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Kylie Witcher

Lesson Designs for Reading 

SERVICES

Emergent Literacy

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Emergent Literacy Design: Bounce the Ball with B

Kylie Witcher

 

Rationale: This lesson will help children identify /b/, the phoneme represented by B. Students will learn the recognize /b/ in spoken words by learning a sound analogy. A sound analogy is used to relate a real world example with a specific phonetic sound in a spoken word. Students will then practice finding /b/ is words, and apply phoneme awareness with /b/ in phonetic cue reading by finding if /b/ is in different words.

 

Materials: We will need:

  1. Primary paper and pencils

  2. Blank paper and markers

  3. Poster with the alliteration “Bob bounces the basketball to his friend Bill in the backyard.”

  4. Dr. Seuss’s ABC (Random House, 1963)

  5. Orange construction paper to cut out a basketball with

  6. Word cards with the words: BOX, DAB, BAG, BOOK, NAB, BAR, BAT, BUG

  7. Assessment worksheets

 

Procedure:

  1. First, we will teach how to make the /b/ sound. “Today we are going to learn what the letter B sounds like. When we say the sound /b/, our lips are pushed together. Let’s all practice making the /b/ sound, starting with our lips together, then letting the sound come out as we open our mouth.”

  2. We will give a real example of the /b/ sound. “We have a real life example of a /b/ sound! When we bounce a basketball, it makes a “boing” sound. Let’s all move our arms and pretend we’re bouncing a basketball. While you’re making that motion, say “boing”.

  3. We will then work on locating /b/ in spoken words. “Now, let’s work on finding the letter /b/ in different words. Remember, when our lips come together, we can find the /b/ sound. Let’s try box. Bbbbbbbbbox. Did you hear the /b/ sound at the very beginning? What about in dabbbbbbbbbb. Did you hear the /b/ sound at the very end?”

  4. The students will work through a tongue tickler. “Now, let’s do a tongue tickler for the letter B. There are these two friends Bob and Bill. Bob went home with Bill after school to play in the backyard. They decide that they want to play basketball. So, Bbbbbobbbb bbbbounces the bbbbbbasketball to his friend Bbbbbbill in the bbbbbbackyard. Now let’s break off the /b/ sound. /B/ob /b/ounces the /b/asket/b/all to his friend /B/ill in the /b/ackyard.”

  5. Students will practice writing the letter b. “Now, let’s practice writing the letter “B”. (Students take out primary paper and a pencil.) We use the letter B to spell /b/. The capital B kind of looks like two basketballs on top of each other. The lower case b, looks like a basketball with a straight line attached to it. Now let’s draw the lower case “b”. Start by drawing a straight line starting at the rooftop and going all the way down to the sidewalk. Next, bring your line back up to the fence and round it out back down to the sidewalk to make a circle. “

  6. Students will work on finding /b/ in spoken words. “Now we’re going to work on finding the /b/ sound in words, deciding which word the sound is in. Raise your hand if you know which word the sound is in, and how you know. Do you hear /b/ is bounce or throw? Boy or girl? Book or card? Now let’s see if you can find the /b/ sound by yourself! I want you to pretend like you’re bouncing the basketball if you hear the /b/ sound in the word: fad, hub, bun, rad, gab, barn, rub, bask”

  7. We will work through the Dr. Seuss book B page and do an activity to go along with it. “Let’s look at Dr. Seuss’ alphabet book! Dr. Seuss uses a funny little guy to teach us the sounds in the alphabet. Let’s look at how they help us remember the sound that “b” makes.” Show page 9 of Dr. Seuss’ ABC. Read the page, then ask students to identify all of the /b/ sounds on the page.” Using primary paper, have students make up their own story using /b/ sounds. Ask them to draw a picture of their story as well on a separate piece of paper.

  8. Show BAT and model how to decide if it is BAT or RAT: The two basketballs stacked on top of each other are a B, making a /b/ sound. So this word is bbbb-at. Now you try: BAR or CAR? BACK or RACK? BAN or RAN?

  9. Say: "Now let's see if we can detect the /b/ sound in some more words. Do we hear /b/ in dog? Do we hear /b/ is near? What about in bear? And what about bat?" Testing these words will help us identify the sound that b makes. 

  10. Practice Activity: Students will receive a sheet of paper with a basketball on it. They will write “The basketball says boing”. They will then decorate their basketball while practicing the /b/ sound.

  11. For assessment, students will complete a worksheet where they will identify the letter b and write the letter as well as words with the letter b.

