RICA
Domain: Word Analysis
RICA
Competency: Phonics and sight words
Grade
Level: First grade
I
observed Mrs. T teaching phonics to her first grade class. For her anticipatory
set, the teacher asked students if they remembered how to sound out letters.
She held up a card and asked the students to name the letter and make the
corresponding sound. Mrs. T went through most of the letters with the class and
included short and long vowel sounds. After this review of phonemic awareness,
Mrs. T asked the students to sound out parts of the word cat. The teacher
isolated each sound and the student’s responded as a class with /c/ /a/ /t/.
They all held up one finger for the first sound /c/ put up a second finger for
the short /a/ and a third for the /t/ sound. The teacher modeled blending as
she joined all three fingers to say the complete word. She told the class to
repeat this blending method with their “shoulder partner”. This was a great
example of cooperative learning and peer interaction. Next, Mrs. T gave the
students a clipboard with a blank piece of paper and asked them to copy each
sight word on their word wall to their paper. As they were working she told
them to remember that there should be a space between each word. She asked the
students to place the clipboard under their chin so she could check their work
when they were done. When most of the students were finished she read the
sentence “I see a cat.” And asked them to write the sentence while remembering how
to sound out the word. Mrs. T read the sentence three times and told the
students to write it and then write it again if they had time. When they
finished, they held the clipboard under their chin so the teacher could help
them make corrections if needed.
After the lesson, each student placed their paper on their desk and went
to recess. Mrs. T could assess which students needed help with sounding out
their words by viewing their papers. She explained to me that she
differentiates her lesson by allowing English learners to complete their work
later. Her more advanced students are instructed to keep writing. The picture
below shows two student’s work for this activity. One is a GATE student and the
other is an English learner.
The
instructional setting provided various supports for phonics. There is a word
wall with high frequency words, a pocket chart with each letter in upper case
and lower case, and letters of the alphabet with a corresponding animal posted
in front of the class. There are also word maps posted around the room with
words that have similar relationships. When asked how to spell a word, Mrs. T
reminds them to use the clues in her room.
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