Competency 6: Phonics and Sight Words: Instruction and Assessment

RICA Reflection

Competency 6: Phonics and Sight Words: Instruction and Assessment

Introduction

RICA Competency number six addresses the fundamentals of teaching phonics. There are systematic, direct and explicit ways in which to instruct phonics.  

Personal Connection/Evidence

There are a many ways that I have engaged with this competency.

I have taught my tutees about sounding out and blending of regular VC and CVC words. We have done a mini lesson of putting different VC sounds (am, it, up, op) together and formed words out of them.  We added different beginning letters to form a new word and we would either draw a picture and/or write a sentence using the new word.

The book states "Teachers should look at the stories students will read and teach those high-frequency words before students read the text" (RICA p.52). During my guided reading, I noticed that were “words to know”so I made sure to read with them and help them read those words so they were familiar to them when they read them on their own. These sight words helped them feel accomplished as they were reading the story. For a list of high frequency words click here

Meeting the Needs of All Learners

English Language Learners or speakers of nonstandard English will need to have a little more practice in the areas of transferring the knowledge skills in their native language to English, knowing that some of those sounds do not exist or transfer, and re-teaching sight words if needed.

Struggling readers and students with reading disabilities will need to have more help with phonics skills, sight words, and spelling. The teacher may have to focus on sight words and phonic skills that are lacking, attaching examples to certain words so the words become more of a concrete concept. There will also an accommodation for extra practice for the students such as word sorts.

Assessment

There are several ways in which to assess the students to find out if they are progressing. Decode in isolation, decode in context, and assess sight words.  There are also entry-level, progress-monitoring, and summative assessments. When decoding in isolation, you will ask the student to read aloud a list of words that you have been working on to check for progress. Decode in context is when the student reads part of a story that incorporates the sounds that you have been working on. Entry-level, progress-monitoring, and summative assessments are assessments that the teacher will administer when needed to check progress along the way.

Text-to-Text Connections

“Word recognition suggests a process that involves immediate identification. Immediately recognized words are retrieved rapidly from lexical memory. Word recognition is sometimes referred to as sight-word recognition or sight vocabulary.”

(RLTR p. 181)

“Today, teachers who hold a comprehensive and contemporary literacy philosophy do not adhere to a single approach; they plan instruction using a variety of strategies and materials.” (RLTR p.185)

“Word recognition suggests a process that involves immediate identification. Immediately recognize words are retrieved rapidly from lexical memory. Word recognition is sometimes referred to as site word recognition or site vocabulary.” (RLTR, p. 181)

TPE Connections

TPE 2: Monitoring Student Learning During Instruction

TPE 3: Interpretation and Use of Assessments