It is five weeks into the term, and it is clear that there needs to be some work done around learning to read a word and sounding it out for spelling. After reading with all the students in the class, I have noticed a large group of students that are not able to chunk sounds together when reading, ie 'this' becomes 't' 'h' 'i' 's' rather than 'th' 'is' or 'th' 'i' 's'. I have also noticed that students are reading words such as pressed, and sounding out both the 's' in the word. This makes it tricky for the students to put the sounds together.
During writing I have noticed when students sound out unknown words, they look nothing like what they sound. They are including sounds that are not part of the word, or missing important sounds.
Therefore, for my inquiry during Term 1, I would like to look at introducing a daily phonics programme into our classroom and see if this will make a difference to the way in which students are able to decode a word and if it improves overall student spelling.
I will be selecting a group of students. These students would be tested using PM running records, have already completed STAR and will have a pseudoword test. They will then be receiving daily phonics instruction along with games to increase their understanding. They will be assessed again after 6 weeks to see progress; if any has been made.
