You know that “teacher dread”? It happens when you think your students understand a concept, but then you watch as they complete an assessment and realize—Wow! I misjudged that.
Later, as you scan through their papers and your panic subsides, you see that in fact, you need to restart, because the way you approached that task didn’t stick.
That is exactly what happened as my second graders took a phonics assessment on those pesky glued sounds (-am, -an, -ink, -ang, -ank, -ong). The learning hadn’t stuck yet.
Sure, most kids recorded those sounds accurately during my lessons. They could even write them correctly on the assessment when asked to write an individual word. But the minute you put a tricky blend in front of one of those sounds, or students had to write a sentence that contained a few of those words, it became clear that the skill wasn’t solid. Worse yet, the skill wasn’t transferring to the stories they wrote during writing workshop.
After an evening of studying their work, and licking my wounds, I knew we needed a new way to practice, and I needed kids to work independently so I could work with other kids.
It was at that moment that I decided to turn the ownership back to the kids. As a group, we talked about the need for more practice, and one student chimed in, “What if we taught the lesson?” As soon as that child spoke, I wanted to reach across the circle and give him the biggest hug. Making the students the teachers was exactly what we needed. I wished I had thought of it sooner.
With a basket full of magnetic letters, whiteboards, and dry erase markers, we launched the Be the Teacher Center. It is a very simple center. The kids have choices of materials. They can use magnetic boards with letters or half sheets of lined paper and pencils.
When reading partners enter the center, they choose from a list of words and typed sentences. These lists are differentiated by complexity so kids can choose the list that is just right for them.
Once they have the list, students read it together to make sure they know what the words say. After that one of them asks, “Do you want to be the teacher first, or should I be the teacher first?” Then the dictation process begins.
The “teacher” reads the words and sentences, and their partner writes or builds what was read. They try to give each other tips instead of correcting each other. Students encourage each other: “Don’t forget to use your sound chart,” they also might say, or “Let’s tap the word out together.” They even give each other a keyword to help them remember the sound, and gently redirect one another by saying things like, “Remember the sound ‘-ank,’ like bank.”
When I first introduced this center, I worried that students wouldn’t be successful independently or the letter tiles would be all over the room and interest in the activity would wane after a few minutes. But luckily, I was wrong. With a few key tips on how to keep the materials organized, students are off and running. After they have practiced a bit, the partners transition to writing workshop and try to remember to apply what they learned as they create their pieces.
Now the Be the Teacher Center is a weekly routine during phonics instruction. It is a joyful way that kids get to practice, and I get the chance to meet with small groups. Ideally, this new playful routine and a few more instructional tweaks will make phonics concepts a whole lot stickier.
