Model Lesson Plan for Phonics - Successful Components of a Phonics Lesson

As a teacher, phonics and letter sounds play a vital role in any kindergarten or primary school curriculum. So, what do the successful components of a phonics lesson look like? Take a look below to get some inspiration…

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Revision of prior learning

Revision of grapheme phoneme correspondence (i.e., matching the sound with the spelling) and practice of blending new words to begin a lesson is a fantastic way to help students warm up and activate prior knowledge.

Statement of Learning Intentions

Students need to know what they are going to learn and why they are learning it. When learning goals are made clear, students have higher confidence in themselves. It is here that you should introduce and clarify the new sound, it’s associated spellings and TPR actions.

Hook

It’s always a fun idea to have a “hook” about the new information to grab the student’s attention. This can take the form of a song, video, or game. It’s the perfect ratio of silliness to learning that all students love.

Blending

You can find plenty of blending activities online with a simple internet search, but the basic principle involves uncovering words letter by letter and eliciting sounds from the students. As you reveal more of the word, begin to put the sounds together. Blending is a great way for students to decode words. It’s important to note that they don’t necessarily need to understand the meaning of the words, so feel free to throw in some nonsense spellings too in order to practice the target word family.

Word Work & Application

Excellent for both guided reading and phonics classes, word work is part of the ‘Daily 5’ literacy framework. During this time, students might be matching pictures to words, tracing or practicing handwriting, sorting word families, or creating wordsearches. At the end of the week, you could ask students to write sentences with the new phonics words they’ve been working on. It’s an excellent way to incorporate independent reading skills too.

Decodable Texts

There are many resources that provide decodable texts, Reading A-Z being a great option! Alternatively, you can totally create your own decodable texts using the phonics words you have taught that week. Ask students to highlight word families and graphemes in order to implement deliberate targeted practice.

Dictation

After success with all the components mentioned above, ask students to use mini whiteboards and write down words that are read aloud to them. This is also excellent listening practice!

Reflection & Check for Understanding

There should always be dedicated time for reflection and setting of further learning goals. This could simply take the form of asking students for a thumbs up or thumbs down or distributing ‘exit tickets’ whereby students answer simple questions related to the lesson topic. This helps the teacher gain an insight into overall class understanding.

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Hopefully this article inspires you to try something new or mix up your current phonics routine. Comment below any fun phonics activities you do with your class!