Maggie Glidewell

Reading Lesson Designs

Emergent Literacy

Huffing and Puffing With H!

Rationale: This lesson will help children identify /h/, the phoneme represented by H. Students will learn to recognize /h/ in spoken words by learning a sound analogy (huffing) and the letter symbol H, practice finding /h/ in words, and apply phoneme awareness with /h/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words from beginning letters.

Materials: primary paper and pencil, chart with tongue tickler “Harry the hungry, hungry hippo is happily eating ham in his house”, Crockett Johnson’s Harold and the Purple Crayon (1955), word cards with HOP, HIT, RID, HELP, and, PIKE, purple crayon and drawing paper, assessment worksheet identifying pictures with /h/ and coloring utensils (URL below)

Procedures
Say: Our written language is a secret code. The tricky part is learning what letters stand for—the mouth moves we make as we say words. Today we're going to work on spotting the mouth move /h/. We spell /h/ with letter F. H looks like a very tall bed, and /h/ sounds like when you are out of breath. Have you ever been running a lot and you get really tired and start breathing heavily? Well that is the sound that /h/ makes.
Say: Let’s practice. Pretend you just ran the mile in PE class and you are super tired. You start breathing really hard (have the class make the /h/ sound). Do you notice how your mouth is moving (open and breathing out? That is the sound we make when we say /h/.
Let me show you how to find /h/ in the word hop. I'm going to stretch hop out in super slow motion and listen for my toothbrush. Hhh-o-o--ppp. Slower: hhh-o-o-o-ppp There it was! I felt my mouth open and I was breathing out.
Say: Now let’s try a tongue tickler (on chart). This one is about a hippo who likes to eat a lot of ham. “Harry the hungry, hungry hippo is happily eating ham in his house”. Everybody say it three times together. Now say it again, and this time, stretch the /h/ at the beginning of the words. “Hhhhharry the hhhhungry, hhhhungry hhhhippo is hhhhappily eating hhhham in hhhhis hhhhouse”. Try it again, and this time break it off the word: “/h/ arry the /h/ ungry, /h/ ungry /h/ ippo is /h/ appily eating /h/ am in /h/ is /h/ ouse”.
[Have students take out primary paper and pencil]. We use the letter H to spell /h/. Capital H looks like a tall bed. Let’s learn to write lowercase h. Make a straight line starting at the rooftop and then going all the way to the sidewalk. Start to make a curve at the fence and then straighten it down to the sidewalk. I want to see everybody’s h. After I put a sticker on it, I want you to draw 9 more just like it.
Call on students to answer and tell how they knew: Do you hear /h/ in happy or sad? Hot or cold? Leg or hip? Hug or rug? Bat or Cat? Say: Let's see if you can spot the mouth move /h/ in some words. Breath hard if you hear /h/: Hey, hear, clap, sorry, halo, hacker, hand, art, yellow, heal.
Say: Now we are going to take a look at a book called Harold and the Purple Crayon. In this book, a boy named Harold uses his purple crayon to make his own adventures, but he runs into some trouble along the way. Let’s read the book to see how he fixes it. [Read book to students]. Now we are going to pretend that we are Harold. Grab a purple crayon and draw something that starts with /h/. Display their work in the classroom.
Show HOP and model how to decide if it is hop or cop. Say: the H tells me to breathe hard so I know that this says hhhh-op, hop. Now you try. Hit or pit? Rid or hid? Help or welp? Pike or hike?

Assessment

Distribute the 5th page on the worksheet linked below.. Call students individually to read the phonetic cue words from step #8.

References
Assessment worksheets: http://cleverlearner.com/letter-identification/preschool-letter-h-identification-test-sheet.html

Breanna Jackson, Huffing with H https://breannajackson015.wixsite.com/mysite/emergent-literacy
Harold and the Purple Crayon. [New York]: HarperCollins, 1983.

