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Blast from the past: Teacher question: Shanahan response:
I teach 4th-grade general education. I have read several of your articles the last few days because I have a growing frustration regarding guided reading. I believe a lot of your ideas about what does not work are correct, but I don't understand what you believe we SHOULD be doing. I am confused about how to give students difficult textbooks to read without reading it to them. I thought I was doing what I was supposed to be doing. I do not know how to scaffold science or social studies text for students that are 2 years behind without reading it to them. I also feel pressure in these subjects to read it to them because I thought it was more important for them to understand the information thoroughly by reading the text aloud, having thoughtful discussions, and follow up activities. Every time I think I know what I should be doing, I read another article and realize that I am doing that wrong too. So, please give me guidance on how to best to teach nonfiction and fiction text to my class whole group. What strategies and types of activities are the best? Originally posted February 2, 2013; re-issued October 12, 2024. Over the past 15 years, I have issued several blogs concerning the value of teaching students to read more challenging texts than we have used in instruction in the past. Despite a growing body of evidence showing that teaching students at their "instructional reading level" provides no learning benefits - and that sometimes it limits learning - most teachers continue to avoid challenging text by moving kids to easier text, reading texts to the students, or replacing texts with other sources of information (e.g., videos, teacher presentations). Given that I thought it would be a good idea to reissue this one. Oh, and by the way, I just completed writing a book on this topic. It will be published by Harvard Education Press early in 2025.
I feel your pain. What would it look like to scaffold a fourth-grade lesson from a social studies book with children who are reading at second-grade level? There are several possibilities.

First, I would "level" (pun intended) with the kids. I would not try to hide from them that I was going to ask them to read a book that in the past we would have avoided. The point here is motivation. People like a challenge and kids are people. When you ask them to take on something hard, let them in on the secret so they can take on the challenge with the right mindset and so they can be proud of themselves when they manage to meet the challenge - and we will make sure that they meet the challenge.

Second, it is essential that the teacher read the chapter before the kids do. We need to identify the linguistic, conceptual, and textual features that may be the source of their difficulty. Look out for ideas that you think will be especially complicated, subtle, or abstract, assumptions of background knowledge that you think your students lack, unknown vocabulary, complicated sentences, cohesive links that might be hard to track, organizational structure that students might ignore, and so on. Basically, you are trying to figure out what might make this text hard for your students to comprehend.

I'm willing to head off or avoid a problem if I think the students cannot surmount it. For instance, if there is a word that I think the students will not know and the author doesn't define it, the context doesn't reveal its meaning, or it can't be figured out from morphology, then I am willing to familiarize the kids with it prior to reading. However, if it is possible to gain its meaning from the text, I will not try to avoid the problem. I'd rather that they miss it, which will allow me to teach kids how to take it on successfully. Teachers must decide which problems to solve for the kids and which to guide them to fix themselves. The real learning will come from the latter.
References
Third, the scaffolding described above will likely require some rereading-either of the whole chapter (fourth-grade science and social studies chapters can be surprisingly short, so rereading the entire chapter is usually not that big a deal). Thus, they try to read it; I question them and help them work through the problems; and then they reread it (perhaps more than once), to see if they can figure it out the second or third time.

Fourth, if your kids' reading levels are more than a year or two below the level of the book that you are trying to teach, consider starting with fluency work. Have those students read the text aloud, once or twice before the lesson aimed at comprehension of the text. This can be done many ways (e.g., having partners practice reading the social studies text during their ELA fluency time, getting parents involved, including this kind of practice in a Tier 2 intervention). The point of the fluency work is to reduce the amount of basic reading struggle - the reading of the words - that these students may face. Once they have engaged in the fluency practice, these students should read the text along with the rest of the class. They will benefit from the same comprehension scaffolds noted above.

What you are trying to do with this encouragement, fluency work, and comprehension scaffolding is to enable the students to read the text that they are sure to struggle with. You can monitor their learning by how much improvement you see in their reading of each text. But remember your goal is not to avoid difficulty but to enable students to surmount difficulty. That means that you don't shift kids to texts at their supposed levels, you don't read the texts to the kids, and you don't go around the text by telling them what it says.

Shanahan, T. (In press). Leveled Readers, Leveled Lives. Cambridge: Harvard Education Press.

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How Can I Teach with Books that are Two Years Above Student Reading Levels? | Shanahan on Literacy

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This blog explains how teachers can teach students to read with books that are at the students’ supposed “instructional level.”

