"I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time."
― Blaise Pascal
Here's a question that doesn't get asked enough: how much phonics is actually enough? (Or take any subject area and ask that same question.)
For a few years, all the talk was about making sure we actually teach phonics, and that we teach it explicitly. That's settled. But another important question is: How much time should it take?
Here's our take: teach it really well the first time around, in as little time as possible. Not because phonics doesn't matter. Because teachers don't have time to spare, and neither do kids. (There's so much more than phonics that is worth spending time on!)
What we see in classrooms sometimes is phonics that expands to fill every available minute. And sometimes what gets squeezed out is the part where kids actually get to use it. The part where a child picks up a book and thinks, "Hey, I can read this!"
Or what gets squeezed out is the opportunity for a child to write something and realize that their phonics is helping them spell. When they say, "Here's my Spiderman story written on stapled sticky notes in an ultra-cool small book!"
Those moments don't need to take a long time. They don't need to last 30 minutes a day. But they do need to exist.
That important question of "How much time should it take?" is the reason why we designed our books the way we did. Daffodil Hill's Bit by Bit books are short by design—not because we couldn't add more sentences within a book or make a longer story that made sense, but because a child should be able to do a quick phonics warm up and finish a whole book in a small group (and so should a teacher). That's the point. Our Bit by Bit books aren't decodable novels, they're more like short stories. You practice the skill, and then you get to feel what it's like to read something all the way through. (Because let's be real—it takes a lot of effort to read a decodable. And if it doesn't take that much effort, then go ahead and read another book!)
Our Purposeful Practice books are a bit longer—mid length. We envision that those books would be read during times that are less constrained. Perhaps kids are practicing while the teacher leads a short small group. Or, if Purposeful Practice books are used to reinforce a phonics mileston in small groups, then the group may not do as much upfront phonics in isolation. Still, our goal wasn't to make Purposeful Practice books extra long. We saw the value in making them interesting and meaningful.
But whether we are thinking about phonics instruction, decodable books, lessons that support knowledge building, newly adopted curricula...
More is not always better. What we need is just enough. We need to teach the thing so that we get the learning we are aiming for.
The opposite of this is the bloated curriculum. The one that's been written to check every box for a state review or external audit. It looks thorough on paper. But if teachers can't actually get through it, or feel exhausted trying, the boxes don't matter much. Kids don't benefit from coverage. They benefit from learning.
We need margin. (You know, those edges on the page). Those need to exist in classrooms, too. Not for boring worksheets or YouTube brain break videos, but for exploration of ideas, for conversations, for the book that wants to be read again, for time to read with a partner. And yes, for the occasional nosebleed or loose tooth.
(Every teacher knows what we mean.)