Teaching tips, ideas for games and other useful contributions!
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Click: Spelling game b/d confusion place value telling the time mind mapping
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A SPELLING GAME:
"Battleword" , by Carol Goodhew R.S.A.Dip., and Mark Broster (aged 13). Based on the co-ordinates game "Battleships".
Purpose: to practise spellings that have already been taught.
Aim: to find out where your opponent has hidden their words in the grid.
1) Choose, in advance, the group of spellings to be practised. 4-8 words are best,
depending on the age and ability of the student.
2) Prepare suitably sized grids. If 2 people are playing, each will need a pair of grids. Continue vertical alphabetic co-ordinates down second grid to avoid confusion between grids. Number horizontal co-ordinates. See example:
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | |
| A | |||||||||
| B | |||||||||
| C | |||||||||
| D | |||||||||
| E | |||||||||
| F | |||||||||
| G |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | |
| H | |||||||||
| I | |||||||||
| J | |||||||||
| K | |||||||||
| L | |||||||||
| M | |||||||||
| N |
3) Each player writes the same chosen words on a line in between their two grids. Check for correct spellings at this stage.
4) One player hides the words in his top grid. One word per horizontal line in any order and any position as long as it fits in. Likewise, the other player hides the words in his bottom grid.
5) Players take turns to say one square reference eg B 6. the other player sayds which of his letters (or nothing) is in that square. The letter- or, for nothing, a blob- is entered in the appropriate grid.
6) Players try to predict where their opponents' letters are and can fill in the rest of the letters of words if they are sure of the positions.
7) The first player to find and mark the positions of all his opponent's words is the winner. These need to be checked for confirmation.
This game can be played by any age of student. It can also be played with a group where the teacher puts a grid on the board and each student has one grid plus a list of the words which are to be found. The students take turns to identify a square and the teacher (who has prepared the word positions on a separate piece of paper) marks the relevant letter or blob on the board. The winner is the first student to find out the correct positions of the teacher's words.
| For over 80 photocopiable pages of ideas, games and templates get your copy of "Making Games Work" by Bob Hext. Click HERE for more details, including some ideas you can use now! |
Tips by Sheridan Sharp
I am covering this with 2 year 5 boys at the moment. I focus on the correct letter formation with lots of hand writing practice on paper and in the sand/salt tray. We do it eyes open and then have games on how well they can write it with eyes closed. Every time the child writes the letter they have to say the letter name and sound. The mnemonic we have been using is the word "puppy". We talk about the shape of the letter resembling the puppy's head, i.e. the descender being the floppy ears and the "face" , being ......the round bit!! ( sorry my memory deserts me at this time of day) "puppy" always looks towards the next letter because as we know puppies love to meet new friends. Puppies also like you to "stroke"(write) their ears first ( - they droop below the face/ line) then around their face.
Other activities include the "Strike" card game by Crossbow; find the odd one out; match the pairs; Circle 'p' in words ( I noticed the one boy chose to circle the letter using the 'p' shape yesterday which I hadn't thought of before); adding 'p' to complete words; Listening for 'p' in words and writing it in the correct box etc. Colouring a hollow 'p' by writing the shape inside with lots of different colours so it resembles a rainbow - this way they write 'p' loads of times. Making 'p' out of plasticine - pink or purple if you can get it.
The confusion with bdp nu etc suggests weakness in visual skills - discrimination - memory so I tend not use the computer for letter confusion. I have found the multisensory - "hands on" approach more effective. I do think the computer programmes are good revision/ reinforcement activities.
I am a highly trained adult dyslexic, and have spent many years experiencing the b/d confusion problem. What I do is to imagine the word "bed" next to the confusing letter. A wonderful word "bed" is. If you use your imagination you can even see a bed in the word. Now if the letter I am trying to distinguish is at the head of the bed it is a "b" if it is at the end of the bed it is a "d". The word bed itself is not difficult to distinguish because it is larger and has more "handles" for my brain to hold on to.
Philippa Bodien
Head of The Dyslexia Unit
Jumeirah Primary School
Dubai
United Arab Emirates
I was asked by a parent to assist her
yr 3 daughter understand number. A few sessions with Dienes blocks and a
vertical abacus and she had a better idea of the units we were discussing.
No concept of exchanging 10 ones for 1 ten and so on though. No
understanding of why number is recorded in places: unit, ten, hundred,
thousand. After about three lessons we had got to writing a four digit
number and then me asking her what each number stood for. That was ok.
Then I asked her to add or subtract units or tens or hundreds or thousands
up to 9. No thought of counting up and down a number line or using her
fingers ("I was told not to use my fingers"... guess that comes from mental
maths in the numeracy hour). Just puzzled. Used fingers - better. (We can
call fingers what we like - they can be units or tens or hundreds...) Then
she tried to write 70 as 70 in the tens column instead of just writing a 7.