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EA Brasilia Differentiation & Responsive Small Groups  G2-5 Jan 2024 (1)

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EA Brasilia Differentiation & Responsive Small Groups  G2-5 Jan 2024 (4)

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Tier 1,2 &3. Differentitated by INTENSITY

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EA Brasilia Differentiation & Responsive Small Groups  G2-5 Jan 2024

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Know Better, Do Better: Comprehension: Fueling the Reading Brain With Knowledge, Vocabulary, and Rich Language

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Know Better, Do Better: Comprehension: Fueling the Reading Brain With Knowledge, Vocabulary, and Rich Language

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Know Better, Do Better: Comprehension: Fueling the Reading Brain With Knowledge, Vocabulary, and Rich Language

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"Reading well across disciplines and within varied contexts will help students to be versatile, flexible, deep readers who can better learn from their reading, transfer skills across subjects, and use strategies to meet the unique demands of reading in each content area."
- Jennifer Serravallo

Research-based, easy-to-use lesson structures for explicit and engaging teaching

In Teaching Reading Across the Day , literacy expert Jennifer Serravallo provides nine effective, predictable, research-based lesson structures that help busy teachers save planning time and focus their teaching―and student attention―on content rather than procedures. Each of the nine lesson structures (read aloud, phonics and spelling, vocabulary, focus, shared reading, close reading, guided inquiry, reader's theater, and conversation) has its own chapter and features a wealth of resources that let you see the lessons in action in ELA, Science, and Social Studies classes, including:

An annotated teaching vignette, lesson explanation, and research notes

Tips for planning, structure and timing suggestions, and ideas for responsive teaching

Detailed planning templates and 22 accompanying online videos covering over 3 hours of classroom footage

Jen's reflections, key look-fors, and ideas for next steps

The nine lesson structures can be used with any curriculum or core program, text, and subject, making it easier for teachers to maximize explicit and engaging teaching time across the day, and simplify planning and preparation.

Jen incorporates a wide range of compelling research about how best to teach reading to every student in your class and translates the research (or the science of teaching reading) into high-leverage moves you can count on to deliver powerful lessons again and again. She also honors the art of teaching reading, helping teachers tap into their experience and hone their expertise to make quick, effective classroom decisions that take student learning to the next level.

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Teaching Reading Across the Day, Grades K-8: Methods and Structures for Engaging, Explicit Instruction

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Amazon.com: Teaching Reading Across the Day, Grades K-8: Methods and Structures for Engaging, Explicit Instruction: 9781071924600: Serravallo, Jennifer: Books

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"Finally, a book that has the power to stop the literacy pendulum swings! In Shifting the Balance, Burkins and Yates skillfully explore 'balanced literacy' and 'the science of reading' to find the sweet spots where they overlap, connect, and actually complement one another. The result is a resource that raises our level of instruction while helping children discover and reap the joyful rewards of reading."

"What are the research-based, critical elements for teaching reading? In Shifting the Balance, Jan and Kari give you the information, classroom examples, and tools to help you make the best decisions around six key shifts for instruction. After reviewing the misunderstandings, the science, and the needs of your students, you will be able to audit your current practices (individually, in a PLC, or system-wide) to provide responsive and effective literacy learning for all your students."

"In Shifting the Balance, Jan and Kari invite us to reflect and reexamine our beliefs about teaching reading. They gently nudge us to rethink and possibly adjust our early literacy practices. Jan and Kari have taken on this controversial topic by embracing vulnerability and modeling what it means to be truly reflective practitioners. This book is a must read for new and veteran teachers!"

"In Shifting the Balance, Kari and Jan have masterfully dispelled many of the myths and misunderstandings associated with reading instruction. Additionally, they offer classroom teachers and coaches six simple, practical shifts that have the power to transform the way we teach children how to read. Indeed, balanced literacy and science do exist in harmony, and we practitioners can offer our children both concurrently. Thank you, Kari and Jan, for this important work that is sure to change lives!"

"In Shifting the Balance, Jan Burkins and Kari Yates provide a safe space for teachers to courageously examine some long-held balanced literacy practices and turn a critical eye to where those practices have gotten out of balance. If you're willing to be vulnerable and move towards resolving the gap between research and practice, this book provides actionable steps you can take to shift your thinking and bring instruction into alignment with the scientific evidence."

