CVC Words

So this week my phonics instruction centered around reading and writing CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words.  As always, there is a wide range of what students can already do with these words so it was important that I have diagnostic data and then differentiate my instruction based on that.  So I divided my students into 4 groups based on a pretest for CVC words and met with them during my small group reading instruction block.

I went searching for ideas on Pinterest and TPT and there are a TON of great resources for CVC words and many of them are FREE!  However, my issue was that I wanted to include words with digraphs (sh, th, ch) in addition to the basic CVC words.  (After analyzing my pretest information, it was clear that many students need work with the digraphs within words.  The other observation I made was that although almost all of my students demonstrated mastery with their short vowel sounds in isolation, they made many errors in the context of words).  So I decided to create a few of my own materials to use for my small group CVC instruction with all of that in mind.

I created simple task cards (and glitter letter cards) which I used with every group.  I just modified the amount of support and the pacing for each group.  It worked out beautifully!  And what I love about using task cards is that then I can then place these in my phonics center for next week as a review.  Since we worked with the materials, it's one less thing I need to go over before starting new centers.  I also will give them to my parent volunteers who will provide interventions for a couple of students after I give a formative assessment.

The students first had to alphabetize the glitter letters.  This went very quickly for my enrichment group and took more time for my intense intervention group.  Then I used one of the task cards to model the process of tapping out the sounds and writing the word.  I would say the word.  Students would repeat the word.  Then I would point my finger in each box and say the sound.  Then students would do the same on their task card.  Students would then place the glitter letters in the sound boxes (magnetic letters, bottle cap letters, alphabet beads, etc would also work).  I would check each student's sound boxes and if the letters were correct, they would move on to writing the word on the lines.  If there was an error with identifying the letter for the sound, I would provide some extra instruction for that student.  I was surprised at how much instruction and guided practice they needed with writing the word on the lines.  It gave me the opportunity to provide immediate feedback and instruction on proper letter formation.  Oh the beginning of first grade writing!  I sometimes forget just how much time and instruction they need just with printing their letters:)

Lots of opportunity to give instruction on letter formation for individual students.

My favorite aspect of using task cards is that it allows students to work at their own pace.  We are all working on the same concept, but each student is working at their own pace at their own level.  They aren't concerned with their neighbor because everyone is working on a different card.  I can provide specific, individual instruction for each student.  I can easily adapt the pacing during the lesson.  For some students, I would give a pile of cards for them to work through and I would check.  For others, I slowed way down and we worked together through each step of writing the word.  I even added tracing lines with my dry-erase marker for a few of the letters for one of my struggling little ones.

I also used blank cards.  I used these in two ways.  For my one group that needed much more direct instruction with the process of segmenting the sounds and then writing them, we did several all together as a group.  I put mine up on the easel and they each followed along on their blank task card.  For my other groups, I used the blank task cards to dictate some nonsense CVC words.

On our second day in small groups, I had each student create a few pages to create a mini book of CVC words.  Again this was the same activity for all students, but I modified the support.  For my intense intervention group, we did a work on the laminated task card (all the same word) and then once the student was able to correctly identify the letters and write them, I gave them the paper and they copied.  This group needed the extra step of doing the process on the task card first.  My intervention group wrote the words I dictated right onto the paper.  The on-level group students were able to choose a word on their own from the picture cards.  And the enrichment group, had to write a word (they could generate their own, use picture card for ideas, or I provided them a word if they wanted) and then use the word in a sentence.  All of the students drew a picture for each word.

So there wasn't anything fancy going on, but they were all so engaged and I felt like I really made some progress with all of the students. I love small group instruction and using task cards.  (And it seems about half of my class has such trouble attending and focusing for more than a few minutes in a whole class setting, so the small groups are essential!)

You can check out my CVC task cards, glitter letters, and pages for the mini book in my TPT store here.

We are going to add a couple of pages to our CVC mini books and make some CVC word bracelets for them to take home as a culminating type of activity.  They are SO excited to use those alphabet beads.  (First graders are so easy to please:)  I will post a picture of the bracelets after we make them.

Stop by next week to read about our work with compound words using a pancake chef theme!  So excited!