Class: First Grade English / Beginner
Skills: Sound recognition for short vowel a
Time: 90 minutes (2 class periods, 45 minutes each)
By the end of this lesson students will be able to recognize where the "a"sound is placed in a word (beginning, middle, end)
Materials: Computer, projector, speakers, handout
Teacher will project from the Ultimate Phonics Reading Program. For the purpose of this lesson I will provide screen shots of the software which will be projected during the lesson.
Background:
I will begin the class by explaining to the students that the letter "a" has a name and a sound which I will then proceed to demonstrate. I will then go on to show students the different words that have the short sound "a" in them. The software reads words to students dividing them by letter sound. I will first play students the software audio and then I will model so that they repeat the sound. I will be careful to show where the sound "a" is made in the word. I will write words that contain that short a sound on the board such as "at" and "cat" and will ask "Is the "a" sound in cat in the beginning of the word?" waiting for the students' response. After we are done with the lesson I will give them a handout where they will write the letter "a" in its corresponding place in the word. I will not be using the last part of the activity which is a sentence reading.
1. Teacher will write the letter "a" on the board and asks students which vowel is that.
2. Teacher then asks students to say words that have the "a" sound (students will say words with short and long "a")
3. Teacher will then proceed to show students the vowel sound in different words.
4. Students will look at the presentation and listen to the sounds made by the software and the teacher.
5. The teacher will then show pictures of words that contain the short "a" sound such as apple, airplane, bat, cat, hat, map, mat...
6. Once the activity is complete students will work on the worksheets provided by the teacher.
Lesson Review:
1. How will you use this resource to meet the needs of your instructional purposes?
This activity is one that I will definitely use this semester with my first grade students. This is the first time and first year I will give this class, teach this material and use this resource. Since most students come to first grade with previous knowledge from Kindergarden from school students already come with vocabulary in English. I need to use prior knowledge to teach sound discrimination and comprehension. I believe this resource will help me a lot with this because we are using technology to get the message across and using digital pictures to support the material.
2. What handouts or directions will you provide students to focus learning and adapt this resource for your instructional resources.
Some of the handouts that will be provided in the class are shown in the blog. These handouts are to test what the students learned and understood from the lesson, as well as providing a fun and entertaining way to put what was learned into practice. Directions will be provided before the lesson; which will be to pay attention and to repeat the sounds as they are said. After the listening activity is complete I will instruct students to complete the handouts which are provided for practice.
3. Are the format, organization, design and language level of this resource appropriate for your instructional goals?
The language level for this resource shifts from very basic to low-intermediate. There are some sounds that are taught and used with older learners (maybe teenagers or pre-teens). The resource language shifts from very basic and builds up as the lessons progress which shows that is a really good resource for those learning to read.
4. What are the potential problems, either language based or technical that you may need to troubleshoot or prepare for?
Some of the technical problems I may encounter while or before teaching this lesson might be that my computer does not work properly, I might leave my charger at home or maybe I will forget my speakers. For all of these possible problems I may encounter I have to be sure to have hard copies of the lesson. I know it will be difficult to have hard copies of every page in the software's lessons so I have to be prepare to show hard pictures and write the words on the board and produce the sounds for the students.