"Shifting the Balance is a welcoming opportunity to reexamine our familiar teaching practices. Without judgment, Burkins and Yates invigorate these practices by inviting educators to make scientific shifts in the systems that have been in place for years. This book will revolutionize reading instruction and in turn, the lives of countless students."

"This book speaks to teachers. It is overwhelmingly clear that Jan Burkins and Kari Yates have been and are immersed in the world of today's classrooms. Shifting the Balance will help many rethink instruction in ways that will support all students. In the current version of the Reading Wars, it is difficult for any of us to say we were wrong about some of our beliefs or practices. And thus, few do. However, Jan Burkins and Kari Yates have done just that. This is as commendable as it is unusual."

"This book found me at just the right time! Shifting the Balance gives voice to the questions I've had in my mind about Balanced Literacy and the Science of Reading and provides clear insights on how to connect the best parts of both to benefit early readers. Throughout the book, Jan and Kari confirm practices worth holding onto while providing actionable next steps I can't wait to implement with students to strengthen my reading instruction."

Dr. Jan Burkins was an elementary classroom teacher for seven years and a literacy coach for seven years. She has worked as a part-time assistant professor, a district literacy leader, and is currently a fulltime writer and consultant.

Kari Yates is an author, speaker, consultant and staff developer with a passion for helping busy literacy educators thrive. Her experiences include classroom teacher, special education, Reading Recovery teacher, elementary principal and district literacy coordinator.

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Shifting the Balance: 6 Ways to Bring the Science of Reading into the Balanced Literacy Classroom

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Shifting the Balance: 6 Ways to Bring the Science of Reading into the Balanced Literacy Classroom

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rossieapt@gmail.com

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Think Flexibly about Time within the Workshop Model

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Think Flexibly about Time within the Workshop Model

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Log into Facebook to start sharing and connecting with your friends, family, and people you know.

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The Six Shifts Where Science of Reading Meets Balanced Literacy. We provide resources, professional development, and literacy audits for busy literacy educators like you.

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Join the EKC Literacy Community of Teachers

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Join the EKC Literacy Community of Teachers

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https://erinkentconsulting.com/community

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Literacy Consultants & Consulting Services | Erin Kent Consulting

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About the Community | Erin Kent Consulting (EKC)

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A few special gifts for signing up now: a strategy call with Erin Kent or an EKC Senior Strategist to get started using the EKC Community to support your current literacy initiatives; and 5 free spots in our live, virtual winter courses ($1495 value!)

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How to Plan Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3

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How to Plan Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3

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Sharon Walpole (Author), Michael C. McKenna (Author)

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How to Plan Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3

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Amazon.com: How to Plan Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3: 9781462531516: Walpole, Sharon, McKenna, Michael C.: Books

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Melissa and Lori Love Literacy is a podcast for educators interested in learning more about the science of reading, knowledge building, and high-quality curriculum! Join Melissa and Lori as they tackle new ways of thinking about how to teach reading and writing. Guests include literacy researchers a…

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Components of a Daily Schedule- Dr. Julia Lindsey 

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Components of a Daily Schedule- Dr. Julia Lindsey 

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Print Referencing Beginning Readers- Shared Reading

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Print Referencing Beginning Readers- Shared Reading

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Workshop Planning Across Week -Mock-up Detailed

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Teachers know that encouraging young children to talk and listen improves their ability to communicate. This book gives them a power tool aligned with the science of reading: the "Strive-for-Five" framework. These responsive conversations start with what children say and continue as the teacher listens and responds over five turns-with the goal of stretching their talking and thinking, knowledge, vocabulary, reasoning, and other skills that underpin reading success.

In an accessible format that contains video clips, along with classroom anecdotes and model conversations, Zucker and Cabell show why Strive-for-Five conversations are important and how teachers can use them to engage children and develop their language comprehension. As teachers use the framework to build students' knowledge, vocabulary, reasoning, and other skills that underpin reading success, they'll also see students' confidence grow as they share their individual stories, ideas, and question s.

