COL Teacher Inquiry: Connected Phonation: Sliding sounds!

I have a child in my class this term who has been struggling to blend sounds together to make words. She can quickly say the sounds from the first set of our scope and sequence (m, d, p, t, a, i, n ,s) but when it came to blending these sounds together to make words she was getting stuck. 

I discovered a video online shared by another New Zealand teacher, Marianne Brown, that showed a strategy to scaffold children towards being able to blend sounds together.  This approach is called "Connected Phonation". Look up "Marianne Brown Literacy Resources" on Youtube as she shares an excellent explanation of this approach and an example of what it looks like in practice.

I have begun using this approach during our small group reading sessions this week. Here is a short video of this learner blending together a word with two sounds. I am so proud of this learner as she has been really struggling to make this connection BUT she loved the concept of the slide and by the end of the lesson she was happily sliding the sounds down the slide to make words - all with a huge smile on her face! 

Nga mihi nui!