In this blog I will be explaining the thoughts and ideas of Sian and I within the planning process of the Systematic Synthetic Phonics Virtual Learning Environment.
At the beginning we chose to focus on the Phase Two section within Letters and Sounds just like a teacher would do in the classroom for a half-term (6 weeks). We wanted to create a resource that would promote social constructivism between the children and a method of allowing parents/carers to have an active participation in their child’s phonics learning. The first week we used as a recap and an elicitation to gain an understanding of how confident the children are on Phase One as we asked the children to record environmental sounds, focus on what they can hear and comment on each other’s what they had heard.
Throughout the planning process Sian and I became aware writing instructions would mean the parents/carers would have to read them out for the children to complete homework tasks as the children are still only learning to read. To support the children we had the idea of recording our voices to explain the tasks or using videos to demonstrate the homework tasks which the children could use instead of reading the text. Another potential issue we had in our minds is the need for the homework tasks to be quick and as engaging as possible so the children enjoy doing them and it is also a great opportunity for parents/carers to show an interest in their child’s school work. For any parents/carers we added a section for them to have a read of the purpose of phonics and how best to support the children throughout the half-term. Because of this, some of the writing for the homework tasks is more for the parents than the children.
The basic plan we had looked like this:
Week 1:
H/W- Recap Phase 1, Video what they can hear and comment on each others.
Lesson- Environmental Sounds Flip Cards, what is making that sound?
Week 2:
H/W- s a t p: Crazy stir fry/ silly soup. How many things can the children find around the house beginning with the selected letter?
Lesson: Rhyming Cards, which of the words rhyme and do you know why?
Week 3:
H/W- i n m d: Treasure hunt/ collecting objects.
Lesson: Geraldine the Giraffe, can the children name something that has that grapheme in?
Week 4:
H/W- o g c k: Wordsearch of words containing these graphemes and then creating a drawing/song/poem based on the words that they have found.
Lesson: Bingo with VC, CVC and tricky words.
Week 5:
H/W- ck e u r: Image recall of words containing these graphemes. Children will see a collection of objects, they will need to use their phonetic knowledge to know if the images contain the sounds that they are looking for.
Lesson: Phonics Bug/ Game (Spelling)
Week 6:
H/W- h b f ff: Assessment/ quiz
Lesson: Creating a shared story using words that the children have learnt overall in the unit.
From this plan we split the work and both did three week’s resources. For example, the assessment/quiz at the end of the half-term’s work we wanted to use as a “How much have the children learnt from Phase Two”. Intervention could then be implemented to support any children with gaps in their knowledge. At this stage before the school meeting we have almost a skeleton of the VLE resource and things are still to be added or adapted. So at the moment it’s quite exciting to see how it will turn out in the end!