Before you teach — read this first

Grade 2 · Lesson 31 — Words with a long vowel

Dictation & encoding · blocked · 30 minutes · 17 slides · Launch → I do → We do → Read → You do → Closure
The language behind this lesson — read this before you teach it.
WORDS WITH A LONG VOWEL

What it is. Long-vowel spelling is now a routine rather than a lesson.

Why our test works. Third return. The check should be automatic; if it is not, the child needs the remedial cycle rather than another whole-class lesson.

Leans on. Lessons 10 and 22.

Watch for. Note who still hesitates. That is your list, and it is short by now.

What this lesson is

Write what you hear: words with a long vowel. The worked example is the one you build on the board: Teacher says each item once at speaking pace, then again slowly. Two letters, one sound. S 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.

Why it matters — say this in your own words, about ten seconds.
“A thing repeated becomes a part of you.”
A different reason every lesson, on purpose. It is not on a slide and it is not a script — if you have a better reason today, use yours. What should land is the idea, not a sentence they can recite.
How it goes

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 U3 set 1: 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, building it on the board and leaving it up: Teacher says each item once at speaking pace, then again slowly. Two letters, one sound. Say the sound, then choose the pair. The first is modeled on the board, sound by sound, nothing erased. 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 one item together, then checks it against the board letter by letter before the next is given. 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: Write each item the teacher says: rain, seed, boat, light. Check every one against the board.

You close on the exit direction — Point to the one you had to fix. — taken from every child before anyone stands, and then the line you want them to still have tomorrow: Two letters, one sound — every time.

Exit directions — in full, standing still, before anyone moves
Notebook and pencil · Heading first · Write each item the teacher says: rain, seed, boat, light. Check every one against the board.
Watch for

Note who still hesitates. That is your list, and it is short by now.

As-Suffah Academy · Writing · narrative brief