Miss Gagnon's Reading Lessons
Beginning Reading Design
Short I
Rationale:
This lesson teaches children about the long vowel correspondence i = /i/. In order to be able to read, children 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 i. They will learn a meaningful representation (sticky hands and saying ich) they will spell and read words containing this spelling in a Letterbox lesson, and read a decodable book that focuses on the correspondence i=/i/
Materials:
Graphic image of sticky hands; cover-up critter; whiteboard or smart board Elkonin boxes for modeling and individual letter boxes for each student; letter manipulative for each child and magnetic or smart board letters for teacher: e, c, d, k, n, o, p, r, s, t; list of spelling words on poster or whiteboard to read: pig, milk, ship, inch, nip, gift; decodable text: Small Pig by Arnold Lobel, and assessment worksheet.
Procedures:
1. Say: 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 long vowel words with i, like lie, and today we are going to learn about short i. When I say /i/ I think of two sticky hands that are stuck together with glue and when I see how gross they are I say the /i/ sound[show graphic image].
2. Say: Before we learn about the spelling of /i/, we need to listen for it in some words. When I listen for /i/ in words, I hear i say its name /i/ and my lips make a smile shape and I force the air out. [Make vocal gesture for /i/.] I’ll show you first: pig. I heard i say its name and I felt my lips make a little smile [make a gesture around the smiling lips]. There is a short i in pig. Now I’m going to see if it’s in pie. Hmm, I didn’t hear I say its name and my lips didn’t make that smile. Now you try. If you hear /i/ say, “ick” If you don’t hear /i/ say, “That’s not it.” Is it in pin, lips, lie, sat, cat, lips? [Have children make a circle motion around their smiling lips when they feel /i/ say its name.]
ic?
3. Say: Now let’s look at the spelling of /i/ that we’ll learn today. One way to spell /i/ is with the letter i to tell me to say i’s name. [Write i on the board.] What if I want to spell the word gift? “I need to buy a gift for a friend’s birthday.” Gift means present in this sentence. To spell gift in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word so I stretch it out and count: /g//i//f//t/. The word starts with /g/, that’s easy; I need an g. Now it gets a little tricky so I’m going to say it slowly, /g//i//f//t/. I think I heard /i/ so I’ll put a i right after the g. two more after the /i/, hmm . . . /g//i//f//t/. I think I heard the toothbrush sound /f/ so I need an f. I have one empty box now. [Point to letters in boxes when stretching out the word: /g//i//f//t/.] The missing one is /t/ = t.
4. Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You’ll start out easy with two boxes for milk. Milk is a kind of drink that we have, “I put milk in my cereal and drink it with cookies” What should go in the first box? [Respond to children’s answers]. What goes in the second box? What about silent e, did you remember to put it outside the boxes? I’ll check your spelling while I walk around the room. [Observe progress.] You’ll need four letterboxes for the next word. Listen for the beginning sound that goes in the first box. Then listen for /i/ Here’s the word: ring, when people get married they give each other rings; ring. [Allow children to spell words.] Time to check your work. Watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the board: r – i – n – g and see if you’ve spelled it the same way. Try another with four boxes: inch; I was an inch away from the ball. [Have volunteer spell it in the letterbox on the front board for children to check their work. Repeat this step for each new word.] Next word. Listen to see if this word has /O/ in it before you spell it: ship; Pirates sail on a ship. [volunteer spells it on the front board.] Did you remember to spell /sh/ with a sh? Now let’s try another word: pig; the three little pigs is a great story.
5. Say: Now I am going to let you read the words you’ve spelled, but first I’ll show you how I would read a tough word. [Display poster with milk on the top and model reading the word.] There’s the vowel i. It must say /i/. I’m going to use a cover-up to get the first part. [Uncover and blend sequentially before the vowel, then blend with the vowel.] m=/m/ + i=/i/= /mi/. Now I’m going to blend that with /l/ = /mil/. Now all I need is the end, /k/ = /milk/. milk; 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.]
M
I
L
K
6. Say: You’ve done a great job and reading words with our new spelling for i=/i/. Now we are going to read a book called Small Pig. This is a story of a small pug that loves to sit in good, soft, mud. When the farmer’s wife cleans his pen, Small Pig runs away. In the city he finds a new mud puddle but it is not full of mud at all. To find out what happens to Small Pig lets read! Let’s pair up and take turns reading Small Pig to find out what happens to Small Pig. [Children pair up and take turns reading alternate pages each while teacher walks around the room monitoring progress. After individual paired reading, the class rereads Small Pig aloud together, and stops between page turns to discuss the plot.]
7. Say: That was a fun story. What was the mud that Small Pig thought he was in? Right, it was concrete! What did Small Pig realize after he was stuck? Right, that he wanted to go home. Before we finish up with our lesson about one way to spell /i/ = i, I want to see how you can solve a reading problem. On this worksheet there are some words in dotted lines that have short I sounds. Trace over the words, read the words and say them out loud. Then compare with a partner to see if your words are the same or different. [Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress.]
Resources:
Murray, G. (2004) Jakes joke. Reading Genie:
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