Korean Job Discussion Forums

[katydid]

If anyone has used this book in the past, and know of ways to make the book more interesting, please let me know. The "units" are one page long. The kids all seem to know their alphabet. I do not have a teacher's book. Does anyone have any ideas of word or letter games and activities I can use to make the lesson seem more interesting?

Thanks!

[Kill_creek]

I've taught Up and Away Phonics a bunch of times before. The book mostly involves filling in letters which doesn't teach them anything about phonics in itself. You could finish the book in a week, but they wouldn't know how to read. It's most successful if you spend alot of time just pronouncing the sounds, rather than focusing on the pages. Example, b sounds like /b/. Get them to repeat that a bunch of times /b/ /b/ /b/ /b/...etc. Then teach the vocabulary in the book. For review (of the previous lesson the next class), get the students to brainstorm, for example words that begin with "b" or the sound /b/.

When I would do this the classes would fly by. The book would last at least a month and a half. I'm not sure of any fantastic games, but tic-tac-toe (using the alphabet in the squares) and hangman are good for reviewing vocabulary.

Hope this helps.
Nova

[Scott in HK]

in fact you can teach them phonics for years and they still wouldn't able to read....reading is so much more than phonics....

but one good phonics game is called phonics fingers...i am not sure where i stole it from...but you have some kids each take hold of one of your fingers...then you start a story just say some words...when they hear a word that uses the target sound they have to let go of your finger and run to a certain point and back...my kids never tire of the game....

have them manipulate letters and put them together to make sounds...chants are good....rhyming games....teach them sound families.... _ ay.... _ate....

[riverboy]

I found one of the best drills with Up and Away or for Phonics in general, is to quiz the kids on there vocabulary knowledge. Just simply start with a and ask the kids as many examples they can think of usng that particular letter. When they start running out of ideas, then you start doing actions. For example, with K, kick at something. With the letter J, Jump, dance a jig, show them your Jaw. After that, get the kids to come up to the front of class and show their phonics knowledge by writing down "a" words, "b" words etc.
Once you finish a new letter. Go back and quiz the kids on the previous letters for reinforcement. Good luck.

[waterbaby]

Get the kids busy with their hands. If you can get some coloured paper, cut it up into tiny pieces and get the students to make mosaic letters of the alphabet to decorate the room. Encourage them to chant while they work... eg A A A a a a

I bought some cheap playdoh stuff and I call out a letter and the kids have to mould the letter and sometimes I ask them to make something that starts with that letter.

Also works with getting them to draw something that starts with a particular letter. Turn it into a game... give them a letter and get them to draw the picture on the board. In my experience, kids lurrrrve drawing on the board.

Then there's always Bingo. The easy "disposable" version is to hand out a blank grid and have the students choose their own letters... rather than pronouncing the capital letter sound, pronounce the sound the letter makes (if you know what I mean? )

[osangrl]

Ya I taught up and away for awhile too, katy, the only thing i can suggest is actually buying the teachers book, it really does help.!

[Harvard Material]

This works great, and does get the kids to think phonetically when they read. You have a 3 letter word; bat. Write 'at' at the top of the white/chalk board. Go through every possible combination of the alphabet - alphabetically of course!, bellow the word 'at'.
ie...at.
bat
cat
fat
hat, etc.
Can. Same thing; 'an'.
ban
Dan
fan
man
pan...

Works great. You see the word 'fin'; use every possible alphabetic combination. bin, din, gin, kin...and it helps the kids identify end sounds. Reinforce that the sound doesn't change, regardles of the meaning of each word. "They all have the final 'an' sound. They all have the final 'in' sound. They all have the final 'at' sound."

Build up to four letter words and so on. It's very simple, encourages everyone to participate because it's easy and sounds fun, and it improves memory/spelling skills.

Hope this is a help.

H.M.

[ratslash]

phonics are so boring to teach and so boring for the students. i have no ideas but i just thought i'd say i'm feeling for you.

[katydid]

It's boring for me, boring for them...especially hate how they just drone through all the letters. It's like they already know the alphabet, but because of the way the hagwan is set up, are forced to learn phonics as well as Let's Go 1.

[Beeg]

Split the class in two, boys against girls etc then have a game. The team that provide the most words containing a certain phonic win.

They love it, especially when there is gender rivalry involved.

[Son Deureo!]

[Scott in HK]

I would have to disagree...as the core of a reading program...phonics is not a particularly good way to teach someone to read...it may teach them that certain letter combinations make certain sounds...but making sounds is not reading...it does not teach any sort of understanding of the text...and therefore does not really teach reading...

[Zed]

[Confused Canadian]

[Zed]

Actually, Up and Away phonics 5 addresses several of these stress and intonation issues but I do believe that book 6 should be taught first. 5 is the hardest by far.