Part 2. Language Related Ideas:
It may seem odd to have these among so much math stuff,
but I’ve already put a few
language related games in my Games booklet. Most of these grew out of
what I was
doing in the number games, but the class Arithmetic Game actually came
about
because of the success I had with the class Spelling Game.
Please have a look at the end of the Games booklet to see those that
promote practice
of letter recognition, alphabetical order, word discrimination,
spelling, and more.
Syllables:
I found the practice of syllable recognition to be very useful as it
related directly to
vowels, spelling, and reading.
One little activity song I learned somewhere was used often early in
each year, and
fairly frequently thereafter.
It was popular, flexible, and allowed a great deal of learning about
syllables.
EVERYONE: (Pretend to hold a bee in your two hands and sway it to the
left and right
with the rhythm.) “Hickety - Tickety Bumble Bee,
Can you say (sing, clap, tap, step,...) your name for me?”
ONE CHILD, eg: “Har - ry” (two claps, and give help when it’s needed)
EVERYONE: “Har - ry, Har - ry” (two claps, two claps)
Then start again with a new person.
I soon began to print the children’s names on the chalkboard in groups
according to
the number of syllables in a name, although we referred only to the
number of claps at
first. Most of the time there were a few one syllable names, a lot of
two syllable names,
and very few three syllable names. Rarely was there a four syllable
name.
The names allowed us to note that vowel sounds occurred in all the
syllables. Four
syllable names would have at least four vowels , with at least one
vowel per syllable.
One syllable names had one vowel sound, made by one or two vowels.
We also discussed shortened names and nicknames, such as Jo for Joanne.
This
caused a lot of interest as we wondered why it was done, and heard of
many
shortened pet names used at home.
When the names were familiar we substituted “this word” or “a word” for
“name” in the
song. I would then say a word for a child to clap, tap, or sing in
syllables. Frequently
we used the names of familiar objects, such as vegetables, animals, and
flowers.
Children could also be challenged to have their own word ready when
their turn came.
8.
I changed the song activity once in awhile to “Hippety - Hoppity little
frog, Can you tap
this on a log?”
Now I am not a singer, but I managed to come up with a tune the
children were content
to follow. They didn’t know any better!
Don’t be afraid to make up your own.
Vowels:
The English language is riddled with exceptions to rules, but
children can still learn a
few basic ones about vowels that usually work. Along with a knowledge
of syllables
this can aid their ability to read and spell new, simple new words.
Studying syllables allows one to demonstrate that the five vowels, and
‘y’ appear far
more often than other letters. In fact they may be the only letter in a
syllable.
All the other letters we call consonants. Consonants mainly have one
sound, with a
few exceptions. Vowels have two main ones, their long and short sounds.
I demonstrated why these might be called ‘long’ and ‘short’ by running
my fingers
along a ruler as I said one of each type in a normal fashion. The
children could do this
too. Saying a long vowel always carried the fingers farther, and of
course the long
sound was easiest to remember since it was the letter’s name.
Together we slowly made up a chalkboard chart that demonstrated the
combinations
of consonants (c) and vowels (v) that seemed most often to result in
the two main
sounds vowels had; their long and short sounds.
Long Vowels Short Vowels
L1: vce (ate) S1: vc (at)
L2: cvce (late) S2: cvc (hat)
L3: cvvc (leap)
L4: vvc (oat)
L5: cv (so)
Except for L5, long vowel sounds tend to happen when two vowels occur
in one
syllable and the second is silent. This old rhyme is a memory aid:
“When two vowels go walking,
The first one does the talking,
And it says its own name.”
Another set I found useful after dealing with the above were the vowels
with ‘r’ after
them (vr). They came in three basic sounds: 1. ar 2. er, ir, ur 3. or.
9.
These became more complicated when a final ‘e’ was added (vre). Some
changed,
but some did not.
The same was true when we had ‘w’ after the vowel (vw) and again with a
final ‘e’
(vwe).
Along with this we did study consonant sounds, and consonant
combination sounds,
such as ‘ph’, but vowels were most important.
Phonics:
I’m not trying to push phonics to any great extent, and that’s what
we’ve been talking
about here.
I believe a knowledge of phonics is important, but it can also be
overdone, especially
in the early grades.
