Choosing the Right Phonics Activities
We’ve all had those thoughts when we sit down at our small group table: Have I chosen the right activities? Are these activities that I’ve chosen effective? Will they move my readers along on their reading journey? How can I possibly know if I’m doing the right thing? Small group time is sacred and so important, and we want to ensure we get it right.
When we sit down to plan our small group time, we must keep the end goal of phonics in mind: we want to produce strong decoders and strong writers. When students are strong in decoding, they can become fluent. And when they become fluent, they can comprehend - that is our ultimate goal! I’ve put together a checklist of six things to keep in mind when choosing the right activities for your small group time. Let’s dive in!
Ways we can ensure we’re choosing the right phonics activities:
Have predictable routines.
When our students sit at our small group table, they should know what to expect. The activities we have set out for them should be predictable - students shouldn’t have to wonder, What will we do today? They should already know! This is because when they know what to expect, they can concentrate more on the skill that’s being taught instead of learning a new activity or game each time. Students should already know how to play the game, how to execute the activity, and when to pull down that manipulative.
While we’re planning for our predictable routines, let’s concentrate on quality over quantity. Choose your favorite activities and stick to them. This also makes it easier to plan for you, which saves time and opens up space to plan other classroom activities. If you’re looking for some ideas, check out my Phonics Lesson in Action Podcasts: Part 1: Walkthrough and Warm-Up and Part 2: Explicit Teaching/Application of Skills. These will be a great help to you in getting started with your predictable routines!
Leave time for reviewing previously taught skills.
During my research, I came across something that Wiley Blevens stated that has really stuck with me: “It’s never one and done. It’s one and just begun.” When I read this, it hit me like a ton of bricks. Of course, it seems obvious to review with our students, but we so often forget about it. It’s so important to circle back and review previously-taught concepts and skills. When we sit down to plan our lessons, we must ask ourselves: How can I pull previously-taught skills and incorporate them into this current lesson? How can I leave time for review? Do the decodables I’ve chosen contain these previously-taught skills? During my dictation, are we dealing with words we’ve previously studied? Think back on concepts that have been learned during the past 4-6 weeks and incorporate them into your lesson for that day.
Even just a few minutes of review is worthwhile and will suffice - it certainly doesn’t need to take up half of your lesson. And in fact, when you’re incorporating review into the current lesson, you’re still moving that needle forward. As you’re planning your review activities, simply pull activities and lessons from the previous weeks - no need to reinvent the wheel. When you use consistent activities (ahem, ahem - #1 on our checklist), our students can build automaticity because they’re familiar with the activity. For example, if you’re teaching short i this week and learned short a last week, give your small group students a decodable on short a while you’re getting the rest of the class ready for their centers or independent reading time. The small group students won’t need further instruction because they’re already familiar with the routines.
Incorporate heart words into your lesson.
Students learn heart and sight words so much faster when we apply them to phonics skills that are being taught. Be sure to weave these heart words into the current lesson and the current skill you’re focusing on. For example, if you’re focusing on the short u sound, choosing the heart word was is a good start. The word was has the short u sound, but the heart portion is the letter a. This is a great opportunity for students to connect this word to what they’re currently being taught.
It seems impossible to chat about heart words without mentioning the elephant in the room: flashcards. They’ve gotten a bad rap lately, haven’t they? And in a way, it’s for a good reason. Flashcards shouldn’t be used to teach a heart word. Students have to build the word, phoneme-grapheme map the word, understand where the “heart” portion is, etc. But! After students have orthographically mapped these words into their brain, flashcards absolutely can be used to promote automaticity. So don’t throw them away! Once students have mastered the word and filed them in their brain, bust them out for automatic recognition.
Spend lots of time at the application level of a phonics skill.
This one is important, teacher friends! When learning a new skill, we first spend our time learning the new skill (at the skill level) and understanding its function and sound. However, once it’s been learned, most of our time should be spent at the application level. But what does this mean? This simply means that we need to have students apply their new skills to reading and writing as soon as we can. When you’re making your lesson plan and choosing these activities, think to yourself: Am I giving them ample time to focus on these skills while they’re reading and writing? Am I choosing activities that connect sound to print - the phoneme to the grapheme? These activities are what will move that needle forward and give you lots of bang for your buck!
One of the most effective activities you can do with your students is word chaining. This is an activity that packs a big punch. With word chaining, students are manipulating sounds by adding, deleting, and substituting them. For example, you may have your students build the word map. They pull down each letter while they say each sound. Then, you may ask them to change the word map to rap. Students change the letter and again pull down the letters while saying each sound. For added practice, you can have your students change the word rap to trap. Once again, they pull down the letters and say the sounds for each as they make an entirely new word. That’s an example of a powerful (yet simple!) activity.
Think about why and how you’re choosing your phonics activities.
The big question to ask here is: Am I looking at the data? Am I using my assessments in a way that promotes progress? Our activities and plans should always align with what our students need. If they don’t, we aren’t guiding them forward on their reading journey. Small group time is a great time to assess our students. This is why it’s so important to have good assessments that follow a solid scope and sequence. Based on how they score on the assessment, we can then look at our data and fill in the gaps. Or rather, data can show us that they’ve indeed mastered a new skill so we can free up some time to learn another one.
While you’re making these plans, ask yourself: What do my students need? Do they need more practice in a certain skill or are we ready to move on? Since the ultimate reading goal is fluency and comprehension, we must ensure our activities move our students in that direction and toward that goal.
Make lessons fun and engaging!
We know a good script is important in a small group lesson. And it’s true - we should for sure have scripts for things like rules, generalizations, and directions. But we aren’t robots - and neither are our students! We must add fun and excitement to our activities. If these students see that we’re simply reading from a script the entire time, they won’t see us having much fun.
It’s important for them to see that we are excited about reading! This makes the activity genuine and promotes engagement. When students are having fun and are engaged, this is where the learning happens. So pull out those fun manipulatives (things like mini erasers for specific holidays and seasons are a great idea, as well as fun pom poms!) and have a Friday Fun activity. If you’re the only one doing the talking, you’re the only one doing the learning. Get those students involved and engaged and watch them soar.
I know that it can feel intimidating to choose from all of those activities that you’re scrolling through online. This is why I’ve created this checklist for you - so that you can spend a little time planning, and lots of time executing! If you follow this checklist, you can rest assured that your phonics activities and lessons are effective and promote learning. Everyone wants to be confident when they take their teacher seat at the small group table - and now, you can be!
If you are more of a “see it in action” kind of teacher, I would love for you to join me in this pre-recorded workshop all about Five Ways to Boost Your Phonics Instruction. Have a little sneak peek! Grab the entire workshop PLUS companion resources for 50% now through Friday, May 5th! Click the link below.
Additional Resources & Blog Posts:
Resources:
Word Detectives - Short Vowels CVC Words
Letter Sound Fluency Grids & Successive Blending
Blog Posts:
My Favorite Phonics Activities