Beginning Reader

Eek! A Mouse

Rationale: This lesson teaches children about the long vowel correspondence ee=/E/. 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 ee. They will learn a meaningful representation (a mouse), they will spell and read words containing this spelling in a Letterbox lesson, and read a decodable book that focuses on the correspondence ee = /E/.
Materials: Picture of a mouse; letterboxes for each student and magnetic ones for teacher; letter manipulatives for student and magnetic ones for teacher: b,e,e,s,d,c,h,k,r,w,t,n; flashcards: bee, seed, cheek, red, sweet, screen; projector; cover-up critter; individual and electronic copies of decodable book Lee and the Team; assessment worksheet (link below); safety scissors; glue
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 short vowel sounds with e like ‘wet’ and today we are going to learn about long E and the sound it makes, /E/. When I say /E/, I think of a little mouse squeaking [show picture of mouse]. Can everybody squeak like a mouse? [have the students say /E/]
2. Say: Before we learn about the spelling of /E/, we need to listen for it in some words. When I listen for /E/ in words I hear e say its name /E/ and my mouth smiles. [Make vocal gesture for /E/]. I’ll show you first: meet. I heard e say its name and I felt my mouth go into a smile. There is long E in meet. Now I’m going to see iff it’s in pen. Hmmm, I didn’t hear e say its name and my mouth didn’t smile. Now you try. If you hear /E/, pretend to be a mouse. If you don’t hear /E/ shake your head no. Is it in feet, rip, school, glee, creep, roll?
3. Say: Now let’s look at the spelling of /E/ that we’ll learn today. One way to spell /E/ is with two e’s [write ee on the board]. What if I wanted to spell the word sheep. “Little Bo Peep has lost her sheep”. To spell sheep in letter boxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word, so I stretch it out and count: /sh/ /ee/ /p/. I need 3 boxes. I heard the /E/ right in the middle so I am going to put two e’s in the second box. S and H make the shhhh sound so I am going to put those in the first box. The last sound is /p/. P makes /p/ so I will put that one in the last box.
4. Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You’ll start out easy with two boxes for bee. What should go in the first box? [Respond to children’s answers.] Did you remember to put two e’s in the box together? I’ll check your spelling as I walk around the room. [observe progress]. You’ll need three letterboxes for the next word. Listen for the beginning sound that goes in the first box. Then listen for /E/ and don’t forget to put 2 e’s in the box together. Here’s the word: seed. [Allow children to spell words]. Time to check your work. Watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the bord s-ee-d and see if you’ve spelled it the same way. Try another with three boxes: cheek. [Have a 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 /E/ in it before you spell it: red. Did you need one or two e’s? Why? Right, because we don’t hear e say its name. We spell it with our short vowel e [volunteer spells it on the front board]. Now let’s try 4 phonemes: sweet. One more then we’re done with spelling and this time we will need five boxes: screen. Remember to stretch it out to get this tough word.
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 flashcard with screen on the projector and model reading the word.] First I see there’s two e’s, that’s my signal that the vowel will say its name. I am going to use a cover-up to get the first part . [uncover and blend sequentially before the vowel, then blend with the vowel.] /s/ c/ = /sc/ +/r/ = /scr/. Now I’m going to blend that with /E/ = /scrE/. Now all I need is the end /n/ = /scrEn/ Screen. Now it’s your turn, everyone together. [Have children read words the following words in unison: sweet, sheep, peet, treep, screen, cheek, creep, glee, seed. Afterwards, call on individuals to read one word on the list until everyone has had a turn.]
6. Say: You’ve done a great job reading words with our new spelling ee = /E/. Now we are going to read a book called Lee and the Team. Lee is the captain of his team and he needs to get them to run, but his team is tired and won’t listen. Let’s pair up and take turns reading Lee and the Team to find out if Lee can get his team to run. [Children pair up and take turns reading alternate pages each while the teacher walks around the room monitoring progress. After individual paired reading, the class rereads Lee and the Team aloud together and stops between page turns to discuss the plot.]
7. Say: that was a fun story. How did Lee get his team to run? Right, he yells about the bee. Where was the team resting? Right, by the tree. Before we finish up with our lesson about one way to spell /E/ = /ee/, I want to see how you can solve a reading problem. This worksheet has pictures that either have the /e/ sound or the /E/ sound. Your job is to put the pictures in the correct group depending on which sound they have. [collect worksheets to evaluate individual child’s progress]. (link to worksheet is in resources)
Resources:
1. Cushman, Sheila; Kornblum, Rona; Bob Brugger; Lee and the Team; Educational Insights; 1990
2. Oh! I didn't know by Geri Murray
3. Assessment Worksheet (Use page 12)