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Strive-for-Five Conversations: A Framework That Gets Kids Talking to Accelerate Their Language Comprehension and Literacy (The Science of Reading in Practice)

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Amazon.com: Strive-for-Five Conversations: A Framework That Gets Kids Talking to Accelerate Their Language Comprehension and Literacy (The Science of Reading in Practice): 9781546113881: Zucker, Tricia, Cabell, Sonia: Books

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Purpose of Text Types for Shared Reading 2023

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Planning Across a Week Planning Template

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Planning Across a Week Planning Template

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Shared Reading- Language Comprehension Example

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Shared Reading- Language Comprehension Example

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Planning For Word Study Across Literacy Blocks

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Planning For Word Study Across Literacy Blocks

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Book for early year teachers

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PreK/K - Embedding Phonological Awareness 

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PreK/K - Embedding Phonological Awareness 

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PreK/KG Print Referencing Example - Video

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PreK/KG Print Referencing Example - Video

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How to Do a Shared Reading With Print Referencing

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Blast from the Past: This entry first posted on April 28, 2018 and re-posted on November 23, 2019. I thought it a good idea to re-issue this posting now because of MIke Schmoker's recent column in Education Week ( https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2019/11/20/how-to-make-reading-instruction-much-much.html). I know lots of educators love the idea of working with small groups in reading, but that is not always best practice (though under the right circumstances it can be useful). This blog explores the ins and outs (and ups and downs) of small group instruction in reading. Hope you all have a happy Thanksgiving).
Teacher question: I was curious what your thoughts are regarding small group instruction in Elementary school during the ELA block. I'm unaware of any definitive research on the effect size of small group instruction or the impact it has regarding student achievement in reading. There seems to be a few different schools of thought: direct whole group instruction for all components of reading, shortened whole group reading followed by differentiated small group instruction, whole group instruction followed by student work groups facilitated by teacher walking around. It seems all three could be effective depending on the students, the teacher and rigor of text or content being used. However, I'm curious if there is a research-based recommendation?
Shanahan's response:

What a smart question.

Small group teaching is ubiquitous in elementary reading. Sixty-years ago (when I was being taught to read) the same was true-though since our classes then were so large, "small group" usually meant groups about the size of today's typical classroom enrollment!

A hundred years ago there was a great deal of within-class grouping, but that was due to the pervasive one-room schoolhouse. The "groups" were the "grades" that the kids were in (my dad, for years, bragged that he "graduated at the top of his class"-meaning that the other kid flunked).

When I was first exploring the idea of becoming a teacher myself, the lore of the time was that reading teachers always had three reading groups: the Robins, Blue Jays, and Crows. As a teacher's aide it looked that way to me, and I certainly wasn't surprised during student teaching when Mr. Krentzin had me take over his reading groups one at a time, so I could ease into it.

As a primary grade teacher, I always grouped my kids for reading instruction. (Studies since the 1960s usually report that more than 90% of primary grade teachers group for reading instruction, and the numbers are still high in grades 4 and 5, as well).

Nevertheless, I've been surprised recently by the odd practice of organizing instruction specifically around the idea of "small group" teaching. In the past, the grouping was to match book levels to the kids' reading levels (let's face it, the Crows just can't keep up).

But this is different: by organizing the schedule around "small group time" these schools are promoting the idea that small group teaching is valuable-no matter what the teacher may be teaching or what the kids' levels may be or what the materials are that they are using.

That makes your question especially timely. Does small group teaching advantage kids in learning to read?

John Hattie identified three meta-analyses on small group instruction and reported it to have a medium-to-large effect (.49) on learning. However, few of the studies in those meta-analyses focused on reading, they weren't always comparing small group teaching to whole class instruction, and some of the reading studies were from back in the day when 45-60 kids in a class was common practice. Several of the studies were based on secondary school and college teaching, too.

Robert Slavin also conducted a best-evidence synthesis of research on grouping back in the 1980s (effect size of .32). But at that time, he found no reading studies that compared grouping for reading instruction with whole class teaching.

Not exactly the evidence base I'd want to use for recommendations about elementary reading instruction.

However, even if we were to rely on those meta-analyses, the payoff of grouping for reading instruction had lower effects than was found for the other subjects (only .13), and it mattered a great deal how large the groups were-groups of 5 or larger received little or no learning benefit from within-class grouping (Lou, et al., 1996).

There are a couple of sizable individual studies I think we need to consider, however.

For example, Kamil and Rausher (1990) conducted a study in which they compared whole class reading instruction with small group teaching in a large suburban school district. Surprisingly, they found that small groups "were not superior to whole class" teaching in terms of learning. There was just "too much variance within classrooms for the grouping patterns to have much of an impact."

