Throwback Thursday Vol 1

Mar 29, 2018

1 min read

Here is my first Throwback Thursday where I look at things I did whilst on placement.

At the start of my placement I quickly found that my own subject knowledge was letting me down when I came to teaching Phonics. I had some well-planned lessons but was struggling to deliver them when I was tripping over my words and not confident that what I was teaching was right.

After one phonics lesson I spoke to my mentor and was honest and asked if there was anything I could do to help with my own subject knowledge of phonics. She showed me the letters and sounds books and she suggested that I look from the beginning then I was aware of what the children already knew.

So, I did just that I taught myself like I would teach the children and I went through each stage of the letters and sounds curriculum. I also started making my phonics sessions more interactive and more enthesis on the children discovering and learning through lots of different activities. I also used a lot of video clips to help introduce new phonemes and graphemes to the children.

As for the terminology that should be used when teaching phonics, I started to grasp that over time and I feel I am a lot more confident now then at the start of my placement, but there is always more to learn and develop.