By Eileen G Feldgus Kid Writing A Systematic Approach To Phonics Journals And Writing Workshop Professional Developm 2nd Sprl Spiral Bound

What This Book Actually Covers

I ran into the Feldgus approach back when I was helping a small school district redesign their K-2 literacy blocks. The problem they were dealing with was pretty typical: writing workshop time was eating up the phonics instruction time, or vice versa, and kids weren't connecting the two. So By Eileen G Feldgus Kid Writing A Systematic Approach To Phonics Journals And Writing Workshop Professional Developm 2nd Sprl Spiral Bound came across my desk as one of the suggested solutions. The core idea is that phonics and writing shouldn't be treated as separate units. Instead, you use phonics journals as a bridge between systematic sound instruction and actual composition work. The book walks through how to structure a daily routine where students are decoding and encoding at the same time they're writing. Each lesson ties a specific phonics pattern to a writing task. You teach the sound pattern, then immediately have kids use it in a journal entry or a short piece of writing. It's not theory-heavy. Feldgus keeps it practical, with ready-to-use templates and sample lessons you can copy into your own planning. One thing the book gets right is the pacing. Most teachers I talk to who try this method complain that they run out of time by week three. Feldgus accounts for that by giving you modular lessons. You can swap out journal prompts, swap out phonics targets, and still keep the structure intact. That matters more than it sounds like it should.

The spiral-bound format is worth noting because it's actually useful in a classroom setting. You can lay it flat on a desk or clip it to a board. The other edition I looked at was a standard trade binding and the pages fell shut after two weeks. Not a huge deal, but when you're reading it during a planning period, it adds up.

How It Works In Practice

I'll walk you through what a typical session looks like, based on using this with a group of second graders last fall. You start with a five-minute phonics focus. In our case it was the /oy/ sound spelled OY and OI. The kids get the pattern explained, you write a few examples on the board, and they repeat the sound. Then you move to the journal portion, which takes about ten minutes. Students write three to five sentences using words with that pattern. They aren't writing an essay. They're writing something short enough that you can read it and check their encoding in real time.

That's the key part. You're not collecting the journals for later grading. You're reading them as they write so you can catch mistakes while the pattern is still fresh in their heads. If a kid writes "oin" instead of "oin," you circle it and have them fix it right then. That immediate feedback loop is what makes the system work. Most teachers skip that step and treat the journal like a homework assignment they grade once a week. It loses most of its value when you do that. After the journal portion, you transition into a writing workshop segment where students apply the same phonics pattern to a longer piece. Maybe it's a paragraph about their weekend. Maybe it's a short narrative. The phonics pattern is still there, but now it's embedded in something they actually want to write about. Feldgus gives you scaffolding for this transition, but honestly most experienced teachers will find their own way through it after a couple of weeks.

What The Book Doesn't Cover Well

There are gaps. The phonics scope and sequence inside the book assumes a certain baseline of student knowledge. If you have a classroom where a significant number of students are below grade level on basic letter-sound recognition, this system will move too fast for them. I learned that the hard way with a group of struggling readers in my third period. We spent three weeks fighting with the /ai/ and /ay/ patterns before I realized half the class didn't have the foundational skills to follow along. I pulled back and spent two weeks on phonemic awareness drills before restarting the journal section. It cost time, but it was necessary. Another issue is the writing workshop piece. Feldgus treats it as a natural extension of the phonics work, but some districts have very structured writing workshop curricula that don't align neatly with this approach. If your school uses a specific writing framework, you may need to adapt the lessons rather than adopting them wholesale. I ended up merging Feldgus's phonics journal structure with our existing writing workshop model instead of replacing it. That worked better than trying to force a square peg into a round hole. There's also no digital component. Everything is print-based. If you're trying to integrate this with an online learning platform or use formative assessment tools, you'll be working around the book rather than with it. That's a minor inconvenience for most classrooms, but it's worth knowing upfront.

Who This Is Actually For

This isn't a book for someone who wants a complete curriculum on its own. It's a supplement that works best when you already have a phonics program and a writing workshop structure and you're looking for a way to connect them. If you're building from scratch, you'll spend more time filling in the blanks than the book is worth. It also requires a certain amount of teacher comfort with phonics instruction. If you're new to teaching phonics explicitly or you've never led a writing workshop, the transition between the two parts of each lesson will feel awkward at first. You'll likely fumble the timing, and the kids will notice. That's normal. After about four to six weeks of consistent use, it settles into a routine that feels automatic. The first month is the hardest part.

If you have a paraeducator or a co-teacher who can circulate while you're working with small groups, this system scales much better. One-on-one or small-group conferencing during the journal time is where the real gains happen, and it's easier to manage when you have help in the room.

The Bottom Line

The Feldgus approach is solid. It's not revolutionary, but it's well-organized and practical. The phonics journal piece is the strongest part, and that's where you'll get the most return on your time. The writing workshop connection is decent but could use more depth. I'd recommend getting the 2nd edition spiral bound if you can find it. The content is basically the same as earlier editions, but the binding makes a real difference in daily classroom use. Just don't expect it to solve every literacy problem in your room. It's one tool in a much bigger toolkit, and it works best when you know where it fits and where it doesn't.