Shhh!

Rationale:  This lesson is intended to help students recognize the digraph
/sh/.  Students need to become aware that digraphs are groups of two
successive letters whose phonemic value is a single sound.  This lesson
will also help students when reading and writing words with /sh/.  The
lesson is aimed at helping students better understand the digraph /sh/.  I
will teach this correspondence by using a letterbox lesson.

Materials:  Elkonian boxes,letters-(f,I,s,h,n,e,p,c,t,a,r,l,l,),book-The
Rainbow Fish by Marcus Phister.  There should be enough
boxes,letters,and books for each child,chalk and chalkboard.

Procedure:
1.  Have the students place their  hand in front of their mouth while making
the /sh/ sound.  Do you feel air on your hand?  The /sh/ sound is made by
putting your teeth together and blowing out of your mouth.

2.  Say:  I am going to read a sentence that has the digraph /sh/  in it  more
than one time.  Each time you hear a word with the /sh/ sound,clap so I
know that you heard it.  Try to count how many times you clapped so we
can figure out how many times I said /sh/.
"Sharon sold sea shells and fish by the sea shore."

3.  Then ask the students what letters they think makes the /sh/ sound.
They reply.  Write the words the class told you on the board.  Discuss
words such as wish,fish,and ship.  Model the sound and give the
following explanation.  The/sh/ sound is made when you put the letters s
and h together.  The /sh/ sound is found in many words,lets spell some of
them.

4.  Start the letterbox lesson,be sure every child has the necessary letters
and letter boxes.  Say: first spell she,Great,now let's spell fish, Good, now
let's spell shell,O.K. let's try the word ship.  Great you can spell the word
ship.  Excellent ,now spell cash.  Open up four letter boxes and try to spell
the word trash.

5.  Now write each of the words on the board and have the students read
them orally.

6.  Say:  Everyone has just spelled six words that have the /sh/ sound in
them.  All the  words that we just spelled are in this book that two are
about to read.  Say:  The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Phister (book talk),is
about a fish who learns to share with other fish.  While we are reading
listen for the /sh/ sounds.

7.  Assessment:  Ask the students if they remember any words from the
book that made the /sh/ sound.  Write them on the board.  When the list is
complete,point to each word and ask the students, one at a time to read
them back to you.

8.  Reference:
  Science and Creativity in Reading Instruction ,CTRD 370 Spring 1999

  Eldredge,J.Lloyd (1995) Teaching Decoding in the Holistic Classroom.
Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey,Prentice Hall,p.67.

Phister,Marcus, The Rainbow Fish
 

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