 

References:

Assessment Worksheet:

https://www.superteacherworksheets.com/alphabet/letter-b-practice.pdf?up=1466611200

Frances Cooper, Bouncing into the Letter B

https://francesc618.wixsite.com/ctrd3000/emergent-literacy

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OUR WORK
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Beginning Reading

I is Icky and Sticky!

Beginning Reading Design

By Kylie Witcher

 

 

 

Rationale: This lesson teaches student the short vowel correspondence i=/i/. Learning this vowel correspondence will help students recognize more of the spellings that map out words. Students will learn to recognize words with the short i vowel correspondence. They will learn the meaningful representation of the icky sticky hands. Students will also read and spell the word in a Letterbox lesson, and read a decodable book focusing on the i=/i/ correspondence.

 

Materials: Liz is Six, graphic image of glue, cover up critter, letterboxes for smartboard/whiteboard, individual letterboxes, manipulative letters for board, manipulative letters for each student, example words on poster or board, assessment worksheet

 

Procedures:

  1. Say: For us to become better readers, we must learn the code that tells us how to pronounce the words we read. We have learned sounds like a=/a/ and e=/e/, but today we are going to learn about how i says /i/. When I hear the short i sound, I think of something icky sticky on my hands (shake hands like there is something sticky on them and show image.)

 

2. Say: Before we learn how to spell words with short i, let’s learn how to hear it when we speak! When I listen for short i in words, I hear /i/ and my mouth kind of spreads out to make the sound. (Make vocal gesture for /i/.) Let me give you an example: fix. I heard the /i/ sound and felt my mouth spread out to make the sound. (Show them this motion again.) There is a short i in fix. Now I’m going to see if it is in bite. Well, I didn’t hear the /i/ sound and didn’t feel my mouth spread out to make the sound. Now you try. If you hear /i/, say “Icky Sticky.” If you don’t hear /i/ say, “That’s not it.” Is it in hit, fine, kite, bit, knit, pit?

 

3. Say: Now let’s look at how to spell word with /i/ in them. One way we see /i/ in words is in the middle of a word. (Write _i_ on the board.) What if I want to spell the word hit? “I hit the baseball into the outfield. To put hit in letter boxes, I first need to know how many phonemes. Let’s stretch out the word and count. /h//i//t/. I need 3 boxes. The /i/ sound is in the middle, so let’s put it in the middle box. We hear /h/ at the beginning, so we need an h in the first box. The last sound we hear is /t/, so we need a t in the last box. Let's work on another example. Let take the word lift. Let's stretch it out and see how many phonemes there are. /l//i//f//t/. Lift means to pick something up. Let's start at the beginning this time. The first sound is /l/ so we put an l in the first box. The next sound is/i/, that is our short vowel sound! So i goes in the second box. The next sound is /f/, so f goes in the third box. Lastly, we have a /t/ sound. So, t goes in the last box! 

That was some great practice!

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4. Say: Now, I want you to try spelling some words in the letterboxes. Let’s start with an easy one. We’ll start with pit. “We decided to play in the ball pit.” In this sentence, pit means a hole in the floor that is full of balls. What should go in the first box? (Respond to students.) What about the second box? (Respond to students.) What about the last box? (Respond to students.) Now, I’m going to walk around and make sure everyone understands. For the next word, you’ll need three letter boxes. Let’s listen to see which letters go where in the letter boxes. The next word it bit. “I will be home in a bit.” In this sentence, bit means a small amount of time. Watch how I put these letters in my boxes and check your work. Now you try! Here is your word: kit. “I hope I can find a band-aid in this first aid kit.” I’ll come around and check your letter boxes. (Go around and check the students’ work.) Remember to stretch out the sounds if you’re having trouble.

 

5. Say: Now, let’s read some of the words we have spelled. First, I’ll give you an example. (Display the word kit and model how to read it.) First, I see that short i in the middle of the word, and I know that says /i/. Then, I know that k says /k/, so when I add the last sound /t/, it says kit. Now it’s your turn! When I show you a word, I want everyone to read it together. (Give the students many example problems and when they seem ready, offer for individuals to try on their own.)

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6. Provide the following list of words to spell after they finish the previous letterbox words: lift, bit, drift, crib, neck, hift 

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7. Say: You have done a great job with spelling and reading the short i! Now, I think we’re ready to read a book. The book we are going to read is called Liz is Six. In this book, Liz has a birthday and turns six! For her birthday, she gets a new mitt. She takes her pig friend out to play with her. Let’s read to see what happens! I am going to pair you all up and I want you to take turns reading. (While children are reading, teacher walks around and monitors reading. After the students are finished, the class will read Liz is Six together, stopping to discuss the plot.)

