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

 Ms. B started the language arts block with a morning message, using yesterday’s target spelling pattern, -am.

She wrote Sam will be 15 years young on Tuesday Then she asked the children to help her edit the message. They changed young to old and pointed out that Sam will be 7, not 15. With prompting, they agreed to capitalize the t in Tuesday and add a  period at the end of the sentence.
 
 
  Ms. B’s target spelling pattern for the day was -ap. She introduced this pattern through shared reading of a Big Book. During this shared reading the teacher pointed to each word in the Big Book as she read the story, occasionally checking the understanding of the 22 children seated cross-legged in front of her by asking a question about the story.

When she came to a word containing the target pattern, tap, she stopped reading the story, wrote tap on the blackboard and asked the children what word family tap belonged to.

Then Ms. B asked what other words belonged to the -ap word family. Hands shot up in the front row with suggestions of map, rap, and slap. She asked the children to spell these words to her as she wrote them on the board. The children had trouble with the l in slap, so Ms. B had the children stretch out the sounds so that /l/ was apparent.

After writing these words on the blackboard, Ms. B sent all but 8 of the students to their seats. A strip of construction paper and a pile of alphabet letters from a bag of cereal were placed at each seat. Students were instructed to glue the letters -ap onto the construction paper and make new words by adding letters to the front.

One student made pay and was not corrected because the teacher was busy working with the group of 8. When students were finished with this seat work, they were told to read independently a book of their choice.

Ms. B worked with the group of 8 by writing yesterday’s spelling pattern, -am on a slate board. She elicited words with this pattern in it: clam, slam, ram and wrote them down. She checked their understanding of ram by asking a student to use it in a sentence.

Then she passed out copies of a book to each child that had the word family in it. The children were familiar with the story and read along with the teacher in choral reading.

When they had finished, she gave them each a laminated tag board mat and laminated letters. She asked them to write some words with the -am pattern while she listened to one of the children read the story.

As he read, Ms. B took a running record of his reading miscues, prompting him to use context cues to guess the meaning of unknown words.

Finally, Ms. B introduced a new book to the children that contained the spelling pattern of the day, -ap. She previewed each page, eliciting prior knowledge from the students by asking them to expand on their interpretations of illustrations.

Then she put the book in a plastic bag for each child to take home and practice reading with a parent.

With 30 minutes left in the language arts block, Ms. B began a process writing workshop on Thanksgiving activities. Students brainstormed about Thanksgiving activities while the teacher wrote down sentences that expressed the ideas.

If previously taught spelling patterns appeared, she pointed that out. Once the brainstorming was complete, students wrote about their favorite Thanksgiving activity.