Routine · Phonics and decoding
First read of decodable text
Read sentences or a short passage made of words the student can decode, using today's pattern.
- Time
- 4 to 8 minutes
- Skill
- Phonics and decoding
- In a session plan
- Reading connected text
When to use it
After word reading in every lesson, so the new pattern is used in real sentences.
Materials
- The lesson's decodable sentences or passage
- A list of any heart words in it
Steps
Shown with example words: sentence The fish is in the dish..
Get ready
Preview any heart words in the text. Have the student find two words with today's pattern.
I do
Read the first sentence aloud while pointing under each word, at a natural pace.
Say: The fish is in the dish.
We do
Read the first sentence again together.
You do
The student reads the rest aloud, pointing under each word. Let them work on a word for a few seconds before you help.
Student: Reads each sentence, sounding out new words and rereading the sentence after.
When a sentence was choppy, have the student read it again smoothly.
Check
Ask one or two quick questions about what happened in the text.
If the student...
Guesses a word from the picture or the first letter.
Point to the word and ask the student to look at every letter and blend it. Then have them reread the whole sentence.
Say: Look at all the letters. Sound it out. Now read the sentence again.
Misreads a heart word.
Tell the word, have the student say it while looking at it, then go back to the start of the sentence.
Tips
- Do not cover pictures, but do steer the student back to the letters when they guess.
- In a group, have students whisper-read at their own pace while you listen to one at a time.
- Save the second, smoother reading for the fluency routines.
Example words
- Sentence
- The fish is in the dish.
Original routines written by Literacy Trail. In the app, every routine is filled with your student's lesson.
Related routines
- Repeated readingRead the same short decodable passage three or four times, a little smoother each time.5 to 8 minutes · Reading connected text
- Echo and choral readingYou read a sentence and the student echoes it; then you read together in one voice.4 to 7 minutes · Reading connected text
- Timed reading with a graphTime a one-minute reading of the same passage over several days and graph the words read correctly.5 to 8 minutes · Reading connected text
- Partner readingTwo students take turns reading the same text aloud, with the listener following and helping.5 to 10 minutes · Reading connected text
Have this routine filled in for every lesson
In Literacy Trail, the session plan picks a routine for each block and fills it with the words, sounds and sentence from your student's lesson. Every plan starts with a 15-day free trial.