Spring 2016_Phonics/ Word Study

Immersion I Lesson Plan Format

School:

1. Objective(s):
Bytheendofthislesson,studentswillbeabletodecoderegularlyspelledonesyllable
wordsbyfollowingbasicpatternstobreakthewordsintosyllablesandstatingwhether
thesyllableisopenorclosed.
2. Colorado Academic Standards:
Standard: 2. Reading for All purposes
3. Decoding words require the application of alphabetic principles, letter sounds,
and letter combinations
ii. Decode regularly spelled one-syllable words

2. LearningTarget(s):
Icandecodeonesyllablewords
Icansaywhetherasyllableisopenorclosed
Icancreatenonsenseandrealwordsusingavarietyofopensyllablesand
consonants
3. Assessment:
Afterinstruction,studentswillworktogethertosortsyllablesintoopenorclosedsyllable
groups.Thiswillshowtheirunderstandingofthetwosortinggroups(openvs.closed).
Aftersorting,studentswillbegivenamixtureofopensyllablewords(no,go,he,hi,be,
me,etc.)andconsonants(t,d,n,etc.).Studentswillbeaskedtocreatewords(realand
nonsense)usingthesecards.Encouragestudentstohelpeachother.Theteacherwillask
studentstoreadtheirwordbeforetheycloseditwithaconsonantandaftertheyclosedit.
Teacherwillalsochallengestudentstoexplainthisprocessandwhythevowelsounds
changed(Openvs.Closed).Thiswillhelptheteacherknowifthestudentunderstands
whatopenandclosedsyllablessoundlikeandiftheycanproducealongvowelsound
wordaswellasashortvowelword.
4. Materials:Stripsofpaperwithfolded(door)pieceandwordwrittenonthepaperfor
examplestouseduringinstruction.
Many(atleast20)opensyllablecards
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Spring 2016_Phonics/ Word Study

Many(atleast20)consonantcards(canberepeated,thepointistojusthave
enoughsothatallstudentscancreatetheirownword.)

6. Essential Questions or Big Picture Statement: What essential questions

We are always asking the question, what makes a good reader? And
we have found out that there are lots of ways to become a good
reader.Oneofthosewayistobreakapartandputtogetherwordsjustlikeyouwill
todaytobetterunderstandhowthesewordssound.

7. Introduction/Anticipatory Set:
Almost every day, we go over our letters and the sounds that they make. We have
talked about vowels and how this letter a, makes the short vowel sound /a/ but also
what other sound? And what is the vowel called when it says its name? A long
vowel. Today we are going to look at words with short and long vowels and decide
whether or not they are open or closed syllables. Can anyone remind me of what a
syllable is?
8. ****Step-by-Step Lesson Process:****

A. Instruction(7min):Studentswillbesplitintotwogroupsof7or8(onegroupwithmeand
theothergroupwithMrs.Eskeli).IntroductionwillbegiventhenIwillgiveexamplesof
words(oneandtwosyllablewords)andhavethestudentsclapitout.Iwillendwithoneof
myhousecards(hiandhid)andhavethestudentsclapit(justoneclapforeachword).Then
Iwillbeginthelessononopenandclosedsyllables:
Soweknowthathidisaonesyllablewordbecauseweclappedonce.ButIwanttoknow,is
thisanopenorclosedsyllable.LookatthislittlehouseIhavemade,cananyoneguesswhatI
meanbyopenorclosedsyllable?*givestudentsabittothinkandshare*Whenthedoorof
myhouseisclosed,IreadthiswordashidandIcanheartheshortvowelsound/i/.But
whenIopenthedoor,IhavethewordhiandIcanhearthelongvowelsound/i/.Hiisan
opensyllablebecauseIopenedthedoorandtheicanshoutitsname.Whentheishoutsits
name,isitsmouthopenorclosed?Open!Thisisanotherwaytothinkaboutit.WhenIshut
thedoortomyhousethewordbecomeswhat?Hid!AndbecauseIclosedthedoor,the/i/
makestheshortvowelsoundandwhenyousaythewordhid,isyourmouthopenorclosedat
theend?Closed!Letslookatanotherwordandseeifitsthesameway.
*ThenIwilluseanotherexample.Onewithadifferentvowelsound.MaybeGo(t)orBe(d).
OnceIhaverepeatedtheconceptofopenandclosedsyllableafewtimes,Iwillgoontothe
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Spring 2016_Phonics/ Word Study

