Hi Aisha,
Congratulations to you and your team on continuing to learn and grow in service of your students! As you say, shifting away from balanced literacy is rarely simply about adding phonics. Also, of course, phonics instruction varies across balanced literacy programs, so I’ll share a couple of ideas drawn from the patterns I've encountered most often.
I have rarely walked into a primary classroom in which the teacher was not teaching phonics. What is often missing, though, is a clearly defined sequence for that instruction. In many balanced literacy frameworks and programs, skills might be introduced through a weekly word-study focus, a text students are reading, a need the teacher noticed, or groups based on students’ current spelling stage. With this sort of delivery, the phonics instruction a student receives can depend heavily on the classroom or instructional group they happen to be in, rather than on a shared sequence of grade-level skills that all students are taught. There’s often an urge to jump around trying to fill holes. That can create considerable variation in which phonics patterns students encounter and when because there isn’t a shared progression to specify what should be taught first, what should come next, and how new learning should build on previously taught skills. Instead, the shift you’re seeking is for the materials teachers use for instruction to have a shared skill sequence that has been intentionally planned so that all students receive the same core progression of grade-level phonics instruction, regardless of the classroom or group they are in. A shared sequence makes it possible to plan practice that is cumulative so students can learn new skills while also revisiting recently learned ones. This progression of skills is often referred to as systematic instruction.
Another thing you should see is a logical, simple-to-complex sequence within the lesson itself. Typically, a lesson starts with students learning a new letter or spelling pattern and reviewing recent patterns. Then students practice and apply the skill in reading and writing at the word level and the sentence/connected text level. To achieve this, teachers need a period of their lesson devoted to phonics instruction, and this is usually more than what is set aside in a traditional balanced literacy mini-lesson. I’m reticent to give you a time, because there is no magic, studied ideal phonics instruction time “silver bullet” that will apply to all students, but it’s common for an early elementary school Tier 1 phonics lesson to last at least 30 minutes.
Practice during and after the lesson is another shift to stay attuned to. In many balanced literacy programs, the phonics lesson functions as an isolated part of the day, meaning that students encounter it briefly during the lesson and then move on to other things. You’ll want to watch for students not only being explicitly taught the phonics skill but also getting substantial, supported practice to successfully apply their learning while reading and writing. After the phonics lesson, are students reading words and sentences that use the patterns they have been taught? Are they spelling words with those same patterns? Do the high-frequency words they are learning connect to the phonics knowledge they have? Do the texts they read give them opportunities to apply their learning? When students are asked to sound out or spell words, can they do it with the skills they’ve been taught? Asking these questions can help you and your teachers determine if students are getting enough practice applying what they’re learning in both decoding (reading words) and encoding (spelling words) rather than participating in a collection of isolated activities or disconnected lessons. You’ll know that isn’t what you’re watching when students have very little practice applying the skill, if they are regularly asked to read or spell words with patterns they have not yet been taught, or if they have to guess at words while reading. What you’re looking for is evidence that students are supported in using what they are learning for its real purpose: reading and writing.
My hope is that I’ve given you some things to look for and think about when you’re in classrooms. Equally important, what you notice can help you identify where teachers may need stronger materials, clearer guidance, more time, or additional support to deliver instruction well. I think foundational skills are a logical and common place to start refining practices. Just keep in mind that this is one part of what will likely become a larger instructional shift in your building because students need more than phonics instruction to become proficient readers and writers.
Best of luck this school year!