Contact

Falling Into Fluency

Rationale: Fluent reading is essential in comprehending texts. Fluency is where students recognize all words as sight vocabulary, and in result, students are able to read with speed and expression. This lesson is aimed to help students develop fluency in more developed texts. Fluent readers can read quickie, correctly use blending, and read effortlessly. We want readers to be motivated to read and reread decodable words in connected text. Throughout this lesson students will practice their strategies of crosschecking a decodable text to gain fluency and independence in reading. We will also gain a better idea of the students ability to read texts fluently and independently.
Materials: White board and markers, Class set of Llama Llama Red Pajama, Reading comprehension worksheet (written below), Stopwatches, Partner reading recording sheet (written below), Paper and coloring utensils, Pencils, Calculator
Procedures:
1. Say: “Today we are going to talk about fluent reading! Can someone tell me what it means if you are a fluent reader? Right, fluent readers can read smoothly, quickly, and they understand what they are reading. They comprehend what happens in the story. They can also read with expression. That means they can change their voices to match a certain text. To become a fluent reader, we need to practice, so that’s what we’re going to do today.”
2. Write the sentence “I like to play at the park”. Say: “Now let’s take a look at the sentence written on the board. I am going to show you how to crosscheck when we come across a word that we may have forgotten.”[Model] and say: “Now when I’m reading this sentence I might read ‘I /l/i/k/ to...’. Hmmmm that sounds kind of funny. Let me read the rest of the sentence. “...go to the park’. Oh! I like to go to the park. That was an i_e word so it must say /I/ not /i/. Now let me reread the sentence so that I can know what it says and can recognize the words in the future. ‘I like to go to the park’.”
3. Write ‘The cat was fat’ on the board. Say and Model: “Now I am going to show you how a fluent and non-fluent reader might read. Let's look at our second sentence. A non-fluent reader might read like this: ‘thththththeeeee ccccaaattt wwwwaaaassss ffffaaaattt’. Notice how I read really slow and stretched out my words? That often makes it difficult to understand what I am reading. If I read it again, I may be able to read a little faster and smoother. Let’s try: ‘The cat was fat” (read smoothly and with expression). Notice how that time my words flowed together and it was easier to understand what I was reading! I also added more expression which made the text appear more interesting. That is how a fluent reader would read. Now let’s read it together. ‘The cat was fat’.”
4. Write the word thrown on the board. Say and model: “Now Let's look at how we word read a tough word. Let’s look at this word. This one is a little tricky because you might mix up the vowel sound. If I were to look at the word, I might say /th/r/ow/n. However, we know that that isn’t a real word. We need to remember our rule /ow/ = /O/. If we remember that rule we could say this word using body-coda blending. Start with /O/, then add /th/, /r/, and then /n/, and now you have thrown. Now let’s say it together smoothly and fluently.” (everyone says thrown)
5. Say: “We are going to practice being fluent readers by reading Cats! Cats! Cats!. In this book, Mrs. Kittikat has a lot of pet cats. She brings new cats home all the time, but one day she runs out of room for all of her cats! They have nowhere to sleep! Let’s read to find out what Mrs. Kittikat does to help her cats.” Read the book aloud to the students and get them engaged with the book using Talk Before You Turn.
6. Students will read the whole book silently to themselves and fill out the reading comprehension worksheet.
  1. Reading comprehension worksheet:

Name: _________

Date:_______

What is the first thing Mr. Hardhammer built?
Who were some other people who came to help?
How did Mrs. Kittikat find room for all her cats?
Does Mrs. Kittikat stop bringing home new cats?

Now tell the class to get with a partner beside them and pass out decodable books to the pairs. Pass out recording sheets and stopwatches to each group. Say: “Now we are going to play the fluency game. Reader 1 is going to start off the game and Reader 2 will then record the time on the sheet that I have just handed out. After reading the information, switch roles, so Reader 2 will read and then Reader 1 will time and record. Do this three times each. As you listen to your partner read aloud the pages, I want you to be listening for how their reading changes each time. Do they read smoother? Do they remember more words? Do they read with more expression, meaning facial movement and changes in their voice? Please mark these changes you notice in your paper. Only give positive feedback about their reading.”
1. Partner reading recording sheet

Name: _______

Date: _________

Title: ________

Reader: ________

Checker: _________

First time reading: ____ minutes and _____ seconds
Second time reading: ____ minutes and _____ seconds
Third time reading: ____ minutes and _____ seconds

Notes (add any notes about expression or comprehension here):

Say: “Now that we have finished the readings, I want to review these questions with you.” Respond to student answers: “What is the first thing Mr. Hardhammer built? Right, a bunk bed. Who were some other people that came to help? Correct, Mr. Bangnails, Mrs. Saw-wood, and Mr. Drillscrew. How does Mrs. Kittikat find room for all of the cats? Yes, she gave all the cats to happy homes. Did Mrs. Kittikat stop bringing home cats! Right, she still brought them home but she always gave the new cats to other homes.
Say: “Now I have a fun activity for you. I want you to pick your favorite part of the book and draw it out. For example, I liked when they tried to put all of the cats on the boat. So I would draw a boat with a bunch of cats. While you all do that individually, I will call you up one by one and we will calculate your fluency score together!” Calculate students WPM using the formula [(words x 60)/seconds] and their fastest time on the partner reading recording sheet (word count is 233). After each student has met with you, have them take an Accelerated Reader Test on the book.

