Step 7 and 8 is where all the skills get put together! It is a great place to see if students have retained the information, plus a perfect place to review previous heart words and phonics patterns. This also most closely mimics what students will be doing in school and in real life.
Step 7) Sentence Writing:
This is how I do it:
1. Teacher speaks the decodable sentence twice and the student repeats the sentence twice.
2. Then there are few variations for sentence writing:
Modeling
In the first variation, the student and the teacher write the sentence together word for word with the teacher taking the lead and thinking aloud to model what it takes to make the sentence. (We both write the sentence, mine on the screen, and theirs on their personal whiteboard)
I continuously refer to CAPS(Capital, appearance, punctuation, spelling) to check my sentence.
Working Together
In this variation, I let the student take the lead but we still write the sentence word for word, that way I can help guide them to make corrections in the moment. I use this technique for students who I have already modeled sentence writing various times, but they have many spelling errors.
Independent Sentence Writing
In this scenario the student does all the heavy lifting as I watch them write. Occasionally I will give a reminder that a certain word is a heart word or to double check their sounds on their fingers for a certain word.
3. Game time!
The sentences are corrected together. Students receive a point for each word spelled correctly to encourage self-checking their work. We use CAPS for our guidance for points. CAPS stands for Capitalization, Appearance, Punctuation and Spelling. Sometimes, if a student is working on letter formation, I introduce a daily double. They can earn double points on each word that the letters are formed correctly. Students are in charge of keeping track of their points by putting a dot under the correct word or correct uppercase letter, etc.
Students tend to get very excited about the points. After they count up their points we do that number of pump ups (or disco moves, jumping jacks, or some type of movement-correlated to points celebration). It’s usually a ten second “celebration”, but it makes the sentence writing portion fun and it is positively focused on what they did correctly. The key to the game is that while we celebrate the accomplishment, the game also gives an opportunity to focus on the errors that help us grow.
*Pro Tip: Sentences are intentional to review past spelling patterns and heart words. Sentences are from the UFLI teacher's manual to ensure accurate and varied review.
**Another Pro Tip: If your student is writing the sentences independently, take a picture of their work before you correct it together so that you can see their progress AND take notes for what to review in next session. You can really notice which picture is from the first day when the student didn't fully grasp the idea of CAPS yet. The difference is noticeable after the student learned how to self checks for CAPS and became exited about getting the most points for his sentence!
PUNCTUATION GAME SENTENCE READING!
This game is fun, simple, and time efficient! The goal is to build fluency by doing repeated readings of one sentence. For the first read I tell them just to focus on decoding the words accurately. The second, third, and sometimes fourth read is when I want them to pay attention to not only reading the words accurately, but also work on expression, and reading smoothly as if they were talking.
How do I gamify it?
The students pretend they are auditioning for a movie and have to read the sentence according to the punctuation. Sometimes I choose if the sentence ends with a capital, exclamation point or a question mark and sometimes I give them the option of choosing. I say, “Ready, set, action!” and they read the sentence accordingly. The game is really that simple. However, this is a difficult skill the students are building!
Oftentimes students will add in or change words when they are focused on trying to read fluently. I will play along in the game and tell the student, “The writer of the script doesn’t want the actor to change the wording… I suggest using your finger to make sure you are reading the exact word that is written on the page.” The game has the perk that the students really learn the importance of punctuation. Sometimes a sentence doesn’t make sense with a question mark and we just laugh that hopefully the writer makes a better punctuation choice!
Stay tuned for the next blog where all the skills get put into practice…the decodable text!
