This is my opportunity to share the considerable change in how I now teach reading, spelling and writing for Year 0/1 novice learners. Understanding the role of explicit instruction for the knowledge and skills my novice learners require has informed my teaching.
Below, Dr Anita Archer, an expert in Explicit Instruction speaks about both the design and the delivery of teaching:
These three steps are now integral to my teaching:
Demonstration (I Do It)
Guided Practice (We Do It)
Checking for Understanding (You Do It)
My introduction to structured literacy began in 2020 during the first NZ lockdown. One of our children had started year 3 and I was tasked like many of us were to teach her at home. I noticed she had gaps in literacy, her short vowel knowledge was inaccurate and her spelling was poor. This encouraged me to search for ways I could support her at home. Keep in mind I was an experienced teacher of sixteen years and had a gut feeling that if she hadn’t yet learnt this with the same approach that I was teaching in my class then what I had to offer my daughter probably wasn’t going to help her.
I began listening to podcasts, watching webinars and reading whatever I could find. The first reading during lockdown was The Science of Reading by Laura Stewart. Everything made so much sense and I knew that what I was learning was going to help my daughter and the students in my class.
The change from balanced literacy to teaching through a structured literacy approach was the pedagogical shift my students needed me to make. For this to be successful, it required significant development in my knowledge, understanding and thinking. I now realise that before this change I did not have the knowledge and skills to teach as effectively as I do today. Now my lessons are more intentional, explicit and systematic with a high level of checking for understanding. The Little Learners Love Literacy© scope and sequence guides me on What, How and When to teach each skill.
My first steps to change
Although my teaching had become more explicit I was still mainly teaching in groups. During 2022 with a large Year 0/1 class I realised with so much more explicit teaching required, the students weren’t getting the teaching time they needed in their small groups. Most of my time was spent sorting out disruptive behaviours of students supposedly ‘working independently’. Liz and I spoke and she suggested I consider increasing my whole class teaching to include more of the Little Learners Love Literacy© teaching model. I was teaching Phonological Awareness whole class but needed to include a whole lot more.
I spent the holidays learning about whole-class teaching and created a 20-minute lesson based on the Teaching Model from Little Learners Love Literacy©. By the end of the first lesson, I knew this was going to be a game-changer. Throughout the lesson all students were settled with no disruptive behaviours, I could teach and my students were all engaged!!! I slowly increased the length of the whole class lesson to forty minutes over a few weeks and ensured I included all 5 pillars of reading throughout the literacy block.
Benefits of whole class teaching
The impact of changing from teaching mainly small groups to whole-class teaching with targeted group teaching has seen huge benefits. Teaching my class as a whole group, carefully planning and differentiating teaching, the students
get increased teaching and learning time, less ‘busy’’ work
progress from letter-sound knowledge to word reading to reading books at a faster rate than before. I don’t have to teach this during small groups so can focus on application - reading texts and writing sentences.
have increased opportunities to review and practice
are exposed to more of the scope and sequence through review and so have more opportunities to learn the graphemes quicker
are writing independently earlier using the knowledge they have
engagement is high and the class is more settled
achievement is the best I have ever had
confidence when reading and writing blows me away
My whole class teaching now in 2024
Now in Term 3, 2024, I teach the whole class (Year 0/ 1) for 1 hour and 10 minutes, four days a week. Previously, the students had 20 minutes of whole-class teaching and approximately 15 minutes in their group, a total of 35 minutes. Now, that learning time is more than doubled as they all get 70 minutes of the whole class (LLLL session, fluency buddies, picture book, modelled writing) and 10-15 mins with me daily in their small group.
I teach my Little Learners Love Literacy© session for 40 minutes at the beginning of the literacy block followed by fluency buddies. The Little Learners Love Literacy© lesson has a fitness break between two sessions. After morning tea I teach targeted small groups, read a picture book with a specific focus and finally modelled writing. My timetable is below:
Time (approx.) | What | Notes |
8:55am | Welcome, Roll, Pae Ako, Calendar maths | |
9:10am | Whole class lesson (Review) | On the mat with teachers Whole class |
9:25am | Break - run, music, fitness break 10 mins | |
9:35am | Continue the whole class lesson (Explicit Teaching, Practice, Application) | On the mat with teachers Whole class |
10:00am - 10:10am | Fluency buddies | Whole class is at tables with their fluency buddy. Teachers roaming - targeting students we know need support |
10:10am - 10:45am | Morning tea play and eat | |
10:45am - 11:45am | Targeted Small groups | 4 groups 10-20 mins each. Those not with me are enjoying targeted literacy activities. |
11:45am - 12:00pm | Picture book/ Big book. Vocabulary and comprehension focus | Whole class |
12:00pm | Lunch |
|
12:20pm - 1:00pm | Maths | |
1:10pm - 1:20pm | Modelled writing using the content from our picture book | Whole class |
Whole class lessons are aimed at the highest stage in my class (currently Stage 6) however, I differentiate my teaching during these lessons ensuring there is always something for all students whether they have been at school for a week or a term.
