Mark this lesson COMPLETE (scroll down the page) when you have met the requirements of these LEARNING OUTCOMES:

• I can talk about where Stages 1&2 fit into the SharpReading Developmental Progression

• I can answer the questions at the end of the lesson about the importance of the 3 Key Concepts for Stages 1&2

SETTING THE SCENE
Prerequisite for this Course

Our expectation is that your students will be well immersed in a phonics program. There are many options out there and most do an adequate job of teaching the code so we are not getting prescriptive about this.

If you don't currently have a phonics program then you might take a look at ours - SharpPhonics.

TASK 1: Where do Stages 1&2 fit with a Phonics program?

As you can see from the diagram below, Stages 1&2 dovetails neatly into your phonics program. Our 10-12 minute small group routine provides a structured opportunity for your students to practice, practice practice the transfer of the phonics knowledge that they are acquiring into an authentic reading context. This allows them to develop decoding fluency - more about this in the next section of this unit.You can start on this from the very first day with those very basic one-sentence readers (you will see this modelled in the course) or you can use decodable text while your students are mastering the alphabetic principle and then mix and match your decodables with what we call 'authentic text' at around PM Level 4-6.

TASK 2: What are the KEY CONCEPTS behind Stages 1&2

Watch this video clip to get an understanding of the key concepts that underpin this approach to reading instruction for the beginner reader. 
(NB: You can click on the settings icon in the bottom right-hand corner of the video player to adjust the speed of the video. (Playing at X 1.25 is OK. X 1.5 gets a bit frantic.)

LESSON REVIEW

• Where do Stages 1&2 fits into the SharpReading Developmental Progression and what is the purpose?

• Why is it important for students to experience success as beginner readers?

• What do we mean by Independent Practice and why do we say it is important?

• What is the purpose of Frontloading?

Mark this lesson COMPLETE when you know you can answer these questions fluently.