25-26 Year at a Glance

My very first blog post! I've outlined the content, pacing, and sequence of all my phonology and morphology lessons in this scope and sequence:  25–26 Year at a Glance. How did I develop this plan? Shew, it was a labor of love with infinite revisions. Of which, I'm sure I'm not finished. I adapt based on student needs and as I gain new insight. But, this first draft is a great starting point that provides me with a clear vision.

I begin planning for the upcoming school year during the current one. I take notes on successes and flops. As I plan, I consider my students’ background knowledge, the

complexity of each concept, and how important or urgent it is for students to learn it. My qualifications for importance and urgency include considerations for daily life, careers, and in academic settings. I group similar concepts in order to combine units. Combined, IMSE's OG Comprehensive and Morphology+ form a six plan for a two-hour literacy block. On average, I have 45 minutes for one school year to make a difference in these students' lives.

For phonology, for example, after introducing foundational vocabulary, I teach short vowels, schwa, and open/closed syllables in one unit. To me, this is logical, because while short vowels are highly prevalent, schwa is actually the most common vowel sound, and it sounds like a short vowel. Open syllables are the most frequently occurring type of syllable but you can't define open and closed syllables without understanding short versus long vowels. Therefore, these three units are combined and taught as soon as pre-assessments are taken and core vocabulary is taught.

I also take into account the symbiosis between phonology and morphology units. For example, the three pronunciations of -ed should probably be taught alongside the meaning of -ed and the concept of VCe patterns adjacent to suffixing rules for dropping silent e.

I'm pretty psyched for the tweaks I made for this school year, especially moving parts of speech to the third unit so that I can introduce suffixes by their derivations rather than teaching specific meanings for each suffix. I had this epiphany one of those times I asked myself, "What do I actually do in real life? What is realistic for students to do?" I realized that when I came across a word with -ion, for example, I rarely thought, "Oh, this is the state of...". No. I thought, "Okay, this is some kind of thing." That at least gets me in the ballpark, and I think with students, that's my goal. Let's get them in the ballpark when trying to define an

unfamiliar word, because honestly, that's what's realistic. If they can at least say, "Yup, I'm I'm pretty sure it's a thing [or action or descriptive]," then they can get the gist of the sentence. Additionally, grouping the prefixes and suffixes allows me to teach almost double the amount of morphemes this year! This is critical because in addition to comprehending the terms, they need to be able to syllabicate. Each morpheme is another recognizable "chunk." I explain this strategy in more depth in my Homophones and Parts of Speech Unit guide.

While planning, my head often feels as if it will explode when balancing all of these factors. The limitless configurations. Is this the most efficient way? Is this the "best" way? I recognize that this scope in sequence isn't perfect, but I feel pretty darn pleased with how it turned out! Let me save you the headache if you're not sure where to get started, are struggling with what to do next, or are simply intrigued: 25–26 Year at a Glance. My Unit at a Glance post outlines the recurring routines throughout the curriculum. For unit guides with embedded links tailored to each phonology and morphology unit, see my Interactive Unit Guides.