What it is. A blend is two consonants that each keep their own sound.
Why our test works. Children collapse st into one sound because it is said fast. Asking whether BOTH can be heard makes them slow the blend down, which is the only way the second letter gets written.
Leans on. Lesson 11.
Watch for. The dropped letter is nearly always the second one. Say the blend slowly, then at speed, and let them hear the difference.
Match 3 school words to their everyday partners and use each in a sentence frame. The worked example is built on The shape of the leaf is round., ringing shape. The class reads the teaching page printed at the top of the sheet — our own writing, so a child who was absent can still get the lesson.
You open by saying where this sits — what it follows and what it is part of — in one sentence, and then you give them the reason it matters, in your own words, for about ten seconds. Before anything new, sixty seconds of retrieval on U2 set 2: ask, take the answers from boards rather than hands so you see all thirty, and do not re-teach — note who has lost it and carry on.
Then you do one yourself, on screen, one click per piece: the word shape alone first, and you wait — let them look at it before you give them the meaning. Then how it looks arrives beside it, and you point from one to the other with your hand. Then the sentence underneath: The shape of the leaf is round.. Three clicks, three things said. Do not let the whole slide arrive at once — a slide that arrives whole gives the answer before the question is asked.
The We-do is the main whiteboard moment of the lesson — short answers, boards up on your signal, every child visible at once. Class matches each item to its partner aloud, then uses the frames in pairs. Every child says at least one frame. If the answer is a whole sentence rather than a word, take it on the printed sheet instead, because a sentence written on a whiteboard is written once and destroyed.
They read the teaching page — printed at the top of today's sheet — with you, either read-aloud or FASE, never round robin. Stop at the worked example and let them look at it.
Exit directions in full, standing still, before anyone moves. Then they work alone through the five steps — match, choose, frame, write their own. The frames stay on screen while they write: Use the frame as often as you need it today. Say both halves of that — the frame is there if they need it, and it is better writing without it. Walk and note who used it; that is your group for tomorrow, not a mark against them today.
You close on the exit direction — Say one sentence using shape. — taken from every child before anyone stands, and then the line you want them to still have tomorrow: Two letters, two sounds.
The dropped letter is nearly always the second one. Say the blend slowly, then at speed, and let them hear the difference.