I believe that readers (readers being text books designed just for
reading instruction)
with a phonetically controlled vocabulary are the best for most
beginners.
During most of my last 14 years of teaching I had Grade 1, or 2, or
both in my class.
Sometimes I taught Grade 3 as well.
I had many children come into my class unable to read, or read well,
after a year or two
of instruction. I received a lot of praise from anxious parents when
these children
began to read within a few months.
The praise was misdirected.
I had kept a set of beginning readers that were carefully constructed
phonetically. At
the same time they were about familiar animals, a very appealing
subject for young
children.
These were what really allowed the children to learn to read. Along
with them went a
set of workbooks to allow further reading, practice with words and
sounds learned,
and an extension of these. Of the two, the readers were the most
important tool.
These readers,Sun Up, A Happy Morning, A Magic Afternoon,
and more, were out of
favor. They were linked to phonics, and phonics was out of favor with
the decision
makers. However, even though many classes had them at one time, and now
had the
‘up to date’ readers, it was difficult to get these books.
Specialist teachers who dealt with reading problems ‘borrowed’ them for
their own
use. “Old-fashioned” teachers hoarded them.
If they were so useful, why not get more of them? Well, they were out
of print. They
weren’t made anymore. Why? Because those in charge of buying new books
were
not in favor of the phonetically based readers. Why?
I had also held onto a set of beginning readers that were a bit more
difficult and less
phonetically controlled, and these we used as well. I found a lot of
practice at first with
books that at least appeared easy was very important in developing
confidence.
Confidence in reading is just as important as it is in math, and that
is very important!
Self doubt leads to backtracking and a loss of focus on the whole
thought being
worked with.
If you spend too much time looking at the trees you can get lost in the
forest.
10.
Spelling and Story Writing:
I’ve always felt the most important part of writing stories in the
younger grades was the
expression of connected thoughts, thestory itself and not the
appearance of the final
product. For this reason I never made a big fuss about spelling, even
with Grade 3’s.
Neatness too was not a prime concern. I seldom asked for a second copy,
unless
there was a good reason, such as to have stories for display.
Most stories were just read aloud by the writer to the whole class or
to a small group.
I felt there was a time for learning to print neatly, a time for
learning to spell correctly,
and a separate time to practise the expression of one’s thoughts
through writing.
Many young children are slow to express their thoughts, not because
they can’t think
of words, but simply because they don’t know how to form them on paper.
They have
a problem with spelling and they don’t like to put down something they
are sure is
spelled wrongly. Telling them spelling doesn’t count is of little help.
They have their
own standards.
I know many teachers make a habit of providing the spelling of words
that are holding
up a child’s story telling, just as I did. Where I would differ would
be in the practise of
requiring a child to look up, or enter the word, in alphabetical order,
in some kind of
spelling dictionary. The children in these classes were to consult this
dictionary before
asking the teacher. After trying this method for a few years I decided
this was too slow
a process and it interfered with the child’s train of thought for too
long.
I preferred to have a large set of small blank papers available. When a
child came to
me I simply wrote their word on a sheet and they carried it away. Many
times there
were several words needed and they were all printed on the same sheet.
If a child
came back a second time they would bring their little sheet with them.
When they had
no more use for the sheets they threw them away.
I know this seems wasteful in more than one way, but it has it’s
advantages.
One not so obvious one is to counter some children’s natural tendency
to avoid extra
work. That is, some children may reconsider the idea of asking for the
correct spelling
of a word if they are sure they are going to have to do a lot more with
that word than
just copy it into their story.
However if it just means getting up to walk over to a friendly person
for a little
individual help, well, that’s not work.
Besides, some of the children had to ask me to spell entire sentences.
At times I would have to ask the others to do their best while I dealt
with some children
who, at first, could not form a sentence, let alone a story. They were
given priority.
They might be able to come up with only one word, or two disconnected
words, but we
would work together to form a thought they seemed to want to express. I
would print
out a sentence, or more, and they would happily go back to copy their
ideas onto their
paper.
Gradually all such children came to me with more of their thoughts
formed in their
minds, and with spelling as the more major concern.
11.
A final word on this subject is that children need to read these
stories to someone very
soon after the writing of them, especially the children having the most
difficulty.
Their thinking vocabulary outstrips their reading vocabulary.
