5 Resource/Instructional Materials

William Venables

 

     

      Practicum III (MAS 7998)

 

                       

 5 Resource/Instructional Materials

 

   What’s the Difference?

Target Level: Phonological Awareness Readers

            This activity is something that can easily be incorporated in today’s classrooms. In fact,

this is an activity that I will be using for the practicum clinical setting. The child that I am

reading with has a great vocabulary, but seems to have a problem sounding out vowels in bigger

words. Therefore, this activity should definitely help him with sounding out the differences

between vowels. The objective of this activity is to differentiate between two short vowel

sounds. The purpose of the material is to give words to the child so that he/she can sound out the

difference and find the word with a different vowel that does not belong. For instance, after we

go over different words with different vowels and he/she seems to know the difference, I will

then start giving them sets of words where one word is entirely different. Obviously, with the

child that I am observing I will need to use bigger words, but the point of this activity will still be

the same. I will give him four sets of words such as bend, wind, send, lend and he must find the

difference between them. Although this seems easy because wind has the “I,” I believe that it

will make it that much more tricky to figure out because they all have a rhyming feel to them.

This is an activity that I will use in the practicum clinical setting and I also believe that this

activity is not outdated and there is no production cost involved. I do not believe that there are

any weaknesses to this activity unless the child has a speech problem, but even if a child has

trouble with speech it still should not stop him/her from pointing out the different word with the

wrong vowel.

Comprehension: Story Mapping

Target Level: Instructional Reading (good for early readers, but can also be done in all grades)

            This activity is great with helping a student understand and/or identify key parts of a

text’s content. This is something that I will use with my student because he has a great reading

ability and can almost read fluently at a sixth grade reading level. However, he has a hard time

remembering what he was reading. The purpose of this activity is to have him/her fold a piece a

paper until it makes many rectangles and then have him/her write down key information in those

rectangles such as the title, author, characters in story, the plot, setting and solution. This activity

would be perfect for many classroom levels, but especially the elementary level because it will

establish great comprehension to what the students are reading, but it will also increase their

reading ability because they are continuing to read in general. This activity is of no cost to

educators and there are also no weaknesses to this activity. However, there may be a student that

cannot keep pace or does not understand as fast as other students. When this happens an educator

should pull them aside and give them extra help. This activity is great for today’s classrooms and

I do not believe that it will ever be outdated.

Word Folder

Target Level: Instructional Reading (mainly used for the elementary level, but could be used in   the secondary level as well)

            This is an activity that I will not use with my student, but I believe that this is an

outstanding activity that could and should be applicable for today’s classrooms. The objective of

this activity is that students will gain automaticity in reading unfamiliar words. The purpose of

this activity is to identify words that students do not know so that their vocabulary will get better.

Students are given a bag of words and once students identify five of those words without help the

teacher will checkmark those words and the student will be accountable for reading each of those

words whenever they may come up again. This is a very strong activity because it takes words

that students are not familiar with and will basically never let them forget those words again.

However, there is a weakness to this activity but it all depends on the teacher. For instance, if the

teacher does not do this activity much than the student will only have a great understanding of a

few words, but if they continue to do this on a regular basis than there is no weakness because

students are learning more and more words as they go. There is no production cost to this activity

and all teachers should be aware of the impact that this activity can make on a student’s

vocabulary.

        Bingo

Target Level: Fluency Readers (mostly incorporated in elementary, but can be used in secondary if students have a lower reading level than normal)

            This is an activity that increases a student’s knowledge of vocabulary and spelling

patterns. I will not be using this activity for my student because it mainly works better with a

group of students rather than just one. However, this is an activity that never gets old and could

definitely be used in today’s classrooms. The purpose of this activity is to match dictated words

with the corresponding written words on their game boards. Once a student calls “BINGO” they

must be able to read all of the words correctly if not the game continues on until a student can do

so. This is an activity that has so many strengths such as vocabulary improvement. It is also fun

and competitive which always keeps students engaged. The only weakness that can be identified

is that a student or a few students may always lose and become so disappointed that they start

hating the game. At this point, a teacher needs to step in and do whatever he/she can do to help

the student. There really is no production cost to this activity and it can be extremely beneficial

to the students involved in the activity.

Jumping Syllables

Target Level: Phonological Awareness Readers

            This is an activity that is very useful and fun. The objective of this activity is to get

students to identify and manipulate syllables. The purpose of this activity is to get students to not

only recognize the word but to make silly words out of it as well so that they can get better

understanding of the word. For example, if the word is silly than they could make llysi out of it

by moving the beginning of the word. The only weakness out of this activity is if the teacher

does not use this activity to the student’s advantage. The overall purpose of this activity is to

better their understanding of the word. The teacher has to make sure that the student understands

and identifies the word correctly. As long as the teacher makes sure that the student understands

than this will lead to good things such as a stronger vocabulary and a better understanding of

syllables. This is an activity that I used with my student and he excelled with it. He now has a

deeper vocabulary and has a better understanding on how to break down words to say them

correctly. There is no production cost to this and it can be very effective if done correctly