As an inclusion teacher I have students who enter my room as non-readers or reading significantly below grade level. Part of the challenge that these students have with reading is the number of repetitions that they need of a word or a phonic's pattern before they "own" that word or pattern. Finding a way to provide students with the needed number of repetitions has always been a challenge, and I had never been able to find that "just right" solution. That all changed, however, when I discovered Whole Brain Teaching. In the free downloads section of the Whole Brain Teaching web site, there are two games that were literally a answer to prayer for my low readers. They are Super Speed 100 and Super Speed Rhyme. In this post I would like to share with you my experiences with these two games.
The first game I would like to talk about is Super Speed 100. This game is designed to teach beginning readers of any age the 100 most commonly used sight words in the English Language. These are the words that make up approximately 50% of what we read. The words are arranged in order of frequency. “The” is the most common word in English, so it is the first word
learned. “To” is the next most common word in English and is the second word learned, and so on. The game has 100 levels. One new word is added in each level from 1-100; previously learned words are frequently repeated. Every 10 levels, there is a Challenge. The Challenge contains all the
words from previous levels. In order to continue, students must be able to read all of the words in the Challenge.
I play this game every day during my low students' reading group time. You can choose to play solo or partner Super Speed. I have my students play with partners. At the beginning of the year I tested my struggling readers on these 100 words to determine their starting level for the game. I paired up students who tested close to each other. Partners are given one minute to alternately read the words. At the end of one minute they mark where they left off. I then time them for a second minute, and students try to get farther than they did the first minute. If they beat their previous number of words, they draw a smiley face in a star on a sheet of stars that come with the game. When partners are able to read all of the words in a level, I cross that level off, and the next day they start on the next level. In my room when students fill up one page of stars, they earn a star on the Super Improvers Board. (For more information on the Super Improvers' Board, see my post on the subject.) This just provides students with added incentive. They are always counting to see how many more stars they need to fill up their page of stars.
Immediately following Super Speed 100, we play Super Speed Rhyme. Super Speed Rhyme is actually a power point designed to teach beginning readers some of the most common word families. Included in the Power Point are a number of suggestions on how it can be used in the classroom. One of the suggestions is to play a game using the words from the Power Point. Last summer, in preparation for the game, I typed all of the words from the Power Point out and grouped them by word families. Since Super Speed Rhyme was designed with kindergartners and first graders in mind, I added additional word families that I would expect my second graders to know. The game is played very much like Super Speed 100. Once again, you have the choice of having your students play solo or with a partner. For this game I chose to have my students play solo. They still have a partner, but their partner's job is to follow along and be prepared to provide help reading a word if it is asked for, and correct their partner if he/she reads a word incorrectly. All partner A's reads first. After one minute they mark where they left off. They are then given a second minute to try and beat their score. If they do, they give themselves a smiley face and I cross off one line of words on their paper. This process is then repeated with all of the partner B's. I have attached the word list that I use with my students. Please feel free to use it as is, or revise it to match the levels of your students.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/kgav55nrzbcwj3f/speed%20rhyme%20words.docx?dl=0
I have seen so much growth in my struggling readers, and I truly believe that these two games have played a big part in this growth. I think that they are successful for two reasons. The first is student engagement. I have never seen kids so excited about coming to a reading group, and I have never seen struggling readers have so much fun reading. The kids love the game format, and they love to see their daily improvements. The second reason is the number of repetitions that these games provide. The repetitions are built into the format of the game. My lowest student played the game for over two weeks, before he could remember the first ten sight words. Since then he has progressed more quickly, since only one new word is added at each level.
When students graduate from Super Speed 100, there is another game that I would highly recommend called Super Speed 1,000. This game is appropriate for all students who can read the first 100 sight words. My kids love it! It can also be found on the Whole Brain Teaching web site under free downloads.
No matter what grade level you teach, if you have struggling readers in your classroom, I promise you that you will find success with these games. I hope that you will give them a try.
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