Journal #3
February 9, 2011
8:30-10:30 (2 hours)
Today’s lesson was pretty basic and normal. Last week Oscar asked me to work with him on some pronunciation so today we focused on words ending in “s” and “ed” and also focused on words that had “v” and “th” sounds in them. I first presented Oscar with a list of thirty words that end in “s.” I asked Oscar to read these words aloud to me. If he ever needed some help, I provided him with some sounds he could place into the word. We also made sure that he knew the definitions of each of the words he was trying to say. Next, we did an activity called “silent mouthing.” In this activity I mouthed one of the words from the previous list and Oscar needed to pay close attention to how I was mouthing the words. He had to notice what parts of the tongue and mouth I was using to speak these letters and he needed to determine what word I was speaking. Through this game he was able to identify “l,” “f,” and “v” accurately but had a lot of trouble with the vowel formations of the words. Then, after this activity, Oscar once again read the words on the list aloud. He did a much better job with his pronunciation after the silent mouthing game and spoke with much more confidence.
Next we focused on words that ended in “ed.” We did the same exact activity. Oscar read the words aloud. Then watched my mouth and tried to guess which word I was saying as I silently mouthed each one. Once again, he read all the words aloud on his own and had much better pronunciation than he had before.
After this activity, I handed Oscar paper and a pencil and he made two separate charts. The first chart had three columns titled “s,” “z,” and “IZ.” The second chart had columns titled “t,” “d,” and “ed.” Then, I read a random word from one of the two lists and he had to place in the right category based on the ending sound he heard. For example, he placed the word “boys” into the “z” column because when spoken this word sounds like it ends in “z.” This activity also challenged Oscar to think about spelling in relation to the pronunciation of a word. I believed this was important to potentially finding clues that would help Oscar to understand why some words have certain sounds and others do not.
Then, Oscar and I read two dialogues together. Both dialogues focused on the “th.” Sound and involved stories that were in the past tense. This allowed Oscar to put into practical practice some of the pronunciation he had used earlier. It also encouraged him to make sure he was saying word endings rather than just cutting off his word. He had to be very conscious of what he was saying because the dialogues had some tongue-twister type elements in them. Oscar seemed to enjoy this part of the day the most. At the end I asked if he though the work we had done today was valuable to his pronunciation abilities. He said yes. I then asked him what he wanted to do next week. He asked if we could play a pronunciation game. This made me wonder if he was fully interested in today’s subject. However, the steps he made in pronunciation today were significant (in a small way) and so I believe he was engaged and learning. Next week I want to show him a game that will help with pronunciation and have an entirely fun lesson that does not feel like work or learning at all. This will give him a nice break from the constant studying he has during his school day.
Next Week:
-Pronunciation games/ Activities
-Continued work on “f,” “v,” “th” sounds and word ending sounds
-HW assignment for the following week (preparing a special topic of discussion and present the topic to me)
No comments:
Post a Comment