A lesson plan must be created with the goal of teaching your child the 44 sounds and the 43 phonics rules of the English language and how to appropriately apply them. The question is what lesson plan will most effectively accomplish this task?
There are numerous websites available that will provide you with sample lesson plans for phonics instruction; however, in this article let’s talk about what you should look for in a strong lesson plan. With just a bit of planning, you can help teach your child to become an accomplished and confident reader.
When evaluating any lesson plan, there are several items to consider. Ask yourself these questions. Is the plan creative, interactive and supportive of the early reader’s efforts? Does the lesson plan utilize a variety of methods, such as textual, visual, audio, etc, to teach the concepts of phonics? Are there multiple opportunities in the lesson for your child to learn, practice, play and repeat what they have learned? It is through hearing and seeing the reading concepts in a variety of ways that your child will conceptualize and then utilize their newfound knowledge.
When our children were early readers, we utilized a lesson plan in which we created personalized booklets together. After we selected the letter we were going to study for the week, we cut the letter out of brightly colored card stock paper. We then made a small booklet by choosing several sheets of standard size card stock paper and stapling them together in the upper left corner. On the front page, we glued the letter for the week. Throughout the week, we looked through old magazines and selected pictures of items that started with the same letter and sound as our letter of the week. We then glued these pictures to the blank pages of our book and printed the word under the picture.. This allowed us to reinforce the recognition of the letter and the sound of the letter. By the end of the week, we often had to add extra blank pages because the children were so into the fun of searching out those pictures that matched the letter of the week. The booklet proved to be so valuable and became dog-eared from all the use.
Teaching phonics to your child only takes a commitment of time and a bit of creativity. Searching for phonics lessons plans will take some time, yes, but believe me when you hear your child begin to put sounds together and then begin to read you will realize it was time very well spent.
