Beginning Reading Lesson Plan
Play on a May Day
Rationale: In this lesson children will learn about the long vowel correspondence /A/=ay. In order for the children to be able to read, they must learn to recognize the spellings that map word pronunciations. In this lesson children will learn to recognize, spell, and read words containing the spelling ay. They will learn a meaningful representation (Play on a May Day), they will spell and read words containing this spelling in a Letterbox Lesson, and read a decodable book that focuses on the correspondence /A/=ay
Materials: You will need a graphic image of a child Playing on a May Day; a cover up critter; whiteboard or Smartboard Letterbox for modeling the group and then individual Letterboxes for each student; letter manipulatives for each child and magnetic or Smartboard letters for teachers: A, d, h, l, n, p, s
; list of spelling words on poster or whiteboard to read: say, play, day, lay, hay, and nay; a decodable text: Play for the Day; and an assessment worksheet.
Procedures: 1. In order to become expert readers we need to learn the code that tells us how to pronounce words. We have already learned to read short vowel words with a, such as cat, bag, grass, tag, and act. So today we are going to learn about the long A and the y that is used to make the A say it’s name, /A/. When I say /A/, I think of a fun activity where you “Play on a May Day”. (Show the graphic Image).
2. Say: Before we learn about the spelling of /A/, we need to listen for it in some words. When I listen for /A/ in words, I hear a say its name /A/ and my mouth makes a shape like this. (Make vocal gesture for /A/). My tongue stays behind my bottom teeth and I let out a long /A/ sounds. I’ll show you first: play. I heard a say its name and I felt my mouth move to make the a. That means that there is a long a in play. Now I’m going to see it is in jar. Wow, I didn’t hear a say its name and my mouth didn’t make that movement. Now you can try. If you hear /A/ say “Play on a May Day” and if you don’t hear /A/ say “No not here”. OK, so is it in snail, whale, cake, ant, tag, ham?
3. Say: Now let’s look at the spelling of /A/, that is what we will learn today. One way to spell /A/ is with the letter a and signal y at the end of the word, this tells me to say A’s name. (Write ay on the board). So what if I want to spell the word play? “I want to play with my dog.” Play means to occupy oneself in an activity for amusement or reaction. To spell play in my letterboxes, first I need to know how many sounds or phonemes I have in the word. So I will stretch it out and count: /p/ /l/ /Ay/. I need 3 boxes. I heard that /A/ just before the /l/ so I’m going to put an a in the 3rd box and the y goes in the 3nd box too since it completes the /A/ sound. The word starts with /p/, so that means I need my p. Now it gets a little harder, so I’m going to say it again but slowly, /p/ /l/ Ay/. I think I heard a /l/ so I will put the l right after the p in the other letterbox.
P
l
ay
4. Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You will start out easy with four boxes for snail. A snail is a type of bug. “We saw a snail on the playground”. What should go in the first box? (respond accordingly to the child’s answer). What goes in the second box? What about the third box? And the fourth? I will walk around the room and check. (Observe progress). Now you will need two letterboxes for the next word. Remember to listen for the beginning sounds that will go in the first box. Then listen for our /A/ sound and then don’t forget to put the y with the A when you hear /A/. Here is our new word clay. Clay is a substance that is used for many different things such as making tiles, brick, or even pottery. “I played with clay today at school”. (Allow the children time to spell the word). Time to check your work. Watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the board: c---l---a---y. Now see if you spelled it this way. Let’s try another one with three letterboxes. Our new word is pray. “Some children pray at before eating”. (Allow the children time to spell the word). Time to check your work. (Have a volunteer spell it on the letterboxes on the board). (Repeat this step for each new word). Now we have a new word. Listen to see if this word says /A/ in it before you spell it fast. “That boy can run so fast”. Did you need a y? Why not? Right, because we didn’t hear a say its name. We spell it with our short vowel a. (Have a volunteer spell it on the board). Now let’s try a word with 4 phonemes and 4 boxes today. “I went to play today”. You can do one more before we are done with the spelling. This word will need 5 boxes because it has 5 sounds subway. “When I visited my aunt, I had to take the subway”. Remember you can stretch out the words to help you figure out hard ones.
5. Say: Now I’m going to let you read the words you’ve spelled, but first I’ll show you how I would read a tough word. (Display the board with subway on top and model reading the word). First I see there’s a y on the end. That is my signal that the vowel will say its name. There’s a vowel a, so it must say /A/. I’m going to use my cover up critter to get the first part. (Uncover and blend sequentially before the vowel, then blend the vowel). /s/ + /u/ + /b/ = /sub/. Now I’m going to add the /w/. Lets say it again with the w. /s/+/u/+/b/+/w/. Now I’m going to blend that with /A/ = /subwA/. Now all I need is the end. At the end is a /y/ = /subway/. Subway, that’s it. Now it’s your turn, everyone together. (Have children read words in unison. Afterwards, call on individuals to read one word on the list until everyone has had a turn).
