by Classroom Teachers of the Phonetics First! - Focus on Sounds Reading Program.
KAREN GUMS
School: Forest Lakes Elementary
Briefly describe your position and the demographics of your classroom:
I teach the inclusion kindergarten class. Last year I had a visually impaired student, an autistic child, a retainee, a language impaired student, an EH student, and a speech impaired student. I also had 2 students who received occupational therapy.
Evaluate the effectiveness of the Phonetics First! - Focus on Sounds reading program in your classroom. Please use specific details such as test scores,
running records, student responses to the program and how this program compares to other programs you have used.
I began the Phonetics First! - Focus on Sounds Program in October. By December my average dictation score was 22.46. By the end of the year the average dictation score was 34.56. The expectation for kindergarten is a score of 20 by the end of the year. I truly feel that the strength of the scores in January and April were directly tied to the effectiveness of this program. I watched the children mapping the words as they were writing. My average running record for the end of the year was 6.5. (First year; 2nd. year it was 8.7) I had students who were reading as high as a 17. All but one child scored a 54 out of 54 on alphabet recognition. The one who didn't scored a 53. I had 2 students who started the year knowing less than 5 letters.
Does Phonetics First! - Focus on Sounds take advantage of the way children learn best, and if so, explain how it does this?
Are students engaged by the Phonetics First! - Focus on Sounds activities and materials?
Students are engaged from start to finish. They look forward to this time of the day. They feel a great deal of success when they are able to read a word on their own. This program allows for immediate feedback for children.
Evaluate the ease of use of Phonetics First! - Focus on Sounds in your classroom. For example, did you find this program easy to use? Did it easily supplement
your regular Language Arts program? Did it take a lot of preparation on your part? Was it fun to implement or was it difficult or boring for you or the students?
The program, once set up is very easy to use. I enjoy doing it with the class. It is one activity I very rarely skip during a busy day or week.
Will you continue to use the Phonetics First! - Focus on Sounds reading program in your classroom?
YES
Would you recommend this program to other teachers?
YES