Tuesday 21 April 2015

Working with Peter & Jane readers (Part 1)


In Part 1 of working with Peter & Jane, Budsy will share what Budsy did with lil' dragon_boi.


He has never been fascinated with the illustration in Peter & Jane readers. Neither has he been keen with repetitive words. However, he was keen in learning new sight words.

It was tough to get him to sit through even a short session. As he took little interest in these readers, his concentration span was extremely limited.

When lil' dragon_boi saw the word cards that Budsy bought for chubs, he showed interest in wanting to 'play' with us.

One of the activities was for chubs to unscramble the mixed up words in each sentence. He was to write the sentence in the correct order based on the corresponding picture given.


As lil' dragon_boi just turned 3, he has had very little exposure to pre-writing. To be honest, he has little interest in writing. In Montessori however, Budsy picked up his sensitivity to learning language. It was almost too much a waste to forego a teachable moment.

You know the thing about maximising our children's potential?

As parents and educators, we should focus more on our children's strengths and what they CAN DO, instead of harping on what they can't. Why? It is because we can help our children to push the boundaries of what they can do towards excellence by observing/finding ways they learn best.

So here was what Budsy did for lil' dragon_boi...


(1) The following night when the boys finally turned in for the night, Budsy flipped to the last page in Peter & Jane Book 1C, scanned and laminated the few pages at the back that were meant for written activities.


(2) Budsy cut out the word cards and out them aside. After which Budsy cut out the pictures too and turned them into individual 
picture cards.


(3) Following the basic lesson presentation of the Montessori 3-period lesson, Budsy introduced each word to lil' dragon_boi. Lil dragon_boi's strengths were :-


(i) blessed good memory skills
(ii) already phonetically trained in up to 3-letter phonetic words
(iii) enjoys hands-on lessons


FIRST PERIOD

Budsy introduced a few word cards to him in isolation.

"This is Peter. /p/... Peter."
"Peter is the name of this boy."
(showed him a picture of Peter)

"This is Peter. /j/... Jane."

"Peter is the name of this boy."
(showed him a picture of Jane)

"This card says/reads; here."
"/h/... here."

"/i/ and /s/ makes the word 'is'."



"This card says/reads; like."
"/l/... like."

"This card says/reads; and."

While pointing to each letter on the card, Budsy blends the sounds to him. "/a/... /n/... /d/ - and."

SECOND PERIOD
Budsy asked lil' dragon_boi to point to the corresponding word cards as Budsy calls/reads a word out until we were done with all the words/cards.

For example :

"Which card says... 'like'?

"Can you show mommy, where's 'and'?"

"Now, which one's Peter?"

Carry on with the rest of the words/cards. 

(4) THIRD PERIOD
Budsy invited lil' dragon_boi to select a picture card. 

Budsy asked him, "What can you see in this picture?"

"I can see the dog with Jane and Peter." He replied.

"Yes, they are playing with the dog."
"Peter and Jane like the dog"
"Let's make that sentence together."

"Which cards spells Peter? Can you pick it up and place it beside the picture?"

"Peter AND Jane like the dog."
"What word comes next? Let's find it!"

He continues to place each word card to form the sentence that described the picture he selected. The sentences are provided in the answer keys of the same book. ie. Book 1C.
(5) Lil' dragon_boi finished putting the words together to form the sentence and read it out aloud. 

He was enthused by his newly acquired ability to actually form a sentence with some guidance from Budsy, that he proceeded to work on the other picture cards on his own, with combinations of words to make his own story... 

So there. 

Budsy finally managed to get him to read the Peter and Jane readers all. 


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