This is my case study of 2 of my New Entrant/Year 1 students after 10 weeks of the BSLA program. Before the program was started I did a baseline assessment and after 10 weeks around 40 lessons I completed an assessment.
This is what I found comparing the data collected and compared between the baseline and 10 weeks assessments.
Child AWas proficient in phoneme identity at baseline assessment.
Has good sound knowledge of phonemes and could recognise both the letters and their sounds.
Below proficiency in all other areas of the baseline data which included segmentation and manipulation of letter sounds, phoneme blending.
At week 10 assessment, child A has made consistent progression in all areas, especially the non-word reading of graphemes.
Next Steps:
Continue to solidify knowledge and build confidence in both whole class and small group BSLA activities.
Moving onto the next stage of BSLA from week 11.
Child B:
Started school with little phoneme and letter sound recognition and knowledge.
Was below proficiency in all areas of the baseline data which included phoneme knowledge, phoneme blending, segmentation and manipulation.
At week 10 assessment, child B has made progress in all areas, especially the non-word reading of graphemes.
Next Steps:
How did I differentiate my teaching methods to assist my focus students:
Ensuring that I had smaller groups made it easier to see who was mastering the lesson goals and skills acquired to move on. Students that were struggling to learn and retain the new phonemes that were being introduced, I placed into another group where I could be more explicit in my teaching of phonemes, segmentation and decoding.
Hands on and digital rotation activities were set up for the students during our literacy block that related to the oral language, CVC words, and phonemes that were being explicitly taught in both whole class and small group activities.
Weekly handouts and optional homework was sent home that correspond with the learning happening within the class for each group, in hopes that it would aide in the solidifying of the learners phoneme knowledge.
Creating a word wall with both the shared reading book covers and the key vocabulary. This made the key vocab not only continuously accessible but also made the learning rewindable as I would point to a book cover and have the learners take turns to retell the story, and what the words meant. This built confidence for both my focus students in their oral language and comprehension of what we had read.
Due to COVID we did not get to meet with the whanau at the beginning of the year as we had initially planned. Whanau were invited to a BSLA information meeting at the end of term 2. In some ways, I think this worked in our favour, as we had a better understanding of the approach and could share the learning and progress we had seen so far. We had a great turnout of parents who seemed very interested and happy for their children to be a part of the structured literacy approach that we were implementing.
I have enjoyed participating in and implementing the BSLA into my literacy practice.
As a syndicate, we grouped our learners based on what their baseline data showed. Some of my learners made significant progress meaning they moved into another group. I was explicit in my teaching however the challenges of student absences and whānau engagement have impacted how the rest of my group has progressed within the approach.
I am looking forward to taking what I have learned and accomplished this year using the BSLA approach and incorporating it with other structured literacy approaches, such as the Code and the Heggerty program to provide a literacy program that meets and supports all learner's literacy needs and abilities.
How did I engage my students and kept them engaged?
Knowledge of the learner's capacity and scaffolding to the next step apparently all the way throughIndividual students supported / differentiation provided
Explicit teaching is evident all the way through
The lesson flowed well despite children not having this delivered to them consistently due to absences etc.
Resources all organised and all elements of the BSLA lesson were incorporated.
Some of my students will be doing Tier 2 of the program. They need a lot more reinforcement of their phonetic knowledge. Tier 2 is much more focussed and deliberate teaching.
Here are some activities I included into my Literacy Program:
Lots of follow up and reinforcement in activities
Lots of vocabulary unpacking with the Shared Reading book
Explanations stepped through as began activity
Continual feedback and prompting for next step
Good flow and pace to keep engagement