So I wrote out each place value in full - say 6000, 400, 20, 1 and compared
it to 6421. I asked her what the difference was since we could say it in
the same way. Then why. Then showed her how the full numbers overlaid
6421, but told her the zeros were sneaky and they were hiding. Light
dawned.
I had tried the same idea using cards to overlay but this had not clicked
with her.
Clock faces are complicated things carrying a variety of
information. I have found a successful approach is to
produce two clock faces out of cardboard; one has a long
minute hand and dashes for minutes around the edge, the
other has a short hour hand with the numbers 1-12 around
its edge. This separates the numbers from the minute hand.
First you need a memory tab to denote the role of each
hand. The minute hand is long: the word minute is long.
Starting with the minute hand clock (which has no numbers
around the edge), practise moving the hand in a clockwise
direction, drawing a coloured arrow (colour is more
significant that plain black) onto the clock face.
The minute hand goes around the clock quite quickly. In
the time it takes to brush your teeth, it will have
already moved past five of the dashes marked around the
edge. In the time it takes to watch Neighbours it will
have moved on even further. Practise moving the hand
round, getting the child to count how many dashes past the
top that the hand has moved eg fourteen minutes past,
twenty one minutes past, thirty seven minutes past, fifty
minutes past etc. FORGET all mention of quarter past/to
etc (these are unnecessarily confusing). Do not rush the
child into counting in fives, let them count the dashes
each time from one in order to reinforce the lesson: the
minute hand moves round in one direction, the dashes alone
denote the number of minutes past.
Then move onto the second clock face. This has a short
hour hand (the word hour is short). 'The hour hand is
moving so slowly it has time to notice the numbers around
the clock's edge' (the numbers ONLY relate to hours). Now
practise moving the hand around (add a coloured arrow to
denote direction). In the time it takes to brush your
teeth, it will have moved a little way. In the time it
takes to watch Neighbours, it will still have hardly moved
at all. Relate different activities to the movement of the
hand, relating the numbers to activities in the day eg 1
o'clock in the morning: middle of night, most people
asleep except perhaps the milkman and doctor etc. ...
through to midday. Then 1 o'clock in the afternoon; people
finishing lunch, cat fast asleep, teachers having cup of
tea before afternoon lessons begin etc.
Having introduced minutes and hours COMPLETELY SEPARATELY,
the child is better equipped to handling the two being put
together although to start with, place the two faces side
by side and position them to display '4 minutes past 6
o'clock', '41 minutes past 10 o'clock'. Then put the two
hands on the hour clock making sure you have dashes
between the numbers.
The child is now able to tell the time from an analogue
clock.
By keeping the format of expression consistent: x number
of minutes past y o'clock, the overloading due to
variation of expression (eg 20 minutes to 7 o'clock,
quarter past three etc) are removed. The initial
introduction of separate minute and hour hand removes
confusion of minute hand and numbers around the clock's
edge, and the prompts of 'long hand = long word minute',
'short hand = short word hour' are accessible to remind
the child if they subsequently forget which is which.
For dyslexic children who find telling the time a
difficult task, keep to the x minutes past y o'clock
expression for some period of weeks during which time
constantly use and practice the usefullness of reading the
clock.
Only much later introduce alternative methods of
expression (quarter past etc)...they will only be able to
assimilate this information if they thoroughly understand
the spatial display.
When using a digital display (which is everywhere these
days), the 'x minutes past y o'clock' terminology is very
easy to identify (except that the minutes are displayed
after the hours, so explain this clearly). 4:18 = 18
minutes past 4 o'clock.
When moving onto the twenty four hour clock, relate the
hours to real activities and practise subtracting 12 from
such numbers as 14, 21 etc. to help them become familiar
with this necessary skill.
Sally Raymond.
MIND MAPPING
With three rectangular boxes, start with the MIDDLE. This
is where the action takes place. Keep it brief (may need
support and practice to be able to write succinctly) eg
'dog lost in caves'.
Then fill in the first box outlining the beginning of the
story/report. The W word prompts: where, when, who's
involved, why, what happens can encourage relevant ideas.
Finally fill in the end box.
Then speak the story following the notes.
Then write it.
Mind mapping can take many forms. A 'spider diagram' with
a central topic with lines out to sub-headings leading
onto further branches relating to them. A sheet of paper
with words jotted down in random then circled and numbered
once the brainstorming period has ended. Key words
provided by the teacher which the pupil surrounds with
associated ideas/words.
Another way is to start by drawing a picture. If a child
has an idea for story or is required to express an event
in their own words, they can draw one or more
illustrations first to support the prompting and collation
of ideas without being impinged upon by the written word.
Sally Raymond.
Tips from a parent - thanks, Drew!