Parker: Reading Lesson #1 - Phonemic Awareness and Initial "S" Blends

Reading Lesson Plan #1: Phonemic Awareness and Initial “S” Blends Rationale: It is extremely important for students to examine initial “s” blends, as they arise in all aspects of the learning the English language: reading, writing, speaking, and listening.  Objective for this lesson: Students will study the sl-, sn-, sp-, and sw- blends by matching pictures of objects and the names of those objects with the correct blend in a t-chart.  Materials & supplies needed: 1.       Blank four-column t-chart 2.       Bags containing twenty picture cards 3.       Each of the four “s” blends in bolded font 4.       Vocabulary sheet with the names of each object 5.       Scissors 6.       Glue sticks

Procedures and Approximate Times • Introduction to the lesson:  (2 minutes) ·         First, I will explain the topic of the lesson to the four students. “Today we are going to be working on s-blends.  An s-blend is a part of a word that combines the letter s and another consonant to make a sound.   These are all over the place and in a ton of words!” ·         I will give each student a blank four-column t-chart with spaces made at the top for each of the four s-blends.  Each student will also get a bag of picture cards and a vocabulary sheet. “I’m giving you a t-chart with four columns, which you will use to sort the pictures and words I will also give you.  I have a bag of pictures for each of you!” (Distribute materials). ·         From there, I will introduce each of the blends to the students by asking students to identify them among the items in their bags.  Students will then read the sound each blend makes along with me. “Thumbs up if you remember working with t-charts with Mrs. Kennedy?” (Students show a thumbs-up).  “Awesome! I knew you would remember!  Let’s dump out what’s in our bag and see if we can find four cards with s-blends on them.” (Students find cards).  Let’s read those s-blends together.” (Students say s-l, s-w, s-p, s-n).  “Great, now let’s say the sounds they make.” (Students say the four sounds).  “Awesome job, guys.  ·         Finally, I will describe the task of the lesson. “We’re going to look at each picture that was in our bag and match it with the sound that the object’s name starts with.  Then, we’re going to cut out each object’s name and match it with its picture.” (Hold up vocabulary sheet).  “Thumbs up if you’re ready!” • OUTLINE of key events during the lesson: (20-25 minutes) ·         Once I have introduced the task, I will describe the behavioral expectations of the lesson and the proper procedures for using materials. “Even though we have dumped out our bags, let’s make sure that we keep all of our picture cards together so that we don’t get them mixed up with the person next to us.  We don’t need our scissors quite yet, so you can leave those alone for now.  We just need our glue sticks at the moment.  Remember that when we use the glue sticks, we only need a dot in each corner.  So, you should have a total of four dots of glue on the back of your picture cards.” ·         I will model how each blend is used with one card in that category. “Find this picture in your pile, friends” (Hold up a card).  “This is a [object].  What s-blend do you think this has in it?” (Students respond correctly.)  “Good!  Glue that card under [s-blend].  See if you can find the other objects whose names have the [s-blend] and glue them onto your chart.”  This type of modeling will be done four times, once for each blend. ·         Once students have glued each picture card onto their chart, they will cut and paste the names of the objects under the matching illustrations. “Now that we have all of our pictures glued on, let’s match the names of the objects to the pictures.  Cut the names out and paste them right under each picture” (Model with one students’ chart). ·         If students are stuck categorizing picture cards or reading the names of objects, I will model how to use phonemic segmentation in order for students to easily identify the s-blend used in each object or name. • Closing summary for the lesson: (2 minutes) ·         Once students have finished making their t-charts, I will engage them in a unison reading of the names of each object to reinforce the four different s-blends they examined the activity. ·         Next, I will explain the importance of knowing each of the four blends. “Good job, guys!  If we count, we learned twenty different words today!  Let’s try our best to remember these blends.  If we remember them, it will be a lot easier to spell and read all different types of words.  For example, if we want to spell the word “swan”, we know that it begins with the sw- sound, so we can write the letters “s” and “w” first!  And, if come across the word “swan” when we’re reading, we can stretch the word out and say the sounds sw-, a-, n-.  What do you think?  How do you think you could use s-blends in reading and writing?” (Engage students in a discussion). ·         Students will switch to the next literacy center.

Ongoing-Assessment: To plan for follow-up instruction, I will observe the four students in their literacy centers and during writing instruction and check for their understanding of the blends studied.  If students come across words that include any one of these blends in either reading or writing, I will look specifically for their use of phonemic segmentation and stretching out the sounds of the word.

Adaptations: Because two of my students are English Second Language Learners, I have provided pictures, as well as the word for each object.  Not only will I do this, but also recite each blend with the students so that they can easily generate and identify the names of the objects.  All four students struggle with spelling, therefore, pairing at least three picture cards with each blend will hopefully allow students to see a pattern among the names of the objects.  More specifically, I hope that students will mentally pair the sound of each blend with its correct spelling.  These, in the long run, are adaptations that will help them in reading and writing words.