Detroit Prep’s Favorite Parts of UFLI
This year, Detroit Prep and Detroit Achievement Academy launched a new foundational reading program called UFLI. Aligned with updated reading research and the Science of Reading, UFLI is a systematic literacy program that teaches Kindergarten through 2nd-grade students lifelong strategies to unlock reading and writing skills. Teachers and students have been excited throughout the launch of this new program, and many students have even reported that UFLI is their favorite part of the school day!
Phonemic Awareness
Kindergarten teacher Ms. Alexis enjoys teaching the phonemic awareness lessons, specifically the visual and auditory drills. During these drills, students segment and blend words orally. In the visual drill, students are given pictures or letters and are asked to say the sound each letter makes. During the auditory drill, students are given a sound and are asked to write the letter or letters that make that sound. She also enjoys the Read and Spell component, which is a joyful part of the lesson that serves as a warm-up to the heart of the instruction.
All smiles after completing the Auditory Drill for the letter that makes the /a/ sound.
Irregular Words
One Kindergartener reported that her favorite part of the new program is “writing the new words on the whiteboard.” She smiled and shared, “Today I wrote the word ‘book.’” During the Irregular Words portion of the UFLI lesson, students learn common irregularly spelled words. In Kindergarten, they learn words such as the, from, could, and book. Students practice reading and writing these words and even use them in sentences. Personally, one of my favorite parts of UFLI is seeing students transfer what they have learned during this portion of the lesson to other parts of the day, like Expedition. My Kindergarten students are much more confident writers this year than in previous years because they can confidently write these sometimes “tricky” words.
Word Work
Second-grade teacher Ms. Emily enthusiastically shared that her favorite part of UFLI is “Word Work!” During the seven-minute Word Work block, students use white boards or magnetic letters to build word chains using sounds and letters they have previously learned. For example, after building the word cat, students may be asked to add a letter to turn the word cat into chat. Then, they may be asked to change the c to a t and read the new word, that. This part of the curriculum keeps both students and teachers on their feet as they move fluidly between encoding and decoding and read and compose more than ten words in a short amount of time.
Snapshots of Word Work in Kindergarten Crews!
Ms. Stephanie guides students in the Stream Crew.
Connected Text
One First grader said his favorite part of UFLI is Connected Text. This is a time “when the teacher says a sentence and we get to write it.” Connected Text comes at the end of the lesson and applies newly learned skills to reading and writing. Students are given opportunities to read words and sentences with a new sound and to write sentences using the skills they gained throughout the lesson.
Students are so proud of their sentences!
The launch of UFLI has transformed reading and writing for students and teachers alike. We can’t wait to see how much our students grow by the end of the school year.
Students practice reading words by playing Roll and Read after their UFLI lesson.