thirdexamplebuthavestudentstellmewhetherthesyllableisopenedorclosewhenIclose
thedoorandwhenIopenthedoor.ThenIwillexplainthenextactivitywearegoingtodo
(thesyllablesortinggame)andmodelatleastoncewhatstudentswillbedoing.Tocheckfor
understandingofprocess,Iwillaskstudentsforathumbsup,sidewaysordown,toshowme
iftheyarereadytomoveontothegame*
B. SortingGame(5min):Tocheckforunderstandingofcontent,havestudentsworkasa
grouptosortwordsintoopenandclosedgroups.Therewillbeavisualforeachgroup.
Studentswillputtherealandnonsensewordsthatareopensyllablesundertheopendoorand
openmouth.Consonantswillbeputunderthecloseddoorandclosedmouth.Whenstudents
arefinished,readthewordsandconsonantsineachgroupandchecktoseeiftheyareopen
orclosed.Afterreviewingthese,explainthenextgame(BuildingWordsGame)andmodel
atleastoncewhatstudentswillbedoing.Iwillcheckforunderstandingofprocessbyasking
forthumbsagain.
C. BuildingWordsGameandShare(7min):Iwillgiveeachstudentabunchofcardswith
opensyllablewords(realandnonsense)andcardswithconsonants.Iwillaskstudentsto
createatleasttwowordsfromthecardstheyweregivenbyputtinganopensyllableword
withaconsonanttomakeitaclosedsyllableword.Tocheckforunderstandingofcontent,
whenthestudentsaredonecreatingtheirwords,Iwillgoaroundthegroupandaskstudents
toreadtheiropensyllablewordsandtheirclosedsyllablewordstheymadeafteraddingthe
consonant.
D. Closure(1min):Itisimportanttorememberthatgoodreadersbreakapartandputtogether
wordsjustlikeyoudidtodaytobetterunderstandhowthesewordssound.Whenwe
understandthatanopensyllable(usinghousestomodelopendoor)shoutsitsname,anda
closedsyllable(closedoor)saystheshortsoundandclosesitsmouth,wecanbetterread
words!
9. Differentiation:Whenstudentsgiveasidethumborthumbsdown,Iwillaskwouldyou
likeformetorepeatastep?orwhatisitthatweshouldgooveragain?,Afterclarifying
withthesestudentsandworkingoneononewiththemwhilelettingtheothersstartonthe
activity,Iwillletthemjumpinbutwatchcloselyforunderstandingofprocessandcontent.If
studentsfinditeasy,Iwillencouragethemtothinkofotheropensyllables(realornonsense)
thatwecouldputunderthesorts.Duringthesecondgame,ifstudentsarehavingadifficult
time,Iwillplaywiththemtogivethemsomeextrasupport.Iwillencouragestudentswho
findthegameeasytoexplaintheconcepttoandhelptheirclassmates.Whenstudentscome
upwiththeirtwowordsfastandneedmoreofachallenge,Iwillhavethemtrytocreateas
manywords(realornonsense)withallthecardstheyweregiven.Iwillalsochallengethese
studentstothinkaboutwhattheycandowhentheyreadtwosyllablewordsandhowto
decodethem.Givethemacoupleofexamplesorencouragethemtotryandmaketheirown
withthewordsinfrontofthemorwritenewones!

