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Phonics refers to the ability to learn the individual sounds in spoken language and map those sounds to specific written letters in the English language. Students who have strong phonics skills are able to connect individual sounds with letters and use those sounds to read words.
Teacher prompts:
What sound do you hear first/next/last?
What letters represent that sound?
Do you see a spelling pattern you know?
How many sounds?
How many letters? Blend it—what word did you make?
Small-Group Tip: Keep the focus narrow. If the lesson targets digraphs, for example, primarily use words containing the taught digraph rather than expecting students to use every section of the mat. The mat is a reusable tool; not every phonics feature needs to be addressed in each lesson.
Teacher Small-Group Instructions: Word Building Mat
Use this mat during explicit phonics instruction and guided word-building practice. Select words that align with the phonics skill students are currently learning rather than having students randomly build words.
Say the word. Have students repeat it and stretch the word orally.
Map the sounds. Students identify each sound they hear and move across the Build Your Word boxes from left to right as they segment the word.
Build the word. Students locate the letters or spelling patterns needed and write them in the boxes. Use the phonics-pattern banks as a reference when appropriate.
Connect sounds to spelling. Ask: “How many sounds do you hear?” and “How many letters spell the word?” Students record each number. Emphasize that the number of letters and sounds may not be the same (e.g., ship = 4 letters, 3 sounds).
Read and write. Students blend the sounds to read the completed word, then write the whole word in the Write Your Word section.
Repeat with new words. Gradually reduce teacher prompting as students demonstrate accuracy.
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