Teaching structured literacy means sticking to the routines and rules that make the approach so effective. But let’s be honest: Sometimes the lessons can feel a little predictable, and students start to check out. If you’re using a program like the Wilson Reading System, you know the importance of fidelity, but you’ve probably also seen what happens if a student gets stuck in the same substep for weeks. That’s when strategies to keep literacy lessons fun and engaging can make a real difference.
The ideas in this post aren’t about tossing your program aside. They’re about adding small, low-prep twists that can help students re-focus and feel motivated again. Most of the strategies use things you already have on hand, like decodable texts, dice, or coloring supplies. Even better, little to no additional time is required! (I do recommend setting timers for some activities to help you stay on schedule.)
I’ve pulled together 10 options you can keep in your back pocket. You definitely don’t want to use them all the time. Many days, a straightforward, no-frills lesson is the best approach. But when energy dips, your students need a boost, or the holidays are approaching, we can sprinkle these ideas in to keep students engaged in structured literacy lessons, while still sticking with the program.
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Let’s dive into ten ways to keep your Wilson lessons, or any structured literacy lessons, engaging!
1. Play a game with phonetically regular word cards or high frequency word cards.
- Who It’s For: All Teachers
- Prep Level: No prep to some prep
- Time Commitment: 2-5 minutes
- Materials Needed: Word cards
If you already have words from your current phonics concept on cards, this is a no-prep way to add in a couple of minutes of fun. One game that my Wilson students and UFLI students all request is called What’s Missing? It’s a game that I prefer to play with their current high frequency words, but it can be played with any words the students are working on. Here’s how it works:
- Place three to five word cards on the table.
- Read the words as a group.
- Ask the students to either look away, cover their eyes, or put their heads down.
- Take away one word card and ask, “What’s missing?” This is their cue to open their eyes again.
- Students must first identify the missing word and then spell it correctly.
In the group setting, each student can write the word on their whiteboard so they don’t feel like they are racing each other to be the first one to orally spell it aloud.
Need more ideas for games? Check out Reading Intervention Games for Word Cards.
2. Practice high frequency words on a “bumpy screen.”
- Who It’s For: All Teachers
- Prep Level: No prep to low prep
- Time Commitment: 3-5 minutes
- Materials Needed: Plastic screens, crayons, paper
This is an idea I borrowed from my Orton Gillingham training. Place a piece of blank or lined paper over a plastic embroidery screen, also called a plastic canvas or plastic mesh. When students write on it with a crayon, it provides sensory input and makes a neat little crosshatch pattern in their writing. When I have my students use a bumpy screen, we always incorporate strategies to promote orthographic mapping, too.
3. Use break time to decorate the Word List chart.
- Who It’s For: Wilson Teachers
- Prep Level: No prep
- Time Commitment: 2 minutes
- Materials Needed: Coloring supplies
Artistic students will love this option that keeps structured literacy lessons engaging! During Part 4 Wordlist Reading, students color in their charts to record their accuracy. While some kids are perfectly happy with a quick scribble session to fill it in, others want to make elaborate designs. Occasionally, I set a timer for two minutes and allow my student to decorate to their heart’s desire. If the student consistently wants to create elaborate pieces of art on their chart, we agree that their halfway-point break is the appropriate time to devote to this task. (In private practice, our sessions are one hour long, so we typically take a break between Blocks 1 and 2.)
4. Roll a die to choose which sentence to read.
- Who It’s For: All Teachers
- Prep Level: No prep
- Time Commitment: Almost none! This adds a few quick rolls of the dice to the sentence reading practice that is already part of your lesson.
- Materials Needed: Dice, decodable sentences
For Wilson teachers, this strategy can be implemented easily in Part 5 Sentence Reading. Simply hand your student a ten-sided die and let them roll it to select which sentence to read. Don’t own a ten-sided die? Grab two regular six-sided dice! Since there are ten sentences per page, students will choose if they want to roll one die or two. When we reach a point where only a couple of sentences are left unread, we ditch the dice and just finish the remaining sentences.
Not a Wilson teacher? Simply grab a pencil and jot down numbers next to your decodable sentences.
5. Choose a sentence to illustrate and ask someone to guess.
- Who It’s For: All Teachers
- Prep Level: No prep to low prep
- Time Commitment: 3-5 minutes
- Materials Needed: Drawing or coloring supplies, decodable sentences
When I worked in a school setting, my students literally begged to do this activity! After we finished reading sentences, I set a timer and allowed them two minutes to illustrate one of the sentences we read. Then, each student would display their illustration while their peers tried to guess which sentence the artist chose.
If you need decodable sentences to use with this strategy, browse these sentence-level resources, which all include Read and Draw worksheets.
