Phonics Skill Success With a Magic Bag
It is no secret that fluency and accuracy are the keys to reading success, but how do you get readers to that point? One way is by practicing the exact strategic skills that your students are missing! I call this practice “Magic Bags!”
How to Use Magic Bags to Improve Student Reading
ESGI Software allows you to add skills tests that quickly assess the important phonemic and phonics skills that are crucial for students to know to become fluent readers. Here are examples of tests that are included on ESGI, or can be printed if you wish to create data binders and be a paper assessor, or use them as a guide to ESGI’s digital assessments.
Upon testing, you can print a report that shows words known and unknown (this is done by using the student detail report, student progress report, or the parent letter). Through this report, you will immediately know the words, consequentially the phonics rules, that your students need to practice. Now, that you have your report, you can begin to target instruction by printing flashcards through ESGI.
My “Magic Bags.” are simply baggies holding each student’s individualized flashcards. By targeting in such a differentiated manner, you are maximizing the learning opportunities!
Making the Magic Bag
To print the flashcards, begin by highlighting the student’s name. This will take you to a new window where you can narrow selections. Make sure that you select “Incorrect Only,” and the number of cards you want per page. Next click on the blue “Deselect All”. Then, look at the skills you have tested and select the one you want to print. Then, select view flashcards, download, and print. Cut the cards apart (or students can make their own baggies), place them in a baggie. With a marker, write the student’s name and the skill the bag holds. For example, “Susie,” “Vowel Team Words.”
You can have several “Magic Bags,” in the practice area as you wish. *The practice area can be as simple as inside a student’s desk, or attached to the side of a desk with some yarn (keeping it long enough for student to pull up to work with easily). You can also have a basket on the student’s desk holding the practice cards, or an area in the room, which contains student practice baskets. (I always love a tidy option).
Making the Magic Bags a Routine
Consistency is key! Make the use of the Magic Bags a routine. Find stolen moments of the day —- early finisher, 3 minutes before lunch, 1 minute til recess, etc. Help your students build a routine of, “Got a Minute, Grab a Bag!”
If you have parent volunteers and/or aides in your classroom, remember that direct instruction which is targeted has powerful impact. Just a few minutes with a student, a bag, and an adult reviewing phonics skills, reviewing sight words, or reviewing phonemic awareness skills, opens up the potential for reading success along the journey of reading.
Extend the Experience
Magic bags can be extended for everyone if you add some peer-group writing practice. Do you have students that have already passed off all of the skills? Then print their flashcards and divide these students into peer groups. When they practice, one will read the word card and the other will write the word. This activity will greatly increase spelling as well as reading multi-syllabic words with multi-phonics rules.
You can also extend the word list. If students know all of the assessment words for a certain skill, that doesn’t mean they know all of the words that fit the pattern. Simply add new words under a different tab than your official assessment tab under ESGI’s Subject tab option. Perhaps call the tab, “More Phonics Practice”, and add tests for the skill you want. for example, if on the assessment your students need to know the words now, plow, and brow when they are assessed for the vowel digraph OW, you can add a test for new OW words under a new phonics tab to challenge students when they have passed the assessment.
Build Competition
If your students respond best to competition, build data sheets where the students can mark off progress. Students love to design their own Magic Bag progress sheets.
Differentiate
If you have students who struggle, or have an IEP, or learn best in small doses, be sure to limit the number of cards in each bag. For example, if a student has 12 vowel team words to pass off, you will want to limit for these students. Perhaps three cards with three words with similar vowel patterns would be best for these students.
The Magic Bag is Limitless
You can use these bags for any skill, for any curriculum, for any subject. You can make your own flashcards based on data gathered from any source, or use the magical abilities of ESGI. You can create ANY test you want there. Just create a Tab, look for pre-made ESGI tests, or create your own.
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