If you were anything like me growing up, the thought of using flashcards was always tedious and boring. Despite it being a boring way to study, it was always effective for me and helped me ace my tests. When it comes to young students, the last thing in the world we want to do is make reading “boring.” Instead, a good teacher wants to find ways to engage students while they are learning to help ignite the love of learning inside their heart. Helping students to specifically enjoy their reading instruction time will help them grow their love of learning. If they love books and reading, they will be able to learn through reading.
So how do you get the effectiveness of flashcard practice AND engage those young readers?
Well buckle up and keep reading to learn just that.
Maybe you’re skeptical about the effectiveness of flashcards and that’s okay, it’s good to ask questions and do your research. The truth is that repetition actually helps to build confidence1. And once students gain that confidence, they start to like that topic more and more and trust in their abilities. AND when using spaced repetition to practice flashcards, they become more and more effective because it helps students actually retain what they’re learning. So what is spaced repetition2? An example of spaced repetition would be using flashcards to practice a concept for a short period of time daily rather than spending an hour once a week to practice.
So are flashcards really effective? The answer is YES! Flashcards are very effective because the repetition helps to build confidence and using spaced repetition can help students retain the knowledge much easier. However, because of the repetition, flashcards can also be somewhat boring. So now let’s get into how you can actually make flashcard practice engaging and meaningful for students to practice phonics spelling patterns.
This seems like an obvious answer but make a game out of it! Games are engaging and your students won’t even realize they are learning. I have 10 different games you can use to play with phonics flashcards. I’ll share my top 3 favorite games in this blog post and you can download and have access to the rest of the games by CLICKING HERE.
This is a very simple but engaging game that is very easy to prep. This can be done on a table (during small groups) or on the floor in an open area. I personally like doing it on the floor in an open area. You can use premade phonics flashcards or you can write spelling words or high-frequency words on either index cards or full sized papers. Then scatter them all on the ground or table face up. Finally, choose a word to read aloud. Each of the students will then scan through the words and “attack” the word that was read aloud. “Attacking” the word, simply means, slapping near the word (if on a table) or standing near the card if on the ground. You can do variations of this activity by saying something like “Find a word that rhymes with play” or “find a word with the same spelling pattern as spray.” You can also have students take turns calling out the word for them to attack.
My students love this game, and it’s a great movement activity that helps with my hyperactive students as well.
This is a fun game to get those creative juices flowing. This works best in a small group setting with small premade flashcards. Pass out 7 cards to each student and place the remaining cards facedown on the table. All the players will work together to tell a story. Players will look at their cards, reading the words and think of a way to incorporate a card (or cards) into the story. The player who thinks of an opening storyline first, can begin and players will take turns going in a circle clockwise. A player can add 1- 2 sentences at a time incorporating at least one card from their hand and discarding those cards after they are used. After discarding their used card(s), players will draw a new card(s) so they always have 7 cards. The game is over once the players feel the story has ended OR when they run out of cards.
Those creative students will LOVE this game, but you may have some reluctant students. I recommend working with your reluctant students at first and sharing your cards. You can both work together to think of a sentence to add.
This is a fun one to also practice vocabulary. You will need whiteboards and dry erase markers for all students participating. This works best in small groups. Lay out several flashcards face up on the table. Randomly pick a word that is face up and think of 2-3 clues to describe the word. Slowly give your clues to the students. The students will look over all the words that are face up and decide which word it is that you’re describing. When they think they know the word, they’ll secretly write the word on their whiteboard. Once everyone has written a guess on their whiteboard, the students will reveal their whiteboards. Students get 1 point for guessing the right word and a bonus point for spelling it correctly.
Your students will love this game!
To check, see the printable game rules for these 3 games PLUS 7 additional games you can play with phonics flashcards, CLICK BELOW
There are a lot of flashcards out there. There are phonics flashcards, there are sight word flashcards or high-frequency word flashcards and honestly YES any word flashcards can be used with these activities. I do however have flashcards that I recommend that are amazing for 1st and 2nd grade leveled students.
Here’s what I love about these phonics decoding flashcards.
- There are 3 differentiated levels
- They can be printed in various sizes
- There are many multisyllabic words giving students just the practice they need (plus the 3 differentiated levels can help struggling readers also practice multisyllabic words)
- There are so many word options (40 per set – which makes 1,000 for 1st & 1,040 for 2nd grade)
- The phonics skill practiced in each set is notated on each card making it easy to find it’s home if a card is misplaced
- There are so many phonics spelling pattern options
Yes I am a bit biased because I did make these cards myself, but these are helpful features that you won’t see in other phonics flashcard options. Check out the video below to see the 1st grade phonics flashcards in action.
There are lots of purchasing options. You can purchase based on the specific phonics skills you want or you can bundle and save. CLICK HERE to view all the phonics flashcards available.
References