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Spring 2016_Phonics/ Word Study

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Spring 2016_Phonics/ Word Study

Sydney Sherman
ED 463
November 27, 2016
Phonics Lesson Reflection
Open and Closed Syllables
When my CT first told me that she would like for me to do something
regarding open and close syllables, I got really nervous. I was also worried
that this was something too advanced for our first graders. After talking with
you, Lorien, I had a much better idea of how I was going to help students
make sense of this. After I meeting, I went to work on visuals I could use as
models for open and closed syllables. I tried a few different things before
deciding to do the open/closed door cards with the open/closed mouth faces.
I am glad I spent time brainstorming with you and on my own before jumping
into creating this phonics lesson. Bouncing ideas around and off of others
truly does help when trying to create solid, valuable instruction for your
students.
When I started this lesson, students were ready to learn, which was
great, this is definitely not the case. I think what caught the students
attention was that I mentioned we would be playing a game together. I first
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Spring 2016_Phonics/ Word Study

started with having the students look at the visuals and figure out what the
door and faces may mean in regards to the words on the cards. It was great
to hear students ideas and then to see their background knowledge on
syllables come to life when the began to clap out the words I was using in my
examples. Once I told them were just focusing on one syllable words, they
got a little confused, and antsy because they wanted to clap more than once.
The direct instruction on open and closed syllables seemed to go well but it
was hard to tell if they were truly understanding the lesson. I made sure to
repeat the concept by using a few different examples and revisiting them.
Then once I felt students were ready to try it out their own, I'd let go of the
reigns and see if they could decode a word and explain open/closed syllables
without me. It was still difficult for me to gage their understanding so I went
ahead and began the sorting game with the students. They liked this and
right away began to see patterns within open/closed syllables. I was
impressed!
I think that I may have let them loose a little too soon, but then again if
I had kept them together as a whole group, I think they have begun to lose
interest. I decided to let them play their own game in pairs. I gave each pair
a bag of cards with letters. I asked them to sort the letters between open and
closed, like we just did as a group, and then create words. When creating
words, they were suppose to read to their partner what the word was before
it was closed, and then after a letter was added to make the word closed.
Students were having fun with this but I am not sure they were completely
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Spring 2016_Phonics/ Word Study

understanding the idea that the letter added on to the open syllable word
makes the vowel short rather than long. Of course, this was hard for
students, especially when exception words came up. I challenged students to
make up non sense words and practice what the word sounds like before and
after, even though it is not a real word. I went around to each pair of
students and had them give me one word they created each. I had to do a lot
of re teach with most pairs but this seemed to be valuable to them because
it was more of a one on one teach. This took more time than expected but I
believe it was needed. After checking I with each pair, I brought the class
back together and we shared a few words that students were eager to talk
about and then closed up the lesson.
If I were to do this lesson again, I would make sure that I am prepared
to revisit this lesson in a different way. I talked with my CT after this lesson,
and although she thought the lesson went well, she realized the concept was
tricky for lots of the students so that we should revisit it after the weekend
and really try to get the concept to stick for the kids. We did not want to use
the exact same sorting game and grouping but wanted to stick with the
models and of course objective of the lesson. My CT kind of came up with
something on the fly on Monday that was very similar to my lesson but that
gave them a little bit of change so that they were still interested in the topic.
This is something I will continue to keep in mind for all of my lessons; to
make sure I have alternate ways to teach this concept incase reteach is
needed.
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Spring 2016_Phonics/ Word Study

I was very happy with the way this lesson turned out and I was also
very impressed with my students. This was a hard concept for first graders to
grasp within 20 minutes or so, so I was completely ecstatic to see my first
graders work so hard along with have fun at the same time. I learned
through this lesson that it is totally okay, great actually, to have high
expectations of your students and to challenge them. Although many of my
students struggle in phonics and reading, with the right amount of support,
they are capable of learning challenging concepts and using them to better
their learning.

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