Week Six: Excellent Biffytoons week!

    This week we went bananas for Whole Brain Teaching's Biffytoons slides for the SuperSpeed 100 sight words.  Since school started, I've been showing the Biffytoon slides on my StarBoard - great huge big words and pictures - and we practice the actions.  This week I had the girls sit in front of the big screen every day and showed them the Biffytoons slides every day.  It was like watching a mini, audience-participation movie.

    In this picture, students use the StarBoard to practice the actions as one of their center activities.
    In each class I have a few very proficient girls, and I choose two of them to stand each side of the StarBoard and model the actions - prompting the other students.  I cue them all to read the words and give me the signs as we go through the slides.  If I do this at the end of class the girls are very enthusiastic because they are either going to lunch or going home when we finish the 'show'.  It's lots of fun, and they get a little rowdy and loud with their enthusiasm,
     I have also created interactive word lists for the first 40 SuperSpeed 100 words at a popular spelling website, so the students have opportunities at home to play games for review and practice of the words.

Week Five: SuperSpeed 100

To get the SuperSpeed 100 reading program up and running for my Arabic speaking students, I did a first twenty sight word baseline test and then started using the BiffyToons slides on the SmartBoard. The students have nowhere near enough English for me to explain or simply model the procedures for SuperSpeed 100, so my strategy is to get the whole class working on an easy assignment while I pull my strongest students in pairs and have them read with me modeling and supervising.  I make sure they are tracking left-to-right, completing accurate return-sweeps, taking turns saying the words, and helping each other when they get stuck.  Because they are not very fluent at the moment, I give them a little longer than a minute to read so that they get to the next level.

    I work with one pair of students at a time.  We read and celebrate their successes by filling out the new stars.  After the girls have colored their stars, each girl gets to act as teacher ('Abla') for another student while I continue with a new pair.  It gets a little chaotic at times, but the students love to be Abla for a little while and it gives them more practice with the words.  When students at the lowest levels have read with me or another student, they in turn, get to be Abla for a lower student.  This works great for a couple of my girls with strong personailites but limited word recognition.  They love the responsibility, and again, it's more practice for them.  When all members of the class are very familiar with the reading process and can use the materials to independently find their starting place on the page, I will be able to assign pairs and have all the students reading at the same time.

    As well as the fabulous BiffyToons slides which we look at and act out often, the girls now have their general back-to-school routines established at home, and many are receiving help from parents, nannies, or tutors.  Some of the girls have already made terrific jumps from the beginning of the year, and each week using the SuperSpeed 100 reading program demonstrates, and provides a record of, how much the students are improving.