Rationale:  For children to be able to write and spell words, it is essential that they associate letters with phonemes so that spellings are representative of the phoneme sequences in spoken words.  Children must be able to recognize phonemes so that correspondences can be learned.  Due to the subtlety of the different mouth and sound shapes associated with them, short vowels are the hardest phonemes to identify.  In this lesson, students will learn to identify /i/.  Through meaningful representations and a letter symbol, students will learn to identify /i/ in spoken words.  Students will then practice finding /i/ in words.

Materials:
1. Primary paper and pencil
2. Chart with “Itchy Izzy isn’t into icky insects” written on it.
3. Set of cards with the letter i on one side and ? on the other
4. Drawing paper and crayons
5. Liz is Six (Educational Insights)
6. Picture page with illustrations of the following: chick, bag, leg, mitt, six, pig, hill, and rat.

Procedures:
1. Introduce the lesson by explaining that writing is a secret code.  The tricky part is learning what letters stand for, which is the ways that our mouth moves when we say words.  Today, we are going to learn how to identify the mouth movements that occur when we say /i/.  At first /i/ may seem invisible in the words, but as you learn to spot it, you’ll be able to see /i/ in many different words.

2. Ask the students:  Have you ever heard a baby pig say /i/ when it squealed?  That’s the sound we are looking for in words.  I’ll show you how to spot /i/ in a word.  Stretch it out and see if you hear /i/, like a baby pig squealing.  I’ll try zip, zzzi/i/i/i/i/p.  Zi/i/i/i…There! I said the baby pig squeal sound, /i/.

3. Now we are going to read the tongue twister I have written on my chart.  “Itchy Izzy isn’t into icky insects.”  Now let’s try it together.  Now say it again, and this time stretch out the /i/ at the beginning of the words.  “Iiiitchy Iiiizy iiiisn’t iiiinto iiicky iiiinsects.”  Try it again, only this time break /i/ off each word:  “/i/ tchy /i/zzy /i/sn’t /i/ nto /i/ cky /i/ nsects.” Good job.

4. I need everyone to take out his or her pencil and paper. We are going to use the letter i to spell /i/.  Let’s begin by writing the letter i.  Start at the fence line.  Draw down to the sidewalk. Then, give him a feather.  I want to see everybody’s i. After I put a feather my i, I want everyone to make his or her own row of i’s just like him. Now, when you see the letter i by itself in a word, you will know to say /i/.

5. Now, I am going to ask you some questions and I want you to raise your hand if you can explain how you got the answer.  Do you hear /i/ in Jig or dance?  Flap or rip?  Spring or fall?   Itch or scratch?  Mitt or glove?  I am going to pass out a card to each person, on one side, there is an i and on the other side there is a question mark.  I am going to say some words, and I want you to see if you can spot the mouth move /i/ in some words.  Show me the i if you hear /i/ and a question mark if you don’t.  I will give the words one by one.  Itchy Izzy isn’t into icky insects. [Note- the words into and insects do not represent the /i/ by mouth movements, they represent /n/.]

6. The teacher will read Liz is Six aloud to the class. Now, I am going to reread the story, and I want you to raise your hand when you hear /i/ in a word so that I can write it on the board.  Now, I want everyone to draw a picture of a pig and write a message about it using invented spelling.  I will display their work.

7. Now, I am going to give each of you a picture page, and I want you to circle the picture that has an /i/ in its name.

Reference:
Murray, B. A., & Lesniak, T. (1999). The letterbox lesson:  A hands on approach for teaching decoding. The Reading Teacher, 52, 644-650.

Williams, Alyssa. (Spring 2003). “The Icky in Sticky.”  Reading Genie. www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/openings/williamsel.html.

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