Guidance for Observing Systematic Synthetic Phonics Lessons

Prompts

Revise:

• Does the practitioner revise grapheme/phoneme correspondences (GPCs) taught in earlier sessions?
• Are all children encouraged to participate?
• Does the practitioner articulate phonemes clearly?

Explicit Teaching:

• Is the session focus clearly shared?
• Are the children taught to blend GPCs to read and segment to spell?
• Is the new learning made explicit?
• Are the children taught how to read common exception (tricky) words?
• Are all children actively involved in talk tasks?
  • Are children supported in connecting new knowledge with previous learning?

Practise:

• Is there appropriate differentiation?
• Do the children articulate phonemes clearly?
• Are the children actively blending to read and segmenting to spell words containing the new GPCs?
• Are children able to practice a correct pencil grip? And correct start and exit points for letter formation?
• Does the practitioner give feedback to enhance children’s understanding?

Apply:

• Are the children given opportunities to apply their phonics knowledge to reading decodable phrases/sentences/books?
• Do children practice writing words in sentences dictated by the teacher?
• Do these sentences contain the GPCs and common exception words they have learnt to date?
• Are the activities adapted?

Overall: Throughout the session

• Is the session tightly focussed on the objective?
• Is the session fast paced, engaging and interactive?
• Can all children see/hear the teaching input?
• Are the children required to articulate phonemes for themselves?
• Does the practitioner make use of formative assessment?
• Is teaching adjusted in the lesson in accordance with this?
• Are children identified who might need extra immediate extra support?
• Do children engage in call and response activities?
• Are there opportunities for all children to read and to spell?
• Are children given opportunities to demonstrate learning in bite sized chunks?