Kristyn Lariviere

READ 366

11/30/15

LESSON PLAN
JMU Elementary Education Program

Teacher: Mrs. Aimee Anderson

Grade: Kindergarten
School: WW Robinson

I. TITLE OF LESSON Phonics and Writing

II. CONTEXT OF LESSON
Phonics is important to teach because it helps children learn to read and write. If they know letter and letter
combination sounds, they can apply that knowledge to sound out words when reading or trying to spell. In
practicum, the class has done a lot to learn letter sounds, and they have recently been placed in reading
groups based on their reading levels. For this reason, I think this lesson will fit into their curriculum because
it incorporates phonics into learning to write and spell, and can also easily be adjusted for students at all
different levels.
III. LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Understand: The students will understand that sounds correspond to letters and words are combinations of
those letters/sounds.
Know: Students will learn how sounds are put together to form words.
Do: They will know letter sounds and be able to apply what they know about those sounds to attempt to spell
words.
IV. COLLECTION OF ASSESSMENT DATA
Students will sound out words that I show them a picture of.
Students will write out their responses to how different words are spelled.
I will take note of examples of student answers in each reading group.
I will discuss these examples in my reflection.
V. RELATED VIRGINIA STANDARDS OF LEARNING (K & 1) OR FOUNDATION BLOCKS
(Preschool)
Oral Language
K.2 The student will expand understanding and use of word meanings.
a) Increase listening and speaking vocabularies.
b) Use number words.
c) Use words to describe/name people, places, and things.
d) Use words to describe/name location, size, color, and shape.
e) Use words to describe/name actions.
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f) Ask about words not understood.

g) Use vocabulary from other content areas.
K.3 The student will build oral communication skills.
g) Follow one- and two-step directions.
K.4 The student will identify, say, segment, and blend various units of speech sounds.
a) Begin to discriminate between spoken sentences, words, and syllables.
c) Blend and segment multisyllabic words at the syllable level.
d) Segment one-syllable words into speech sound units including beginning phoneme(s) (onset) and
ending (rimes).
Reading
K.7 The student will develop an understanding of basic phonetic principles.
a) Identify and name the uppercase and lowercase letters of the alphabet.
b) Match consonant, short vowel, and initial consonant digraph sounds to appropriate letters.
d) Identify beginning consonant sounds in single-syllable words.
Writing
K.11 The student will print in manuscript.
a) Print uppercase and lowercase letters of the alphabet independently.
b) Print his/her first and last names.
K.12 The student will write to communicate ideas for a variety of purposes.
a) Differentiate pictures from writing.
c) Use letters and beginning consonant sounds to spell phonetically words to describe pictures or
write about experiences.
d) Write left to right and top to bottom.
VI. MATERIALS NEEDED
Laminated picture cards of words/letters for students to identify/spell (for different levels)
Lined paper to write down responses
Pencils
VII. PROCEDURE
A. PREPARATION OF THE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT
I will have all necessary materials with me, in separate folders based on difficulty. This way I can pass out
all materials to each group as I work with them, and I will keep picture cards in correct categories.
B. INTRODUCTION AND ORGANIZATION
Start off activity by asking students to gather in their reading groups.

