Read the case study and discuss the following after reading:
• What are the pros and cons of each teacher’s approach?
• What can each teacher do to improve his or her instruction?
• How can each teacher attend to children with special needs?
Case Study #1
Miss Blooms teaches reading in the morning from 9:00 to 10:30. She works on phonics during that time. Her approach is to teach a letter of the alphabet each week with the associated sound. She uses a commercially prepared program and follows it exactly the way the publisher has outlined. This means that a letter is introduced through a little story provided by the publisher, such as Ten Sleepy Sheep (2009) by Susan Gaber. It is a short story with a lot of words that begin with “s.” After talking about the featured letter, there are worksheets showing pictures of items that begin with “s,” such as sleep, sheep, stars and others in the story. Children are asked to circle the words that begin with “s.” Children are then asked to think of words they know that begin with “s,” and the teacher lists them on a chart. This same lesson is carried out for the next letter presented in the program.
Case Study #2
Mr. Johnson introduces letters spontaneously as they relate to what the children are studying. For example, when they are studying the ocean, he reads the story, Swimmy (1973) by Leo Lionni, about a fish that lives in the sea and his adventures there. He points out the letter “s” in the book, highlighting the sound-association. The children point out other words beginning with the same sound such as sea, sand, swim, surf, sun, sailing, and snails. Children are asked if any of them have the letter “s” in their name, and it is written on a chart. Mr. Johnson asks children if they know someone whose name has an “s” in it, or if they know of something in their home that has an “s” in it. After the wall chart is finished, the children sing a song about the sea, and he mentions several words in the song that begin with the letter “s.” He does not have a systematic plan for teaching sound-symbol relationships and reports, “When they arise in context, I take the opportunity to feature them.”
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