Rationale: To learn to read and
spell words, children need to
understand that letters stand for phonemes and spellings map out the
phonemes
in spoken words. Before children can match letters to phonemes, they
have to
recognize phonemes in spoken words. Consonants are an easy phoneme in a
word
for children to hear. In this lesson,
children will learn to recognize /s/ in spoken words by learning a
meaningful
representation and a letter symbol, and practice finding
/s/ in words.
Materials: Primary paper, pencil,
book- “Who are you Sue Snue?” ,
chart paper with tongue twister “Sally Snake sat with seven silly
salamanders.”; pictures of things that start with the letter s (salamander,
snake, soup, sun, soap), pictures of things that don’t start with
the
letter s (moon, cup, bear, cat, pen).
Procedures: 1. Introduce
the lesson by explaining that our
written language is a secret code. The tricky part is learning what
letters
stand for—the mouth moves we make as we say words. . Today we're going
to work
on spotting the mouth move /s/. At
first /s/ will seem hidden in words, but as you get to know it, you'll
be able
to spot /s/ in all kinds of words.
2. Ask students: Did you
ever hear a snake say /s/. That's the
mouth move we're looking for in
words. Let's pretend to be snakes and say /s/. [Move hand back and
forth like a
snake moves and make a hissing sound /s/.] Snakes hiss as their way of
talking
and to warn other animals. Lets all hiss
like snake together /s/.
3. Let's try a tongue
twister [on chart]. " Sally Snake
sat with seven silly salamanders." Everybody say it three times
together.
Now say it again, and this time, stretch the /s/ at the beginning of
the words.
" Ssssssally Ssssssnake ssssat with sssseven sssssilly sssssalamanders
" Try it again, and this time break /s/ off the
word: "/s / ally /s/ nake /s/ at
with /s/ even /s/ illy /s/ alamanders.”
4. [Have students take
out primary paper and pencil]. We can
use letter s to spell /s/. Let's
write it. First form a tiny c up in the air then without lifting your
pencil
swing back to the sidewalk. I want to
see everybody write s. After I put a check your s, I
want you to
make five more just like it. When you see letter s in a word,
that's the
signal to say /s/.
5. Let me show you how to
find /s/ in the word . I'm going to
stretch sock out in super
slow motion and listen for the snake to hiss. Sssss-o-ck. Sssss-ooo-ck
There it
is! I hear the snake hiss /s/ in sock.
6. Call on students to
answer and tell how they knew: Do you
hear /s/ in some or few? Glass or cup? Some or few? Yes or no? [Pass out a
card to each student.] Say: Let's see if you can spot the mouth move
/s/ in
some words.
7. Give a book talk for “Who
are you Sue Snue?” Say: "Sue Snue just
had a
birthday. Now everyone wants to know
what she wants to be when she grows up.
Everyone wants Sue to be like them. What will Sue do?" Read Who are you Sue Snue?” and talk
about the story. Read it again, and have students raise their hands
when they
hear words with /s/. List their words on the board. Then have each
student draw
a picture of what they want to be when they grow up and write a message
about
it using invented spelling. Display their work.
8. For assessment,
distribute the pictures and help students
name each picture. Ask each student to circle the pictures whose names
have
/s/.
References:
Dr.
Suess. Who are You Sue Snue?
Random House, 1997.
Elderedge,
Lloyd J. (1995) Teaching Decoding in Holistic
Classrooms.
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Merrill.
Hall, Mallory. Silly
Sally. www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/catalysts/hallel.html
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