Helen Barker

Introduction

1. Daily routines and assembly

2. Teaching through topics

3. Literacy: phonics and stories

4. Resources

Daily routines

Classes taught at different times of the day.

• children become familiar with language.

• acceptance of English.

• sometimes helps topic development.

Daily routines

• Snack time (Can you help me, please?)

• Bathroom (bathroom, please; soap, please) (This is the way we wash are hands, wash our hands, wash our hands, this is the way we wash our hands all day long)

• Going home (coats on, line up)

• Classroom (tissue, please; criss-cross) (It’s time to pack up now, it’s time to pack up now, hi-ho just watch us go, it’s time to pack up now)

Assembly

• Greetings

• Group activities (games, songs and working on phonological awareness)

• Unit development work

• Maths?

Assembly

• Songs (good morning, tidying up, be quiet, goodbye etc.)

• Weather (what’s the weather, what’s the weather, what’s the weather like?)

• How are you feeling?

• Calendar (days of the week, months)

• Number line

• Memory game

Teaching through topics

Topics give an ideal context from which to work as they merge different curricular areas providing children with an opportunity to:

• develop their knowledge and understanding of the world.

• understand new concepts in a meaningful context.

• develop socially, emotionally, physically and cognitively through the teaching of all curricular areas.

• acquire language in a natural way.

Teaching through topics

Should the same topic be taught in Spanish and English at the same time?

Should teachers use translation?

Teaching through topics

Some topics are easier to teach in English than others. Typical topics worked on in Infants include:

Myself School Homes and families

Community helpers

Shopping Seasons Festivals Lifecycles

Space Toys

Teaching through topics

Many topics can be easily combined to create integrated topic webs.

Topics should not be taught in isolation. Links ought to be made when and where appropriate.

Community helpers-Transport: Learn about different modes of transport in they city.- My town: different places in my town. Reasons for going to those places.- School: look at how people help us at school.- Myself: learn about how doctors, nurses and dentists help us stay healthy.

Teaching through topics

The Little Red Hen

Literacy

Social skills

Numeracy

KUW

Understand the basic needs of plants

Identify domestic and farm animals

Understand some basic characteristics of certain animals

Show an awareness of some community

helpers (baker)

Recognise the impact of the

behaviour of the animals in the book.

Show an awareness of the importance of

a balanced diet

Join in with the reading and retelling

of the book.Phonics

Match numbers to different

quantities.

Understand and respond to ‘how many’ questions.

Literacy

What is it?It is much more than just teaching the mechanics of reading and writing.

Enables access to stories and other materials that shape and develop thinking and help children to develop concepts.

Gives access to different and varied social and cultural worlds.

Literacy

The five elements of Literacy

1. Phonemic awareness2. Decoding3. Vocabulary 4. Fluency5. Comprehension

Students need to master all these skills in order to become proficient readers.

Phonological Awareness

It is the ability to identify that spoken language is made up of smaller parts.

It is the ability to detect and manipulate the sound structure of words independent of their meaning.

It refers to the sensitivity to any size unit of sound. Indications of phonological awareness include: • generate and recognise rhyming words• count syllables• separate the beginning of a word from its ending• identify each of the phonemes in a word

Phonemic Awareness

It is the understanding that words are made up of phonemes or individual units of sound that influence the meaning of words.

It is the ability to discriminate and manipulate individual speech sounds.

It is an essential skill in order to be able to read in an alphabetic system because letters represent sounds of spoken language.

Decoding

The ability to apply your knowledge of letter-sound relationships to correctly pronounce written words.

How would a Spanish child pronounce the following words?

BigVan Hot

1. Two-letter blending2. CVC blending through word families3. Introduce tricky words4. Build up word length

Vocabulary

Vocabulary development is an ongoing process.

Readers connect their oral vocabularies (words they know when they are spoken) to their reading vocabularies (the words they know when they are used in print.)

Readers also strengthen both areas by adding new words to their repertoires.

Focus on oral.Whole word approach (Dolch words – high-frequency words)

Fluency and Comprehension

Fluency is a reader’s ability to read with speed, accuracy and expression.

Reading comprehension is understanding what a text is all about. It is more than just understanding words in isolation. It is putting them together and using prior knowledge to develop meaning.

Synthetic Phonics

What is it?A systematic, synthetic method of instruction that teaches children the relationship between the sounds in spoken words, and their associated symbols in print.Children are taught the letter sounds, how to blend them to read words, and how to cope with some tricky keywords.

There are five main elements: 1. Learning the letter sounds2. Learning letter formation3. Blending4. Segmenting5. Tricky words

Synthetic Phonics

Starting phonics in Infants• Upper and lower case • Teach concepts of big and small

• Teach sound with an action • Do not use ‘snake’ for S

• Make a phonics box.• Use objects that begin with the target sound.• Use plasticine/ skipping rope to make the letter.• Play when the music stops, do the action for...• Flashcards: if you have got ..., stand up or clap your hands.

Do not teach the letter names!

Synthetic Phonics

Starting blending in Infants• Blend two sounds • Patience needed!• Magic finger

• Let’s go fishing – fish two sounds and blend them• Blending bowl – pick out two sounds and blend them• Splat! • Blending train

• Useful later on when tricky words are introduced.

Criteria for selecting a storybook

Appropriate language level: vocabulary, structures, notions/ functions.

Content: Interesting, fun, motivating, memorable, encourages participation.

Visuals: Attractive, potential to work with, size.

Pronunciation:Intonation, rhythm, repetition.

Motivation:vocabulary, structures, notions/ functions.

Language learning potential: Language practice, recycling, prediction, cross curricular, culture.

Exploiting a storybook

1. Story Map• Title• Author• Characters• Main Idea• Beginning• Middle• End

2. Vocabulary to be learnt

3. Sight words from the story, for example ‘I’, ‘he’, ‘the’ and ‘to’.

4. Cross curricular connections:

• Science• Geography• Maths• Art• P.E.• Music

Exploiting a storybook

1. Story Map• Jasper’s Beanstalk• Nick Butterworth and Mick Inkpen• Jasper the cat• Growing a plant• He plants a bean.• He looks after it• It eventually grows into a plant.

2. Vocabulary:Days of the weekBean Beanstalk

3. Sight words: he

4. Cross curricular connections:

• Science: basic needs and parts of a plant.

• Maths: counting beans• Art: wall display• P.E.: climbing activities• Music: the jelly bean song

Include vocabulary from the pictures.

Games

1. Hot potato2. What’s the time, Mr Wolf?3. Please, Mr Crocodile4. Simon says5. Run to the...6. Bring me...7. The washing line8. If you’re holding...9. Descriptions10. Bingo11. Hot or cold12. Memory13. Games with a ball/dice14. What’s missing?15. Where’s Daddy?

16. Snap17. Splat!18. Go fishing!19. Musical statues20. Guess the object (feely bag)21. One potato, two ...22. Move like a...

Phonics gamesMaths games

Useful resources

Websites• www.sparklebox.co.uk•www.tes.com resources • www.tpet.co.uk• www.starfall.com• www.readingrockets.org reading • www.toolsforeducators.com• www.letters-and-sounds.com• www.youtube.com – Super Simple Songs• www.teacherspayteachers.com

Resources

Travelling Suitcase

StoriesGames

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