"D-D-D-Dribble Your
Basketball Down the
Court!"
Taylor Osborne
Emergent Literacy
Rationale:
Two of the best predictors of readers are their
ability to recognize phonemes and the names of letters. Because of
this, it is
important to reinforce letter recognition by teaching lessons focusing
on
specific letters. This lesson will have to do with the d=/d/
correspondence.
This letter is particularly hard for children because of the fact that
it looks
exactly like "b", just facing the opposite direction. Reinforcing
hard letter-sound relationships helps children become better readers.
In this
lesson, the student will learn how to recognize /d/ in both spoken and
written
words.
Materials:
Primary Writing Paper
Pencil
Crayons
Poster with the tongue
twister: "Dinosaurs dance down the dark doors
daily"
Down by the Bay by Raffi
Picture page with a book,
dinosaur, horse, desk, barn, dolphin, duck, shark,
dog and drum on it
Procedures:
1. Say: "Letters are so
important, without knowing them we couldn't even
read or write! The hard part is figuring out which sound goes with
which letter
of the alphabet. We have been talking about sounds that letters make
recently
and today we're going to do another fun sound.../d/! You're going to
get to
know the /d/ sound so well that you'll be able to spot it in all kinds
of
words.
2. Now what does your mouth
do when you say /d/ as in "dog"?
Well, my tongue hits the tip top of my mouth behind my teeth. To me the
/d/
sounds kind of like when you dribble a basketball. A player runs down
the court
to the goal and the ball sounds.../d/../d/.../d/ (simulate dribbling
basketball).
Now you try to /d/../d/../d/ribble!
3. Ok, my favorite thing to
do with letters is tongue twisters! Words can be so
tricky that sometimes saying certain combinations of words makes me
laugh! Ok, let’s
try this one that is on the poster: "Dinosaurs dance down dark doors
daily!" Isn't that funny sounding? Ok, now you try! (try) Now the next
time you do it, try and make the /d/ sound really loud like this:
/D/inosaurs
/D/ance /D/ark /D/oors /D/aily! I hear the dribbling of a basketball in
those
words, don't you?
4. Now we will take out our
primary paper and a pencil and write down /d/. /D/
kin dof reminds me of a basketball because there is a circle between
the fence
and sidewalk and then a line that goes all the way up to the sky and
back all
the way down to the sidewalk. Ok, let me see how you /D/rew the
/d/. Very
good! Now after I check it off, try writing ten more down just like it.
5. Sometimes it is hard to
try and find sounds in words. Let me try and show
you how I listen for the /d/ dribbling. In the word "desk" I am going
to try and stretch out my sounds slowly so that I can hear every single
sound
in the word. Dddddeeeeeeeessssssssskkkkkk! I think I hear the
d-d-dribbling! Do
you?
6. Ok, now it is your turn to
try. I am going to give you two words and you are
going to try and hear which one dribbles and which ones do not dribble.
For
example, I hear /d/ in dog, but not cat! I hear /d/ in door but not
wall! Do
you hear the dribbling? Now, let's have you try one. DO you hear the
/d/ in "dress"
or "pants"? /D/ress! Good! I hear the dribbling!
7. In Down by the Bay by
Raffi we're going to see which /d/ words we can find.
Now, it is going to be hard because there are lots of different sounds
to
choose from but just remember that we are trying to find the dribbling
like the
basketball! A fun thing to do would be for you to bounce your
basketball when
you hear the /d/ words. After we're done, we'll silently write down all
our
dribbling basketball words on our primary paper.
8. For assessment, I will
pass out a sheet of paper with different items on it.
Some of the words will start with /d/ and some will not. The items will
be a
book, dress, dinosaur, horse, desk, barn, dolphin, duck, shark, chair,
hand,
dog, and drum. They will have to circle the pictures whose names have a
/d/ in
them.
Reference:
Adams, Marilyn Jager.
Beginning to Read. Thinking and Learning About Print.
Center for the Study of
Copenhaver, Liz. "D-d-d-d-dribble
the Basketball!" Emergent Literacy
Design