 

8. Say: That was such a good story! What was Liz’s present? Right, a mitt! What did Liz do with the mitt? Right, she went and played baseball with her pig! To finish up, I want us to do this worksheet to see what all we have learned about i=/i/. On this worksheet, there are some pictures and words with missing letters to match the pictures. I want you to try to figure out the missing letters! (Collect the worksheets to assess their individual understanding.)

 

Resources:

 

Godwin, Cody. Ewww, It’s So Sitcky and Icky! http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/realizations/godwinbr.htm

 

Murray, G. (2004) Liz is Six.

https://www.amazon.com/Liz-Six-Phonics-Readers-Vowels/dp/0886798558

 

Assessment Worksheet Titled Short I Words: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/CVC-Worksheets-Short-I-Activities-1662387

 

Murray, G. Oh, I didn’t know!

​http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/doorways/murraybr.htm

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ABOUT US

Growing Independence and Fluency

Say Aloha to Fluency!

Growing Fluency Design

By Kylie Witcher

 

Rationale: This lesson is designed to increase reading fluency. Fluency means to read words with quick word recognition. Fluency is important so that readers can spend more focus on comprehension and less on decoding. This lesson focuses on fluency through repeated and timed readings of the book Junie B. Jones Aloha-ha-ha, by Barbara Park. They will participate in individual and partner reading to build fluency.

 

Materials:

  1. Class set of the book: Junie B. Jones Aloha-ha-ha

  2. Pencils

  3. Stop watch (one per partner pair)

  4. Cover up critter

  5. Chart to record students amount of words per minute

  6. Fluency checklist for each student

 

Procedure:

  1. The lesson will begin with a description of what fluency is and why it is important to reading.

Say: “Good morning everyone! Today we are going to be working on fluency. Fluency means recognizing words quickly so we don’t have to work so hard to read them. When we read fluently, we can focus on what the words actually mean and not how to read them. We can increase our fluency by learning more sight words. Today, we’re going to practice fluency by reading a really fun Junie B. Jones book about the beach!”

 

  1. Say: “Sometimes when we are reading we can get stuck on a tough word. Luckily, we have our coverup critters that can help us with decoding those tough words! Let’s practice with the word snatch. If I’m not sure what this word is, I can start by uncovering one letter at a time, sounding out /s/, /n/, /a/, /t/, /ch/. Oh, that says snatch! Let me give you an example from our book. “I’ve got big news.” Let me practice with this sentence. “I’vvveee got bbbigg noose, oh, news. That says I’ve got big news.”

 

  1. Say: “We can also use a tool called crosschecking to help us with a tough word. Crosschecking means to finish reading the sentence and see what word makes sense in the sentence. For example, if I’m reading the sentence “Mary’s thumb was hurting”, and didn’t know the word thumb, I could read to the end of the sentence and then go back and see that that word was thumb.” 

 

 

  1. Say: “Now I want you to pair up with the partner beside you. I want you to read the book Junie B. Jones Aloha-ah-ah to each other. In this book, Junie B. Jones takes a trip to Hawaii! It seems like it’s going to be a fun trip, but let’s see if all goes as planned for Junie B. Jones. I want you to read the first 2 pages of the book. When your partner starts reading, start the timer. Then, stop reading when they finish the second page. Record their time on the time sheet I am going to give you.”

 

  1. “Great job guys! This time, I want you to do the same thing except I want you to write down all of the words that your partner misses. If they miss the word, write down what they say.”

 

 

  1. Collect their time and fluency sheets.

 

  1. Have each student come up and read the book to the teacher. Record miscues and time their reading. Use the fluency formula to calculate their words per minute. Other students will continue reading the Junie B. Jones book to themselves. They continue past page two.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

0     10    20    30    40    50    60   70   80    90    100    110     120    130

 

Reading Checklist

 

WPM=       words read x 60

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                         seconds

Partner Reading Progress Checklist

Total words for the two pages: ____

Reader:

Partner:

1: _____ words in _____ seconds

2: _____ words in _____ seconds

3: _____ words in _____ seconds

 

Which turn sounded the smoothest?

Which turn had the least amount of errors?

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Have each reader answer the following questions for assessment. 

Comprehension Assessment: 

1. Where is Junie B. Jones going with her family?

2. What does Mr. Scary give Junie B. Jones to take on her trip?

3. What were the ladies like that Junie B. Jones met on the plane?

 

References:

 

Luangkhot, Palina. Reading Fast with Fluency. https://pzl0019.wixsite.com/mysite/fluency

Park, B., & Brunkus, D. (2007). Junie B. Jones: Aloha-ha-ha! Saint Louis, MO: Turtleback Books.

