The Little Lizard
By: Lauren Emily
Emergent Literacy Lesson Design
Rationale:
In order to become a competent reader, students must become familiar with and
understand the connection between letters and the sounds that matches it, or
graphemes and phonemes. Beginning readers need to be aware of the different
phonemes in words. Vowels can sound short or long, which is the main issue
students have difficulty with. I will be focusing on teaching the correspondence
i=/i/. The lesson will help the student with the short /i/ sound, as well as
giving the student practice to read and spell words with the short /i/.
Materials:
-A Picture of a little lizard
-Index cards with words on each one (tip, mat, sip, log, hip, full, pill, beg,
wish, milk, lap)
-Letterboxes for the letterbox lesson (words: grim, pin, splint, dim, mint,
trip)
-letters: g, r, i, m, p, n, a, l, t, d,
-Copies of the book Tin Man Fix It or other decodable books featuring the
phoneme /i/
-Primary writing paper
-Pencil for student
-Cover up critterstters needed per student
-Pseudo Word Worksheet for teacher (cig, rit, pim, flid, sich, nist).
Procedure:
1. "Today we are going to learn all about the "i" sound that is in the words
"Little", "Lizard". It is important for us to know what sound is made by certain
letters so that we can read properly when we come crossways with other words we
may read. We will also be going over the "a" sound that is in "Fat" and "Sad".
2. "Have you ever seen a lizard? Do you hear the /i/ sound in the word lizard as
I say it? Think about my mouth movement when I say the /i/ sound.
Can we do it together? /iiiiiiii/. Now pretend you just saw a little
lizard and make the "i-i-i" sound as you say "liiiiitlee,
liiiiizard."
3. "Let's say this sentence together, The little lizard is dizzy from spinning."
Let's say it again and stretch out the /i/ sound whenever we hear it. "
The liiiittle liiiiizard iiiiis diiiiizzy from spiiiinning."
4. "Now I am going to see if you can remember the /i/ sound when you see it in
written words. I'm going to hold up two cards with a word on each of them.
I want you to tell me which one has the /i/ sound." Hold up cards rap and
fit. "Which one has the /i/ sound? Fit! Good!" Do this with the rest of
the cards. (tip, mat, sip, log, hip, full, pill, beg, wish, milk, lap)
5."Now we are going to use letterboxes to spell some words. Make sure and
keep in mind that only one mouth sound goes in each box." I will model how
to do so by putting each letter sound in one box to spell out the word and then
have the students do one on their own as I say each word. When I say "bit" each
sound/letter goes in one letterbox like this: /b/ /i/ /t/ . (words: i=/i/ (3:
bit, kid), (4: mint, trip, camp) a=/a/, (5: flint)). After finishing all of the
words in the letterboxes, be sure to go back and have the student read the words
that they spelled from pre-made flash cards or on a piece of paper.
6. "Now we are going to work on recognizing the /i/ sound when we read.
We are going to read the book, Tin Man Fix It. Let me tell you a little
about this book! Hand out the book and give a book
talk: Tin Man Fix It. This is a book about a tin man who is
Jim's really good friend. They have a lot of fun together, but one day he
gets broken! Do you think Jim will be able to fix him? Let's read it
to find out! Students will take turns reading aloud with the teacher.
They will then switch and read the alternate pages. Talk about the story
when the student is finished.
Assessment:
For an assessment I will see if the student does well with the letterbox lesson,
and if the student is able to read a list of words with the /i/ phoneme.
References:
Phonics Readers Short Vowels: Tin Man Fix-It. (1990). Carson, CA
(USA), St Albans, Herts. (UK): Educational Insights.
Tiiiicklish Tiiimmy by Ansley Salter
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/realizations/salterbr.htm