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When each group comes to work with me, as a station during Language Arts time, I will introduce the
activity to them, adjusting the explanation based on which level they are and what specific version of the
activity they are doing.
Reading groups:
High- Shown cards with pictures (cat, dog, bug, map, vest, belt) and asked to sound out words
and spell them on paper.
Middle- Shown same cards as high group but with a different objective (write first letter of
word).
Low- Shown cards with capital letters on them, and asked to write corresponding lowercase
letter.
Groups can be given a lower or higher levels instructions if they seem to be struggling, or if they seem to
need more of a challenge. I will bring a set of cards with pictures of words that are more difficult to spell if
the high group needs to be challenged further.
C. IMPLEMENTATION
Reading groups:
Highest- I have some cards with pictures on them! We are going to look at each picture and identify
what it is. Then, Im going to let you write the word! After you try it on your own, we will all sound
it out together and go over how we think the word is spelled.
Middle- I have some cards with pictures on them! We are going to look at each picture and identify
what it is. Then, you will write down the letter that you think the word starts with! After, well go
over each one together and figure out what letter it must be.
Low- I have some cards with capital letters on them! We are going to look at each letter and identify
which letter it is. Then, you will write down the same letter, in its lowercase version. After, we can
go over the letter together to figure out which uppercase and lowercase letters go together.
D. CLOSURE
Each group will discuss letter sounds and how knowing what sound each letter makes can help them when
they read and write. We will go over letter sounds with their class alphabet chant as a closing to the
activity.
E. CLEAN-UP
I will need to make sure that all of my materials are picked up and put away in my bag once the lesson is
over. I will also make sure that students take their papers and put them in their mailboxes.
VIII. DIFFERENTIATION
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For differentiation, I am creating a different version of the activity to fit the needs of students at all different
reading/writing levels. For the more advanced students, the objective is to identify words from pictures and
use letter-sound knowledge to sound out and attempt to spell words. For the less advanced students, the
objective is to still identify words from pictures, but to use letter-sound knowledge to identify the first letter
of each word. For the least advanced group, the objective is to identify uppercase letters and write the
corresponding lowercase letters. There is also room for the least advanced group to try the middle groups
activity, and for the middle group to either move up to the advanced groups activity if they excel with theirs,
or to move down to the lower groups activity if they seem to be struggling. If the advanced group is
struggling, they will have the opportunity to try the middle groups activity. If the advanced group needs
even more of a challenge, I will have a more difficult set of picture cards prepared for them to practice
spelling.
IX. WHAT COULD GO WRONG WITH THIS LESSON AND WHAT WILL YOU DO ABOUT IT?
Opening of the Lesson:
Some students may not remember what reading group they are in. If this happens, I can look at the
teachers list to see who is in which group and help them get into correct reading groups. While
explaining the lesson, students may be confused about what they are supposed to do. If this happens,
I will break down the instructions to focus on one part at a time. For example, I will explain that I
have picture cards and show them one card and ask them what it is a picture of. Once they answer, I
will go on to explain that they should try to spell the word on their paper by sounding it out. Once I
see that theyve attempted that step, I will move on to the next step and so on.
Lesson:
The objectives for each group could be off from what I think is going to work and be at a good level
for each of them. If this happens I can give groups other groups activities that might be at a better
level for them. Certain students in each group could be having different levels of success with their
groups activity. I can try to adjust by having those specific students do another groups activity that
is more suited for them, while the rest of their group continues with their original activity. Another
option would be for them to come back to my station during another groups time so that they can do
an activity that is most beneficial to them.
Closing of the Lesson:
Students may have trouble explaining how letters and sounds relate and how they are used to form
words in written and oral language. I can listen to what they are trying to say and better articulate
what I think they are trying to explain so that they gain a clearer understanding.
Behavior:
Throughout the lesson, I will need to be aware of student behavior. If students are talking or
distracting one another, they may need to be separated or asked to quiet down. I may need to redirect
students attention to the lesson if they become distracted by someone or something else. I can also
compliment good behavior to hopefully encourage similar actions by other students in the group.
X. REFLECTION
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This lesson reflects the course content of our Early Literacy class because it focuses on the
importance of teaching phonics to help children learn to read and write. We spent a good amount of class
time discussing phonics and its importance in teaching literacy to children, so I thought that teaching a lesson
in my practicum class that incorporated phonics would be a good fit. It was also relevant to the kindergarten
class I taught it to because they have been learning the letters of the alphabet and the sounds that each letter
makes, so helping them make the connection between sounds in words and corresponding letters/letter
combinations was beneficial and at a good level for them at this point in the year.
I planned my objectives for the lesson based on my observations of the students in my practicum
class. I recognized that they had spent a lot of time working on letter recognition and letter sounds, and it
seemed like many of them had mastered that step, so I thought my lesson should incorporate them using their
knowledge of letters and letter sounds to be pushed further to begin creating connections between sounds in
words and corresponding letters. The lesson involved minimal materials: paper and pencil for each student
to write on. The main preparation I had to do was to create the picture cards to be used during the lesson. I
found images that clearly depicted the words I wanted them to try to sound out and spell, and then I printed
them off and laminated them to make the cards. I pointed out at the beginning of the lesson that I had
noticed how well they all learned the letters of the alphabet and the sounds that each letter makes. This lead
into the purpose of the lesson I chose to do with them. Throughout the lesson I observed student work and
encouraged them to continue to think about the word, how it sounds, and what letters might make those
sounds. I kept them engaged by choosing fun, colorful pictures for my picture cards, and by stopping
between each word/card to discuss the sounds in the word and the letters that make up the word. I gave them
choice by showing them multiple cards and allowing them to decide as a group which one we would work on
