Small Group

Aspect of Literacy: Phonics/ Blending activity

My cooperating teacher asked me to do a phonics activity with a group of students during RTI.
They were to work individually and come up with as many words as they can with given letter
clusters. First, they were each given a construction paper and were asked to fold them so that
they can have three columns/sections on their paper. On the front side of their paper, they wrote
an, -ill, -end on top of each column and on the back side, they wrote it, -and, and at in each
column. I sat down with the students and gave first three words for them. Students were
struggling as they were working on activity, simply because they have limited vocabulary
knowledge. I realized that there was an alphabet chart posted in front where they were sitting,
and I asked them to plug in each alphabet letter/letter in front of these blends to come up with
real words which helped them in their thought process and made this activity more engaging.
Materials: Construction paper, pencil
Ex.
-an
-ill
-end

-it

-and

-at

Intended Outcome: The outcome I wanted for my students was after I modeled and told them to
use the alphabet chart to activate their thought process; they would be able to come with at least
15 words for each column. Although this activity was in a small group setting, each student was
doing his/her work individually and they were at different levels with their reading. Therefore, it
was hard to expect same/similar outcome from them.

Reflection
Like I mentioned above, the small group activity I helped out was carried out during RTI
and was done independently by the students. There was not a clear direction on how to complete
the handout. Come up with as many words as you can was the only direction given to the
students by their teacher and students seemed very much confused by it. I wanted to ask my CT
how she was going to assess this activity because I did not want to give out too much scaffolding
if she was using it to see where students are with their phonics skills. However, she seemed busy
assessing other group of students with their spelling test. I had no choice but to provide

scaffolding to guide and support them during the beginning of the activity. I went ahead and
came up with first three words and this gave the students an idea of what I was looking for and
soon after that, they were able to come up with other words to write under each column. Through
this small group activity, I learned that making sure students are prepared for an activity is more
than scaffolding their learning. Instructions need to be scaffolded as well. Telling students what
they are doing and why helps students connect with the task. Teachers do not need to go into
great detail but a short overview (providing students with the purpose behind the activity) would
definitely help students to be engaged in a meaningful learning.