How To: Cut the Grapheme

• Lesson Objective: Identify and isolate graphemes in order to recognize phonological patterns.

• Methodology:  Students cut words into graphemes and reassemble

• Duration: 5-15 minutes (depends on the number of words)

  
  

Snip, snip, snip.

The grounding experience of mindlessly cutting paper must have a theraputic effect on my students. I usually hear complaints when I distribute work--but not with anything that involves cutting. Wish I had involved more of these activities sooner. They grab up the paper and begin snipping away before I even ask them to. Often my most chatty students will work in peace for several WHOLE minutes at the start.

🖍 How the Routine Works

I distribute a set of words with the current unit's targeted phonological patterns. Students cut the words into graphemes and reassemble with glue on the following page. This last step could be skipped if on a time crunch, but I prefer it for accountability and in case I'm not able to provide every student feedback for every word during the activity. As a bonus, you can incorporate previously taught patterns as well. In the photo below you'll notice I included several words with consonant digraphs and r-controlled vowels. Our target phonological pattern was long vowel teams.

I try to include "trickster" words to ensure they are actually reading the words and not soley scanning for graphemes. Because READING is the whole point of learning these patterns right?? I have to remind my students of this big picture often. It's easy for them to rush to finish and not take time to process. For example, many students kept the <k> and <n> together in "weeknight". I praised them for remembering the <kn> digraph but then asked them to read the word. They realized it was a compound word.

Check out the Interactive Unit Guides to see how this lesson fits within each unit.