Using Songwriting to Build Awareness of Beginning Letter Sounds
This particular lesson really caught my eye for several different reasons. First of all, my class entered school this year with very weak phonemic awareness, overall. The majority of these students have had a difficult time learning letter names, and are only beginning to realize that the letters make different sounds. Now some are starting to realize what the beginning sound of a word is, and I think that these lessons provide an excellent opportunity for them to practice listening for beginning sounds and generating other words with the same initial sound. As a former music teacher, I think that the students are engaged by the use of music in the academic areas, and in my experience, applying the “Music Smart” area of multiple intelligences deepens their understanding of concepts. I was intrigued by the combination of phonemic awareness practice and music-making in this lesson!
This lesson begins with a familiar nursery rhyme, Mary Had a Little Lamb. The children sing that song together, then they begin making changes to the words, using the beginning sound /b/. They sing about Bessie Bird, who lives in a barn and likes to eat bacon. As a part of Session 2, the children select different beginning sounds, think of an animal, a name, a place to live, and a food, all with the same initial sound, to create different verses. I think that this would be an enjoyable activity – I can envision the verses becoming sillier and sillier, but all within the same purpose – working with initial sounds. The third session involves illustrating the different verses. I particularly like this session because we talk often about the role of the illustrator, and I think this session highlights the importance of that role in texts. I would gather the different illustrated verses into a class songbook to go into our class library – I think that would be one of the most-read books in the library center! In fact, I think we’d possible want to have copies for each child to share at home.
I also liked the extension activities listed in this lesson. The “Sing a Song” website, http://www.kinderplanet.com/music.htm, offers opportunities for the children to listen for words with specified beginning sounds. Also, the “Picture Match” link, http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives/picturematch/, and the “ABC Match” link, http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives/abcmatch/, provide other chances for the students to practice working with beginning sounds. I have used those links in lessons in my class the last two weeks, and the students have responded positively to those activities.
Marlee Wright