Hellloooo, I am working with prek-4/5 and I have separated students into small groups according to their letter recognition and letter sound assessment. Now I'm just trying to figure out what I need to do with all 3 groups of students. (4 in a group) 2 of the groups knew either all or almost all of their letters and letter sounds. The last group did not know all of their letters and hardly knew any letter sounds. SO I am doing some phonics whole group but I know this is not really benefitting all of the students because it's too hard for some and not challenging for others. What do you do with the groups? I'm not really sure where to start with each group and what to do with the phonics book I was given. Students are still young so I don't want to have way way too high expectations of them. BUT it's not fair to many of the kids who already know their letters and letter sounds. So what's the next step? I was thinking about working with the two higher groups on letter and word blending. Then do I just work with the lower groups on some of the other phonics pages which focus on learning each letter individually? Thanks for any help or clarification of my mish-mash.
With the high group that knows all the letters and sounds, I would focus on learning high frequency words. In my curriculum (Open Court) prek kids learn 20 high frequency words, starting in early October. They LOVE this, and if it is not part of your curriculum, you could do it with the higher kids and not worry about the lower ones missing out on something that you are supposed to be doing with them. With the lower group I would do a lot of hands on things learning letters- stamps, magnetic letters, etc. Since your group is so varied, like most are, I would also suggest a morning message if you don't already do one. I started morning message last year and it is the absolute easiest way to differentiate with something like this! You know what the kids know, so you can have your lower ones come up and find letters, while your higher kids circle words, etc. It's a great tool!!
I sort my groups by ability as well. Normally one higher, 2 medium and 1 low. My higher groups get the same center as everyone else but it is expounded upon by challenges. The lower group gets more one on one and some of the "simpler" teachings. I also do the morning message with whole group, but I hadn't thought of having the higher kids finding words, but that is a great idea!
I do do morning message, but I also hadn't thought of having the lower kids find letters and the higher kids find words, etc. Thanks for the tip!
How do you teach your HF words? Is it just by flashcards? I was thinking of some fun sensory activities I could do. Like the shaving cream, and have the higher groups make words and the lower groups make letters and do the letter sounds while writing with the shaving cream. We have started a few HF words daily with flashcards.
In my curriculum we learn the word by using it in short sentences with rebus pictures. For example, our first word is "my." I have a card that says "my" and several pictures of different toys. The kids come up and read sentences on the pocket chart ("my car" "my ball" "my doll") using the words and pictures. I introduce the word and picture cards on Monday and do some choral reading with everyone. Then Tuesday and Wednesday I let them play "pass the card and pointer." I use the pictures to make 2 different sentences adn they get to put the word card in teh right place, point to the words and read the sentence they chose, and then pick a person to pass the card and my hand pointer to so that they can get a turn. This is always a big hit. Then on Thursday and Friday we read our predecodable books (books I photocopy from the curriculum book, using the same picture and word cards that we have seen through the week. As we learn more words, they are incorporated into the books and the sentences. It's great, the kids really enjoy it and they pick them up so quickly!
I used to do my theme lesson by small groups, based on ability and not just age. If we were looking for pictures of food for our caterpillas (eric carle's very hungry caterpillar), I would have the strong group idenify food and cut out pictures. the lower group can just point to the food, and tear out pictures. then, the next day, we would paste the pictures on construction paper. the older/stronger ones could draw their own caterpillars. I would dictate what the younger ones scribbled. My caterpillar ate 2 donuts, but he was still hungry! I also teach self help skills in small group. Tying shoes, cutting straight lines, putting on jackets, anything that certain kids seem to be weak in consistently. The advanced ones become helpers. Then I start the group and walk away.
