Digital Phonics Lessons Slides

Phonics is one of my favorite subjects to teach.  I feel like I see the most growth with students in the lower grades in phonics.  I can't wait to get to the next spelling pattern, because I know the knowledge of that skill is going to help them with decoding new words in books.  The skills learned in phonics can be applied everywhere!  This gets the students excited about learning new spelling patterns in phonics.  I created a few years ago PowerPoint slide templates for all subjects.  Having these has kept me prepared for instruction each day.  With everything changing over to virtual this year, I knew I needed to transfer these lessons to a digital platform, so I began uploading these to Google Slides TM.  These digital phonics slides will guide your instruction each day, as well as provide practice for students whether in your classroom or learning remotely.  

What phonics skills are covered?

I just began creating these, so not everything is ready just yet.  At the time of writing this post, I have CVCe and r-controlled vowels completed and ready to go.  But below you can see the skills that will be covered.

CVC Short a, e, i, o, and u

Floss Rule ll, ss, ff, zz

Consonant Blends

Digraphs

N Blends

CVCe Long a, e, i, o, and u

R-Controlled Vowels ar, er, ir, or, and ur

Soft C and G

Vowel Teams

Variant Vowels

Diphthongs

Final Blends

How can I use these lessons?

Virtual Learning or Hybrid...

Screen share the Google Slides TM with your virtual students. Choose slides to assign to your students through Google Classroom, including magnet word building, independent practice, exit ticket, and self-assessment for each day of the lesson.

In-person...

Download the file as a Powerpoint file. Display the PPT on your screen with students as you go through each component of the lesson. Assign the practice pages digitally or print the printable practice pages for students.

Instructional Slides to Guide Your Lesson for Each Day

I like to structure all of my lessons in a similar way.  This becomes familiar to students and they know exactly what to do and expect.  It also ensures that I include all vital and research-based strategies and components of the lessons for each day.  It gives me a guide to follow and a visual for my students.  

These are the slides that are displayed as I am getting students ready for my lesson.  It signals that it's time to begin phonics.

I always remind students of what we learned in the previous lesson and then tie it to today's lesson.  It's important that they see the connection.  I also go over the flow of the lesson with students with these flow cards on the agenda slide.  It's important for students to know what to expect from your lesson.

The learning goal is the overall goal that I expect them to reach by the end of the week or unit.  Each day's task will help guide them to achieving that goal.

The success criteria is what I expect them to accomplish by the end of the lesson.  We were expected to explain this to students but I took it a step further by giving them a visual.  Younger students need this in order to know what they are striving for.  I also tie this to our grading rubric which is super meaningful to them.  They will go above and beyond to get a 4 in my class.  ;) So seeing this slide is very motivational for them, and I rarely have students who refuse to complete their work because of this.

Students love a good song or fun video!  Singing is a helpful strategy in phonics and actually any subject!  I always embed a song or learning video to help get students engaged and their brain warmed up at the start of the lesson.  It also gives me a minute to get materials together or passed out, just to be honest.  Ha!

I am a big believer in creating anchor charts with students!  This slide is your cue to creating your anchor chart.  I do have a printable version of these Phonics Interactive Charts and Posters.  But for these digital slides, I added them to this anchor chart slide.  You can type on the anchor chart in the blue boxes.  The learning poster gives you a chance to introduce the spelling pattern.  Have students help you stretch out the sounds to spell the words.  This is a great opportunity for you to model that for them.  

The instruction slide is where you explicitly teach the rules for that spelling pattern.  You may want to add more examples here as you are teaching students.  I have included the rule for you.  I also tie in syllable patterns to the rule.  These are vital to decoding new words in print.  Your upper grade teachers will thank you for teaching these!

Let's talk about spelling tests!  There are always lots of different opinions on these.  We do a phonics dictation test at the end of the week.  We do not give students the words ahead of time if it's a pattern that they can learn the rule for and easily apply that rule.  Sometimes, the pattern isn't so easy, such as the r-controlled words above using er, ir, and ur.  I would put these in my newsletter for students to practice at home.  We would also practice building these with magnet letters all week.  

The weekly word slide is put in each day's lesson.  You can choose to show these to students or not.  These are the words you will use to test on Friday for your phonics dictation test.  

I love using letter magnets in the classroom to build words.  I had to get creative and make them digital for these slides.  You can send these to students to build words you give them or the weekly words.  They just drag the magnets over into the blank space to build the word.  Once finished, have them put the letters back in their spots.

Part of the foundational standards include students being able to decode and read the words with different spelling patterns.  In the classroom, students would read these with their partner.  You could also do that virtually with breakout rooms.  Or you could simply choral read the words with your students during your live instruction.

Independent Practice

It's important to assign a task each day for independent practice and assessment.  You can assign these to students virtually through Google Classroom TM.  I have also included a printable file in this resource for you to print for in person students or to include in packets for pick up.

These are some examples from this unit of independent practice tasks.  I try to keep them the same for each set of spelling patterns, so that you are not having to teach each day how to do a new type of activity.  These are great for assessing students and driving your instruction for the following day.

Assessment

I like to structure my units so that we test on Friday.  I already explained what I use for phonics dictation.  Students can type in their words as you give them out during your live lesson.  

Exit Tickets and Self Assessment

I always end each day with an exit ticket to assess student learning and drive the following day's instruction, as well as my small groups.  You will want students to assign this to virtual students.  For in person students, I usually have them complete this on their whiteboard or on a sticky note.

It's also important to know how your students are feeling about that particular skill.  I ask my students to show me with their thumbs at the end of the lesson and take note on a check sheet for those who are having difficulty still.  Most students tend to be fairly honest.  For virtual learners, they drag the checkmark to the corresponding thumb.

Wrap Up Your Lesson

It is vital that you wrap up or close your lesson.  I love to do turn and talks during the closing, having students discuss what they learned that day.  That's a little more difficult during these times, so you can also just state to your students what was learned that day and then tell them what you will be doing tomorrow.  This ties today's learning to the next day's learning and gives them a preview of what to expect.

Do you love teaching phonics?  I admit that I didn't early on in my career.  But the structure of these lessons and seeing the importance of a strong phonological awareness foundation has helped me feel otherwise.  I hope these can help take something off your plate as far as planning goes and give your students high quality phonics instruction while having fun.  Thank you so much for stopping by and reading!  You can click below to be taken to Digital Phonics or click any of the images above.  

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