How a Marvi's Way® Lesson Works

Every Marvi's Way® lesson follows the same parts, in the same order, so students know what to expect and adults can teach with confidence. Step-by-step directions walk you through each part, so parents, tutors and teachers can all use the lessons. Teach for 10 minutes, 30 minutes or an hour at a time, and pick up right where you left off.

The seven parts of a Marvi's Way lesson: 1 Phonemic Awareness, 2 Sounds/Spellings, 3 Blending/Decoding, 4 Dictation, 5 Sight Words, 6 Reading, 7 Creative Writing/Syntax from Lesson 30

Part 1: Phonemic Awareness

Every lesson begins with activities that focus on phonology and phonemic awareness. Students learn to listen carefully to words, break them into individual sounds, and blend sounds to make words. Skills are introduced in easy steps and build up to more advanced concepts as students progress.

Part 1 does two jobs. In Marvi's words, it "teaches phonology and phonemic awareness in a systematic fashion, but is also a precursor or 'warm-up' for the lesson parts that follow." These activities also make it easier to notice which sounds or concepts a child needs extra support.

Helpful tool: Make phonemic awareness practice hands-on and fun with Marvi's Way® Elkonin Tokens ($12). As students listen for each sound in a word, they push a token into a box—so for the word "map," they'll move three tokens for the three sounds: /m/ /a/ /p/. This simple tool helps boost memory and makes learning engaging for everyone.


Part 2: Sounds/Spellings

Students learn how the sounds they hear in words (phonemes) match with the letters or groups of letters they see in print. For example, the sound /s/ can be spelled "s" or "ss." Students are introduced to a new sound and its spelling, then practice "reading" both the new spelling and previously taught spellings through fun, mixed-practice activities.

Lessons start with the most common sound-letter combinations and gradually move to less common ones, so students can read and spell more words quickly. Step-by-step directions guide you, with tips for English learners and links to extra resources.

Helpful tool: once a lesson introduces a new sound or spelling, Marvi's Way® Sound/Spelling Cards turn practice into quick, varied games.

Part 3: Blending/Decoding

Students blend the sounds and spellings they have learned to read real words, allowing them to start reading right away. The lessons first focus on one-syllable words and then move on to longer words with more syllables. Throughout, students learn six main English syllable types: closed, vowel-consonant-e, open, consonant-le, r-controlled, and vowel pair. Understanding these syllable types gives students the skills they need to sound out new words and break them into smaller, easier-to-read parts.

The Novice Program covers one-syllable words. Modules 1–5 cover both one-syllable and multisyllabic words.

Part 4: Dictation

Students spell words that use new and previously taught sound-letter patterns. Because spelling is taught together with reading in every lesson, there's no need for a separate spelling program. This is especially helpful for children who are strong readers but find spelling challenging.

Part 5: Sight Words

Our approach prioritizes helping students learn to read and spell the most common words they’ll encounter. These high-frequency words are essential for building confidence and reading fluency. When a word has a tricky or unusual spelling, or when students haven’t yet learned the phonics skills needed to sound it out, we use memory aids and repetition to help students master it. Research shows that a small set of common words makes up a large part of what children read every day. By making sure students know these words well, we give them the tools to read more smoothly and focus their energy on understanding new and less familiar words.

Part 6: Reading

From the very first lessons, students build comprehension skills by reading specially written (decodable) stories and poems designed for early readers. The lessons give teachers and parents easy-to-use tips for checking a child's understanding. The passages students read are thoughtfully designed to build vocabulary and reading fluency.

Reading materials start at the kindergarten to early first grade level in the Novice Program and progress through fifth grade and beyond in Modules 1–5, so older students can catch up and reach grade-level reading.

Part 7: Creative Writing/Syntax (from Lesson 30, Module 2)

Starting in Lesson 30 (Module 2), lessons add a seventh part. Students use word and phrase strips to build different sentences, which shows them why word order matters and how it changes meaning. As they gain confidence, they move from building sentences to writing their own sentences and, eventually, full paragraphs.

Built into every lesson

  • Step-by-step directions for the adult teaching the lesson.
  • Tips for English learners and links to extra resources.
  • Ongoing review, so students remember what they've learned.
  • Morphology (prefixes, suffixes, and roots), introduced across the lessons as students read longer words. Two free morpheme lists show where each one fits into Marvi's Way® lessons: grades 1–6 and grades 7–12.

Together, these parts teach all six elements of structured literacy. To see how, read What Is Structured Literacy? How Marvi's Way® Teaches the Six Elements.

Where to start

“The lessons include all important components of instruction, from sounds to meaningful reading and writing.” — Louisa C. Moats, Ed.D.

Free Marvi's Way program sample lesson

See a sample lesson → It's free, and it shows you what a complete Marvi's Way® lesson looks like.