What it is. Notebook ruling has no dashed middle line, so the child must hold the letter height themselves.
Why our test works. On practice paper the dashed line TELLS the child how tall a small letter is. Take it away and size collapses within a week — and it reads as carelessness when it is actually a missing scaffold. Giving them a ratio to check replaces the line they lost.
Leans on. Lesson 2's three zones. Without those this lesson has nothing to hold.
Watch for. This is a genuine cliff. Expect a dip and do not treat it as regression — name it to the class so they expect it too.
Write the same letters on notebook ruling, keeping the height the dashed line used to give you. The worked example is the one you build on the board: Teacher writes 'a b c' on practice paper, then the same three on notebook ruling beside it 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.
Then you do one yourself, building it on the board and leaving it up: Teacher writes 'a b c' on practice paper, then the same three on notebook ruling beside it, joining the two baselines and pointing to where the dashed line WOULD be. The point is said plainly: the middle line does not disappear, it moves into your head. The board copy is what they look back at when they stall, so it stays there for the whole lesson.
The We-do is the main whiteboard moment of the lesson — short answers, boards up on your signal, every child visible at once. Class writes three small letters on practice paper, then the same three on notebook ruling, and compares the two for height. 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: Copy one row of small letters on notebook ruling. Check each is about half the height of a tall letter.
You close on the exit direction — Point to a letter that kept its height. — taken from every child before anyone stands, and then the line you want them to still have tomorrow: The middle line moves into your head.
This is a genuine cliff. Expect a dip and do not treat it as regression — name it to the class so they expect it too.