Routines & Structures That Support Effective Instruction

Routines & Structures that Support Effective Instruction

When learning new routines, children need clear direction, practice, and lots of patience. It is not reasonable to expect smooth sailing the first few times we try something! At the beginning the learning goal IS the routine, not in addition to, the routine. 

Explicitly share the purpose of the lesson - Before you get started, tell your students explicitly what skills are being targeted: “Today we are going to work on blending two sounds together.”

I do, we do, you do - The gradual release of responsibility model should be applied to program planning, lesson planning, and individual support. 

• • I do: Educator models a skill for the students

  • We do: Educator and students practice together

  • You do: Students try on their own

An educator might use all three at a time or only parts depending on student skill level (e.g., “I do, We do” only  when first introducing something; “We do, You do” only as students become more adept with a skill) This routine, like all routines, takes exposure and practice.

Choral responses - This is a routine where all students verbally respond, in unison, to an educator’s questions. It is an easy-to-use method of increasing each student's frequency of active response during group instruction. This is a very good fit for the early years classroom where students struggle to repress the urge to share their thinking and need to be active participants in their learning.

Give immediate and explicit feedback - When working on a skill together it is important that educators stop the class and correct errors right away. For example: The educator asks the students to say the medial sound in “fit”. The students say, “/a/.” The teacher responds, “You said /a/. Listen to me say the word (teacher elongates, /ffffff/ /iiiiiii/ /t/). Let’s say the word slowly together. Now you say the word, slowly. Say the word again, and I’ll stop you after the middle sound.” The student says, “/f/ /i/.” The teacher interrupts, “Stop! What sound did you just say? Yes, /i/.” A safe classroom where risk taking is encouraged, modeled, and celebrated is an important first step to a culture of learning through corrective feedback. 

Chalk and sock/Write and wipe - Use individual chalkboards (or white boards) to allow students to practice different types of lines and shapes, letter forms, to attempt encoding sounds, etc. Students will need practice to build the routine of passing out boards, socks, and chalk, or dry erase markers, following instructions, and collecting boards at the end of the lesson. 

Turn and talk - As with choral response, turn and talk is a routine that increases active student participation during most group time. Students will need to know who their partner is and/or how to find a partner. They will also require practice turning to face their partner, following instructions about what to share and when, and practice sharing back to the whole group when it makes sense to do so. With this routine, as many others, be conscious of student comfort in regards to talking, making adjustments as needed (e.g., group three students together and allow one to take the role of listener if they prefer not to talk).

Use of gestures - Research has shown that when educators use gestures, their students remember more (Centre For Effective Reading Instruction, 2016). Gestures both facilitate working memory in the moment in which they are produced, and facilitate recall over time. By using gestures that represent speech sounds (e.g., pretending to take a bite out of an apple while making the /a/ sound), we can support retention of letter names and sounds. It is also helpful to choose a gestured approach to phonological awareness instruction (tap sounds, chop words, etc.). Once the gestures have been taught to the class, routinely apply it to provide many opportunities for practice. 

Use of manipulatives - Using manipulatives to represent speech sounds (e.g., fingers, bingo chips, post-it notes) makes something that is intangible into something concrete. The use of tokens to represent speech sounds helps students perceive and hold onto the sequence of sounds just spoken. It allows them to use their ears, eyes, and body to focus on and remember spoken sounds. Additionally, the use of manipulatives frees early learners from needing to think about word spellings as they build phonemic proficiency. Manipulatives can be switched out for graphemes in the form of mnemonic cards, magnetic letters, letter cards, etc. as children learn the names and sounds of their letters.

Use of images - Research shows that using embedded mnemonics supports learners’ memory and recall of sound-letter relationships, requiring less repetition and leading to better long-term memory (Ehri, Deffner, & Wilce, 1984). 

Distributed Practice through play-based Instruction - Because learning to associate the sound, name, and form of a letter requires hundreds to thousands of exposures to become anchored in the memory (Richards, R. 2008), opportunities for review and practice must be distributed across the day for all students. The curated list of ideas for playful practice (coming soon in Appendix) can be used for planning centres and small group instruction allowing for this practice and review. As educators observe play, they can also incorporate authentic opportunities for writing, use of text, letter identification, or sound awareness into the children’s self directed play.

Distributed Practice Embedded in Transition - There are many transitional moments in the Kindergarten day where we can engage students in some review of the letters and phonological-phonemic skills being taught. There are many ways to make it playful and engaging such as calling children by a nonsense word that rhymes with their name rather than by their actual name when lining-up or during dismissal. Additional ideas coming soon (in Appendix?)

For a printable version of the information above, see pages 9-10 of the TSTL or click here.