I really enjoyed my time visiting this amazing grade 1/2 class. The teacher was very willing to share their information without hesitation. The students were very inclusive with us considering we have only met them a couple of times. Having the opportunity to see the schools literacy program in action was very beneficial. This school has started new program called UFLI. UFLI is new to this school district but the teachers I have had the opportunity to observe rave about the program!

UFLI is an acronym for University of Florida Literacy Institute where they designed this systematic program that teaches students the foundational skills necessary for proficient reading (UFLI).

Connecting Todays Literacy Tasks to the BC Curriculum

Content

  1. Strategies and processes: Reading strategies such as using knowledge of language patterns and phonics to decode words; identifying familiar and “sight” words; monitoring (asking: Does it look right? Sound right? Make sense?); self-correcting errors consistently using three cueing systems: meaning, structure, and visual. 2. Word patterns, word families, letter formation, legible printing and spaces between words.

Curricular Competencies

  1. Read fluently at grade level. 2. Communicate using sentences and most conventions of Canadian spelling, grammar, and punctuation

Literacy Tasks and Activities

Roll and Read was one of the tasks student participated in. The words coincide with the new learning of the day. Each concept that is introduced is practiced over 2 days. This was fun, students rolled large foam dice and placed a chip over the word they chose to cover. Students had to also say the word when they decided on a word.

These are folders and are referred to as blending boards. The folder itself is magnetic and the letter tiles are also magnetic. Students follow the teachers instructions on word making. Today the students were working on ch, students were asked to make chap, they were then asked to make cap, tap, tip, hip, chip, chin. In this exercise they practiced decoding and encoding skills. What I found interesting is that these amazing boards were made from the awesome teaching crew.

Students read statements with the teacher, what I liked about this exercise is that the teacher had them read aloud and together the first and second word. Then they would go back to the beginning and start over, which helped with fluency.

Another activity was whiteboard work. Students would hear a sentence orally from the teacher and then draw circles at the top of their whiteboard indicating how many words the sentence is. Students would write the sentence as they heard it. After writing the sentence students used CAPS to check their sentence structure.

CAPS is a great way to for students to check their sentences and I am noticing many teachers in different grades using CAPS.

Reflection on Todays Literacy

I am a person who may be a bit biased when it comes to early literacy, because of my experience with sound connections, and witnessing students through the years, learn through Sound Connections. With saying that I like the UFLI program, students are connecting with the learning and it provides a UDL framework where students experience the targeted learning in multiple ways. I think it is important to be open to trying new research programs to help students with learning to read and write.