Grade 1 Reading Foundations Unit 8: Student Lessons
Scope | Student lessons | Practice | Teacher guide | Standards crosswalk
Read each lesson with an adult. Listen, locate the grapheme, blend and sort words, spell from oral dictation without copying, then read the original passage twice for accuracy and understanding.
Day 1: oi and oy, /oi/
Learning target: Read and spell words containing oi and oy representing the /oi/ diphthong; notice common placement patterns.
Hear the sound
Say coin, soil, boy, and toy. Ask which vowel movement is shared. Contrast boy with bay so the child hears the difference.
Teacher demonstration
Write c-oi-n and t-oy. Explain oi commonly appears inside words, oy commonly at the end of a syllable, but these are tendencies. Build coin, join, toy, and enjoy; explicitly demonstrate each grapheme.
Read these words
coin | soil | boil | join | point | boy | toy | joy | enjoy
Original reading passage
Roy has a toy. A boy can join Roy. The boys point to a coin on the soil.
Dictation
Adult says: coin; join; boy; toy; point. Learner spells without seeing the model and then reads each item aloud.
Reread and discuss
Read the passage a second time and answer from the text. Preteach these connectors or special words before passage reading: Roy, has, a, can, the, boys, to, on. Boys uses the plural -s previously introduced.
Day 2: ou and ow, /ow/ as in out
Learning target: Read selected ou and ow words with the /ow/ diphthong, distinguishing these words from ow representing /ō/ in snow.
Hear the sound
Say out, house, cow, and brown. Compare the vowel with boat and snow. Help children hear that snow has a different vowel sound.
Teacher demonstration
Underline ou in cloud and ow in cow. Sort loud, shout, brown, and town into ou and ow columns. Then show snow and explain that ow has another common sound; learn each group in context.
Read these words
out | loud | cloud | shout | house | cow | brown | town | down
Original reading passage
A brown cow is out. The cow is down by a house. A cloud is over the town.
Dictation
Adult says: out; cloud; cow; town; brown. Learner spells without seeing the model and then reads each item aloud.
Reread and discuss
Read the passage a second time and answer from the text. Preteach these connectors or special words before passage reading: A, is, the, by, over. Over has an open syllable and r-controlled syllable; teach it before passage reading.
Day 3: au and aw, /aw/
Learning target: Learn selected au and aw spellings of the vowel in saw and haul, recognizing dialect variation in the sound.
Hear the sound
Say saw, paw, haul, and fault. Hear the shared vowel as pronounced in the learner’s dialect. Compare saw with say; listen for the difference.
Teacher demonstration
Underline aw in saw, paw, and draw; underline au in haul, fault, and cause. Explain that au often appears within words while aw often ends them, with exceptions. Read and spell the complete familiar word.
Read these words
saw | paw | draw | straw | law | haul | fault | cause | pause
Original reading passage
Mia saw a paw print. She can draw the paw. A dog sat by the straw.
Dictation
Adult says: saw; paw; draw; haul; fault. Learner spells without seeing the model and then reads each item aloud.
Reread and discuss
Read the passage a second time and answer from the text. Preteach these connectors or special words before passage reading: Mia, a, she, can, the, dog, sat, by. Print, cause, and pause require word-specific vocabulary instruction.
Day 4: oo, two sounds, and ie, variable vowels
Learning target: Distinguish common /oo/ in moon from /oo/ as in book, and teach selected ie words with different vowel pronunciations.
Hear the sound
Say moon and book. Ask whether their vowel sounds are identical. Say pie and chief; ask which sounds occur in the middle. Accent may affect some contrasts, so use clear examples.
Teacher demonstration
Make two oo columns: moon, food, spoon versus book, look, foot. Then sort ie: pie, tie, lie with long i; chief, field, piece with long e. Explain that spelling alone does not guarantee one universal pronunciation.
Read these words
moon | food | spoon | book | look | foot | pie | tie | chief | field | piece
Original reading passage
Lee has a book. He can look at the moon. A pie is on the table. Lee will eat a piece.
Dictation
Adult says: moon; book; food; pie; chief; piece. Learner spells without seeing the model and then reads each item aloud.
Reread and discuss
Read the passage a second time and answer from the text. Preteach these connectors or special words before passage reading: Lee, has, a, he, can, at, the, is, on, table, will, eat. The passage is supported reading, not a claim that all words are controlled by this day’s patterns.
Day 5: Independent cumulative transfer
Learning target: Read and encode novel mixed-pattern words and answer text-supported questions, with separate accuracy data for vowel teams, silent letters, and morphology.
Hear the sound
Say coin, town, paw, book, and pie. Learner identifies the target sound and one possible spelling. Do not cue the target assessment list.
Teacher demonstration
Review procedures using different examples: soil, cloud, draw, moon, tie, rather than the independent assessment words. Ask the learner to look at the whole grapheme and check the result.
Read these words
join | point | toy | shout | brown | cow | straw | fault | spoon | foot | pie | field | knit | bridge
Original reading passage
Roy has a book about a brown cow. The cow is by a pond. Roy can point to the cow in the book. At night, Roy can see the moon.
Dictation
Adult says: coin; joy; town; cloud; paw; haul; look; pie; field. Learner spells without seeing the model and then reads each item aloud.
Reread and discuss
Read the passage a second time and answer from the text. Preteach these connectors or special words before passage reading: Roy, has, a, about, the, is, by, can, to, in, at, night, see. About has a schwa and ou pattern requiring modeling. Do not count comprehension connector words as unseen decoding targets.