I am currently attempting to earn my reading endorsement and have to take a literacy assessment class. My professor, Deborah White, and the author of our text book which I would highly recommend because it is straight forward and full of practical techniques (Assessment First published by Scholastic), gives instructions for using alphabet charts while teaching phonemic awareness to students on page 65 (*gasp!*). In short (very short), she and her students chant the alphabet while looking at visual representations of each sound. Her example is "A, a, apple /a/, /a/, /a/. B, b, ball /b/, /b/, /b/." This activity benefits students because it addresses multiple ways of learning, it supports English Language Learning, and boosts motivation and interest. But I think there is a way to highlight these benefits. I will explain...
I recently visited Nellie Edge's web site (for whom I have commissioned art in the past and with whom my mother has worked) and discovered she has a CD and Video of the signed alphabet with an emphasis on phoneme exposure. How wonderful it could be to combine these two into a customized song just for your student(s)!
Now, Deborah mentions that we must be careful to avoid some phoneme symbols, like elephant for the letter E sound, because the beginning of the word /el/ephant is the name of the letter "L" and these symbols may strengthen the wrong associations. So this means you will want to research the sign language translations for words to replace misleading ones in Nellie's song. It is always nice to let students choose their own word/letter associations because they tend to be stronger.
Try finding translations at the following sights:
- http://www.start-american-sign-language.com/american-sign-language-dictionary.html
- http://www.lifeprint.com/dictionary.htm
- http://www.aslpro.com/cgi-bin/aslpro/aslpro.cgi
View Nellie's alphabet sign song below and imagine how you might make this work for your class.
As an example I have created an alphabet chart I created to go with this video but I would not use this chart as-is.You can see where some mistakes would be made, especially by ELL students! The nest representing the letter N has an /e/gg in it (confusing). Queen and Jump both require schema that may not be available for all ELLs. And is that world or planet or earth for the letter W? Please modify this before you use it in your classroom.
Fluency Assessment Resources:
easyCBM.com ~ requires user name and password, or click on "demo account" for periodic use.
interventionncentral.com ~ create your own assessment pages and scoring sheets by typing in your own passage. (Other features too.)
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