometimes add on or prompt for more info)
2. Everyone shares back their story - sometimes I make them share what their partner has said. (using the sentence frame provided of course)
3. Get their book and start writing down their ideas after forming their own sentence.

                                                      

Critique (Pros & Con)

- it was really helpful especially with scaffolding oral language and writing skills.

- anyone in class benefited from using of sentence frame (ESOL or not)

- I think, sentence frame could be used at any time such as in Maths - for learning new mathematical language to explain thinking. (I will be using sentence frame in Maths and other areas, too) - will talk about that later.

- definitely increased students talk, participation, and confidence (independent writers)

- only one con that I think of now - ie. sentence frame could limit the ability of a child to be creative and write what they want to. (One boy in my class can talk without sentence frames but he often wants to copy others in class.)

Final Thought
I think overall, sentence frame really helped my students to be creative and enable them to add more information to their story. I think my students were grateful to have sentence frames as a guide to help them get started with their talk and writing.

Next Step:

support students to hear and record sounds by clapping hands, and using jingles and rhymes for 20 minutes every day. I have noticed that most students stopped writing when come across a word that they don't know. Their confidence to hear and record sounds is very limited.