Phonics Intervention: Silent E Lessons & Practice for Grades 4-5 w/ Digital

Do you need to review basic phonics skills with your 4th and 5th graders who read below grade level because of decoding deficits? This set of phonics lesson plans and practice will help you review foundational phonics skills and reinforce phonics knowledge with your upper elementary students.

Older students who struggle really need to see the connection between the phonics skills they are learning and stories they read. The phonics lesson plans will provide that practice (and even more!)

NOTE: This set of lesson plans and passages are ideal for:

• 4th and 5th grade students reading on a 2nd or 3rd grade reading level
• 3rd grade students who are mostly reading on grade level but struggle with encoding and decoding words with silent e combinations
• 2nd grade students who have mastered silent e words and are ready for a challenge

This set of phonics lessons and passages includes practice with words and syllables that contain silent e. There are two lessons for the rule that silent e makes the preceding vowel long and one lesson that reviews four other silent e jobs.

Phonics Lesson Plan Components

Each set of lesson plans and practice follows the same format and includes the same components. This allows it to be predictable for students (and teachers).

1. Phonics Pattern Focus - Review the phonics skill section from the student printables
2. Read the Words (One-Syllable and Multisyllabic) - Echo or choral read the words. Discuss meanings, as needed. Optional: Scoop or break apart the multisyllabic words.
3. Read Sentences - Read the sentences and find the target word(s) with the phonics pattern.
4. Read the Things to Know - Read the things to know section and discuss with students. This section includes additional information or exceptions.
5. Introduce the Story - Read the story introduction to your students to provide context for the story.
6. Introduce Vocabulary - Review three tricky vocabulary words from the story. Give students a kid-friendly definition, an example sentence, a question to check students’ understanding, and a connection to the story.
7. Read the Story - Choose how your students will read the story. This can be whisper reading, echo reading, choral reading, partner reading, or independent reading.
8. Check Comprehension - Have students answer (orally or by writing) three quick comprehension questions and check their understanding using the answer key.
9. Encoding Mini Practice - Discuss the two words represented by the picture. Have students tap out the syllables and spell them using the phonics pattern.
10. Cloze Sentences Practice - Read the words from the word bank and discuss. Have students read (or read with them) the sentences and figure out which word would best complete each.

Depending on your timing and schedule, this can be a several-day lesson. An example four-day lesson is included in the PDF.

The components of each lesson are entirely optional and customizable. Pick the ones that will work best for your students to meet their specific needs.

About the Stories and Their Decodability

In order for a text to be decodable, this means that the students have received instruction on the regular phonics patterns used in the text.

Since these are to be used with older students, students should have received instruction previously on all the necessary phonics skills.

With that being said, there are two things to keep in mind:

1. The stories were carefully crafted to be as decodable as possible (along with common high frequency words that may be irregular). HOWEVER, it is important for older students to have practice applying phonics skills in less controlled texts, which they are required to read in other subject areas (and is the main goal of instruction). The stories allow the students to practice the focus phonics skill AND give them opportunities to be flexible as they reading.
2. As students are reading the stories, take note of any phonics skills they struggle with or any irregular words that cause them trouble. These phonics stories and lessons are a great way to practice the phonics patterns AND continually assess your students' decoding skills.

Using the Phonics Lessons: Small Group and Whole Group Instruction

The phonics lessons can be used in both small and whole group settings. The printable version is ideal for small group instruction while the digital version is perfect for whole group instruction.

• Both versions include the same content.
• The printable version has been designed to save ink and paper while presenting each component to your students in parts to be able to break down the practice.
• The digital version has been designed to work best in Google Slides in a variety of devices (interactive whiteboard, laptop, or tablet).

About the Digital Version

The digital version is available in Google Slides.

Each practice component of the lesson plans has its own slide so you can easily customize what your students work on.

Some slides contain editable text boxes or moveable pieces for students to use to show their answers. The students must be in “edit” mode (and not “present” mode).

More Phonics Resources:

• Phonics Activities for Older Students - Task Cards Bundle
• Silent E Sorts - Differentiated Phonics Activities with Digital Version