Even reading to one another in small groups can satisfy their need to
know that
someone else has listened to what they were trying to say.
Rhyming Words, and more:
Children really like rhyming words. I found they were a great
device for getting
children to practice phonics, spelling, and reading skills.
I made up little booklets where one rhyming word was placed on the last
page, on stiff
paper, and the other pages were shorter and made of ordinary paper. The
last page
was made so the portion of the word that would rhyme stuck out beyond
the other
sheets.
For instance, if I chose ‘lake’ as the word on the last page I would
leave the ‘ake’
sticking out. On the top sheet I could print the letter ‘m’ and what
was visible on the
two sheets would form ‘make’. On the other sheets I could print ‘l’,
‘J’, ‘sh’, ...
I had a large number of these booklets and they all worked the same
way.
By reading one word the children could easily figure out a lot more.
I made up larger sheets, using stiff paper, that did a similar job.
‘ake’ would have been
printed in the center and circled. Around the outside of it were
printed all the
beginning letters for rhyming words ending with ‘ake’. Because of the
type of paper I
was able to make another set on the other side of the sheet.
We also had similar booklets and sheets to the above where the beginning
of the word
was always the same and the ending changed. In the above booklets the
pages were
stapled together on the left. In these booklets they were stapled on
the right.
I chose a word such as ‘chose’ and printed it on the stiff paper used
as a last page.
Then I stapled smaller sheets to the right side of the last page so
they would cover all
but the ‘ch’ in ‘chose’. On these sheets I printed word endings that
would work with
’ch’.
For instance, I could have printed ‘ase’, ‘ip’, and ‘alk’ to form
‘chase’, chip, and ‘chalk’.
Most of the time these were used as extra activities when other work
was finished,
sometimes individually and sometimes in pairs.
Questions:
Despite their reputation for being full of questions, I’ve found that
children do need
instruction and practise in asking others for information.
Early each year we would have frequent short sessions to practise
forming specific
questions of different types.
Show and Tell provided opportunities to form and ask questions, to
practise paying
attention to questions others had asked, and to practise remembering
answers
already given.
12.
Part 3. General:
I’m going to mention three sets of activities that relate to both math
and language skills,
those that developed a better familiarity with the concept of left and
right.
At times when a little break was needed I would have all the children
stand and face
me. I would then direct them to make specific jump turns.
At first it was just, “From where you are, jump to your left.”
I would then face the way they had originally faced, hold out my left
hand, and jump in
the direction that hand pointed to. Later I would only say something
like, “All of you
should be facing the window side of the room”.
When they were more sure of themselves I started to ask them to take a
certain
number of jumps in a certain direction, such as, “Take two jumps to the
left. ... You
should have passed the window wall and have your backs to me.”
The kind of jumps they were taking were actually one quarter of a
circle at a time.
Later we started talking about the jump turns in fraction terms. I
would say, “Take 3
quarter jumps to the left. ... Now take 1 quarter jump to the right.
... Do you have your
back to me? Did you pass the window wall?”
We also used this to practise the cardinal directions, north, south,
east, and west.
I could remind them they were facing south and then ask them to, “Jump
to the left until
you are facing west. ... How many quarter jumps did you take?”
With the older children we got into more complicated one-eighth jumps,
and terms
such as ‘northwest’.
It was also possible to get into the topic of degrees and learn that a
quarter jump turn
covered 90 degrees of the 360 degrees in a complete turn. This led to
the notion of a
right angle.
I certainly can’t put down here everything you might do, but I hope
I’ve said enough to
give you some ideas.
A less active but still enjoyable practice was to have everyone follow
directions such
as:
“Put the thumb of your left hand on your right shoulder”.
“Put your right hand pointer finger under your right eye, and your left
hand thumb to the
top of your right ear.”
The more complicated ones were always good for a lot of giggles.
Another activity was to have one child stand and follow directions such
as, “Take 5
steps forward, turn to your left, and take 3 steps backwards”. Soon the
children could
become the director and learn to steer someone acting as a robot from
one part of the
room to another.
This was not an activity all could participate in at once, but it was
one they could use
during their play times outdoors. Of course we had to be certain the
’robots’
understood they had the capacity to ignore any directions that could
harm them.
13.