Phonics

Phonics is a way to connect phonemes (sounds) to graphemes (letters). Phonics are needed for the student to learn how to decode a word. According to Reading Rockets, "successful decoding occurs when a student uses his or her knowledge of letter-sound relationships to accurately read a word." In Phonics They Use, the author mentions that students need to use their letter-sound relationship to figure out how to spell unfamiliar words as well as reading unfamiliar words. Without knowing the letter-sound relationships, a person wouldn't be able to spell a word correctly because he/she wouldn't know how to decode. Consonants and vowels are also a big part of phonics. Consonants are letters whose sounds are either blocked by lips, teeth, or tongue. Vowels are letters whose sounds are open and stream of air isn't blocked. Consonants and vowels are important because if someone didn't understand them, then he/she would have a hard time learning the rules of consonants and vowels as well as spelling a word. Syllables are also important when it comes to learning how to decode a word. Syllables help people learn how to spell because it allows the person to split a word up into sections to make it easier to spell. For example, if someone is trying to decode "table," he/she will split table up into "tab" and "le." The person knows how to spell "tab" and so he/she puts "le" at the end to make "table."

http://www.readingrockets.org/reading-topics/phonics-and-decoding

Examples of Activities for 4th Grade

Homophone Bingo!

Syllable Patterns

Good for ELL Students

In this activity, the teacher needs a game board that has numbers on it, chips for game pieces, and syllable cards with the number of syllables on the back.

First, the teacher pairs the students up and then hands each pair a game board, chips, and a set of syllable cards. The syllable cards are put down face up. The students place the game pieces (chips) at START. Player one picks up the first card, and tries to figure out how many syllables the word has. Once the student has made their guess, they turn over the card to see if he/she got the correct number. For example, if the student draws the word "carbohydrate" and says that it has four syllables, then he/she would turn over the card to see if it is correct. If he/she is correct, then he/she moves their game piece to the next corresponding number (in this case it would be the number four). If the student gets the wrong amount, then he/she doesn't get to move their game piece and player two gets to go. This keeps going until one of them reaches the END.

This is best played in partners.

In Phonics They Use, the author mentions that students need to be able to separate "words into... components." What this means is that students need to be able to count how many syllables are in a word. This is a good game to use because it helps the students learn how to count how many syllables are in a word. Syllables can also help the student learn how to spell the word. If the student can separate the word by syllables, then he/she can take one piece at a time to figure out how to spell the word.

This is also a good game for ELL students when the teacher is working with them. When the teacher is working with the ELL student, he/she can give the student a deck of cards that has easier words on them. The student would be player one and the teacher player two. The student would draw a card from the deck; once he/she has the answer, the card is flipped over. If the student gets it wrong, then the teacher helps the student figure out the correct number of syllables. Once the student figures it out, then he/she gets to move their game piece to the next corresponding number. When the teacher goes, instead of the teacher figuring it out, the student would help him/her to figure out the correct number of syllables. Once the correct number is said, the teacher moves their game piece to the next corresponding number. By doing it this way, the ELL student is learning how to figure out the syllables in a word. Once the student is comfortable, let him/her play it like the other students so (meaning if he/she doesn't get it right then he/she can't move their game piece).

One thing I would change is that instead of the corresponding numbers being on the board, the students would get to move their game piece the number of syllables that the word is. For example, carbohydrate has four syllables. Instead of moving to the next four, the student would move four spaces forward. Another thing I would change is that if the student gets the number wrong, he/she has to move back to the next corresponding number. For example, if the student got carbohydrate wrong, then he/she has to move their game piece backwards to the closest four (if the game piece is at START, then it doesn't move). If there is no 4, then the student moves back to START. By doing this, it makes the game last longer. If a student gets the word wrong, then he/she will write down the word that was missed in a section of their notebook that is designated for missed words based on syllables. The student has to get the correct number of syllables five times before the word can be taken off of the list. He/she can only put a check mark next to the word when the word comes up again when practicing syllables.

http://www.fcrr.org/documents/sca/G4-5/45APPartTwo_Syllable_Patterns.pdf

In this activity, the teacher needs Homophone Bingo cards (each card has different words) and a set of homophone cards.

First, the teacher pairs the students up and then hands out two Homophone Bingo cards to each pair as well as a set of homophone cards. Each pair will place their set of cards face down after they have been shuffled (by either the teacher or the students). The first partner will draw a card from the top of the deck. If they have the matching homophone, then he/she will spell out both homophones and then put the card that was drawn on top of the match. For example, if the student draws "arc," he/she will look at their board to see if there is a word that sounds the same to the card that was drawn. In this case, the match would be "ark" and so the student (assuming that he/she has "ark" on their board) would spell out both words and then put "arc" on top of "ark." If the student doesn't have a match, then the card goes on the bottom of the deck and the second partner goes. This continues until one of them says "Homophone Bingo!"

This is best done in partners considering the students have to put the matching homophone on their board. However, this could be played as a class by using chips to mark the match instead of the card that the word is on.

Something I would do differently is having my students write two sentences using each homophone in a sentence once they get a match. This will help them to not only understand how the words are spelled, but also how they look like in a sentence. Another thing I would change is the color of the cards that has the words. It could become confusing if a student gets bingo or not if the board is white as well as the cards. By making the cards a different color, the student will have an easier time figuring out what cards they still need. I would also change how they marked each word. Instead of using cards, I would laminate the bingo cards and then have my students write down the matching word in visa or expo marker. For example, if the word was "arc," then the student would write down "arc" right under the match which would be "ark."

This is a good game for reviewing homophones and how there are words that sound the same, but are spelled differently and have different meanings. It also helps them learn how to decode homophone words because it shows them the different types of spelling for the word. By having them write a sentence, it will help them learn when to correctly use that word in a sentence. For example, "dear" and "deer" sound the same, but have different spelling and meaning. "Dear" is usually used when writing a letter like "Dear John," or can be used to show that you hold something dear to you. "Deer" is used when talking about the animal.

In Comprehension from the Ground Up, the author mentions helping advanced readers to "fine-tune their word skills to include derivational and inflectional affixes, homophones, etc." Homophone Bingo helps the advanced readers to "fine-tune their word skills" by helping them to understand the different types of words that have the same sound but different spelling and meaning.

http://www.fcrr.org/documents/sca/G4-5/45APPartOne_Variant_Correspondences.pdf