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Reading to Learn

Blast Off into Summarization!

Reading to Learn

By Kylie Witcher

 

 

 

Rationale: After beginning readers have mastered decoding and have a large sight vocabulary, they start focusing on comprehension. A large part of comprehension is summarization. The heart of summarization is subordinating predicate terms. We can test a student’s comprehension skills by asking them to summarize a passage or book that they have read. In this lesson, students will underline unnecessary information, highlight important information, and write a two sentence summary on the passage read. The teacher will model these strategies before allowing the students to practice on their own.

 

Materials:

  1. Paper for each student

  2. Pencils for each student

  3. Copy of A Ride in Space for each student

  4. Sample passage to display

  5. Highlighters for each student

  6. Dry erase board and markers for teacher modeling

  7. Assessment Checklist

  8. Comprehension Quiz

 

Procedures:

  1. Say: Has anyone heard a really funny story or read a really cool book and then told a friend about it? (Wait for class response.) I think we all have! Whenever we retell a story, do we give every little detail about what we know? (Wait for class response.)  No, we don’t. We just give them the important parts that are important for understanding. This is called summarization! Summarization helps us understand what is important.

  2. Say: Let’s go over some tips to help our summarization skills. Write these tips on the board.

Tip #1: Read the passage carefully.

Tip #2: After reading, identify the main idea.

Tip #3: Highlight the important parts.

Tip #4: Use a pencil to underline the unnecessary information.

Tip #5: Write out the main idea in one to two sentences

Tip #6: Find an umbrella term for the events that happen in the text. 

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3. To practice our summarization skills, we’re going to read a passage about an astronaut going into space! The astronaut in this story is Sally Ride. Sally Ride was the first American woman to travel in space. Isn’t that exciting? Let’s read the passage to learn more about Sally Ride’s journey to being an astronaut. As we read, I want everyone to highlight things you think are important and underline things that you think aren’t so important. After we read the passage, we will create a summary of a sentence or two. Raise your hand if we come to any words that you do not know.

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4. Read the passage out loud to the class. As you read, stop to point out important and unimportant details. Also pause at any unknown vocabulary words. For example, we come across the word astronaut and some students don’t know what an astronaut is. Say: “An astronaut is someone that is trained to fly a spacecraft. Astronauts go explore space and come back to tell us what they have learned! An astronaut isn’t just someone who learns about space. Let me show you how I would use the word astronaut in a sentence. “When, I visited the Space and Rocket Center, I got to meet an astronaut who went into space!” So, in this story, is Sally Ride an astronaut? (Wait for response.) Yes, she is! Let me give you a sentence and see if you can figure out what word goes in the blank… Sally Ride was the first American woman ______ to go into space.” Do this throughout the passage when necessary.

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5. Say: Now, let’s continue to practice by summarizing our passage. Spend some time thinking and writing down your summary. Make sure to use our tips if you need help summarizing. If you need to reread the passage or ask what a word means, then do that! Use whatever you need to use in order to understand the passage. When everyone is finished, we will share some of our summaries.

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6. While students are working, walk around and assess everyone’s learning. Offer assistance when necessary.

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7. Say: “Okay, now that we’re all finished, can I have a couple volunteers read their summaries?” (Wait for students to offer. Ask two students to share. Thank them for sharing and encourage them.)

 

Assessment Checklist:

Collect every student’s passage summaries. Evaluate their learning based on their summary and understanding.

________ highlighted necessary, important information

________ underlined unimportant, insignificant information

________ summary correctly brought ideas of the passage together coherently

_______ summary used complete sentences (1-2 sentences)

 

Comprehension Quiz:

 

  1. Who was the first American woman astronaut?

  2. Did Sally Ride enjoy her trip to space? How do we know?

  3. What did Sally Ride do after she was an astronaut?

  4. What is one thing you learned that you did not know before you read this passage? 

  5. Is NASA still a business today?

  6. Why do you think people admired Sally Ride? 

 

 

Resources:

 

Mack, Katherine: Sliding into Summarization. https://ktmack895.wixsite.com/reading/reading-to-learn

 

Sally Ride Passage: https://www.readworks.org/article/A-Ride-In-Space/a6493c68-affc-4d75-93e6-ac269ac5f136#!articleTab:content/

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Williams, Dawson. Swimming into Summarization. https://dawsonannewilliams.wixsite.com/lessondesign/reading-to-learn

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