How To Teach Using Structured Literacy?

WHAT DO WE TEACH IN STRUCTURED LITERACY?

We know that phonics instruction is critical to supporting all students including those with dyslexia and other reading disabilities but the problem is – it’s NOT ENOUGH.

Latest research shows that we are missing the mark on language development and the role that syntax, vocabulary, morphology and comprehension plays in the development reading.

So structured literacy has all of the areas of language taught in a systematic, structured and progressive way ensuring everyone makes progress.

WHAT DOES A STRUCTURED LITERACY LESSON ACTUALLY LOOK LIKE?

A structured literacy is a literacy lesson that has a few key components:

• There is a sequential order of skill introduction – all the concepts are organised in advance including the order in which you introduce sounds, the order in which you introduce rules, the order in which you build onto higher-level skills.
• It follows a structured order every time – each lesson follows the exact same format. The format looks like this:
  • Start with a visual sound drill, show students a letter and they say the sound
  • Then a auditory sound drill, say a sound and the student writes it
  • Next a structured review of previously taught concepts, Boom Cards are great for this or a worksheet
  • Introduce the new concept, I like a directed discovery activity for grammar where the children discover the rule through the activity given
  • Practice the new rule at the sound level, the word level, and the sentence level depending on the topic
  • Transition to specific phonological awareness activities, spelling drills, spelling practice, and sentence dictation.
  • sight word reading activity
  • spelling or dictation activity
  • Layer in activities based on identified areas of need based on student assessment.

• It uses assessment to guide advancement – Structured Literacy also relies on checking for ‘mastery’. We want to be careful here so that students don’t get stuck in one lesson forever but we do want to be analysing data and checking work to ensure that students aren’t losing skills or forgetting concepts that were taught previously.

Any lost learning should be added to the review section to enable students to refresh their understanding and keep learning fresh in their minds.

AN EXAMPLE LESSON PLAN

As you can see from my notes, everything links, everything moves forward step by step and we only move on if the learning is secure. For most new learning, I would cover it in at least 2 different sessions in slightly different ways. Only once they can apply it in reading and writing and in fun games would I teach something new. I would also still review that learning in the opening activity for a few days to ensure they have ‘mastered’ the skill.

Please email any questions you have or head over to instagram to connect and learn more;

https://www.instagram.com/adapted.learning/?hl=en

Click this link to get my free printable session template to download.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/rzxqwtdqkse4a4x/STRUCTURE%20LITERACY%20LESSON%20copy%203.png?dl=0

Thanks

K x