Even more sobering is a large study of grouping in reading conducted by Sørensen & Hallinan (1986). They found small group teaching more effective than whole class instruction-that is, if one compares 30 minutes of small group teaching versus 30 minutes of whole class teaching, the kids in the small group tend to make larger learning gains.

However, they also found small group teaching provides kids with fewer learning opportunities. Basically, teachers teach more when teaching whole class.

Comparing equal amounts of small group teaching with whole class teaching might make sense to researchers, but it has little to do with the actual circumstances of classrooms. If a teacher has three groups who each receive 20 minutes of teaching, this should not be compared with 20 minutes of whole class instruction... but with 60 minutes-the time it takes to teach the three groups (in fact, it might even be fairer to compare it with 65-75 minutes because it takes transition time to switch out these groups).

When one compares small group and whole class instruction in this more meaningful way, small group teaching loses its advantage; that is, no differences in average achievement.

But, that doesn't mean there's no impact. What Sørensen & Hallinan (1986) concluded was that the high groups tended to get more learning opportunities in small group instruction than the low groups. And, since race and SES are correlated with reading, Black kids and poor kids (and I imagine ELLs) are more likely to find themselves in the low groups. Thus, there is no overall or average learning benefit for small group teaching, but there is a bit of rotation that ensures that minority kids make the least progress.

My conclusion from this is that small group teaching is beneficial in that it improves the impact of a lesson on the kids who are taught the lesson. But amount of instruction matters, too, and when kids are grouped they are necessarily going to get less teaching. It's a tradeoff at best. But we also need to be concerned about the lower readers who tend to be somewhat disadvantaged by this approach.

I'm not willing to give up altogether on small group instruction (or even individual teaching)-because there can be useful learning advantages from it. But I'd never organize classrooms so as to ensure that they specifically deliver small group teaching. And, I'd always try to minimize small group teaching whenever possible for the sake of efficiency.

Never do with a small group, what you could be done as well with the whole class. I've observed the identical lesson being delivered repeatedly to groups of three, for instance. That is foolish-even if the curriculum director mandated small group teaching. Similarly, the idea that conferencing one-on-one about a book (for 2-5 minutes) is going to take kids to the same depth of interpretation with a text that a group or whole class discussion (for 30-60 minutes) is strikingly unconvincing.

Districts would be wise to provide teachers with professional development in the most effective ways to teach whole classes--including how to use grouping within those classrooms when it is sensible. Seatwork is necessary in both small group and whole class instruction. In the former, the assignments are aimed at keeping the kids busy while the teacher works with other groups, while in the latter the teacher is usually able to circulate among the kids while they work on the assignment (giving support and additional guidance as needed). Perhaps teachers would be better off teaching a whole class lesson, that was followed by individual work done in ability groups (in other words, three or four different follow up assignments based upon the lesson depending on the students' levels). Then the teacher could circulate, helping kids at all levels.

Last week I watched my friend, Catlin Tucker, showing teachers how she organizes her classrooms by task. If kids are working on research projects, she groups them based on what part of the project they are focused on at a given time. That allows her to maximize the power of her instruction, without the inefficiencies of unnecessary grouping.

In other schemes, teachers deliver whole class lessons, monitoring kids' success and then small group work is reserved for re-teaching as needed.

Of course, there are approaches like cooperative grouping that have good research records, but that allow for a mix of whole class, small group, and individual work without the large losses of time evident in most small group centered classrooms. Cooperative grouping, project based learning, and other similar approaches may be beneficial in part because they don't lock kids into reading levels--but encourage work with grade level texts or with a range of text difficulties.

Maximize the amount of learning opportunity that you provide to students. Use groups to focus on different learning tasks or to follow up whole class lessons as needed. Don't group for the sake of grouping and minimize grouping on the basis of reading level-at least beyond grade one.

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teaching reading to a small gropshould reading be taught to a whole class or small group

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should reading be taught to a small group

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Should Reading Be Taught Whole Class or Small Group?

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Should Reading Be Taught to the Whole Class or Small Group? This blog explores the ins and outs (and ups and downs) of small group instruction in reading.

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EA Brasilia Differentiation & Responsive Small Groups  G2-5 Jan 2024 (5)

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Read Aloud Comprehension Planner

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EA Brasilia Differentiation & Responsive Small Groups  G2-5 Jan 2024 (2)

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Achievethecore.org :: Academic Word Finder

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Morphology- Common Prefixes,  Suffixes & Roots

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Morphology- Common Prefixes,  Suffixes & Roots

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KG-G3  Phonics Transfer Small Group Planner 

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KG-G3  Phonics Transfer Small Group Planner 

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This is a small group flow you can use if your students need more support with phonics & word recognition. There are two ways it can go!

