How many of you have tried to build IKEA furniture without reading the instructions and ended up skipping some tiny steps to then find yourself missing a screw or two and the project collapses? Guilty!
Early phonics work is the same. If we miss an important piece, no matter how small, the entire literacy process may collapse. Hearing sounds, matching them to letter(s), blending and segmenting (to name a few) are the tiny screws that hold early literacy learning together.
In the beginning, we try to help our early learners connect what they hear to what they see and what they write. We keep it simple with engaging texts and crisp routines that make reading make sense.
So, what are some of those routines worth doing every day that make early literacy learning click and stick? Routines that focus on oral language development, phonological awareness, vocabulary, high utility words knowledge, and writing.
Let’s take a look at a Flying Start to Literacy: PHONICS™ lesson introducing the sound /h/ and the letter “Hh”. We begin with oral language by playing with sounds through rhyme, rhythm, and repetition using “Humpty Dumpty” as a model. We chant it, act it out, and build vocabulary. Next, we hear it and work on phonological awareness by isolating the /h/ sound at the beginning of words like ‘hippo’, ‘ham’, and ‘hot’, helping students stretch and blend those sounds through explicit segmenting and blending routines.
Once our learners can hear the sound and say it with confidence, we connect it to print. We model how to form uppercase and lowercase “Hh”, using clear verbal prompts such as “Pull down, up, over and down.” Our learners then engage in an activity where they hear words that begin with the /h/ sound and write the words. This activity supports the connection that ‘this’ sound is represented by ‘this’ letter(s). Our learners are then supported in building their known high utility words. They learn new words, not in isolation, but through repetition and contextual practice. The last routine is to consolidate their learning by engaging in reading and writing activities that incorporate previously learned skills. It’s all connected.
As you can see, the lessons are not complicated nor super wordy. They are designed to be done daily to build the strongest foundation for young readers. So if you’re ever wondering where to spend your time, go back to these daily moves. Just like those tiny IKEA screws, they’re the parts that hold everything else up.
Take a look at a lesson from Stage One, Module 2 here. What do you notice? Where is oral language explicitly developed? How is phonological awareness practiced? When and how are students connecting sounds to letters? What does vocabulary instruction looks like? And how does writing reinforce the sound-letter connection?
Just a reminder that reading clicks when the brain links a sound, a letter, and meaning well enough to pull them back quickly the next time. That link grows stronger through clear models, bite-sized practice, and real pages every day. - Nilaja Taylor