In my experience, I believe structure leads to success in literacy for struggling readers. When a lesson is centered around skills that boost reading success (letter knowledge and phonemic awareness), students are able to build confidence, allowing them to move up the steps of success in reading. Find where your group of students need to improve, then follow the lesson breakdown to administer success. Using a Vowel Valley as a visual success guide, is recommended. Print a student copy and have your student(s) highlight the skills they master as you move through the steps. Keep a copy close to your students writing and spelling work.
"Share Around" (5 mins) - Use the first 5 mins to move around the table to talk about each students day so far, their weekend, their joys or their hardships. Get to know your student's as individuals. This may be the most important aspect of the tier 2 literacy intervention lesson. Creating a safe space for learning is key. When students feel like they belong, when their identity is nurtured, when they feel like they are making a difference, they learn on a deeper level. Fostering student agency for struggling readers will create a learning environment that is free of hard feelings and discomfort.
2. Phonemic Awareness (3 mins) - "phoneme awareness has to do with noticing the sounds in spoken words. It has nothing directly to do with letters. It is an awareness of the sounds in oral language. It is a mental/linguistic skill." (Kilpatrick, 2021, p. 15)
Heggerty Bridge the Gap: Intervention Lessons - complete 2-4 lessons, as a group to warm up
3. Check Up & Check Out (3 mins) - Take this time to review the symbols (graphemes) that the students previously learned (eg. ai, ay, a_e). When reviewing make sure the students are using the correct sounds (phonemes) that correspond to the reviewed graphemes (eg. /A/, /A/, /A/). Once reviewed, introduce the new symbols and their sounds as well as any rules that can support learning (eg. "ai is always in the middle. ay is always at the end!).
4. Word Play (10 mins) - The goal for "Word Play" is to provide students the skills to orthographically map, or store words, so that they can instantly recognize them. Orthographic mapping is the mind's way of storing words into sight vocabulary, This is also known as the orthographic lexicon. During word play students use phonemic awareness skills to map words into symbols (graphemes). This skill will support a students phonetic decoding. "Phonics instruction is intended to develop skilled phonetic decoding but may also focus on spelling. Spelling and phonetic decoding are both based on letter-sound knowledge." (Kilpatrick, 2021, p. 15)
Here is a chance to master news symbols (graphemes). Be explicit! "I Do, We Do, You Do!"
Make this a multi-sensory activity using white boards, sound counters (Pop Its, gems, rocks or other small objects) and Elkonin boxes/bathroom tiles.
Say the word - "chain"
Count the sounds - /ch/ /ai/ /n/ = 3
Use counters to display the phonemes - "1 gem, 2 gems, 3 gems"
Map the phonemes with the corresponding graphemes. - ch - ai - n
Touch and say the sounds. - /ch/ /ai/ /n/
Blend the sounds to say the word - "chain"
5. Heart Word/High Frequency Word Instruction (as needed) - Draw attention to the heart/high frequency words found in the text that is being read in step 6. Place these words in a place for all students to see ie: board, wall, heart word/high frequency cards. Use sound boxes to practice new heart words. Please note, this may not be a step that you need to do if there are no words that need to be reviewed.
6. Text Reading (15 mins) - Using the skills that have just been learned, take the time to do a symbol search in the text provided (highlight the symbols that were just studied). Remind students that reading is NOT a time to guess. Instead students are encouraged to touch and say the sounds, then blend the sounds of unknown words. Students may need a tracking tool to support them in stretching out words from the beginning sound to the ending sound. Personally, I enjoy doing a "read around" where each group member takes turns reading a sentence, a couple of sentences, or a paragraph. This also encourages students to follow along.
7. Exit Ticket (3 mins) - As an exit ticket, have students write one sentence using the new and reviewed symbols. Voice a sentence, have the students count the words in the sentence then write the sentence. This end the lesson by supporting a review of the sound and symbol studied.
(Wheldall et al., 2019)