Week 11, lesson 1 Grapheme "I" and Phonemes "I,igh" - Phonics Phase 5, unit 2 - Lesson plan

The first lesson of Week 11 in Phonics Phase 5 focuses on the grapheme and the phonemes /i/ and /igh/. The objective is clear: students will explore the different sounds that the grapheme can represent. The lesson begins with a 'Quickdash' activity, where children quickly identify phonemes from a variety of grapheme flashcards, including digraphs and trigraphs, as they are shown at an increasing speed. This helps to revisit and reinforce phonemes they have already learned.

During the 'Teach' phase, a large is written on the board to prompt discussion about the potential phonemes it could represent. To help visualise the sounds, the teacher uses pictophones such as an Igloo and Ice Cream and associates them with words like 'mild' and 'pit'. In the 'Practise' stage, the class engages in a 'Word Sort' activity, where words are decoded and sorted into columns based on the phoneme they contain. Examples include 'item', 'wild', 'blind', 'behind', 'tin', 'pin', 'his', 'milk', 'drip', and 'brick'. Finally, in the 'Apply' phase, students are given a 'Sound Gangplank' resource to work on in pairs or small groups, matching decoded words to the correct pictures. Additionally, they practise writing dictated words and sentences on mini whiteboards, such as "The wind is strong and the sun is blinding," including words like 'behind', 'kind', and 'missing' to apply their knowledge in context.