6. Say: You have done a great job reading words with our new spelling for /A/, which is ay. Now we are going to read a book called Play for the Day. This is a story of two friends who want to play. They want to play with different things. We are going to have to read the book to find out what they end up playing. Let’s pair up and take turns reading Play for the Day to find out what happens. (Children pair up and take turns reading alternate pages each. The teacher walks around the room monitoring everyone progress. After the children are done with their paired reading, the class reads Play for the Day aloud together, don’t forget to stop between each page to discuss the plot).
7. Say: That was a great story! What did the friends decide to play? Correct, they decided to play with the swing set and swing. What was the problem in the beginning? Oh yes, they couldn’t decide on one thing together. They wanted to play with different things until they found something they both liked. Great job! Now before we finish up with our lesson about one way to spell /A/ by ay, I want to see how you can solve a reading problem all on your own. On this worksheet, there will be words that you have color that end in ay. Then there is a fun crossword, so you have to find all the words with the /A/ sound. (Collect worksheet to evaluate individual child progress).
References: Dr. Bruce Murray: http://wp.auburn.edu/rdggenie/
Geri Murray: https://sites.google.com/site/readingwritingconnection/beggingreadingdesign
Growing Independence and Fluency
By: Olivia DiChiara
Dragons Love to be Fluent
Rationale: This lesson is designed to improve students reading fluency. Reading fluently means that a student has the ability to read where nearly all the words are sight vocabulary. As a result of this, readers can read at a fast pace and with expression. First the students must be able to decode words in the text they are reading in order to have reading fluency. In this lesson, students will learn the strategies and skills that it takes to become a fluent reader through modeling and practice. Students will use the strategy of crosschecking after readings of a decodable text and repeated readings to gain fluency and independence in reading.
Materials: Pencils, stopwatch and timer, coverup critters, Dragons Love Tacos by Daniel Salmieri, fluency checklist, reading time log, partner reading progress sheet.
Procedure:
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Say: “ Alright, Class! Today we are going to learn how to improve our fluency when reading. In order to be good readers, we need to be able to read fluently. Can anyone tell me what the word fluency means? Well, fluency is when you read words quickly and automatically with expression. When we read with fluency, we comprehend more of the story and the story becomes more exciting, too. To become fluent readers, we must be able to recognize a large amount of sight words, or words that we know automatically, without having to decode them. To gain sight words we have to practice reading through a method of repeated reading where we can decode, crosscheck, mental mark, and reread.”
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Say: “Right here we have cover-up critters to help us decode, which means it is here to help us read an unfamiliar word. For example, let’s look at how I say this sentence (Model reading a sentence fluently and non-fluently). “I love to go to school and read books” “I l-l-o-o-o-o-v-v-e-e t-o go t-o s-s-c-h-o-o-o-l-l an-d r-e-e-a-a-d-d b-b-o-o-o-o-k-k-s-s.” Did I read that sentence fluently? NO, absolutely not! How about this time- “I love to go to school and read books”. That time I read the sentence fluently and it was much easier to understand!
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Say: Let’s learn how we will become fluent readers! What do we do when we see a word we don’t recognize? Do we just skip over it? No! One way to read a word that is unfamiliar to us is to use a “cover up”. For example, if you come across the word frog and did not know how to say it, we would cover up the f in the word and along with the r and g, leaving just the vowel o. I will then think to myself, “Hmmm, lets think. What does the O sound make? (Wait for response) The O sound makes my mouth into a circle when I say it and sounds like “ahh” like when you go to the doctor and the doctor tells you to open up, you say “ahhhh”. Next, I will uncover the g and think about the sounds they make and combine them to say the ending of the word “og”. Then, I will reveal the first two letters, fr. /f/ /r/. Now lets combine the letters and their sounds to read the word: /f/ /r/ /o/ /g/….Frog. Great job everyone!! This is an example on how you use cover-ups to read a word.
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Say: Okay, now that we have learned about cover-ups, we are going to learn about another strategy called crosschecking. When we are unsure about a word, we reread the sentence with the word we think it is to see if it makes sense. For example, if we read this sentence “I went to the lake and saw a snake in the water.” If you come across the word snake and you’re unsure what the word is, we would first try to decode it. If we could not successfully decode it, we would try to put the word we think it is and read it in the sentence. When we reread the word in the sentence and know that, “No, we don’t see snacks in the water!” Then we would know that the word does not make sense.
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Say: To practice reading fluently, we are going to read the story Dragons Love Tacos. This story is about all the different kinds of tacos that dragons love to eat. One day, a dragon is lured in to a birthday party. The only way to get the dragon there is to say there are going to be tacos there. Dragons do NOT like spicy foods. But what happens if the dragon accidentally eats the spicy salsa? Oh boy, lets read and find out! (Read to story aloud).
