Interested in seeing what a purposeful small group foundational literacy lesson can look like? Wondering how to incorporate and connect several foundational skills into one lesson? Working on backwards design within a small group lesson?

This is the right blog for you!

 My small group philosophy is that all learning activities should be intentional and relate to a common goal. We want students to understand the “why”- WHY they are manipulating words and sounds, WHY they are practicing word reading, WHY they are reading a specific text, the list goes on… 

Through practice, training, and experience, I have learned the strategies to connect all parts of a 15-minute small-group lesson. YES, 15 minutes! It is possible. I will dive into a small group lesson and share my WHY behind activities.

Here are some helpful tips before we get started on the journey.

1.    Backwards Design is key! Pick a text you want students to read that has your target phonics skill. Use that text to plan components in your lesson so they are not isolated activities.

2.    Verbalize to students WHY we are doing specific skills! The goal is for them to make connections and start to internalize these skills as readers.

3.    Use a lesson plan template that works best for you and your students- depending on the grade-level and student need, you may not get to all components in one lesson. That’s OK! The goal is to have students engage in all activities by the time they can read the text with fluency.

4.    ALWAYS incorporate meaning- Students should understand that there is always a purpose to reading. There is always something to learn from the text. Plan a comprehension goal that supports students’ understanding of the text. 

And now the lesson! Here, I am working with one student who needs support with CCVC and CVCC fluency.

After watching, see the breakdown of each lesson component.

What were my lesson objectives? CCVC and CVCC fluency, Answering key details about major parts of the story.  

How did I incorporate Phonemic Awareness? I used a hands-on and multisensory approach (Elkonin Boxes) The student worked on deleting phonemes within CCVC words (“Say ‘frog’ but don’t say “r”)

WHY? I wanted to give my student opportunities to see word parts, make connections between CVC and CCVC words, and become aware of these word parts without seeing the grapheme to warm up her brain.

These words were taken directly from the text.

 How did I review previous skills? I incorporated blend fluency in isolation, so the student could practice the sounds while seeing the graphemes.

WHY? I wanted my student to be able to blend these consonants together, opposed to segmenting them when she sees them within words. This will support her fluency within the text.

                                  Words within the text will contain these blends.  

How did I allow my student to practice decoding skills? My student read words with blends in isolation.

WHY? I wanted to allow her brain to do the decoding work before reading, so when she is reading them in the text, she does not always slow down to do the cognitive work. The goal is for her to say the sounds slowly, opposed to segmenting. This will support blending.

These words were highlighted within the text.

 How did I allow opportunities for “Heart Word” practice? (high-frequency and irregular words) My student learned two words in our previous lesson (“you” and “see”) I wanted to reinforce reading and spelling of these words.

WHY? I didn’t want my student to stop and get frustrated when approaching these words in the text. These are words that promote sentence fluency and meaning. and I wanted her to write the word sees in her sentence (relating to her comprehension goal).

 These words were taken directly from the text.

How did I support my student’s fluency and comprehension when she read the text? I reviewed the comprehension goal from the previous day to reinforce meaning and allowed my student to reread the first paragraph for fluency. I asked direct and inferential questions to make sure she understood what she was reading in the moment. This helped my “teacher moves”- are there words my student doesn’t understand? Should I stop to provide meaning? Does she need a visual? I explicitly shared what we will focus on for the current lesson (what she should be thinking about while she reads).

WHY? We are not just teaching kids to decode— they should make meaning of what they are decoding. 

 How did I address the comprehension goal? I revisited our purpose for learning. I asked my student the question they were working towards. I wanted my student to verbalize her understanding of the text.

 WHY? It is important to see if my questioning was effective during the read. I wanted to formulate ideas in preparation for the writing piece. This allows her brain to focus on the encoding piece. 

 How did I support my student within the writing component? I had my student say the sentence out loud before writing. I then had my student practice the target words (CCVC, CVCC) BEFORE writing the full sentence. Last, my student drew a quick sketch to match the sentence.

 WHY? This allowed her to work on sentence structure, vocabulary, and sentence fluency. Her brain did the cognitive work to encode the target words first, then focused on correct sentence structure and meaning. The quick sketch was an opportunity for my student to visualize and understand what she wrote.

Purposeful, Intentional, Connected: Within a small group structured literacy lesson, skills should NOT be taught in isolation. With backwards design and intentional planning, all small group lessons can have interconnected activities.

         Students should know the WHY behind what they are doing.