A. Purpose of using this title
The aim of this program is to develop pupil's skills in initial and final consonants, medial vowels, initial and final consonant blends and rhymes. All of the intended objectives are met through this program. I used this program to reinforce skills being delivered in the Literacy hour. The pupils worked in pairs with some support.
B. What does the title offer that other resources don’t?
Sounds and Rhymes focuses on pure phonics without resorting to too many gimmicks. Unlike many of its competitors, it doesn't have lots of lengthy instructions which must be listened to before embarking on each section. Nor does it offer lots of multimedia cartoon-type distractions. Instead, Sounds and Rhymes offers simple illustrations which serve only to point towards the relevant letter, sound blend or rhyme.
The program practises the patterns for a set amount of times (ranging from 4 to 8) which are predetermined by the teacher, and can be set up to reflect what is being taught. For example, it can be set to practise only 'bl' 'cl' and 'gl' initial blends or all 27 initial blends. Alternatively, you can mix initial and final blends or just practise bouncing vowels.
Like many of its contemporaries the program offers pupil reports. The advantage in this case is that it doesn't just keep a tally of wrong and right answers, but actually shows you the error. This allows you to reflect on the error later, thereby enabling you to see if there is a pattern to the errors or whether it was a simple confusion over ambigous graphics.
C. Differentiation
This program was particularly useful for those pupils who needed to practise and rehearse those skills delivered in the Literacy hour. Whilst I would not recommend the program for SEN children, it was particularly useful for those pupils who always need to play 'catch up' and who often form part of the ELS support.
