Notes
I shared my thoughts after watching Rebecca’s video lesson, using Really Great Reading. She did a great job of following the instructions in the manual and provided additional clarification, information, and relating it to the students primary language, Spanish. She did a great job of balancing explicit instruction with appropriate scaffolding and use of visual aids to support learning. Rebecca expressed concern about the small amount of writing during the lesson and she adds that herself. She relayed that her students are making good progress using this resource with her students and they liked doing it.
We discussed challenges in teaching English language learners, particularly around phonics rules and spelling patterns. The lesson focused on the suffix “ed”. Rebecca stated that students struggle with distinguishing between sounds like “landed” versus “wished” and understanding when to use different endings like “ed.” Rebecca wrote some examples on the board that helped. We talked about creating an anchor chart with examples and visual cues to help students understand these concepts better. Rebecca stated that despite the challenges, teaching these phonics rules is crucial for the students’ development, especially since it affects word meaning.
We also talked about teaching strategies for word work activities, including the use of tiles, whiteboards, and magnetic boards. We talked about adapting these strategies for different grade levels and student needs. We also discussed the challenges of teaching multi-syllabic words and the importance of morphology in structured literacy programs. The group on the video is just getting into this part of the language.