AnonyMouse_33773 Posted February 1, 2014 Posted February 1, 2014 (edited) We don't use Jolly Phonics, so some of their actions (attached) wouldn't make sense to our children, e.g. 'i' for mouse (Inky Mouse). Has anyone come up with any other actions? By the way, do you consider actions very helpful in the learning of letter sounds? Jolly Phonics Actions.pdf Jolly Phonics Actions.docx Edited February 1, 2014 by Wildflowers
AnonyMouse_47865 Posted February 1, 2014 Posted February 1, 2014 We use Phonics Bug which does not have actions. We do teach the jolly phonic actions and tell the jolly phonic story when we teach a new sound. I have found the actions do help children remember the sounds, especially the middle and lower ability children. It is another helpful method to help learn the sounds. 1
AnonyMouse_33773 Posted February 1, 2014 Author Posted February 1, 2014 So one needs to link the actions to the story, at least about 'Inky'. I just find some actions a little odd...
AnonyMouse_79 Posted February 1, 2014 Posted February 1, 2014 I think you can teach the the actions in isolation. I never made much of the stories. The actions definitely help the children to remember the sound. 1
AnonyMouse_47865 Posted February 1, 2014 Posted February 1, 2014 I used the stories just to give a bit of context, because otherwise like you said inky the mouse for 'i' doesn't make much sense. The doing of the action reinforces the sound and helps learning.
AnonyMouse_33773 Posted February 1, 2014 Author Posted February 1, 2014 I understand the importance of visual-auditory-kinesthetic learning, but to reinforce the sounds and help children remember them, don't they have to be well-connected to the sounds and make sense to the children?
AnonyMouse_47865 Posted February 1, 2014 Posted February 1, 2014 They become well connected to the sound because we reinforce it every time we revise the sounds. It seems to work for us :-)
AnonyMouse_30128 Posted February 1, 2014 Posted February 1, 2014 how about teaching them to finger spell....they could learn a new and useful language at the same time! 1
AnonyMouse_9650 Posted February 1, 2014 Posted February 1, 2014 how about teaching them to finger spell....they could learn a new and useful language at the same time! That's exactly what we do finleysmaid - I did a dissertation piece on using signed spoken English and an action research project on the same subject - the children really enjoy the signing element and I find it enhances our phonics input sessions and the children's acquisition and retention of phonics. 1
AnonyMouse_30128 Posted February 1, 2014 Posted February 1, 2014 That's exactly what we do finleysmaid - I did a dissertation piece on using signed spoken English and an action research project on the same subject - the children really enjoy the signing element and I find it enhances our phonics input sessions and the children's acquisition and retention of phonics. Fantastic! perhaps we should market it! 1
AnonyMouse_33773 Posted February 1, 2014 Author Posted February 1, 2014 This is interesting! Is there anything that we who may want to have a go should know. (Before you start charging for it!)
AnonyMouse_9650 Posted February 1, 2014 Posted February 1, 2014 You might find these interesting reads Daniels, M., 2001. Dancing with Words Signing for Hearing Children’s Literacy. Connecticut: Bergin & Garvey. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dancing-Words-Signing-Childrens-Literacy/dp/0897897927 Robinson, K., 1997. Sign in education: The teaching of hearing children British Sign Language in school. Birmingham: Teesside Tec. http://www.signsforsuccess.co.uk/ - the charging for it has already started -not by me either!
AnonyMouse_30128 Posted February 1, 2014 Posted February 1, 2014 suej thanks for the links i might just treat myself to the book. As a setting we use makaton all the time (because we have children with communication difficulties and lots with EAL...it helps everyone) I have been aware for some years that when we learn songs with signs the children love joining in and tend to pick up the words and signs quite quickly. They then go home and teach their parents! We are starting to finger spell a bit with one of our chaps (i'm a bit useless at it...apart from old macdonald!) but i might try sat ipn with my group next week and see how it goes!
AnonyMouse_79 Posted February 1, 2014 Posted February 1, 2014 Please make sure that whatever approach you decide is best for your setting that it will be easy for the children to transfer their knowledge and skills when they move on from you.
