Teaching Ideas for Flashcards - Time Challenge game - Practising grapheme recognition for reading (p52 - Phase 2 / p82 - Phase 3 / p109 - Phase 4 / p137 - Phase 5)

How many grapheme flashcards can be identified correctly within the time limit?

Phonics Learning Opportunities

To practise grapheme recognition for reading.

Organisation

Whole class, small group or 1:1.

Teaching ideas

First you will need to choose which graphemes to practise. You can select a phase (or combination of phases) from the menu or alternatively you can opt to select any combination that you like of individual graphemes.

Choose whether to play 'One Minute Challenge' or 'Two Minute Challenge'.

The timer will begin and grapheme flashcards will be displayed one at a time.

For each flashcard, ask the children to say, in chorus, the phoneme that is represented by that grapheme (and show the action for the phoneme if appropriate). If the majority of children correctly say the phoneme then click on the tick button (or press the c key on the keyboard).

If a number of children can't identify the phoneme or mispronounce it you will need to help them out. Model saying the phoneme correctly and ask them to repeat it after you a couple of times. Then click on the cross button (or press the x key on the keyboard).

The cards are presented randomly. When they have all been practised, any ones that the class have found difficult (and you you clicked the cross) will then be practised again until the class get them right. If there is still time remaining then all the cards will be practised again randomly.

The game finishes when the time is up. You will be given feedback showing how many cards were correct within the time limit and which graphemes still need more practise. You can choose to print out a copy of this feedback.

Variations

Try splitting the class in half. Get one half to play the minute challenge game and then get the other half to do the same. Which half can get the highest score?

When children are getting more confident, ask a child to be teacher and click on the tick and cross buttons. You will probably find that they will be a lot more strict than you are about getting the phonemes correct.

Try playing the game around the class (you will probably need to play the two minute version). For each grapheme ask a different child (or a different table group) to say the phoneme and then get the rest of the class to show with thumbs up or thumbs down whether they agreee or disagree. If certain children are lacking in confidence you may wish to make sure that you target them with graphemes that they definitely know.

Challenge the class to say the phonemes in a particular way (e.g. happy, bossy, shy etc)

Tips

Ideally, try to play Flashcards several times per week. Display the children's top score for a particular set of graphemes and challenge them to beat it each time you play.

Be strict about how children pronounce the phonemes. They will find blending and segmenting much easier if they always pronounce phonemes accurately. In particular try to stop them from adding an 'uh' sound on the end of consonants such as 'p', 'c', 't,' 'l', 'm'. Click on the cross button (or press x) unless the phoneme is pronounced perfectly.

Initially work on accuracy but challenge children to build up speed as quickly as possible. To read fluently, children need to be able to recognise graphemes at high speed. You may be surprised at just how quickly children can go with a bit of practise.

If you are playing with a group or whole class then ensure that they all stay in chorus. If some children try to go faster than the group, it will get confusing for everyone. Insist that all children keep together. If some children seem ready to go even quicker then you could give them a chance to show just how quickly they can go by playing individually with them later.

Print out (or jot down) the feedback showing which graphemes children need to practise further. Tackle these in the next session.

Remember that this game only covers the revisit element of the 15-20 min phonics session. Don't spend any more than three minutes maximum (including instructions, discussing how the children have done etc) on it. The game's built in time limits should help with this and should leave you with plenty of time for the teaching, practising and applying sections.

If you are concerned about individual children, play the game with them on their own. You can then print off their results as an assessment. This will identify graphemes that they need to focus on and you can play the game in the future with the same graphemes and measure accurately how much progress they have made.

Some children who read quite well in KS1 can actually have quite big gaps in their knowledge of GPCs. Often this doesn't become apparent until KS2 when their progress in reading and spelling slows down. It can be a good idea to check more able children's knowledge of GPCs by playing this game with them individually. It will only take a minute (literally) for each child and the sooner any gaps are spotted the easier they are to fix.

You can download free printable grapheme flashcards from www.letters-and-sounds.com. Just click on the appropriate phase.