The instructor asks a child to name the similar phoneme in a set of words. “Tell me the sound that is the same in lost, like, and lap”

• For differentiation, some instructors may need to begin with more words and emphasized speech to help the similar sounds stand out to the student.

The instructor asks the child to delete one phoneme from a word to identify how the phoneme fits in the word. “What is smile without the /s/? Mile.”

• For differentiation, this activity may be best suited in a large group environment where children can hear peers identify the phonemes. In addition, it may be helpful to enunciate the word so the student can hear each phoneme.

Letter Slap: In a small group, children will be shown CVC words (cap, bat, sip) with foam letters. They will give the sound of each letter as they slap it. Then, they will blend the letter sounds to create a word.

• For students who are ready for a push, they can start working on longer letters that begin with a consonant blend (slap, flat, chip). For students who need support, it may be helpful to show one letter at a time and focus on mastering letter-sound correspondence.

Word Family Magic Spoons: On the back of a disposable spoon, write out common CVC letter endings (-it, -at, -ip). Then, on a piece of paper write out various CVC common initial letters. Move the spoon along the initial letters and have the student sound out each word (bit, hit, kit, zit, mit, fit, lit etc.) (Reading Rockets, 2023)

• For students needing support with CVC words, the educator may focus on one CVC ending at a time.

Paired Guided Reading: Students will be paired with a partner to read a text with. One student will act as the reader and read about 50 words of text out loud while the other student acts as a guide, helping to provide meaning and make sure the oral reader makes sense. The students will switch after every paragraph, or about 50 words. 

• Students who struggle with fluency may be paired with fluent readers for this exercise who can model strong oral reading and provide constructive feedback using the Pause, Prompt, Praise method.

Reader’s Theatre: Students will be broken into groups of 5-6 children and will receive a 3-page script based on a book they are familiar with. The children will be assigned roles and will present the play to the class. 

• Teachers may choose to assign roles themselves to accurately match the needs of each student, supporting students who need it by giving them a role with group lines and challenging fluent readers by giving them a role with many lines.

Context in a Passage: During a whole-group reading, the instructor reads a word aloud that the class may not know. The instructor writes the word on the board and the students must use the surrounding contextual clues (other words on the page, pictures, previous knowledge of the story). As a class, they create a list of synonyms and antonyms for the listed word.

• For differentiation, the teacher may provide hints as to what the word is and highlight context clues.

Synonym Brainstorm: The teacher writes a common word on the board. Then, the students brainstorm words they could use in place of the common word. “Big - giant, large, mega etc.”

• For differentiation, the teacher may reverse the activity and instead play guess that word. The teacher lists synonyms for the high-frequency word and the students try to guess the high-frequency word.

Draw My Story: The teacher reads a passage from a picture book without sharing any pictures. Students draw pictures based on what they hear in the story.

• For differentiation, the teacher may ask prompting questions as they read the passage.

5 Finger Recall: The student reads a passage and tells the teacher 5 elements of the story “setting, characters, problem, events, and solution" (Reading Rockets, 2023).

• For differentiation, the teacher may create a visual of a hand with each element listed on a finger for the student to use as a reminder of the recall activity.