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Children will be given a copy of the book Dragons Love Tacos, their own cover-up critter, evaluation worksheet, comprehension worksheet, and one stopwatch per pair of students. Say: “Now we are going to practice reading fluently by working with a partner. Everyone will pair up with someone in the class. Each of you will take turns reading the book. Before we end, you will each read it three times. Remember to crosscheck and use your cover-up critter to help you figure out words if you get stuck. While you read, your partner will time you by using the stopwatch. After you are done reading the story, have your partner record your time on the worksheet. Your partner will be listening closely to see if you are reading smoothly and with expression. Remember to use kind words when discussing with your partner, we don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. After you finish reading and recording, discuss the book with your partner. Talk about what happened and what was your favorite part! When you are done, return to your seats and fill out the reading comprehension worksheet. Turn it in when you are done.
Assessment:
Walk around the room to observe and monitor the students’ reading and recording. Have the students turn in their worksheets when they are finished. Review to see if fluency improvements were made with the individual students. Calculate words per minute for each student to see where they are. Each student will have a turn to read to me individually. Each student will be timed and assessed with miscues and fluency on their reading by me. After reading the passage, ask questions about the story/plot to test reading comprehension.
References:
Book: Dragons Love Tacos by Daniel Salmieri.
Bruce Murray, The Reading Genie: http://wp.auburn.edu/rdggenie/home/classroom/advancements/
Caroline Shea, Moving into Fluency: https://chs0025.wixsite.com/lessondesigns/growing-independence-and-fluency
Reading Checklist:
Partner Reading Progress Checklist
Total # of words in story: ________
Reader:______________
Timer/Checker:_______________
1: _____ Words in _____ seconds
2: _____Words in ______seconds
3. _____Words in ______seconds
Who soundest the smoothest while reading?______________
Which turn had the least number of errors? ______________
Emergent Literacy Guide
Brush your teeth with F!
Rationale: This lesson will help children identify the phoneme /f/, which is represented by F. Students will learn to recognize /f/ in spoken words by learning a meaningful representation, brushing teeth, and the letter symbol F, practice finding /f/ in words, and apply phoneme awareness with /f/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words from beginning letters.
Materials: Pencils and primary paper: chart with “Fred’s funny friend felt filthy”; drawing paper and crayons; Dr. Seuss’s ABC (Random House, 1963); word cards with FOOT, FEEL, FIND, FLIP, and FISH; assessment worksheet identifying pictures with /f/ (URL below)
Procedure: 1. Say: Our written language is a secret code. The tricky part is learning what letters stand for-when our mouths move, we say words. Today we are going to work on spotting the mouth move for /f/. We spell /f/ with the letter F. F looks like a toothbrush, like the one you use in the morning to brush your teeth! /f/ sounds like a toothbrush brushing teeth.
2. Now, lets brush our teeth ourselves! */f/, /f/, /f/* (Put hand up to mouth and pretend to brush teeth while making /f/ /f/ /f/). Now, lets take notice where our top teeth are right now. They are touching our bottom lip. When we say /f/, we blow air between our top teeth and lower lip.
3. Let me show you how to find /f/ in the word “Leaf”. I’m going to stretch leaf out in super slow motion and listen for my toothbrush (“/f/ sound”). Lll-ee-ea-af. Now slower: Lll-ee-eea-aff. There it was. I felt my teeth touch my bottom lip! We are saying /f/ in leaf.
4. Lets try a tongue twister (on chart). “Fred felt friendly at the family farm.” Everybody say it three times together. Now say it again, and this time, stretch the /f/ at the beginning of the words. “Fffred ffffelt fffriendly at the ffffamily fffarm.” Try it again, and this time break it off the word: “/f/red /f/elt /f/riendly at the /f/amily /f/arm..”
5. [Have students take out primary paper and pencil]. We use letter F to spell /f/. Capital F looks like a toothbrush. Lets write the lowercase letter f. Start just below the rooftop. Start to make a little c up in the air, then straighten it out all the way down to the sidewalk. Then cross it at the fence. I want to see everyone’s f. After I put a smile on it, I want you to make nine more just like it.
6. Call on students to answer and tell how they knew: Do you here /f/ in fire or Liar? Finger or arm? Fish or shark? Float or boat? Funny or Bunny? Let’s see if you can spot the mouth move /f/ in some words. Brush your teeth if you hear /f/: The frantic fish fled to get fed in the lake.
7. Say: ‘”Let’s look at an alphabet book. Dr. Seuss tells us about a funny creature with four feathers growing right out of his head!” Read page 16, drawing out /f/. Ask children if they can think of other words with /f/. Ask them to make up a silly creature name like Flippy-floppy-foe, or figgity-frighty-fang. Then have each student write their silly creature’s name with invented spelling and draw a picture of their silly creature however they would like. Display their work.
8. Show FAN and model how to decided if it is fan or man: The F tells me to brush my teeth, /f/, so this word is fffff-an, fan. You try some: Feed or Lead? Flip or lip?
Foot or nook? Four or six? Feathers or hair?
9. For assessment, distribute the worksheet. Students are to circle the objects that start with f and color the objects that they circle. Call students individually to read the phonetic cue words from step 8.
Reference: http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/voyages/brockel.html
Assessment worksheet:
