Routine · Phonics and decoding
Introduce a new sound-spelling
Teach a new spelling for a sound: hear it, see it, say it, write it, then read words with it.
- Time
- 6 to 10 minutes
- Skill
- Phonics and decoding
- In a session plan
- New lesson
When to use it
At the start of each new phonics lesson, such as {lesson}.
Materials
- A card with the spelling {grapheme}
- A short list of words with it
- A whiteboard
Steps
Shown with example words: words ship, shop, fish; pattern the digraph sh; sound /sh/; spelling sh; word ship.
Get ready
Say a few spoken words that share the new sound. Ask what sound they have in common.
Say: Listen: ship, shop, fish. What sound do you hear in all of them?
I do
Show the card. Tell the student this is how we write the sound. Point and say the sound, then write the spelling and say it again.
Say: Today we learn the digraph sh. These letters work together to say /sh/.
We do
Touch the card; you and the student say the sound in one voice. Next, the student writes the spelling while saying the sound.
Student: Says /sh/ while writing sh.
Write ship. Touch under each spelling and blend it together, pausing on the new one.
You do
The student reads the rest of the list, touching under the new spelling first in each word.
Student: Reads ship, shop, fish.
Check
Say one word from the list. The student finds it and underlines the new spelling.
If the student...
Says a sound for each letter of sh instead of one sound.
Cover the word except the spelling. Say that these letters stay together. Say the sound, have the student say it, then blend the whole word again from the start.
Say: These letters are a team. They say /sh/. What do they say? Now read the word.
Forgets the new sound when it comes inside a word.
Tap the card so the student says the sound, then blend the word again from its opening letter.
Tips
- Keep the card in view for the whole lesson so the student can look back at it.
- If the spelling is a team of letters, underline it or put a scoop under it in each word.
- In a group, keep the card and the words big enough that every student can see them from their seat.
Example words
- Words
- ship, shop, fish
- Pattern
- the digraph sh
- Sound
- /sh/
- Spelling
- sh
- Word
- ship
Original routines written by Literacy Trail. In the app, every routine is filled with your student's lesson.
Related routines
- Sound card reviewShow the sound cards taught so far, quickly, so every known spelling stays automatic.2 to 4 minutes · Review
- Sound-by-sound blendingRead a new word one sound at a time, joining each sound to the ones before it.3 to 6 minutes · Word reading
- Letter sound with a picture keywordLink a letter to its sound through a picture word that begins with that sound.4 to 7 minutes · New lesson
- Meet the letter: name and shapeIntroduce a letter by its name and the look of its capital and small forms.3 to 5 minutes · New lesson
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.