word families, etc.,

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Home : 2002 : August : 12

word families, etc.,
By Cathy-Dee

To be honest I don't think there is one perfect way or time line to introduce word families and vowels. All the grade 1 teachers I know tend to follow whatever program they are using and adapt the programs as necessary.

However,
for the most part with grade 1 students you are looking at a lot of repetition to begin with in order for them to fully grasp all the concepts with letter sounds.
I know this is an area I want to refocus myself this upcoming year. Although I do teach all the sounds I want to ensure I am covering as many blends, etc., as I can throughout the year.
One way I plan on doing

this is to set up a year graph - monthly with weekly areas as well where I can just plot in letter sounds, blends, word families I want to cover during those times. This at least will give me a greater chance of staying on track.

As a basic rule (at least for myself)

I start in the months of September and October (sometimes into November) reviewing all the consonant sounds. I only introduce the vowels that I am working on with learning words. The two short vowels that I tend to start with are a and i as they are in many of the sight words we are covering as well as many of the word families. Since a good portion of my students will still be struggling with the consonant sounds I feel I need to start with them.

By mid-November into December and January I will focus much more on all the short vowels. Then in February to April I move into the long vowels and then May and June tends to be more review. Generally I like to teach the short vowels in the following order a, i, o, u and e. I find short e is the hardest sound for many of my students to hear. I also base my spelling program on the short vowels. I start with b words, then move to c words, etc., So my first test would be words like bag, big, bug, bun, bib, bat, beg and so on. This has really helped my students with the short vowel sounds. Once we get through most of the consonants (some I double up because there are few 3 or 4 letter words with them such as the letter v) then I introduce blends and digraphs as well as part of their spelling words.

The area where I know I haven't spent enough time is in word families in general - which I plan on doing each week this year and with blends and digraphs. I always seem to start these too late in the year for me to really cover them sufficiently, so this year I want to ensure I'm introducing them more consistently.

As far as the best way to teach the basic skills - there are so many good programs out there it would be hard to say any one is better than the other.

The best way in my opinion would be to focus on specific sections or sounds at certain points during year but then continue to review those sounds over and over as well. I use phonic songs, poems, alphabet stories that I have written, printing booklet, phonic workbook (plaid phonics) plus a program called Companion Reading. Through all of these different methods I hit each letter and vowel numerous times throughout the year. And quite often within books, sight words, etc., I will also reinforce the sounds. For example when we do the calendar, which day starts with the th sound. Which day has the ur sound. What two letters at the end of the days of the week makes the long a sound. So the students also learn to how to apply what they are learning to everyday reading.

And don't forget much of what we cover in grade 1 continues into grade 2. I don't worry necessarily about covering every single blend or digraph or word family. What I want to do is ensure that what I do cover I cover well and that the students have a firm grasp on as many of the sounds, etc., as they can.

I hope this makes sense, please feel free to email me or post again if you have any questions.