Reading in the Middle, Junior and Senior High Schools, Spring, 2010

"Building Phonemic Awareness with Phoneme Isolation"

http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/building-phonemic-awareness-with-120.html?tab=1#tabs

Since I’m a communication disorders major I’m exposed to phonemes in almost all of my classes so this lesson plan really hit home. This was intended for the lower grades, mainly first, and is trying to help the students differentiate between different phonemes in each word, so that the students have a better grip of what sound goes to what letter in a word. The lesson starts off with the teacher pulling objects out of a paper bag and asking the students to identify what it is and then what sound they hear at the end of the word. If the object is a pen then have the students make the /n/ sound. After they have established what the sound is, the teacher has the students join in a chant to help them better hear the end sound. The chant also helps the children stay focused because they have to clap their hands and snap which keeps them actively engaged. The chant goes back and forth alternating between the beginning and ending sounds. Following this activity they do a worksheet as a class to make sure they are on track and understanding what they have been taught. The second day of this lesson they play another game where they stand in a circle and a word is read out to them and they are asked to identify if it’s the beginning or ending phoneme. Before playing they are given two signals to do that if it is the beginning phoneme they could hop on one foot or if it’s at the end they could hop on two, for example. So if the word “book” was said and they were asked to identify where the /k/ sound is, they would hop on two feet. I liked this activity because it allows the students to move around while still focusing to hear where the sound is located in the word. I thought it would also be beneficial to throw in a word like “bump” because the /b/ and /p/ sounds are cognates, so they share the same place and manner of articulation the only difference is their voicing, which would mean the children would have to pay closer attention to tell them apart. At the end of this activity the children the teacher would once again follow up with a worksheet to do as a class. On the third day the students would be given premade index cards with pictures on them. The students would then be told to go partner up with another student who has a picture of something that begins or ends, which is decided at the beginning of the game, with the same phoneme as they have. So if they were looking for someone else who had the same beginning phoneme as “cat” they could partner with “cake” and so forth. After playing this game the students are finally asked to complete a worksheet on their own. This process is an ongoing one that is built upon throughout the year to make sure the students are able to isolate the phonemes. You can continue these games and make the words progressively harder. One reason I liked this lesson plan so much was because the students are able to be active instead of strictly doing worksheets. Some children don’t seem to demonstrate their knowledge of the subject when they have to do worksheets whether they get bored or just don’t want to do them, so by the teacher observing the students from beginning to end with the activities included they are able to see who has mastered the concept and who may be struggling a little bit.

I really liked the anticipation guide idea. It gave a preview of what I was going to be reading about so that when I came across the points in the article they jumped out at me. At first when I was answering the questions I wasn't sure exactly how I was going to answer because these were things I had never thought in detail about. After reading I was able to think more critically about the questions and it made me more aware of some of my own opinions. Even though some parts of the article had not completely convinced me on a few of the arguments, it made it easier to defend my point of views instead of just giving a general statement as my answer. This activity also helped me understand the article in detail because I knew that I was looking for key points to defend my statements with so I had to read closely to find them.