SAMPLE LESSON
A Sample Lesson
Every lesson in Sparking the Reading Shift is designed to show reluctant readers that they can easily read, spell and write words with multiple syllables and morphemes. The words that may, at first, look challenging but success is assured through the use of cognitive learning principles:
Active Learning - students are actively reading, spelling and/or writing words in sentences in every exercise. Short explicit explanations and auditory prompts are followed by active practice.
Retrieval Practice - The key to long-term memorization and learning is retrieval practice where students pull from memory at in the appropriate context the correct words, spellings, phrases and sentences. This is best done by spacing practice out over days and weeks. This solidifies learning faster than dozens of repetitions.
Mixed Interwoven Practice - Each lesson in Sparking the Reading Shift is a series of brief and varied activities that are designed to keep attention focused and engagement high. Students encounter words in different contexts that require different linguistic and literacy abilities. This solidifies skills while avoiding boring repetition.
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The following activities are used in both Sparking the Reading Shift: Language-Literacy Intervention
and Sparking the Reading Shift: Language-Literacy Enrichment
Tricky Word Challenge
Minimal Contrast Words
Each lesson starts with this activity which grow more difficult. In this challenge students analysis two words that are similar in spelling and sound. For the first pair, the teacher asks the student to "circle the /ie/ in pint. This draws the reader’s attention to the fine details in words which prevents guessing.
Number two - the teacher asks the student to circle the /a/ in have.
Number three - circle the /u/ in done.
There are 24 pairs of words in this activity.
Words with regular sound-spelling associations are sometimes coupled to variations so that students learn the more complex sound-spelling relationships that are common in English.
Shape Shift Words Challenge
The next activity in each lesson is the Shape Shift Words Challenge. This activity is often called word chains, or serial substitution practice, and shows readers how slight shifts in a word's sound pattern creates a new word with a different meaning.
Prompt: “This is send. What word do you get if you change the /d/ to a /t/? Always say it and then write it. Now change the /s/ to an /b/. 3. Now change the /n/ in brain to a /s/….”
Connect the Matrix Challenge
In the words of Linnea Ehri, reading and spelling are two sides of the same coin. Lots of research shows that learning to spell a word is as effective as teaching sound-symbol decoding.
The teacher simply tells the student that they are going to spell stand and then says the word slowly sss-ttt-aaa-nnn-ddd. The student then says the word slowly as they draw lines between the correct letters and then writes the word.
Find the Pattern Challenge
Onset-rime pattern practice is the fourth activity in the first half of lessons. This has recently been shown to solidify decoding skills and promote sight word reading, including by Maryanne Wolf and Linnea Ehri, who includes it in her fourth, consolidated phase. Repeatedly reading a pattern is a surprisingly effective way to promote fluency.
We have yet to meet a special education or dyslexic student who couldn't successfully read onset-rime patterns during our first lesson. This produces much-needed boosts in confidence.
Expand the Pattern Challenge
Turning onset-rime patterns into larger spelling patterns is a surprisingly easy step. Most students can read the patterns with only an occasional assist from the teacher. "What word do you get if you add a /s/ to at?" Students rarely need help the second time they read the words in a column.
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Unscramble the Word Challenge
It is not a big step from reading single syllable words to unscrambling words with multiple syllables and / or morphemes - especially when the teacher tells the student what the word is. "Can you make expansion from these parts - ex - pans - ion? This word is divided by morphemes as ion is a common suffix that turns verbs into nouns.
Find the Morpheme Challenge
The first activity that directly involves finding morphemes, then writing and reading the resulting words. Yes, some phonics programs wait for months before introducing morphemes but the step-by-step process in Sparking the Reading Shift ensures success with these critical words. "Would you find and circle 'up' in these words? Now find 'land'. How about 'ing' which is a common ending, or suffix. Now write each word and then read it."
When students experience this level of success their attitude towards learning to read noticeably improves."
Compare and Read Phrases
Phrases are a wonderful part of speech that form bridges between individual words and sentences. Readers who experience success with phrases often feel confident about
reading connected sentences. The teacher reads a prompt, circle the word tumbling in ‘tumbling on the floor’. The student must carefully and attentively read both phrases. Success
with this activity often brings smiles to readers’ faces.
Build Phrases into Sentences
Near the end of the lesson, the student has gone from playing with words, to reading and manipulating words and phrases. The next step is to combine words into sentences. Students see three sets of sentences with the phrases out of order. They first put
the words in order orally, then write them down.
Develop Fluency with Phrases
Every lesson in STaRS ends with fluency practice tied to the words and phrases practiced beforehand. Phrases are also a big part of fluency, moving readers from word-by-word reading towards fluent sentence reading. The teacher simply says, “Read each group of words smoothly, pausing briefly at each hyphen mark. Then read each line again without pausing.” A motivational reading practice.
Prosody - Reading with Expression
Reading with expression, or prosody, is another aspect of speech that translates to deeper reading experiences. When we speak sentences, we emphasize different words to express meaning more clearly. This activity just has readers emphasizing different words in a sentence. In addition to proving repeated reading practice – a big factor in fluency – students learn how to NOT read like robots.