Instructor: Lindsay Wiseman Lesson Title: At the Beginning Curriculum Area: Reading

Grade Level: K-1 Date: September 17, 2013 Estimated Time: 30 minutes

Standards Connection: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.K.3a Demonstrate basic knowledge of one-to-one lettersound correspondences by producing the primary sound or many of the most frequent sounds for each consonant. Learning Objective: The low-middle students will match written letters with illustrations of words beginning with them. The high students will match letters to illustrations and also generate words beginning with each letter. Evaluation of Learning Objective: On a handout, students will draw lines matching the letters between A and N with simple pictures representing words beginning with them. Students should miss no more than two connections. Engagement: I know that you all know the alphabet and have been practicing the sounds made by each letter. Today I want to give you lots of examples of words beginning with each letter. Then, well practice matching letters with their sounds, and I would love for you to try making up words beginning with each letter based on what you know about its sound. I want to start by warming you up and sharing a song from YouTube. Everyone stand up behind your chair and get ready to dance. Play the Phonics Song available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saF3f0XWAY on the Promethean Board and encourage students to sing along. Design for Learning: I. Teaching: Everyone go back to your seats. I have this deck of cards with letters on them. I want to talk to you about each letters sound when it appears at the beginning of a word. Someone tell me what beginning means. The beginning is the first part of something. The beginning sound in a word is the first part you hear. Its also the sound of the first letter. Lets look at an example. Choose a card from the alphabet deck. What letter is this? What sound does it make? Can anyone think of a word with that sound in it? I hear a lot of words with that sound in the middle. Lets talk about words with that sound at the beginning. What about this word? Whats the first sound in that word? What letter makes that sound? Im thinking that the first letter in the word must make the first sound I hear. Who agrees with me? Lets check this word to see if were right? Great job guys! Lets do some more examples. Go through the letters A-N out of order using an alphabet deck. Indicate a student to say the words and name the first sound and letter.

Opportunity for Practice: Now that you guys can figure out which letter is at the beginning, we are going to play a game on the Promethean Board. On the screen, are all of the letters from A through N. There are also pictures that begin with each letter. When its your turn, you will pick a picture, decide which letter it begins with, and drag it on top of that letter. Lets do the first one together so the directions make sense. Raise your hand to tell me a picture you see. Talk through one example from clicking the picture to dragging it over the correct letter. Does that make sense to everyone? Line up by the board. The first person will drag two pictures to their letter and then the next person will take a turn. III. Assessment: Everyone sit back down. Now I am going to give you a worksheet. Go ahead and write your name and the date on the top lines but dont write anything else. Pass out the Matching Worksheet and prompt students to write their names. On one side you have pictures of different words. On the other side you have half of the letters from the alphabet. You are going to draw lines matching the words on one side with their beginning letters on the other side. Lets do the first one together so youre clear on the directions. What do you see in the first picture? Listen to that word. What sound is at the beginning? What letter makes that sound? Now draw a line connecting the picture with the letter at its beginning. Keep going through the list, and Ill be rotating around the table to help. IV. Closure: You have all worked so hard today! Before we finish, I want to ask you the beginning sounds of three more words. Say the students names and ask them what sounds and letters are at the beginning. Differentiation Strategies: When Taliyah finishes the Matching Worksheet, she can generate words beginning with each letter and write them on her paper with help. Materials and Resources: Youtube Clip of Phonics Song Alphabet Cards Picture Matching Flipchart Matching Worksheet Reflection: In general, I was pleased with the way this lesson turned out. I came in prepared with materials I created and a definitively structured lesson plan. The scripting I wrote was intentional, but my main goal was to follow the overall structure. I was careful to include both movement and discussion to engage varying learners. That part definitely served me well. If I taught this lesson again, which I would, I would change a few management pieces. Instead of asking questions to the room, I would phrase them as, raise

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your hand to tell me That way I could wait until each student had thought of an answer and I could more easily choose who answered. Another option would be to say a students name before asking to engage a specific child. I would also love to write the objective on the board. That strategy might be more beneficial for older students, but it would be a good way to ensure that students knew the goal of the lesson. My supervisor gave me specific feedback and provided helpful suggestions for future lessons. One thing she said was to have students repeat instructions or to ask them questions about the instructions to make sure they knew what to do before starting. That way no time is wasted and students arent counterproductive. She also noticed that I was inconsistent in my vocabulary. I started by teaching students the word beginning and referring to the beginning sound in a word. By the end, I was more likely to say first sound. Even though the meaning is the same, I will be careful in the future to stick to one phrasing. The one major challenge during my teaching was a student falling asleep while transitioning to the practice portion of the lesson. He responded to my prompts while teaching, though he was yelling answers. Somewhere along the way, he laid his head down and could not be woken by me calling his name or gently prodding him. His general teacher had warned me earlier that he was given extra sleeping pills the night before and they had not worn off. I tried to engage him with small rewards, but he would not wake up. I decided in the process that I didnt want to spend so much time trying to wake up one medicated student that the other two suffered. My supervisor later confirmed that was a good judgment call and reflected that educators have to really know their students to know what is challenging behavior and what is chemical imbalance. She also told me individual rewards are more effective than general prompts for good behavior.