Differentiated Instruction, Made Easy
A Special Ed Teacher's Success with English Islands
A chat with Lianna Plunkett, SpecEd Teacher
What challenges do you face in the classroom?
With having SpecEd students, they have all very different needs so I need to be able to individually assign lessons for different students, and I need tools that help with independent learning. That's what led me to be curious about English Islands, because I heard that students can learn independently on it.
When did you first hear about it?
Another teacher at my school mentioned it - she said: “Have you heard of English Islands before? I think you’d love it!” She created a practice class & let us join as students so we could try it out.
What was your first impression?
I loved that they can do it independently, I loved the simplicity, I loved how easy it was for the students to navigate. That’s huge for me because then I can really focus on the other groups. And I love that they stay engaged and enjoy it, they stay on task and doing something productive when I’m not directly instructing them. Plus with English Islands I can easily give the higher-level students more difficult material.
What's different about English Islands?
The ability for students to actually read the words out loud so that they’re orally speaking it. When they’re reading in their head, they aren’t always reading. They might be skimming or trying to get through as fast as possible.
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Also I love that it records the students so I can hear them read aloud. With most platforms you don’t get to hear that. That’s one of my favourite parts of the platform.
How was getting started on English Islands?
I would say very very easy. I went over it with the kids once or twice and they were good to go. The only struggle I see sometimes with the kids is they’ll say it more than once really fast back to back, so I encourage them to slow down.
How did your students respond to it?
They love it, they never complain about it, they jump right on. I have one student who’s more advanced who cruises through it so I add lots more lessons for him. The only thing I’ll say is that some students think if they get one star they’re done. So I have to reinforce that they should aim to get 2 stars or ideally 3. But most of the students do want to get 3 stars.
How do you use it?
I use it in small groups - it’s one of their centers. I’ve also mentioned to the students that they can do it at home, and I’ve told their parents as well.
How has English Islands helped?
It’s a great reinforcement tool for them, and for me it correlates completely with the UFLI Scope & Sequence so that's huge. I appreciate looking at the data and even listen in sometimes to what they've read.
I love that it gives specific info on the phonemes they got wrong. For example, one of my students can’t pronounce the ‘s’ sound. I can use the data to easily understand if they’re grasping that skill or not.
Is it useful towards meeting your goals?
My goals are the students’ IEP goals, that’s how English Islands is so helpful because if a student needs to work on a specific phonics skills then English Islands helps to reinforce that and aligns with their individualized goals. They really struggle with decoding, and that’s what English Islands helps with most.
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I’m very satisfied with it, I’d love to continue using it, I think it benefits the kids immensely and it’s productive and effective.
What advice would you give to other teachers?
I would just say that taking your time and slowing down, waiting for kids to master the skills before moving on is important. Really solidifying their mastery before moving on is huge. It helps that there are multiple lessons for each skill in English Islands, this is really useful towards achieving that mastery.
