Our Phonics Lesson

Our school district uses Reading Horizons for our phonics instruction. A main component of this phonics program are the four parts that make up every lesson. These four parts help to keep the students engaged in their learning.

The first part of our phonics lesson is a review. During this part, the students and I are reviewing skills that we worked on during the previous day’s lesson. In this beginning phonics lesson, the students and I were reviewing slides. A slide is made when you put a consonant and a vowel together. We slide the sounds together to help us read the beginning of a word. We draw an arrow under a slide to remind us that we are sliding the sounds together.

The next part of our lesson is when I introduce the new skill we will work on that day. For this lesson, I was modeling to the students how we can make the slide ba into the word bag. We were building on to the slide to make a word. When we make a word, we erase the arrow that was under the slide and mark an x under our vowel.

After modeling the new skill, the third part of our lesson is dictation. In this part, the students and I are trying out the new skill together. The students have a paper and dry erase marker to use. I call out a word and repeat it, so the students hear it two times. Then the students say the word back to me twice. After this, I use the word in a sentence, and then the students work to write down the word on their paper. They first write the word under the Try It column, and then, after we check our work together, they make corrections, if needed, under the Fix It column. We continue this process while we practice writing different words. To clear our papers at the end, we play the "Eraser Game." Students erase a word on their paper based on the clues that I give them.

Finally, the last part of our lesson is the transfer. This is an opportunity for the students to apply the new phonics skill they learned. For this beginning phonics lesson, the students were reading the letter sound, the slide, and then the word.

These four parts to our lesson help us to review a previous skill, learn and practice a new skill, and apply our new skill to reading.