When Students Need More Phonics Practice: What a Review Day Looks Like

Nicole Ormandy: Is that the beginning of the word or the end?

Students: End ...

Nicole Ormandy: End ...

Narrator: In your daily literacy block, you'll often introduce new phonics concepts, but some days are for reinforcing skills. Watch Nicole Ormandy from AIM Academy in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania a as she leads second graders through a review lesson on dividing multisyllable words.

Nicole Ormandy: All right, so we're going to get into our phonics lesson today.

Narrator: She starts with a listening game to capture their attention. This particular game focuses on listening for syllables in words, which preps them for the work to come.w/*+

Nicole Ormandy: What's going to happen is I'm going to say a word and I want you to tell me the syllables in it. Listen to this word bookclub. Ready? You do it with me.

Ms. Ormandy and students: book-, club-

Nicole Ormandy: If I say, ex-, -press ... the word ...

Students: express ...

Nicole Ormandy: Right. And so I had ex-, I had press-. I have now express. Do-, -nate ...

Students: donate ...

Nicole Ormandy: Perfect.

Narrator: Next up in her lesson, Ms. Ormandy uses flashcards to help our kids become more automatic at matching letters to sounds. This helps bridge the gap between recognizing sounds and reading words.

Nicole Ormandy: I'm going to show you a letter. You're going to tell me the sound when I say sound. Sound?

Students: /ă/ ...

Nicole Ormandy: Sound?

Students: /e/ ...

Nicole Ormandy: Let's try again. The sound, not the letter name. You tell us.

Students: /ĕ/ ...

Nicole Ormandy: You got it.

Narrator: Accuracy is essential here. Ms. Ormandy listens to her students carefully and provides corrective feedback in the moment. Watch as she provides direct instruction on the articulation of the digraph 'th'.

Students: /thŭ/ ...

Nicole Ormandy: Interesting. Anna was saying /thŭ/, what's the difference? Look at me. Do you remember the keyword for /th/? How do we remember a word that says /th/ ... look at me.

Students: Thumb ...

Nicole Ormandy: Thumb, exactly. So, 'th' says, everyone?

Ms. Ormandy and students: /th/ ...

Narrator: The next step is sound dictation. Students hear a sound and write the letter that matches it. While warming up with flashcards develops automaticity for reading, this step boosts automaticity for spelling.

Nicole Ormandy: Next sound. Listen, /ĕ/. What letter represents /ĕ/? Now everyone tell me what says /ĕ/?

Students: 'e' ...

Nicole Ormandy: 'e' ... Perfect.

Narrator: Next, Ms. Ormandy intentionally will give her students the opportunity to make spelling decisions. They'll hear a sound with different possible spellings, and then write out all of the options.

Nicole Ormandy: We're going to move into our consonants. Listen to this sound ... /k/. This is a trick one. I want you to write what you think ... /k/.

Student: You can tell us which one it is ... at the end, but ...

Nicole Ormandy: So, I'll give you a hint. There's more than one letter for /k/ ...

Students: Three ...

Nicole Ormandy: Three. There's three options. Good ideas.

Student: Should I just write all three?

Nicole Ormandy: I want you to write all three. So, friends, what says /k/? What did you write, Edie? What says /k/?

Edie: 'ck’ and ‘c’ and ‘k’...

Nicole Ormandy: Perfect.

Narrator: Having this dedicated time to work with the sound-letter connection helps students as they move on to spelling words.

Nicole Ormandy: Tell me the sounds in snack.

Ms. Ormandy and students: /s/, /n/, /ă/, /k/ ...

Nicole Ormandy: Now tell me the letters.

Ms. Ormandy and students: 's', 'n', 'a', 'ck' ...

Nicole Ormandy: Perfect. Why is it 'ck'?

Student: There's a short vowel.

Nicole Ormandy: Yeah. It is the last sound right after a short vowel. That's exactly why you use 'ck'. Perfect.

Narrator: After practicing dictation with individual words, students jump into reading phrases and sentences. Ms. Ormandy deliberately switches between reading and writing to show how one skill supports the other.

Nicole Ormandy: We're going to have you two read some phrases. I want you to read this one. Go ahead.

Edie: "The truck stop."

Nicole Ormandy: Perfect. And you read this one.

Student: "A crab ... tup."

Nicole Ormandy: A crab ... /tr/ ...

Student: /trŭb/ ... /trăb/.

Nicole Ormandy: This is not /b/, this is ...

Student: /t/, /r/, /ă/, /p/ ... 'p' ...

Nicole Ormandy: Right? So, the whole word is /t/, /r/, /ă/, /p/ ...

Student: Trap ...

Nicole Ormandy: Perfect. Nice job. The whole phrase?

Student: "A crab trap."

Nicole Ormandy: Perfect. "A crab trap."

Narrator: In the last part of her lesson, Ms. Ormandy reviews how to break down multisyllable words.

Nicole Ormandy: What I have here is two vowels. What are my two vowels in this whole word?

Students: 'u' and 'i' ...

Nicole Ormandy: Exactly. My two vowels are separated with how many consonants in between?

Students: Two ...

Nicole Ormandy: Two consonants. I separated right in the center. So I found my two vowels, I found my two consonants, and I divided the word right in between.

Narrator: Finally, students get the chance to practice the steps of dividing a multisyllable word that has two closed syllables. Knowing how to break big words down into smaller parts will make reading and understanding them a smoother process for the kids.

Nicole Ormandy: So where should I divide it?

Student: In the middle.

Nicole Ormandy: Can you do it? Can you read the word for me?

Narrator: Job, ... lin ...

Nicole Ormandy: Good. And this first sound is /g/, so try again.

Narrator: Goblin.

Nicole Ormandy: Goblin, right? We hear that word at Halloween, oftentimes. Goblin. Find my vowels. Perfect. Find my consonants between them ...

Student: 'b' and 'l' ...

Nicole Ormandy: Exactly. So divide right between.

Narrator: Following this instructional roadmap provides opportunities for students to finetune their phonic skills, a crucial step on the path to fluency. Next step in a review lesson such as this would be an oral reading of connected text.

Ms. Ormandy and students: ‘ex-', '-tend' ...

Nicole Ormandy: Perfect.

Narrator: Reading Universe is made possible by generous support from Jim & Donna Barksdale, the AFT, The Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation, and anonymous donors. Special thanks to AIM Academy and the AIM Institute for Learning and Research. If you enjoyed this video, please subscribe to our YouTube channel at @RUTeaching. Reading Universe is a service of WETA, Washington, D.C., The Barksdale Reading Institute, and First Book.