1.  If your students need more phonics review and practice, you can choose to spend more time on phonics work like word building. You can end it with some time to transfer that work into a connected text.

2. If your students need more time transferring their phonics knowledge to texts, then you can spend more of your time reading a decodable book.

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Fluency Group Planner (Beginning Readers)

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Fluency Group Planner (Beginning Readers)

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Checkout more planners for small group instruction on the EKC Community

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Login to Erin Kent Consulting community via email or SSO today.

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Checkout more planners for small group instruction on the EKC Community

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Login to Erin Kent Consulting community via email or SSO today.

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Intentionality is key! When thinking which small group structure/focus might work best for a student, one question we want to ask ourselves is this!(see image)

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EA Brasilia Differentiation & Responsive Small Groups  G2-5 Jan 2024 (6)

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Reading Small Group Planner Template

Two Planners for two different types of small groups for your readers!

Strategy Group:

Focusing on a strategy or skill your readers need. Usually something taught in a mini lesson that they need more support with transferring to their independent reading.

A little bit a teaching and A LOT of coaching for transfer as they all read their own independent books.

Shared Text Group:

Focusing on the power of a shared text for guided practice and deeper comprehension.

Choose a focus and a shared text for your kids to practice what they need most. Leverage teaching strategies, coaching while they read independently, and discussion as a way to lift the level of reading and thinking.

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Oral Reading Fluency & Accuracy Planner #1

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Oral Reading Fluency & Accuracy Planner #1

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This can be used to plan whole group or small groups

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UFLI Foundations: How to Implement Day 1 Lessons

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UFLI Foundations: How to Implement Day 2 Lessons

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UFLI Foundations: Progress Monitoring and Differentiation

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Lesson Resources

The UFLI Foundations Toolbox contains all the lesson resources to accompany the lesson plans provided in the UFLI Foundations manual. (Don't have a manual yet? Click here to order one) Every lesson has companion resources that will help you implement the lessons efficiently, effectively, and consistently.

Some of the companion lesson resources you will find below include:

Lesson slide decks (in PowerPoint and Google Slide formats)

Decodable passages

Homework sheets

Games and activities for additional practice

We have grouped the lessons into smaller units so you can access these resources more easily. Scroll down to use the buttons below to find the resources for each lesson or groups of lessons.

Please note that we are still building out these free resources, and we will be editing this page over the next few weeks. We wanted you to be able to access some materials as soon as possible, but be sure to come back later to see the rest!
New to UFLI Foundations? Learn about its development, check out a sample lesson plan, view the scope and sequence, and more.

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The UFLI Foundations Toolbox contains all the lesson resources to accompany the lesson plans provided in the UFLI Foundations manual. (Don't have a manual yet? Click here to order one) Every lesson has companion resources that will help you implement the lessons efficiently, effectively, and consistently.

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The Sound Wall materials provided here align with the UFLI Foundations lessons. Included in the UFLI Sound Wall set are the following:

phoneme cards with mouth pictures to represent the articulatory gesture associated with each phoneme,

labels for the sound wall displays, including the place and manner of articulation for consonants, and

grapheme cards that can be added to the sound wall one at a time, as the grapheme-phoneme correspondences are taught.

We have also provided printable version of the Individual Sound wall charts. You may choose to glue them into a file folder for each student or print them front/back to laminate. These may also be enlarged and printed as posters if your classroom space does not allow for the full UFLI Sound Wall displays.
Individual Sound Wall: Consonants Individual Sound Wall: Vowels

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Printable Resources | UF Literacy Institute

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The Sound Wall materials provided here align with the UFLI Foundations lessons. Included in the UFLI Sound Wall set are the following: phoneme cards with mouth pictures to represent the articulatory gesture associated with each phoneme, labels for the sound wall displays, including the place and manner of articulation for consonants, and grapheme cards that can be added to the sound wall one at a time, as the grapheme-phoneme correspondences are taught.

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UFLI structure guide with ideas for transitions & rituals 

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Differentiation in WHOLE group UFIL lessons

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Differentiation in WHOLE group UFIL lessons