The Theory:
My most “stellar” moment (said with tongue in cheek) as an
Early Years consultant occurred during a discussion of phonics. While the
caterer was setting out lunch at the back of the room, I was responding to a
question by explaining that letter and sound recognition are a constrained set
of skills. “This means that once you have the ‘A-ness of A,’ you don’t need to
keep practicing the ‘A-ness of A.’ It won’t give you any deeper understanding
of the ‘A-ness of A.’” If you have said this out loud to yourself as you are reading,
you will know why people were starting to smile, and why the caterer was now turning
to stare at me. Taking these social cues in, I started to listen to myself as I
kept talking and heard myself use the phrase aloud. “That just doesn’t sound
right.” People joined in the laughter, and the caterer shook his head and
closed the door to the room. Sigh.
However, the “A-ness of A” did stick in my mind. How can I
really meet students’ needs in this department and not waste precious time
having some of them practice an understanding that they already have? While we
want to allow for the time needed for development, we want to be spinning
wheels when that is not needed. It takes knowledge of about 19 of the 26 letter
sounds to be able to start reading. Research tells us that for most students,
if they leave Kindergarten reading at about a level 5/D, they are more likely
to meet provincial standard on Grade 3 EQAO, then later succeed on Grades 6 and
9 EQAO standards, and exit high school successfully. Hence part of the reason
for Full Day Kindergarten… we are affecting their life’s path and choices. No
small amount of pressure!
My Question:
How can we meld the research-supported need for systematic
phonics instruction, within the play-based environment in a differentiated way
to support the learning of specific individuals?
The Practical:
In considering how this might actually happen, we were
juggling a number of important factors:
· Children learn best when they play
· Student choice leads to higher levels of engagement
· Sensory experiences support deeper learning
· They don’t need to practice what they already know!
· We need to support the sight, name and sound recognition, as well as printing of the letters
· They will all be in different places in terms of what they know
And thus the “Great Differentiated Phonics Coaching
Experiment” was launched one week ago!
We have the great good fortune of having a volunteer Grade
4-5 class willing to be our Kindergarten Coach Buddies. They are benefiting through the character
education, social and coaching skills end of this experiment.
What this looks like…
Our Coach Buddies join us right after morning announcements.
They come into the classroom and pick up their buddy’s letter card from a chart
stand. A letter card is in each K child’s pocket. We also post a daily “Coach’s
Tip” to support their coaching skills.
On the front of the card is the letter, and the “Jolly
Phonics” ™ action that we use with it. On the back of the card is the
“Handwriting Without Tears” ™ method for making the letter. We are focused on
the lower case letters.
Their Kindie buddies know the choices that are available to
them to practice their letter in different centres in the room. For this time
only, the numbers at those centres are limited (happy faces on photos indicate
numbers of Kindies that can be there) and Kindies have to stay at the activity
of their choice for the entire time. A choice board is available as a reminder.
The Coach buddies coach their Kindie partners in ‘creating’
their letter while practicing the name of the letter and the sound.
After ten minutes, all clean up together. Finally the Coach
Buddies returning pertinent activities to their designated shelves and the
letter cards back to the pocket chart on their way out. The Kindies come to the
carpet for the next phase of their day.
What I have learned in this first week…
So far it is working with great success! Keeping it short
keeps those who would normally want to move on to another activity willing to
stay in place. Naturally there are some Coaches who need… hmm shall we say…
“more modelling” of how to be coaches. I will be popping into their classroom
on my prep to do some roleplaying and demonstrating of ‘how to actively support
your Kindie.’
I have quickly realized that I need to follow the “K.I.S.S.”
principle…. “Keep It Simple Sweetheart!” My first thought was that I’d need to be
testing their letters constantly to see if they were ready to move on to the
next one. Rethink! (Seriously, let’s get real… with 30 kids, would I be able to
do this every week and do any other assessment or instruction!) Yet how long do
I want a poor three year old to practice the A-ness of A’ if they are just not
developmentally ready to absorb it yet? Let’s move on and ensure frequent
exposure! So I am switching the cards
every couple of days, currently keeping within the set of Jolly Phonics ™ sounds
we are singing. And “Hey” (light bulb moment) – I have these Coaches that can
certainly check their prodigies themselves!
The coaches of those students who know most of their letters
just checked them for letter recognition and sound recognition. They all still
have a few to work on, and I need to start scrambling to create the sight word
component of this experiment. More on that in a future blog!
Obviously only one week into this experiment, it is too soon
to say if this will make a significant difference! I will share more in a
future blog about our learnings as we go along!
Next blog: My early phases of capturing the learning.
