Phonics Activity

This activity was done using a technique mentioned within reading techniques. It explained that when young learners are beginning to read, it is important for them to understand the different way letters are produced; how the sounds for the letters work. This activity was an example of that. The idea was to use distinctive sounds  that young ESL learners might have trouble with such as the sounds corresponding to the "sh" and "ch." Since in Spanish there is no difference between this two sounds, it is important for young learners to get familiar with the difference that exists in English. So we created this activity by using a song that makes this contrast easy to understand. The idea was to associate each sound to a more familiar idea the students already knew, so the "ch" was associated with how a train sounds and the "sh" as the sound to be quiet. I think the activity was good, we also worked with other words to make sure students notice the difference, and we also worked with repetition of the sounds so they can get a grasp of the contrast. 

These types of activities are quite useful because they can help you prepare a class for different aspects of teaching a language. In this case, teaching how to differentiate the sounds is really important in English, because there are many sound that are key when speaking that might not be that important in our language (Spanish).