Initial Sound Fluency Card Activities
Our school uses the DIBELS assessments 3 times a year. Initial SoundFluency (ISF) is one of the items that is tested. However, if our districtdid not use this assessment, we would still incorporate Initial SoundFluency activities in our classrooms. The DIBELS benchmark is 25 soundsin a minute to be considered established by December.Initial Sound Fluency is a measure that assesses
phonemic awareness
skills. Research shows that when students have a strong phonemicawareness background and exhibit those skills, they typically experienceearly reading success. It is also a good prediction of what students havea strong understanding of making the connection between speaking towriting. Therefore, it is very important that we strengthen the phonemicawareness skills in every student in our classrooms.
We plan on using these Initial Sound Fluency cards to helpincrease phonemic awareness with our students. Here aresome of the ways that the cards can be used:
Each day we can practice them as a whole group. The teacher can namethe picture and the students can say the sound. EXAMPLE: The teachersays barn, students say /b/.Once we get good at this, we play
Beat The Clock
. To play beat theclock, we see if we can make it through all of the cards before a minuteis up. (It’s amazing how this game strengthens the understanding of 60seconds =1 minute and understanding how long a minute really is.)These cards can be used in guided reading groups, pocket charts, learningcenters, one-on-one with a parent volunteer, etc.We also have the students practice Initial Sound Fluency at home as apart of our homework packet. A set of these cards could be made andsent home with at risk students for extra practice with Initial SoundFluency.