AnonyMouse_30128 Posted February 1, 2014 Posted February 1, 2014 Please make sure that whatever approach you decide is best for your setting that it will be easy for the children to transfer their knowledge and skills when they move on from you. since i send to 11 settings it's a bit tricky to do that! What i do like is the thought that this is a truly eal/sen and dyslexia friendly approach and everything new has to start somewhere.. (but i will of course think it through more thoroughly) 1
AnonyMouse_9650 Posted February 2, 2014 Posted February 2, 2014 I hear what you are saying Susan but like Finleysmaid we feed to a myriad of different schools sometimes across different LAs - all with different approaches across the whole curriculum. I have been using BSL signing as part of a signed spoken English approach in my setting for four years now and the feedback we have from parents is that their children go on to do very well and are readily transferring their skills and knowledge - we don't get much feedback if any from our primaries! Most of my staff have now undertaken on-line introductory training in BSL and since we started doing this other BSL derivative signed spoken English programmes such as sign along have overtaken Makaton as the preferred communication strategy for children with SEND in our area including some of our children's centres, special schools and early intervention health settings. Most importantly the children really enjoy the signing experiences which are used throughout our day in all sorts of different scenarios (not just phonics and songs) - I guess like most "teaching" approaches it is how you do it to make sure that it is fun, engaging and engenders a love of learning in our young charges.
AnonyMouse_30128 Posted February 2, 2014 Posted February 2, 2014 suej...i am under the impression that the alphabet signs are the same for all these approaches...do you know if this is right?
AnonyMouse_9650 Posted February 2, 2014 Posted February 2, 2014 To the best of my knowledge the fingerspelling handshapes are the same as they use BSL as their root - I have done BSL and Makaton training and a significant number of Makaton "word" signs are BSL "word" signs too.
AnonyMouse_33773 Posted February 2, 2014 Author Posted February 2, 2014 For digraphs I assume you do two signs. Trying to be practical about phonics...
AnonyMouse_9650 Posted February 2, 2014 Posted February 2, 2014 I did do some (not very thorough) research into this but could find no specific BSL signs for blends, digraphs or diphthongs so it would be a case of either as you say using two or more finger spelling signs or generating your own (this would make it a very provincial approach though). When it gets to this point I think it is a case of remembering that in the purest sense BSL is not a phonics teaching tool rather it is a language in it's own right and as such there will be limitations
AnonyMouse_30128 Posted February 2, 2014 Posted February 2, 2014 in fact the reason i tend to return to makaton is that the sentence construction in BSL is reversed so the object subject are swopped in the sentence (like german and urdu) Makaton is used to 'back-up' english not replace it
AnonyMouse_9650 Posted February 2, 2014 Posted February 2, 2014 That's where SSE (signed spoken english/sign supported english) or SEE (signed exact english) or MCE (manually coded english) - there are loads of different terms is different - it uses BSL signs and fingerspelling but spoken English syntax. This link gives a much better explanation http://talktomyeyes.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/difference-between-bsl-sign-supported.html
AnonyMouse_30128 Posted February 2, 2014 Posted February 2, 2014 that's really interesting ...it seems a bit dismissive of makaton though,
AnonyMouse_79 Posted February 2, 2014 Posted February 2, 2014 I hear what you are saying Susan but like Finleysmaid we feed to a myriad of different schools sometimes across different LAs - all with different approaches across the whole curriculum. I have been using BSL signing as part of a signed spoken English approach in my setting for four years now and the feedback we have from parents is that their children go on to do very well and are readily transferring their skills and knowledge - we don't get much feedback if any from our primaries! Most of my staff have now undertaken on-line introductory training in BSL and since we started doing this other BSL derivative signed spoken English programmes such as sign along have overtaken Makaton as the preferred communication strategy for children with SEND in our area including some of our children's centres, special schools and early intervention health settings. Most importantly the children really enjoy the signing experiences which are used throughout our day in all sorts of different scenarios (not just phonics and songs) - I guess like most "teaching" approaches it is how you do it to make sure that it is fun, engaging and engenders a love of learning in our young charges. You have obviously done far more research than I have. If it works for you then that is great. I would have loved to have makaton training and use it in my classroom as I have seen non verbal children respond with signing in a makaton -led nursery when on Supply. I did use some very basic signing very successfully! I also know that children that came into my reception classroom who had Letterland experiences found it very difficult to transfer to Jolly Phonics, maybe that was because the 2 approaches are so different? For us, Jolly Phonics was a great success and I was dubious at the outset. It does have 1 action for each digraph! I also understand that when you feed to so many schools it is impossible to get a system that will fit all. Keep up the good work. 1
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