Thursday, November 1, 2012

Bang for Your Buck!

Over the years, I've learned a thing or two from Patricia Cunningham.  This post is about one of my favorites.  I love the way this activity teaches young readers how to use strategies when they read.  Follow along and see what I mean.

1.  I put this sentence on the board and ask the kids to read it with me, inserting the word "blank" at the end.  


2.  I tell them that their goal is to figure out the mystery word, but it has to make sense and sound right.  Volunteers give me suggestions, but I make sure they read the sentence and insert their word so we can all hear if it makes sense and sounds right.  If it does, I write their word on the board.  For lack of time, I only take four suggestions.


3.  Of course, I then tell them that readers are never guessers.  (Actually, I say, "Readers are never..." and they finish my sentence.  That's how often they've heard me say this.)  They have to get their mouth ready, so I uncover the first letter of the mystery word.  One at a time, I ask them if we could keep each word that has been suggested.  "Does it look right?"  I erase any that don't look right.

4.  Now I ask for new suggestions, but it has to make sense, sound right, and look right.  Again for lack of time, I stop at four suggestions.


5.  Before uncovering the rest of the mystery word I say, "Lots of words begin the same..." and they say, "...but they don't end the same" in order to reinforce how similar words can be.  In order to figure out the mystery word they have to get their mouths ready and slide to the end.  As I uncover one letter at a time, they make the sounds and then read the mystery word.  In this particular instance they didn't guess the mystery word, but they used some great strategies to figure it out!

I pretty much do one of these a day until every name in my class has been used.  I use various sentence starters.

Dejia is...
Dejia can...
Dejia likes...
Dejia was...
etc.

After several days, I also use mystery words that start with blends and digraphs.  

Twenty-three times over they hear the same strategies repeated in a meaningful context.  (What's more meaningful than their names?)  I've made a list of the many strategies that they hear over and over through this one activity.  Talk about getting a lot of bang for your buck!

Does it make sense?
Does is sound right?
Does is look right? 
Get your mouth ready.
Slide to the end.
Look at the whole word.


Pin It!

20 comments:

  1. Patricia Cunningham is great! This a wonderful activity- one of the important ones that we need to do all the time! Thanks for sharing this.
    Lori
    Conversations in Literacy

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lori, you make a good point. There are certain kids who will need to do this all the time until the day they leave my classroom.

      Delete
  2. You make me miss teaching reading SO much!
    Lyn

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lyn, teaching reading is one of the best parts of being a first grade teacher.

      Delete
  3. I just LOVE all of your tips and strategies . . . what lucky little learners you shepherd!

    Barbara

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Barbara for coming by and filling my bucket today. :)

      Delete
  4. Guess the covered word is one of my favorite activities for teaching reading strategies. I like your idea of using your students' names.
    Connie Anderson:)
    www.welcometofirstgraderoom5.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Connie, it's one of my favorites too. I'm not surprised that you use it as well!

      Delete
  5. What a way to hook young readers - using their name to teach them what strategic readers do! I'm going in tomorrow and writing a card with a student's name!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mary b., I love that my post is something you can put to use tomorrow. Thanks for commenting!

      Delete
  6. What a great activity to use to help with reading strategies. So easy and fun! Love it!

    Andrea
    Reading Toward the Stars

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Andrea, you're right. It' both easy and fun. Thanks for letting me know that you liked it.

      Delete
  7. LOVE this! I do it sporadically, but love your idea way better. I can always count on you, Tammy!!
    ❀Barbara❀
    Grade ONEderful
    Ruby Slippers Blog Designs

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Barbara, you can thank Patricia Cunningham, but I'm glad I could help out a bit too.

      Delete
  8. Love, love, LOVE this idea! Thanks for sharing, Tammy. I'm going to try it next week. :-)

    Crystal
    Teaching Little Miracles

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Crystal, you're so very welcome. I think you'll love it even more once you use it next week.

      Delete
  9. Brilliant. I always say genius is in the simplicity. I need to read your blog more. I love how you think!

    Kimberley
    First in Maine

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Kimberley! I'm honored that you would like the way I think. Thanks for letting me know.

      Delete
  10. Love Guess the Covered Word! I love that it reinforces so many different strategies - I really need to do it more than once a week (and I will definitely add in using student names!)
    Thanks for sharing!

    ~Nikki
    Teaching in Progress

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nikki, they love seeing their names in lights, don't they? They are so much more invested. Thank you for coming by.

      Delete