Frequently asked questions

Some children do get stuck differentiating between two similar looking words. Try these ideas to help him differentiate.

1. As you are at ‘my’ focus heavily on this word and take ‘am’ out of the word pack and the probe (just cover it with a sticker and write a different word over it. Teach ‘my’ really well and in isolation from ‘am’ so when he looks at it, he is not thinking ‘am’. If he says ‘am’ when he looks at ‘my’, immediately say, “No, this is my’ and get him to say ‘my’ over and over again until he only says ‘my’ when he looks at it. You say and make him say ‘my’ in a strong voice to emphasise it and keep the focus on it. Get ‘my’ really strong in his memory with no mention of ‘am’. For eg, have 5 word cards with ‘my’ and 5 with an easier word such as ‘the’ and play some word games just with these two cards to reinforce ‘my’. Repeat, but change ‘the’ to another word. Make the lesson all about ‘my’ to ingrain it in his memory. If in the probe, even with ‘am’ taken out, he is still saying ‘am’, make a probe with just ‘my’ and one other word so he does not have to remember all the other words and can focus on ‘my’. Over teach ‘my’ until he always says it correctly when he sees it. Then bring back the full set of word cards, minus ‘am’, and the probe with lots of words on it (but not ‘am’). Work with these until he can do them all well with no mention of ‘am’.

2. Once ‘my’ is firmly in his head, bring ‘am’ back. Play games just using ‘am’ and ‘my’ cards so all he has to work on is these two words and how to differentiate them. Talk to him about how they differ visually and how he has to look carefully not to be tricked. Have the two cards face up on the table top and play slap where you say the word and he finds and slaps the card and says the word. Keep a tally and challenge him to get it right 10 times so he has an incentive to look carefully and differentiate between ‘my’ and ‘am. Make a probe for him with only these two words. Once he can tell the difference between the two words, then bring in the other cards and the normal ‘my’ probe so he is back on the programme as normal and continue from there.

It might take a bit of time but some brains do need a moment to pause and absorb what they have learnt and learn to look more carefully.

1. When teaching todays word, reduce the pack of cards down to just today’s word and one other that you know the child knows well so he is only having to compare the two words. Have three copies of each of the two word cards so he is not dealing with only two cards. Tell him you want him to read each word card correctly and work at a slower pace than usual so that he has time for careful monitoring. Once he can read the two words on the cards again and again without error, put in another previously taught word. Build up the number of word cards, one previously taught word at a time, only adding them back when each time he reads them all correctly.

2. Before the final probe, take an extra minute to practise reading it accurately, just working on one line only. Cover all but one line (any line) of the probe with a piece of paper and say to the child “I am going to read the probe as carefully as I can – watch me and tell me at the end if I made any errors ” and then read it correctly. Ask the child “Did I read that correctly?” Then say “Now it’s your turn to read a line correctly too.” Choose a different line for him to read, covering the rest of the probe with paper so he is only looking at that one line. After the child reads it, ask him “Did you read the line correctly?” and give feedback, praising if he made a mistake and self-corrected. You read another line and ask the child to check your reading as you do it in case you make an error. You read and the child monitors you. Occasionally put in an error to see if he notices. Then it is her turn to read a line. Ensure you do not read the same line as some children will just memorise it.

After 5 or so goes, then say “Now let’s do the whole probe and I want you to read it just as carefully as you did with reading only one line,” and end the lesson with the probe as normal.

If the child does not read accurately when reading the one line, cover the last two words of the line and model reading accurately just the first 3 words. Then it is the child’s turn with just three words in a different line. Once the child can do that accurately, move onto the whole line.

3. Praise for accurate reading: “You read everything right”, “I like how you are checking your reading so carefully”, “You’re great at getting each word correct”.

For the child who is finding it hard to visually differentiate between ‘the’ and ‘here’ (and let’s face it – ‘here’ is always one of the harder words to learn anyway) make sure she knows ‘the’ really well first. Once she knows ‘the’ and always recognises it, tell her you are going to trick her and put in some other word cards to see if she can tell the difference. Do this frequently so she becomes used to monitoring her reading of ‘the’ very carefully. Once she can do this, when you come to teach ‘here’, repeat the process but do not put the ‘the’ in the pack of cards to compare it with until she can read ‘here’ no problem when mixed with other word cards. Once she has achieved that, then add ‘the’ and expect her to take some time to monitor but remind her she is able to read each of these words, she just needs to be a careful checker.

Using the pictures to assist with reading the content words is an integral part of the programme. If a child was at the level required to read the content words without pictures, they would not actually need to be on the Early Words programme at all because they would be too good a reader to need it! It is also important to keep the pictures uncovered so that the student learns to use picture and context clues and this will be so helpful for them later when reading real books.Covering the pictures would also slow the reading down thus thwarting our aim of working for fluency.So, definitely do not cover the pictures. They are there for a reason.

If a child starts forgetting a word previously taught, check their score sheet for the word to be sure you didn’t move them onto to their next word without achieving accuracy and fluency. If you did move them too quickly, it is probable they did not have long enough on the word at the time of learning. Explain to the child that you need to go back to that word for a lesson or two to revise it and to make sure they have accuracy and fluency. When they do achieve this, go through each subsequent probe until the current one, ensuring they have accuracy and fluency on each one before checking the next probe. If they do not, stop and teach until they do. 
However, if your score sheet tells you that you did ensure the pupil had accuracy and fluency of the word before you moved them on, do not go back. Some children on learning a new word have to ‘lose’ a previously taught word in order to take on new learning. What you want to do is teach the child how to learn something new whilst retaining previously taught words. Explain to the child they are sometimes forgetting their old words, go through the word cards before bringing out todays word to remind them of what they know, and then proceed with the lesson as normal. When they forget a previously taught word, remind them ‘You know that word”. Tell them it if you have to and ask ‘do you remember it now?’ before giving the final probe, point out some of the previously taught words to remind the child that they know them before giving the probe as normal.