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Intervention Strategy: Sound Match Rhyming in Academy of READING®

Read this article to learn how to identify an ELL student struggling with the Sound Match Rhyming skill in the Academy of READING®. Additionally, this article outlines activities you can use to help all of your students gain better understanding of Sound Match Rhyming.

Rhyming can often be difficult for ELL students because it is so dependent on English oral language proficiency.

When viewing the Training Monitor page, you can identify struggling students by looking for those who have a high number of trails.

In this example, we will be looking at a student who has completed 11 trials in a Sound Match Rhyming activity.   Click on the student’s name to view a summary of his training.

After clicking the student’s name, the Student Training Progress page appears.  Though Academy and teacher interventions have occurred (see red rectangle), this student has not mastered this skill.

Let’s examine the trial details, by clicking Show trial details, to get a more in depth look of the student’s performance.  When viewing the errors, there is a clear indication that this student is becoming frustrated.  Her errors are all high in number which indicates that she is having a great deal of difficulty understanding the task at hand.

Click on one of the error links to view a list of errors made by the student during a trial to determine the problem. When you view the errors, you will notice that in most of the trials the student is choosing the sound that matches the inititial consonant sound.

What can you do to help this student succeed with Sound Match Rhyming?

• The optional instructional module SpanishTutor for the Academy of READING should be enabled since it provides tutorials, assistance, and motivational elements in Spanish.
• Demonstrate to the student how to use the error list in her Training Results to learn the correct and incorrect sounds of the questions she missed. Show her how to click on the ear symbol next to the target sound, then each of the incorrect responses to learn the correct sounds.
• Print out a copy of the student’s errors. Review the similarities and differences between the target and her choice. Have the student interpret her results to ensure that she understands.
• A short instructional session should help this student understand and master Sound Match Rhyming:
  • Have the student listen to nursery rhymes in both Spanish and English however, keep in mind that Spanish rhymes are more likely to play with vowels, while in English they are more likely to play with consonants.
  • Encourage students to participate in activities that provide oral examples of rhyming words either in English or in their native language.
  • ELL students need to see rhyming words in print as well as hear them. Click here (PDF, 255K) to access rhyming worksheets.
    

Fun Rhyming Activities for the Class

Activity 1: Simon Says
Example: teacher says “Simon Says, bird”.  When the teacher says a word that rhymes, students should take a step forward.  If the teacher says a word that does not rhyme, students should stand still.

Activity 2: Round Robin
Teacher says a word.  Students take turns one-by-one saying a word that rhymes with the starting word.