40_Book_Pages/). Mini-whiteboards and pens out. Pointer in hand. Today's page has 28 words and 7 sentences.SAYSounds first. Say each one when I point.
NOTECards or board: /ɔ/ /ŋ/ /ɜr/. Fast, no comment, no praise between items — the pace is the point. Anything hesitant goes on the list for the end of the week.
SAYNow these words.
NOTEWords: sender, lender, hunter, better, letter, her, Kent, tent. These are drawn from lessons already taught, not from today's, so a child who has forgotten shows it here rather than in the middle of new work.
SAYToday's letters are nk, nc, nch. Here is the important part: there is no new sound in any of them. You already know every sound in nk, nc, nch. What is new is that they go side by side, with nothing in between.
NOTEShape: a nasal, then a stop, at the end of the word. The instruction below is written for that shape; do not swap in the routine from another blend lesson, because the repair is different and so is the fix.
SAYBoth sounds are at the END, and both have to arrive. Say the word, then stop your mouth exactly where it finishes and hold it there. hand — feel your tongue still up on the ridge.
SAYNow you check it. Say the word, then say ONLY its last sound. If you cannot find a last sound, it got dropped.
DOEvery child does the check on the same word. Walk the room. You are listening for an extra beat, not for a wrong sound — the sounds will usually be right.
SAYTogether: bank. Again, one beat. bank.
SAYTogether: ink. Again, one beat. ink.
SAYTogether: honk. Again, one beat. honk.
NOTEWATCH FOR: Dropping the last one: 'hand' as 'han', 'jump' as 'jum'. Note also that the n in 'bank' is not /n/ — it is /ŋ/, because the tongue is already back for the k. Do not correct a child who says it that way; that is what the word IS.
NOTEThis SHAPE does not exist in Somali. For those children the missing last sound is not carelessness and not a decoding error — it is their phonology repairing a syllable their language does not allow. Correct the beat, never the effort, and never say 'sound it out again' — they already did, correctly.
SAYSound it out with me, and do NOT stop between the sounds. b – a – n – k … keep going … do not stop.
NOTEStretch the sounds into each other — mmmaaannn — rather than chopping them apart. 'muh-a-nuh' produces a child who says 'muhanuh' and cannot hear the word inside it. The stop between sounds is the error; the sounds themselves are usually fine.
SAYNow say it fast.
SAYYes — bank.
SAYSound it out without stopping: ink. Now fast.
SAYSound it out without stopping: honk. Now fast.
SAYSound it out without stopping: ranch. Now fast.
SAYOpen to page 63. 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 28 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: /ɜr/ (er), /ŋ/ (ng), /ɔ/ (aw). 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.
NOTEThe spiral items today are er, ng, aw — from earlier lessons, on purpose. In phonics a gap left in October is still a gap in May, because every lesson after it is built on top. If a spiral item comes back weak, it goes in tomorrow's warm-up.
SAYPencils. I say a word, you say it back, then we count the sounds on our fingers, then we write it.
NOTECounting the sounds BEFORE writing is what stops a child writing the first letter and guessing the rest. A child who holds up three fingers for `man` will write three letters.
SAYFirst word: bank. Say it back. Now count the sounds. How many?
NOTEThen write. Then show me. Check every board before the next word — this is the fastest assessment in the lesson and it is why mini-whiteboards are not optional here.
NOTEWords to dictate: bank, ink, honk, ranch, bunch
SAYNow a whole sentence. Finger under the first word.
SAYRead it in your head first. Put your finger up when you have it.
NOTESilent-first is what turns this from a listening exercise into a reading one. Wait for most fingers before you call on anyone.
SAYTogether: Hank put cash in the bank.
NOTEThen two or three individual readers. Reading round the class in seating order is the one thing not to do — every child knows which sentence is theirs and stops reading the others.
SAYBob put gas in the tank.
SAYBeth put the dish in the sink.
SAYDan sat on a bench.
SAYBefore you go, three words, on your own.
NOTEWords: sink, wink, zinc. One child at a time as they line up. Mark each child got 3, 2, or fewer. Two or fewer means they start tomorrow's warm-up group — that is the entire purpose of recording it, so do not skip it and do not make it public.
| 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. |