Direct Code
What does the lesson sequence look like for the typical first-grade teacher implementing the Direct Code approach?

 Ms. C started the language arts block by having the children sit cross-legged in front of her and playing a game that practiced discriminating the previously taught consonants, m and h. After writing these letters on opposite sides of the chalkboard and asking the children to say their sounds, Ms. C explained that she would say words that would have either the /m/ or the /h/ sound at the beginning and that they should point to the corresponding letter on the board when they heard its sound.
 
 
  Then Ms. C introduced an oral blending activity by explaining that she would tell them a story and might need their help blending some of the words. She started out: "The old brown Frog sat in the /s/ /u/ /n/. Where did the frog sit?"

After finishing the story, Ms. C brought out the children’s favorite puppet, Emmett, and said that they were going to play the game they’d played the day before where the children corrected the puppet when he left out a sound.

For example, Ms. C would say "loud" and Emmett would reply "lou!" The children eagerly chimed in: "No, loud! /d/, /d/, loud!"

The phonics part of the lesson consisted of introducing /p/ spelled p. Ms. C turned over the Sound/Spelling Card 16, Popcorn, posted above the blackboard with all the other cards. To introduce the /p/ sound and its spelling, Ms. C read the popcorn story, starting with: Ping and Pong like to pop popcorn. As it cooks, it makes this sound: /p/ /p/ /p/ /p/ /p/ /p/ /p/. In subsequent stanzas, the children joined in, making the /p/ sound very fast.

Then Ms. C wrote p on the blackboard and asked the children to trace the letter p on the rug. After that, she taught them how to hold up a fist and burst open their fingers like a kernel of corn popping whenever she pronounced a word beginning with the /p/ sound (e.g., popcorn, chair, peanut, pumpkin) and, later, ending with the /p/ sound (e.g., top, dog, snoop).

Then she asked the children to suggest some words that begin with /p/. When one child suggested "Pumpkin pie," Ms. C nodded and asked how many children had had pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving dinner last week.

The next activity consisted of blending words and sentences. Ms. C built words at the board spelling by spelling, encouraging the children to say each sound with her (/p/ /a/, /pa/ /m/, Pam), then to reread it with a natural intonation. She checked their knowledge of capitalization by asking why Pam begins with a capital letter. Then she wrote "I am Pam" on the board, underlining I because it was an "outlaw" word that they would not be sounding out.

Then Ms. C read a rhyming story that she had written on chart paper resting on an easel. First she read the title "Dan the Man and His Fat Cat," then read the story while pointing to each word. The children were able to chime in because of the predictable rhyme patterns.

After finishing the story, Ms. C asked if any child had a cat at home and, if so, did their cat behave like this cat.

With about 30 minutes remaining the the language arts block, Ms. C dismissed all but 8 children to their seats to work on a worksheet that provided additional practice with /p/ spelled p (followed by independent reading in a book of their choice).

With the remaining 8 children she passed out bags of Letter Cards, a, h, m, p, and t, and engaged them in a word building game to spell sam, ham, hat, and pat. As the childen worked on building words, Ms. C completed an assessment form, noting each child’s progress on the skills taught.