Sight Word Popcorn Activity

The hands-on activity I chose to use and create on my “evaluation of student progress” student is called, “BAM!” BAM! is similar to the activity, “Sight Word Popcorn,” which involves students drawing a sight word from a container and saying the sight word aloud. If the student does not know the sight word, he/she must put it back into the container and if he/she draws a “popcorn” the student loses a turn and it is the next persons turn. The student with the most sight words at the end of the activity, wins. I made mine very similar except I named mine BAM! and used sight words my “evaluation of student progress” student needed help on and he had to also use that sight word in a sentence correctly. Since the student already loved the activity, “Sight Word Popcorn,” I chose to create the activity, “BAM!” because I knew it would keep him engaged and he would learn from it. After testing him on second grade sight words, I took the ones he had the most trouble with and used those so he could become a more fluent reader. Since this student really struggled with fluency I knew this activity would implement my practicum instruction because it kept the student
engaged and by knowing more words, he is able to become a more fluent reader. What went really well with this activity was the simplicity of it while making a huge difference in this student’s reading.
I noticed by the third day of playing the activity, the student was able to say most of the words quickly with no help from me. I knew that this activity was fun for the student because the first question he would ask me when he came into the room was, “Mrs. Romas can we play BAM! today?” When it was time to read his daily fluency passage, I noticed that some of the words were sight words that were in my activity and he said them without any hesitation. At that moment, I knew that this easy and simple activity was making a huge impact on his reading, which made me so proud. My last day, the student and I played “BAM!” and he knew every single sight word that was included in the
activity. The only thing I can think of that I would do differently next time would be to include more students to play the game with us. The student and I were the only ones who played this activity, which gave him more chances to read the sight words, but I would have liked to see him work harder to show his classmates how much he was improving. I know he would have liked to play this game and I also wish I would have just given him the activity to take home because it was really simple to make. Overall, this activity really helped this student become a better reader especially when it came to his fluency.