Chapter One

During phonics lessons I provide the students with a magnet board (it is set up like a folder and has letters on one side and is blank on the other) and letter tiles. We typically begin the lesson by saying the alphabet and pointing to each letter as we say it. I instruct the students to place three letters on their board. For example put d, i, and m on the empty side of the board. Students blend the word by saying each sound and then we read the word together. I then have the students begin to manipulate the word such as put the letter e at the end of the word. What word did you make? I will then ask them to change the /d/ sound at the beginning to the /t/ sound. I will then ask them to sound out the word and read it. Sometimes I will give them the name of the letter to change such as change the m in time to the letter d (tide). Then I will ask them to spell, sound out and read the new word. This helps students with working memory issues because they only have to remember one letter or sound instead of a whole word.