Sharing Your Thinking During Phonics

Carla Stanford: Let's talk about the opportunity to teach kids how to think about words intentionally. To think about how they're built. That's what we're doing in this phonics lesson. And by breaking it down and talking out loud about how we would think through a word, gives them a model for that. For instance, in the word kick, is an excellent example. It has lots of opportunities for kids to really think about the way this word is put together. So in the word kick, /k/, /ĭ/, /k/. Kick. There are two sounds. Decisions have to be made. It's hard. But if we talk our kids through this by saying, "Okay, get ready. We have two decisions we have to make here our first /k/, let's tap it. /k/, /ĭ/. /ĭ/.

Oh wait, I hear /ĭ/. I know that's 'i'. Straight 'k' goes with straight 'i'. Oh, I'm going to spell this first /k/ with a 'k'. Wow, that was really hard. I know the rules. I just need to slow down and move through it for them. Then when I get to the last /k/ sound, I can say, wait a minute — /k/, /ĭ/, /k/. I have three choices here. I have 'c', I have 'k', I have '-ck'. But let me listen again. /k/, /ĭ/ ... /ĭ/, /ĭ/ ... /k/. Immediately after a short vowel at the end of a one syllable word, when you hear /k/, you spell it '-ck'. Hooray. So we're going to spell the /k/ sound with '-ck' here." That was really hard work, friends. You did a great job. So really taking the opportunity to think about words that kids are going to have to think about. Modeling the thinking and the decision-making. One step at a time. They're doing it with you, and then you provide them with another opportunity to do it a little bit more on their own until eventually they are doing the work on their own.

Narrator: Reading Universe is made possible by generous support from Jim and Donna Barksdale, the Hastings/Quillin Fund, an advised fund of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, the AFT, the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation, and anonymous donors.