Barbie Wilson
Beginning Reading
Rationale: Learning
to read is hard for most children. Letter recognition and phonemic
awareness are
two main areas where a child must have knowledge. This lesson is
designed to
teach children i=/i/. Short vowels are among the hardest to learn
because
unlike long vowels they do not have the sound of their saying in their
name.
This lesson will model how to recognize short i in both spoken and
written
words.
Materials: Elkonin
Boxes (enough for each child and one for teacher); laminated lowercase
letters
for each child and one set for teacher: t, i, n, h, p, s, g, r, d, w, l, m, k, t, b;
chart with tongue twister: The sticky kid had icky sticky hands; paper
with i
written on it; pencil; and the book Tin Man
Fix-it (one per child).
Procedures:
1. Introduce the lesson by explaining to students
that each letter makes different sounds and that to become good
readers, we
need to be able to match letters to their sounds. Today, we are going
to learn
that the letter i can make the /i/
(such as in piiiiig and twiiiig) sound. As you become more familiar
with the
sound that short i makes, you will be
able to better recognize this sound in both spoken and written words.
2. Show the class the letter i.
The little i can make the /i/ sound
when it is by itself in a word. Let's all practice together and see if
we can
make the /i/ sound. Very good. We sometimes say the /i/ sound when we
feel
something icky. Now say that feels iiiicky!
3. Ask students the following questions and call on them to
answer: Do
you hear /i/ in pig or dog? Swim or pool? Frog or fig?
4. Demonstrate with letterboxes how to spell words. Now, we are
going to
practice spelling words with the /i/ sound. Each letterbox will have
one sound
in each box. I am going to spell the word 'is'. [Pronounce it very
slowly to
class] It helps to say the word to yourself a few times. Iiisss.
iiisss. I hear
the /i/ sound, so I will put i in the
first box. Now that we have the first sound in the first box, the next
sound in
'is' is /sssss/. So I will put the s in the 2nd box. Iiisss. Is. I
heard all
the sounds in is. Now let's see if you can spell some words with the
/i/ sound.
5. Pass out the Elkonin letterboxes to every student. Then pass
out the
letters each child will need for the letterbox lesson. Now we are going
to
practice spelling some words with the /i/ sound. See if you can spell
it. When
you are finished, raise your hand and I will come around to see your
answers. Once
all the students have finished, pick a student to model the spelling
using the
letterboxes for the entire class. Continue with the letterbox lesson
using the
following words: 3-(tin, hip, sit, sip,
pin), 4-(grid,
swig, drill, swim, sink, crab), and 5-(blink,
print).
As students are conducting the letterbox lesson, walk around and
observe them.
6. Now that we have spelled some words with /i/ lets see if we
can say a
tongue twister. Put the tongue twister chart in the front of the class.
"The
sticky kid had icky sticky hands." Let's all say this together. Good.
Now
I want us to say it again, but this time lets stretch out the /i/
sound. The
stiiiiiiiicky kiiiiid had iiiiicky stiiiicky hands. Great job everyone.
7. Pass out a copy of the book Tin Man Fix-it. Today
class, we are going to read the book Tin Man Fix-it. This
book is about a tin man named Tim and his
friend Jim, who is the fix-it
man. There is a big kid named Sid who rides skateboards. Before he
realizes it
he has knocked Tim the tin man over. You will have to read this book to
find
out what happens to the tin man. Each student will read the
book by
themselves. After all students have finished reading, have them tell
you the
/i/ words they remember from the book and write them on the board.
After all
the words are written on the board, have students say each word aloud.
8. For assessment, give each student a picture page
with words that have /i/ in them. Read the words out loud once to the
class
making sure they have heard the word. Then have students circle each
picture
(and word on picture) that has the /i/ sound. Take up each student's
paper.
References:
Gullion, Mark. "Icky Pig." Beginning
Murray, B. A.,
& Lesniak, T. (1999). The letterbox lesson: A
hands-on approach for
teaching decoding. The
Phonics
Reader
Short Vowel Tin Man Fix-It. (1990)