PHONEME/ GRAPHEME "NG"
PRE-ACTIVITY "NG" PHONEME
Purpose:
The purpose of this activity is to introduce the “ng” sounds and let children experiment with practicing, listening to, reading, and writing the “ng” sound. The students also practice onset-rime activities to learn about word families which will help them with their reading and spelling.
Material:
Ng card, King picture, phoneme cards, list of words teacher reads to the student, list of words students read to each other
Activity:
Place an “ng” card on the white board with a picture of a king next to it. Practice making the “ng” sound.
Let children sound out different phonemes on separate cards that were put on the whiteboard to spell out easy phoneme words like (k-i-ng, r-i-ng, s-i-ng). The teacher uses onset-rime segmentation exchanging only the first letter. The children sound out each phoneme and then combine the sound sequences to read the word, they then have to draw the word they just read together, they are given 5 min per word. During this activity the teacher can see observe the level of the student’s phonics comprehension. (“Onset/Rime Games: Classroom Strategy,“ 2019)
Read different “ng” words to the children and they have to listen out for the “ng” sound in these words. As you say the phonemes out loud together write the corresponding grapheme in the air to help the children internalize the sound / spelling connections.
Children could read different “ng” words, sound out the phonemes separately and then say the whole word to their partner while their partner spells out the different “ng” words. They can take turns sounding out and spelling the words from the word list.
Differentiation:
Children who have difficulties identifying the graphemes and making phoneme sound, could read the graphemes of the words together with their partner and then copy the word.
- The students can add difficult words to their wonder word sheet.
WORD JUMBLE
Purpose:
This is an activity to help with the reading and spelling of “ng” words.
Material:
Set 1 and 2 with each three pictures and cut up graphemes of the word of these images
Activity:
The graphemes that are used to spell different words represented on pictures and cut up into pieces. The pieces are spread out across the table in a random order. You say ‘go’. The children then need to work as a group of 3-4 to see if they can put them together correctly to spell the words. They can challenge themselves to do it faster with the other set of graphemes. Once finished each student should read one word to their group member.
(“Classroom activities to develop grapheme/phoneme correspondences (GPCs) and decoding,” 2015)
Differentiation:
If the students struggle with sounding out the words at the end, they can also choose the same word as another student and listen to how they sound out each letter and then try to copy the sound.
If this activity is too easy for the students, the students could create their own cut-ups of words and try to put together each other’s words.
"NG" BOARD GAME
Purpose:
The students get to practice their phonemic sounds and seeing and creating real-life context to the words. This activity shows a direct link to the book, all the words and most graphics were taken from the book “Finn’s Feelings”.
Material:
Dice, objects for players, board game
Activity:
The students can play in small groups or in pairs. The students take turns throwing the die and depending on the field it lands on the students have to do different tasks.
Blue puddle: no task.
Green puddles: read the word and think of a sentence with the word.
Red puddle: sound out the phonemes of the word and combine the sounds to create the word.
Differentiation:
Students who struggle with connecting the sounds to make the word can also just practice making the sounds for all the different words and possibly let their teammates help them
Students can also write their own words with “ng” or “th” graphemes and place them on the different fields and play with their chosen words.
WORD MATCH
Purpose:
The students practice their phonemic awareness and through quick games that keeps the students actively engaged. Students often overthink finding the phonemic sounds, this activity will motivate them to go with what comes to their mind first.
Material:
word cards
Activity:
The children each get a set of cards. The students run through the room and on a count down of 10 seconds, the students have to find a partner. The students flip one card and if the cards have the same beginning or end sound, they have to quickly sound out the phoneme and the student who was first get’s the cards. The person who finishes ends up with the most cards in the end wins. (Ellis, 2019)
This activity can be played with 2 or more students. If they are only two students they can also play it sitting
Differentiation:
Students who have difficulties with phonemes, can display a few cards on the table find the one’s with the same graphemes in the beginning or end of the word, think about the sound in their own time and then share it with their partner.
Students could also focus only on finding the words with the same beginning sound and in the next round only end sound.
If it is too easy for the students they could also draw different th-, ng-, ing- or sight- words and use them to play the game.
MORPHOLOGY
Running Detectives
Running detectives is, as the name says, the combination of a running dictation and the idea of students being detectives. The playful aspect and the thoughtful consideration of building different tasks based on this idea, makes the activity to an engaging, learning experience for all students. Children playfully develop an understanding of morphology by first getting familiar with -ing words, then investigating more and developing an overview of word families. This will help them in their memory skills, word awareness, grammar understanding, and writing skills.
PURPOSE
Through this activity, students will improve their morphology skills by investigating -in an active, engaging way.