Whole class lesson based on Little Learners Love Literacy©Teaching Model of Review, New teaching, Practice and Application. (40 mins)
Review: Phonemic awareness, Sped Sounds and Chants, Heart Words, Sentence Reading - Vocabulary and comprehension (word reading and sentence level)
New teaching: Sound Box, Milo’s Birthday Surprise, New sounds/letters Letter formation
Practice: Decoding and encoding letters and words including a range of letters and words so there is something for everyone. Our brand-new students who don't yet know many sounds/letters draw a picture of the word or sentence. Spelling - we use our spelling fingers to hear the sounds in the words and build the words together. I am explicitly teaching them when to use a c or k, and the floss rule from The Code
Application: Writing dictated sentences I teach spacing, directionally, punctuation, spelling, and re-reading to check it makes sense. They are excited and eager to write these sentences because they are successful.
At the beginning of the term, we opened a new Y0 class and all nine students and their teacher Morgan join us for our whole class session and fluency buddies. One of us teaches the session and the other teacher supports students who require it. We have seen huge benefits from our brand new learners joining us - they are soaking up the learning and three of them are already reading stage 2 texts!
Other Whole Class elements of the Literacy Block
Picture book/ Big Book - focusing on explicitly teaching vocabulary, building knowledge, language features, syntax (Who/ Do) and comprehension. When teaching new vocabulary I have a child-friendly definition of the word, an example from the book and an example out of context. We build a vocabulary word wall with pictures from the books we have read and the vocab we have learnt from these books. The words are displayed so I can easily see them for quick reviews. I often put the words into a sentence “can everyone shuffle to get their lunchboxes”.
Writing. Throughout our morning, students have many opportunities to write. As well as writing in our whole class session many will also write a dictated sentence when they are with me during groups. I also model writing every day. We are focusing on repeating a sentence and identifying the Who/Do. A resource for this are the slides from The Grammar Project which are amazing and free! Our writing is usually based on our picture book or linked to our inquiry.
Handwriting - I teach 2 graphemes a week as part of the whole class session and teach capital and lowercase formation. Students also practise letter formation in their small group sessions as required with their target letters.
Fluency buddies - This is an opportunity for students to practise reading text, some students read at letter level, some on word ladders and some read books - this is one way we differentiate during our whole class sessions. Due to the age of our students, we give one book or card to two students. One reads and the other tracks with their eyes and helps if their buddy gets stuck. They read for three minutes then swap over. Once students are familiar with the process they have a book each and track their buddy’s reading in their own book. They have the same book all week and I make sure that it is something they have read with me earlier. It’s all about building automaticity and fluency! I roam the room and spend time with those I know will need support - although if I buddy them up right the helper gets to them before I do!
Small Group Targeted Teaching
I have four very fluid groups and use my small group time to focus in on the needs of the students and skills they need practice with. The numbers of students in the group differ according to the teaching. I may have six in a group reading a book together or a smaller number of those who have just started school and consolidating the first eight sounds/letters.
Due to the students learning so much more through whole class instruction, I often do not have to teach new sound-letter correspondences in small groups. I generally focus on review (at their stage) and practice or application depending on what they need.
For practice, we may play Read and Grab, complete a Let's Spell sheet, write dictated words, build words using word mats, or reading ladders with words, phrases or sentences. For application, this is usually reading a text, which will be one text over two days. They also write a dictated sentence with me at least once over the two days so I can see how the elements of letter formation, spacing, punctuation and spelling are developing. If encoding is fine but they work on decoding or fluency then we just read and reread a text that week.
If I have a few stage 1 students with higher needs, I may take them individually for three minutes to review with a sound pack and have them write the graphemes. Then later in the block, I will take them again for a short period of time to build vc and cvc words. I always teach the stage 1 and 2 students each day but don’t see all the groups every day and the length of time for each group is dependent on the amount of practice they require,
Tips and tricks
It's all in the delivery! Make it fun. High energy and lots of checking for understanding and praise.
When we build words we have a ‘stage’, when we do our speed sounds I sometimes use a timer, when we do heart words we play ‘your pile and my pile’ (if they get it wrong because they have guessed I get it) and during Sound Box, I use a tone that is exciting and mysterious.
Everyone does everything. When I ask my comprehension questions and punctuation check during sentence reading or check for vocabulary during word reading everyone calls out the answer. You can easily see who hasn’t responded.
Scaffolding - you know your students and who needs support. so sit them close to you and if you are lucky enough to have a teacher aide get them to sit with the TA.
As Anita Archer says have a “Perky Pace” and keep the lesson flowing.
Teaching whole class and keeping students engaged takes a lot of energy but the results are worth it.
Examples of Lesson Plans
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