first.
I assessed student progress toward meeting my objectives in a number of ways. I asked them at the
beginning of the lesson if they knew how words were formed. They responded that words were a lot of
letters altogether, so I knew that they had an understanding of the relation between letters and words. I also
observed them as they attempted to spell each word on their own, which allowed me to see if they were able
to meet my objective of sounding out words and using their knowledge of letter sounds to correctly spell
them. In the advanced group, all of the students did very well with this objective. They had no trouble
spelling the words map, cat, dog, and bug, however a couple of them struggled more with the words vest,
and belt. One student was mistaking the sound for the sound and spelled belt as bilt and vest as
vist. Another student was missing the t sound at the end of the words, so his belt looked like bel and
his vest looked like ves. One girl spelled vest correctly, but then missed the t at the end of belt. The
other two students correctly spelled both words on their own. Although not all of the students in the
advanced group initially spelled vest and belt correctly, their work showed that they had an
understanding of the concept of spelling because their spelling of vest and belt were close to the proper
spelling. Since there was clear evidence that they could do this task, I felt confident that when we went over
the spelling of these words as a group, they would understand why the actual spelling of the words vest
and belt make sense. In the middle group, every student properly identified the first letter of each word,
without needing any help, so I decided to give them the spelling task from the advanced group. However,
this turned out to be slightly too challenging for them because with exception to one student who correctly
spelled cat on his own, no one in this group could get past that first letter. Since I still had more time with
them, I decided to alter their original task to try to identify the last letter of each word. This was still more
challenging than identifying the first letter, but they had much more success than when they tried to spell out
the whole word. In this case, every student was able to identify the last letter of each word from the picture
cards, but one or two students hesitated on vest, questioning if it ended with s. In the end, their whole
group figured out that vest ends with t, which allowed me to see that they were gaining an understanding
of how certain sounds in words correspond to certain letters. In the least advanced group, I began by having
them identify the lowercase letter based on which capital letter I showed them. This seemed to be too simple
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of a task for them, since every student in the group had no hesitation in writing the correct letter. I quickly
decided that I should move them up to the middle groups task of identifying the first letter of the words
from the picture cards. They also seemed to be able to do this task well. One student initially said that
map started with the letter A. I asked him to sound out the word map and he said, m, , , p. He was
linking the M to the A and focusing on the vowel sound. I saw that the rest of his group correctly
identified M as the first letter of map so I asked one of his peers to sound out map for everyone. They
said, mm, mm, ap. I looked at the student who incorrectly identified the first letter as A and asked him
what he thought now about how to spell map. He answered that it began with mm and I asked which
letter makes the mm sound and he replied M. Oh, map starts with M! This showed me that this
group, including the one student who needed a little extra help, was understanding the concept of letters
corresponding to sounds, and sounds making up words. I was impressed by the level of engagement of the
students throughout my lesson. They stayed on task very well, and I think it helped that we were constantly
stopping to discuss each portion of the activity. This allowed them to not be sitting still, quietly for too long
without a break, and helped keep their focus when they did have to write their responses individually and
work quietly. Their engagement definitely improved their level of learning by keeping them focused on the
task at hand. They all reached my objectives for the lesson, and groups even surpassed expectations and did
activities that were geared for a higher level (least advanced doing middle groups activity and middle group
doing a deviation of their activity).
This lesson was very different from the first lesson I taught. The first lesson was a whole group
activity, while this lesson was done in small groups. There was also more differentiation in this lesson than
in my first lesson. The first lesson I taught was a read aloud, and it was pretty early in the year so they were
not at a point where I felt they could be writing, so I did not incorporate writing into that lesson, and only did
drawing and discussion with the reading. For this lesson, I wanted to do something completely different than
the last one, and since it was later in the year, I was hoping that incorporating writing into the lesson would
work out, which thankfully it did! While the previous lesson had more to do with listening to a story and
showing comprehension through discussion and a short activity, this final lesson was much more hands on.
It showed comprehension through their ability to complete the tasks I had given them, and focused heavily
on writing and word construction. I enjoyed teaching both lessons, and Im happy with my decision to go in
a different direction with each of them, so I was able to really explore how to teach different aspects of
literacy.
If I did this lesson again, I would keep it as a small group lesson. I think when children are learning
to read and write, their skill levels are in such variation that it works out much better to teach in small groups
based on skill level than to try to make it a whole class activity. Although I liked teaching this lesson and it
went very well, I think next time I would incorporate more variety into the words I chose for picture cards. I
would have a lot more the next time to add variety and get them to practice a larger assortment of letter
combinations and use more of the alphabet, since the words I had chosen only covered a small number of
letters. It would also be helpful to have a better understanding of where each student is at in their literacy
learning. I was able to conjecture about each group based on my observations each week and what I saw my
Cooperating Teacher working on with them, but it would be helpful to know more specifically what their
current abilities are because since the last time I had seen the least advanced group, they had made more
progress than I anticipated and their activity was far too simple for them. Im glad I was able to have them
work on the higher groups activity to really see what they are capable of. One last thing that I might change
if I were to do this lesson again would be to have some sort of reading to go along with it, or to introduce the
lesson to the whole group. Perhaps I could do a read aloud of an alphabet book, or a childrens book about
learning to spell or something along those lines just to have a clearer introduction into the lesson for the
students, instead of what I did, which was just split them into their reading groups and explain the activity.
They understood what they were supposed to do, but I felt like the segway into the activity was a little boring
for them.
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