iPad Lesson 6

The sixth iPad lesson focused on spelling sight words. Sight Words 2 was the app used for this lesson. During the lesson the student practiced using spelling strategies she has been working on in order to spell the various sigh words correctly.

Sight Words 2 is a free literacy app teachers can download for their student to use during the school day. When you open the app you are taken directly to the homepage. This page has an image of a wood post with six different options you can choose from. The top of the post says words tour, followed by find n shoot, unscramble, memory game, bingo, and practice words. At the top of the page there are two gear wheels that say settings. After clicking on settings you have the option to have the app use grade 1 or grade 2 sight word lists.

For the word tour the app reads through ten different sight words, letter by letter. The student has to click on the right arrow to hear and see the next word. By clicking the circular arrows in the middle of the two arrows the app will spell the word again. When you want to go back to the homepage you click on the little house in the bottom right hand corner.

The game find n shoot has the student "shoot" the chosen word by clicking on it. On the easy level there is a small box at the bottom of the screen that tells the student which word they need to find. For the hard level the student only hears the word and they have to find it in the clouds.

The unscramble game has the student spell different sight words from the letters provided. On the
easy level, the student sees boxes that have the letters written inside which make up the word and the student has to drag the letters from below to its matching spot. When it is switched to the hard level the student only hears the word and isn't provided any hints for how to spell it.

Memory game shows six different clouds for the easy level. The student has to click on the clouds to try and match the sight words together. The app will read the sigh words aloud to the student once they click on the cloud. For the hard level there are 12 clouds, so it becomes more challenging for the student to find the matches.

The bingo game is similar to traditional bingo. A word is read aloud and the student has to click on the word on their game board. When they click on the word, an image appears to show that they have that space taken. There is also a timer on the bottom right hand corner to show how long it has taken the student to get bingo. On the bottom left hand side it shows how many incorrect words the student clicked on.

The last activity is called practice words. This allows the student to practice the words they have marked red during the first activity, word tour. Once a word is marked red, it appears highlighted in white with a microphone on the right hand side. When the student clicks it, the app reads the word aloud for the student. Students can use this part of the app to practice words that they found challenging.

For the lesson, the common core standard addressed was RF.2.3, which states the student can listen to a word and think about the sounds and letter they hear. We began the lesson by talking about the importance of sight words an why we need to know them. I explained that when we read sight words it is like reading any other word and we want to make sure we think about the sounds we hear. Thinking about the sounds we hear will help us when we work on writing the sight words.

We then used the app to practice what we just discussed. She played the unscramble game and began on the easy level. At the beginning she struggled with unscrambling the words in order and would put the letters back randomly instead of starting from the first letter. It took a lot of reminding, for her to do this naturally on her own. After going through the list one complete time on easy mode, I switched it to hard. I noticed her taking the time to say the word after the app read it aloud, which is what we have been working on. If she didn't put a letter back in the correct spot the app would make a silly noise then the letter would go back to the bottom of the screen.

This app was beneficial when it came to having the student practice spelling sight words. I personally think that it could have been more engaging, however the student did enjoy playing and asked to play again once we finished. If I could change anything about the app it would be that a sentence was provided along with the sight word. A sentence would help the student see the word in context, which would allow them to develop a deeper understanding of the word instead of only knowing how to spell it.

References:
[Untitled image of Sight Words 2 logo]. Retrieved February 27, 2017, from https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.playsightwordsII