Once a week, when students visit my reading station, we start the center by playing what seems to be a just a fun game to the kids, but actually serves as a learning tool to build their phonological awareness. I try to route the game so that it seems fresh and exciting to the students in order to keep their interest. The students really enjoy being able to start the center this way because they find it fun and I enjoy it because I can use it as a summative assessment to see where the students stand in different reading skills.

 

One activity that the students truly enjoy is a rhyming game. Each student reads a sentence on a card and chooses a word that rhymes with the underline word. Students build on their phonological awareness by reciting rhyming words and also hearing other students read the words. For the higher level groups, I allow one student to read the card to the other student and the student listen must guess the rhyming word without seeing the options. The students are relying on their ears to hear the sounds, identify the rhyming pattern and then use their knowledge of the sounds of letters to think of another word. For a challenge bonus, the student can think of their own rhyming word instead of picking one from the card. 

 

This activity has offered much success in the student’s phonological awareness and continues to allow the students to expand their vocabulary. Within this activity, I also have had a chance to grow my ability to differentiate instruction based on the student’s needs. When I first started this activity, all the students read their own card and picked their own option. Reflecting back on this growth allowed me to see ways to offer the game but change the rules based on the needs of the students.