header

Tuesday, October 13, 2015

The Name Chart

The student's name is likely the first word that they learn. They learn that it is written the same way each time and that it is made up of a sequence of letters, defined by space.
(McCarrier, Andrea, Gay S. Pinnell, and Irene C. Fountas. Interactive Writing. Portsmouth: Heinemann, 2000.)

It's so important and meaningful for our little ones to spend the first months of school studying their names to develop phonological awareness and explore concepts about print. Here are some ways to extend the Star Name work we wrote about in earlier posts...

As your students are studying Star Names each day, you can add them to a pocket chart for comparing and contrasting.

We searched for letters and
marked them with highlighting tape.

"What do you notice?"
Some things you might discuss or sort by: length of names, number of syllables, same first letter, same last letter, common sounds, common letters, common spelling patterns, rhyming names, etc.

These students are sorting names
by number of syllables in a literacy/word work station.

Teacher Tips for creating your class name chart:

*you can use the names from the pocket chart and glue them onto poster board or chart paper

*group common names by same first sound, not necessarily first letter (Caroline and Celina both begin with C, but they have different first sounds: /k/ vs. /s/)

*make the first letter (or first two letters for digraphs ex. Charlie) bold or a different color, especially to emphasize the concept of first in writing

*include students' pictures

*if you don't have names for the common sounds, you might include teachers' names or classroom pets' names

We added our class fish Red
to the name chart :) 

Some ways to use the name chart as a TOOL:

*During interactive writing, you might model using the name chart as a letter-sound correspondence tool, especially if students don't know all the letter sounds. For example: I want to write 'doctor', whose name begins with the same sound as 'doctor'? Axel? Briana? Christopher? Devin? Yes, doctor and Devin begin with the same first sound /d/...I can write a 'D' for doctor.) 

*Make small copies of the class name chart available for students to use independently: in your writing center, in their folders, or even in the book baggies of students who need 1:1 pointing practice, so they can point under and read each classmate's name.

Let us know if you have other suggestions!
Chrissa & Stefanie
:)

No comments:

Post a Comment