Discover it!
Discovery teaching can be a fun and appropriately challenging method of teaching IF the background knowledge is established.
I have personally experienced having this perfectly (well, in my mind - is it ever really perfect?) written lesson, with crisply laminated materials, fantastic colors in dry erase markers....only to have the lesson crash.and.burn! I have had lessons that even the best colors in Flair pens could not save.
So what do I mean by discovery teaching? Discovery teaching is using prior knowledge to connect to or introduce new learning.
The error I made was assuming the student was secure in a concept and was ready to "layer" on new pieces. There have been times that I was spot-on, and times when it was a solid nope.nope.nope. You will want to make sure that a student knows the letters/sounds, syllables, or rules that are associated with the new learning before leading them to discover the new concept.
I would also say that you should plan for discovery. If that is not going well then have a backup plan for direct instruction. If it is a new phonogram (letter/sound) you are working on, make sure that after the student "discovers" it, they still trace and write it saying the formation and sound. You still want to make a strong memory!
Here is an example of a discovery lesson I did. I hope this is helpful!
1. My students knew that g says /j/ when followed by e, i, or y. They also knew that -dge says /j/ in a one syllable word after a short vowel.
2. They knew the silent e syllable type, so they were aware that the vowel would be long in the second column of words based on the pattern of the syllable type silent e.
3. I had them 'flag' the dge and label the short vowel. I had them underline the g and label the vowel sound based on the syllable type.
4. They "discovered" that when you hear a /j/ sound after a long vowel, you will usually use the g spelling.
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