6. Read in different voices.
- Who It’s For: All Teachers
- Prep Level: No prep
- Time Commitment: Depends on how much you’re laughing
- Materials Needed: Any instructional-level text
When I worked in a school setting, this was a strategy I tended to use before holidays and vacations, when the kids were already a little loopy and the teachers I shared a room with weren’t doing a great job keeping the noise level down. I always felt strongly about continuing to teach even as vacation approached, so this strategy was one way to keep my structured literacy lessons engaging when motivation was low and attention spans were short.
The concept is simple: Read your work in a silly voice! There are a few ways to structure this strategy. You can:
- Choose one voice that all students will use for all of the sentences.
- Offer a menu of voices that students can choose from.
- Allow students to come up with their own voices.
To keep things simple, I offered a short list of voices, including baby, monster, “happy Mom,” whisper, and sleepy. When students had the chance to offer up their own talents, “mad Mom,” Elmo, Mickey, and “serious man” made appearances.
Consider yourself warned: this activity leads to lots of laughter! You may need to set ground rules before you begin to ensure that your classroom stays in control.
7. Student and teacher trade roles when marking sentences.
- Who It’s For: Wilson Teachers
- Prep Level: No prep
- Time Commitment: Little to none. You’re simply trading roles during an activity that is already part of your lesson.
- Materials Needed: Whatever tools you typically use for marking
This is another strategy that blends seamlessly into your existing Wilson lessons. When it’s time to mark concepts and scoop sentences in Part 5, allow your student to tell you what to do! My students really rise to the occasion, making perfect statements like, “Find a welded sound in number five and box it in.” I typically allow them some freedom to choose what I should mark, but I also make sure we’ve covered all the marking concepts I intended to review in that lesson.
Wondering how to mark the sentences without ruining your Student Readers? Use a binder clip to attach a plastic sheet protector to the page you want to mark. Mark with dry erase markers and erase when you’re done!
8. Use erasable gel pens for dictation.
- Who It’s For: All Teachers
- Prep Level: No prep
- Time Commitment: None! You’re just adding a fun writing utensil to the dictation practice that is already part of your lesson.
- Materials Needed: Erasable gel pens, dictation paper
In this simple strategy to make structured literacy lessons engaging, you’re simply adding a writing utensil to your existing lesson plan. Colorful pens are such an easy way to make phonics lessons fun, especially for students who usually dread dictation practice. We use colorful Frixion erasable pens in every one of my lessons! They’re a bit pricey but well worth the investment, particularly for my students who struggle with writing and otherwise wouldn’t look forward to dictation practice. I discovered that Vanstek ink refills work just as well as the Frixion refills, plus they come in a greater variety of colors.
Not a Wilson teacher and need a dictation sheet? My free dictation sheet has fifty 5-star ratings!
9. Mark dictation in color.
- Who It’s For: All Teachers
- Prep Level: No prep
- Time Commitment: None or up to 2 minutes added to the dictation practice that is already part of your lesson.
- Materials Needed: Colorful pens, pencils, markers, or highlighters
If you don’t want to invest in erasable gel pens, this next strategy uses materials you already own. After the dictation page has been correctly completed, set a timer and allow students a couple of minutes to either mark their words or trace them with something colorful. Options can include colorful gel pens, scented markers, or regular old crayons, colored pencils, or markers.
10. Track text with a silly item.
- Who It’s For: All Teachers
- Prep Level: No prep
- Time Commitment: None! You’re just adding some whimsy to the fluency practice that is already part of your lesson.
- Materials Needed: Hand puppets
Tracking text is an essential element of Wilson procedures. Typically, we ask students to touch the text with their index finger as they read. On the days when you’re looking to drum up a little motivation, you can consider using something fun to keep your students’ eyes on the text. Like many strategies in this post, you’ll want to set ground rules for appropriate use before handing out these items. Some options are linked below.
- Hand-shaped finger puppets (although I’m disappointed that I cannot find ones that represent all of the shades of my students)
- Wiggly eye rings
- Witch fingers are perfect when it’s spooky season
- Finger Pointing Sticks
- Finger Focus Highlighters
Final Thoughts on Keeping Structured Literacy Lessons Engaging
Keeping fidelity in structured literacy lessons doesn’t mean every activity has to feel exactly the same. With just a few tweaks, most of which require little to no prep, you can give students a sense of novelty and fun without straying from the routines that make programs like Wilson so effective.
Think of these ideas as tools to pull out when engagement dips, motivation lags, or your group just needs a boost. You don’t have to use all of them (and you definitely don’t need to use them every day). Even one small change can refresh the lesson and help your students re-focus!
