Cycle 52
Last updated
Last updated
The second part of this task returns to reviewing sounds written in a regular serif font, but this time students will read them without you pronouncing them first.
This is the first time students say a word slowly after you say it only the fast way. Until this point, you have said words slowly first, and the students have repeated them slowly and then said the words the fast way (at a normal rate). This new format is more difficult, so students may need time to get used to it.
To help students with this transition, you can encourage them to count sounds on their fingers as they say a word slowly. Doing this is optional, so you don’t have to correct students for not counting sounds if they correctly say the word slowly.
In this exercise, students are allowed to (but aren’t required to) pause between the sounds, so if they pause, you don’t need to correct them. Until now, it has been vitally important that students not pause between sounds in order to develop their blending skills. But because this exercise begins by giving the students the fast form of the word, students have nothing to blend. At this point in the curriculum, students’ blending skills should be developed enough that, in the Slow Game tasks only, pausing between sounds will do no harm.
The following is the correction text to use if a student makes a mistake saying a word slowly in a Slow Game task [example word: we]:
❖ If the student struggles, count on your fingers as you say: My turn: /wwwēēē/. (2) Your turn…
The final part of this task returns to first reading words the slow way sub-vocally (sounding them out silently) before reading them the fast way out loud. As in the last cycle, you model how to do so with the word in, but this time, the students will then do it on their own.
Make sure students touch under the word when they are reading it silently the slow way and when they are reading it out loud the fast way.
Be demonstrative when pretending to read the word slowly in your head. Touch beneath each sound slowly while you make a pensive expression and mouth the sounds silently.