BENEFITS
Wide range of differentiation
Movement
Collaboration
Play-based learning
Student´s agency
MATERIALS
Decoding cards, supporting cards, recording sheets, box with a lock, word families formular
CLASSROOM SETUP
Students are paired up in groups of two
Decoding cards are hung up on walls within or ideally outside the classroom (in the hallway)
Note: It is most effective to have at least 10 metres between student´s desks and the decoding cards and it is practical to hang them up at different places to avoid crowds in front of them.
HOW IT WORKS
Whole- class group work form
Show students the box and tell them that you wanted to use the material of this box for today´s lesson. However, someone locked it up and now you cannot open it. All you have is the hint that a three-letter code is needed to unlock it. In addition, there are some decoding cards which should help us in finding out what the code is.
Tell students that you need really good detectives now and ask them if there are willing to help you find out what the code is.
Pair them up in groups of two
TASK ONE Explain them what they have to do:
You and your partner´s goal is to fill out the recording sheet
One of you is detective A and the other one is detective B
Detective A starts to run (or walk) to a decoding sheet, remembers the word, goes back to their desk, and tells detective B what word it is. Detective B writes the word down.
After that, you switch roles and detective B runs to the decoding sheet.
You keep doing this until all numbers are filled out.
Everyone of you can freely decide to which decoding sheet he or she wants to go to. The yellow sheets differ from the others because they provide extra support in how to sound the words out. It is up to you if you want to make use of this support or not.
If you struggle with one word, you can use the wonder word sheet to fill in the letters you remembered of it or how you think it is spelled
When you are done, show the green side of your signal cards
The teacher will then come and have a look. If all words are correct, you will get the next hint.
Individual worktime in groups
Observe students while they are solving the task. Focus on them equally taking turns and not being to laud in the hallway.
If they are done, check their papers, support them with their wonder word but do not yet correct spelling mistakes in the -ing words
Give them the next hint:
The code consists of three letters and it is something that all the words have in common
When all students came up with the code ING, you let all of them gather on the carpet and open the box in front of the whole class
Whole- class on carpet
In the box, there are cards with different root words, prefixes, and suffixes
First, use a root word and an -ing ending to explain the concept of basic words and their suffixes. Ideally, use a visualization of a tree to explain
Tell them, that -ing endings are one kind of “branch” and that there others as well, sometimes, it will not only be added at the end of a word, but in front of it
Ask them if there can find an example of another “branch” for the given word “look”
The goal is that students come up with “overlook” for example
Give them the second task
TASK TWO
Create as many combinations as possible with the given cards
TASK THREE
In pairs, have a look at the words on your recording sheets again and start to fill out the word families formular (see word family formular attached) for these words and by doing so, check if you spelled them correctly.
When you are done, show it to the teacher, so he or she can check if every word is written in the correct way.
By doing so, students intuitively understand the advantage of knowing word families because it helps them to determine words they have not learned yet. For instance, a student might not know the word “forgiveness” but he or she recognizes the root word forgive which is already familiar and therefore it will be easier for the child to sound it out, pronounce, and write it. This is a great way of how a teacher can support learners in their self-directed development because instead of just telling them a solution, you provide them with strategies of how they can help themselves.
Differentiation
Differentiation
TASK ONE
Differentiation by grouping: The teacher can pair them up regarding their skill levels, needs or social relations
Differentiation by resource: Decoding sheets will be provided in two different levels of difficulty. Students independently can choose between them which will foster their independence and responsibility for their own learning
Differentiation by support: There will be supporting cards which will help children who are not able to memorize the words because of specific reasons (dyslexia, ADHD, memory problems, language barriers, etc.). They still walk over to the decoding sheets but are allowed to take a card with them to their place. One rule, however, is that they are not allowed to show these cards to their partners but to spell the words as the others do as well. Note: Make sure it is clear who is allowed to use these cards to avoid confusions among the class.
Moreover, all students have the opportunity to make use of the wonder word to get some support when being unsure with a word. This will help them in becoming independent and taking responsibility for their learning.
Differentiation by pace/task: There is a strong likelihood that some students already can read very well, and they will finish the task earlier than others. For these groups, there will be decoding cards with sentences provided (see fellow-activity attached). You can tell them that, since they are detectives, they now have to solve a case. By doing so, their developmental readiness is considered, and they are playfully encouraged to develop further.
TASK TWO
Differentiation by resource: Provide the cards in different colours. Use brown for the root words, green for the affixes and orange for prefixes. This will help students who do struggle with understanding how a word is built up.
TASK THREE
Differentiation by resource: Provide sheets with different examples of the word families for students who are not able to come up with ones by themselves.