General Guidelines

General Guidelines for Explicit Phonics Lessons

 

            The Explicit Phonics Lessons were written to be a resource used to supplement the reading instruction during core reading time and to enhance phonics instruction in small group and intervention settings.

            These explicit phonics lessons have been designed to provide words that fit a specific spelling pattern being taught as well as to provide activities to practice words that contain that spelling pattern. These lessons can be used in a whole group setting with a buddy strategy to engage the most students or can be adapted for use in small groups or intervention. The targeted length of a lesson should be about 30 minutes. Any of the activities can be lengthened or shortened to fit the needs of a particular group of students. Hopefully more material than necessary has been provided for many of the lessons so that teachers have the resources they need to adjust the lessons to fit the student needs.

            Lessons address one particular phonics skill for 5 days. The activities include Decoding, Dictation, Word Building or Chaining, and reading decodable phrases and sentences for practicing the skill in embedded text. In the second grade lessons there is also Word Chunking to use the targeted skill in multi-syllable words. Some of the activities are repeated with different words over the course of the 5 days.

            An effort was made to use only decodable words plus a few high frequency words in the phrases and sentences at the beginning of the first grade lessons.  Once the short vowels and most common digraphs have been taught, the lessons do not necessarily have to be used in the presented order. The order is somewhat compatible with the order of presentation in the Harcourt Story Town series.

 

Decoding Procedure

·         When the students are familiar with the procedure, a lively pace should be maintained.

·          Sounding and blending should be done chorally.

·         The words are to be written one phoneme spelling at a time. The words need to be in columns and rows so that clues in the second part of the activity can be adjusted for scaffolding when necessary.

·         Write a phoneme spelling, then say, “What sound?” while pointing to the spelling.

·         The targeted spelling for the lesson should be written in red or orange while the rest of the word is in black or blue to highlight that spelling pattern.

·         Once the entire word (or syllable if it is a multi-syllable word) is written, say, “Sound.” as you point to the phonemes again. For a single letter spelling use one finger. For a two letter spelling use two fingers. Then say, “Blend” as you draw an imaginary line under the word with your finger.

·         At the end of each line or row, go back and sound and blend the words together again.

·         For any word that may not already be in the students’ vocabulary, state a “kid friendly” definition and/or use it in quick sentence.

·         Once all the words are on the board, begin giving the clues and have the students locate the word. The clues target vocabulary as well as having the students decode the words to find the right answer. When difficulty is experienced, scaffold the task by telling them what row or column to look in.

·         DO NOT HAVE THE STUDENTS TAKE TURNS ONE AT A TIME GOING TO THE BOARD TO CIRCLE THE CORRECT ANSWER. This wastes time and does not give as many turns. Instead use the buddy system: two students pair up to tell the answer to each other first and then raise their hands. Call on the buddies to say and spell the correct answer. The teacher then circles the answer.

·         The last word is not read to the students. They are to use it in a “7 Up” sentence that they first tell their buddy.  The teacher then calls on one or two pairs of buddies to give their sentences. There is no need to have the entire class give sentences.

Dictation Procedure

• No erasers are to be used. Tell them they are going to learn from their mistakes. Erasing doesn’t help them learn.

• Put the blanks on display for students to view so you can point and they know where they are to be working.

• Give the sound or word orally and point to the line that they should write the spelling on.

• When there is more than one way to spell the sound, the students may raise their hands and ask, “What spelling?” Then tell them what to write for the phoneme they are asking about. If sound/spelling cards are posted, the teacher might say something like, “Use the second spelling on the long a card.” This helps the students to begin to get a visual image of the long a spellings on the card. (The name of the sound/spelling picture may have to be adjusted in the lessons for the Harcourt Story Town series.)

• Have the students check and correct at the completion of each line.

• Circle errors and rewrite the word completely when making corrections. Tell them that research has found that students who rewrite the whole word are more likely to be able to spell it correctly next time.

• When finished, make a big deal about the number of circles. The more circles they have, the more they learned. (“Look at those circles! You learned a lot today! Good job!”)

• Never grade. If corrections are made appropriately, they should be commended for doing a good job even when there are many corrections on the page. Do check the papers to see that the students are following procedures and making corrections. Hold them accountable for their work.

• At times you may want to draw attention to a word on a previous line in order to help spell the current word. “Look back at the word game. If you can spell game, I bet you can spell the word name.”

• It is suggested that the teacher not be concerned if weaker students copy a neighbor. This is a learning activity. If copying helps them learn, it’s OK. Hopefully they will begin to try to do the work on their own after a while.

Dictation Form:

1. ___   ___   ___   ___   ___

2. _______   _______   _______

3. _______   _______   _______

4. _________    _________

5. __________________________

*Enough space should be left to circle errors and rewrite the word above.

 

Word Building Procedure

• Large magnetic letters on a magnetic board, letter cards in a pocket chart, and/or individual small letters on boards or in pocket charts can be used to build the words.

• The letters available to the students should only be the letters needed to spell the words in that lesson.

• Say the first word. Have the students segment the sounds in the word. Spell the word together, the teacher with her letters for the students to see, and the students with their own materials.

• The teacher then gives the next word orally asking, “If this spells game, what would I need to change to make it spell name?” Typically only one phoneme should be added, deleted, or substituted from one word to the next.

• It may be necessary to segment and point to the letters in the original word and then segment and point to the same word but saying the sounds in the new word to scaffold the students’ understanding of what position needs to be changed.

• Continue working down the chain of words with both the teacher and students building all the words.

• An alternate approach might be for the teacher to make the change in the first word and ask the students what the word says now. “If I change the g in game to n, what is my new word?”

• If a new chain needs to be started, clear the boards or charts and begin again.

Word Chunking

• In second grade students need to begin recognizing syllable patterns in words. Word chunking helps students recognize the letter patterns they need to look for.

• Write the entire word on the board.

• Circle a syllable and say, “What part?” This should not be done in order of pronunciation.

• Once all the syllables have been read, go back and reread the syllables in order to put the word together. If the vowel sound isn’t in line with how the word is normally pronounced, have the students “flex” that vowel sound to get the word. Then move on to the next word.