40_Book_Pages/). Mini-whiteboards and pens out. Pointer in hand. Today's page has 5 build chains.NOTEFirst day of the track — there is nothing taught yet to recall. Skip the warm-up and go straight to the sound.
SAYWe have a new sound today. It is the sound we call short a. Before we read it, we are going to make it.
SAYWatch my mouth. Do not say anything yet — just watch.
DOMake the sound three times, slowly, exaggerated. Say nothing else. Let them watch your front low position.
SAYWhat did you notice about my mouth?
NOTETake two or three answers. Steer toward the moving part — lips, tongue, teeth, air, voice. Do not correct wrong noticing; ask another child.
SAYOpen your mouth WIDE and pull your lips back like a big smile. Tongue low and forward — /a/, as in 'cat'.
SAYNow you check it on yourself. Hand under your chin: this is the one where your jaw drops the most. Mirror: widest smile of the five.
DOEvery child does the check. Walk the room. You are looking for the check being DONE, not for the sound being perfect yet.
SAYSay it with me. /æ/ … /æ/ … /æ/.
NOTEIndividual turns from four or five children, chosen so you hear the ones you are worried about. Give feedback on the MOUTH, not on the sound: 'your teeth were not on your lip' beats 'that was not quite right.'
NOTEWatch for: /ɛ/ (short e). The two are neighbours; the jaw is the difference.
NOTEThis sound does not exist in Arabic, Somali, Urdu. For those children it is a new physical skill, not a reminder. Expect it to take days, and do not let the column start until the mouth can make it.
SAYOne more sound you will see today: /t/, written t. Put the tip of your tongue on the bumpy ridge just behind your top teeth. Hold the air. Now let it go — /t/. Voice off.
NOTEQuick introduction only — /t/ gets its full lesson in a day or two. Today the children just need it in the mouth before they meet it in the column.
SAYThese letters you already know the sound of: m, n, s. Say each one as I point.
NOTENaming, not teaching — these sounds exist in the children's home languages. If one of them is genuinely shaky for a child, that is a warm-up item tomorrow, not a five-minute detour now.
SAYWe are going to build words out of the sounds we know.
SAYa … then m … put them together: am.
SAYa … then n … put them together: an.
SAYa … then s … put them together: as.
SAYa … then t … put them together: at.
SAYa … then x … put them together: ax.
NOTEBuild each chain on the board a piece at a time and LEAVE the pieces up. The child needs to see that the whole word is made of the parts still visible beside it — erasing the steps erases the reason it worked.
NOTEThis lesson is short on paper. Run the column a SECOND time before you move on — random order, individual turns, and this time write down who missed what. Do not end the block early; there are 3 minutes here and they belong to accuracy.
SAYOpen to page 3. Finger on the first word.
SAYDown the first column. My pointer, your voice. Wait for the pointer.
NOTEPoint deliberately and hold. Accuracy before speed — if it is getting fast and sloppy, slow the pointer down, do not ask them to slow down.
SAYNow across the rows.
NOTEReading down a column can be done from memory. Reading ACROSS cannot. If a child was strong going down and falls apart going across, they were reciting, not reading — that is what this step is for, and it is the same reason the Qaida is drilled this way.
SAYNow I am going to jump around. Watch the pointer.
NOTERandom order over all 0 words. This is the real test. Anything missed here goes on tomorrow's warm-up.
SAYPartners. One points, one reads. Then swap.
NOTEWalk and listen to four children you have not heard from today. Note who to put in the warm-up tomorrow.
SAYWhiteboards up. I am going to SAY a sound. You write the letter or letters that make it. Do not say it out loud and do not look at your neighbour — I want to see YOUR board.
DOSay the sound only. Never the letter name, and never a word that contains it — 'sss', not 'the s sound' and not 'snake'. Naming the letter turns this into a memory question instead of a sound one.
SAYWrite it. … Boards up. Show me.
DOToday's order: /æ/ (short a). Say each one, wait, then 'show me'. Two seconds looking at the room per sound — you are counting how many are wrong, not who.
NOTEREAD THE ROOM, NOT THE CHILD. Roughly: nearly all correct, say 'yes' and go straight on. About a third wrong, stop and re-make the sound at the mouth right now, then re-run that one item. Most of the room wrong, the sound is not taught yet — put it at the front of tomorrow and do not push on. Two or three children wrong is a small-group note for later, not a whole-class stop.
NOTENothing here is written down and no score is kept. It is not an assessment of children, it is an instrument for reading the room, and the moment it starts being recorded it becomes slow enough that it stops happening daily. Daily is the whole value.
| My turn. | Say the word correctly, sounding it out the way you want it sounded out. Do not explain yet — just model it. |
| Together. | Say it with the child, slowly, while they look at the word. |
| Your turn. | The child says it alone. |
| Back to the top. | Return to the first word in the column and come down again. The child must meet that word once more and get it right. This step is the one that makes the correction stick. |