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

 Ms. A began the language arts block by writing the date on the board and having the children seated on the floor in front of her choral read the sentence as she pointed to each word.

Then Ms. A pointed to the decorations on the walls, to the trade books visible around the room, and to the Big Book on the easel and reminded the children that the theme for the week was Thanksgiving.
 
 
  She asked the children why we celebrate Thanksgiving and, from among the enthusiastic flutter of hands, selected one child, who responded, "To celebrate the good food we eat." The teacher nodded and asked, "And what kind of food do we tend to eat on Thanksgiving?"

Again, from among the even more enthusiastic waving of hands, Ms. A selected another child, who proudly announced, "My grandma makes turkey and stuffing." Comments of "Mine too!" and "Pumpkin pie" were offered by other children.

Ms. A wrote turkey and pumpkin on the chalkboard and asked the children to repeat after her as she read these words.

Then she proceeded to introduce the Big Book, explaining that it was about a Thanksgiving feast. She named the title, author and illustrator, pointing to each word as she said it. She asked the children to name other books by the same author.Then Ms. A opened the book and introduced the main character, Pam. She covered up the letters -am and asked what the first sound of the girl’s name was. A girl in the front row confidently proclaimed "/p/." Ms. A praised this response and proceeded to read the story, pointing to each word.

When Ms A came to the word pumpkin, she pointed to the first letter and asked who remembered which sound that letter made. She ignored hands from the front row and called upon a child in the back who tentatively ventured, /p/?"

Ms. A smiled and announced, "Good job!" Then, underscoring the rest of the word, she pointed to the pictures of pumpkins on the page with her other hand and asked, "Now, what does this word say?" The children chimed in "Pumpkin!"

Ms. A continued reading the Big Book in this manner, periodically drawing their attention to sounds of initial letters and urging them to use context clues to guess the meaning of words.<

Then Ms. A told all but 8 children to return to their seats and to draw a picture and/or write about their favorite Thanksgiving food.

She gathered the 8 children around her and passed out individual copies of the book just shared in the Big Book format. She had the children choral read the story with her, pointing to each word as they read.

At the end of the story she asked the children if they thought Pam had a good Thanksgiving dinner. Then she passed out pieces of paper that had the prompt "I like to eat ___." She read the stem to the children and then asked them to complete the sentence by writing down what they like to eat. If they wanted help with writing a word she encouraged them to say the word slowly, syllable by syllable, and to write the letters for each sound they heard.

When one child asked how to write "pie," Ms. A modeled "/p/ /i/" and accepted the child’s spelling of pi with "That’s very good! Why don’t you draw a picture of the kind of pie you like to eat for Thanksgiving and we’ll add that to your portfolio."

Next Ms. A planned to read a story about the Pilgrims’ first Thanksgiving. Then she would have them act out the story, donning the Pilgrim and Native American hats they had cut out yesterday.