References:
1. Samantha O’Neill, Hi, Fly Reader! https://slo0013.wixsite.com/readingdesigns/growing-independence-and-fluency
2. Mary Gayle Mitchel, Flying into Fluency https://marygayle99.wixsite.com/website/growing-independence-and-fluency
3. Wiseman, B.; Cats! Cats! Cats!; Parents Magazine Press- New York, 1984

Reading to Learn

Swimming Into Summarization

Rationale: Summarization is essential to reading comprehension. A helpful method for summarization is the about-point method, which asks two important questions about the text: 1) What is the text about? This question is typically easy and will identify the topic that becomes the subject of the topic sentence. 2) What is the main point the writer is trying to make about the topic? This question is harder since authors typically make multiple points. Students must “superordinate” the points or find an umbrella term or phrase in order to cover all of the main points the author is making. The main point will become the predicate of the topic sentence.
Materials: white board and markers, student copies of Soft Schools article “Dolphins” (link below), paper and pencils for each student, summarization checklist
Procedures:
1. Say: When we read we are trying to figure out what the words on the pages say, but we also should be trying to figure out what they mean and what is most important about them. [explain to children why summarization is important]. When we read we don’t try and remember every word we read, we would have to spend all day trying to remember all of the words and details. That is why we summarize, because good readers don’t try to remember everything. Good readers use summarization strategies to remember the important points an author is making. Doing this reduces a text from hundreds to thousands of words to a small list of things to remember.
2. Say: The best way to summarize is using something called about-point. Does anyone know what this might be? (wait for response) About-point is asking yourself an easy question and a hard question in order to make a topic sentence. The easy question is asking yourself “What is this text about?” The hard question is “What is the main point the author is making about the topic?” To answer this question we must think of an umbrella term for all the important points a writer is making.
3. Say: I am about to show you how to do an about-point summary with a story containing information about dolphins. What is a dolphin? Where do they live? Why do they have a hole on the top of their heads? Do you know anything about dolphins? (wait for responses and write what students answer on the board in order to revisit and fact check them later)
4. Say: Let’s talk about some vocabulary words we will encounter while reading today. Blubber is a layer of fat that some sea mammals have to help them float and keep warm. Dolphins are one of the creatures that have blubber. Does anyone know any other creatures that have it? (wait for responses). Can anyone tell me a sentence that uses the word blubber?
5. Say: Here is a paragraph about dolphins that we are going to read and then summarize together.
  1. The dolphin has a torpedo shape, long and thin. It can move quickly through the water as the flippers help it steer. The dolphin doesn't have bones. The fins keep the dolphin going in a straight line. Both the fin and flippers sense objects that may be in the way.
6. Read the paragraph out loud to the students and have them follow along.
7. Say: This paragraph is about dolphins, but what important points is the author making? The author is talking about how dolphins can move fast. Using this information I can make a sentence summarizing what I just read: Dolphins have lots of special features that help them swim faster.
8. Say: Now I want you to use about-point on a paragraph.
  1. Dolphins can also communicate with their friends by sounds. Certain sounds send different messages. Dolphins will go to help another dolphin if they hear a cry for aid. Each dolphin has its own specific sound. It can be identified by other dolphins. Being able to communicate well with others is a sign of great intelligence.
9. Say: What is this paragraph about? Yes, dolphins! What is the main point the author is trying to make? Yes! Dolphins are good at communication. Putting these together with what we have learned earlier, we can summarize the article with topic sentences. [Create a summarization sentence for this paragraph with the class and correct what is wrong].
10. Say: Now I want you all to practice! Read the article again silently to yourselves and practice distinguishing important things from unimportant things. Underline what is unimportant and highlight what's important.
11. Say; Now I would like you to go back through the article and use about-point to make a summarization sentence for each paragraph. When you are finished, you will have a good summary of the whole article, which will help you remember important facts about dophins. You are writing a short version of the article in your own words, including only the important ideas to remember. After you finish, I will collect your summaries and make sure everyone has got it.
Assessment:
1. Collect each students summary of the article and evaluate the summarization using the following checklist:
  1. __Collected important information
  2. __ Ignored trivia and examples in summary.
  3. __ Significantly reduced the text from the original
  4. __ Sentences brought ideas together from each paragraph
  5. __Sentences organized coherently into essay form.
2. Have the students complete comprehension questions about the article:
  1. How does blubber help dolphins?
  2. Why does a dolphin use echolocation
  3. How deep does a dolphin usually dive for its prey?
  4. Why is it important for dolphins to be fast?
  5. What is the point the author is trying to make about dolphin’s communication?
References:
1. Soft School’s article “Dolphins”: https://www.softschools.com/language_arts/reading_comprehension/science/31/dolphins/
2. “Swimming in Summarization”, Libby McKee https://edmckee13.wixsite.com/lessondeigns/reading-to-learn