Preston Reading Lesson 2

 The Blending Word Train 

Rationale: The four students I will be working with have a difficult time blending sounds together.  From my experience working with them one-on-one I noticed that they are able to segment the word into it's individual sounds but are not able to blend to sounds together on their own. Most of the time I have to support them by blending the sounds with them to create the word.  Even if the students blend the sounds to make a word they seem very unsure of themselves.  This activity will support children and build their confidence in their ability to read words. 

Objective for this lesson:

• Performance: Students will create and read words using various phonemes and their My Word Blending Mat. 
• Condition: Students will do this by identifying individual phonemes, recognizing the beginning sound, middle sound, and ending sound in the 3 syllabus words, and blending the three sounds together. 
• Criteria:   Each student will read at least 3 words (one containing a digraph) and create at least one word for a friend to read. 

Materials & supplies needed: Each student will get a zip lock bad with a set of letter cards (consonants colored blue, digraphs colored green, and vowels colored red) and a My Blending Word Mat. 

Each bag will include the follow letters or digraphs: 

Consonants: d, p, h, n, t, b, s

Digraphs: sh, th, ck, ch

Vowels: a, e, i, o, u, 

***Procedures***

 Introduction to the lesson (3 minutes): 

• I will introduce the lesson by saying, "Today we are going practice blending sounds together to make words.  Each of you has your own word blending mat.  What do you notice about your mat?" 
• Expected responses include, "there is train" or "there are three spots" 
• I will say, "That's right the train has three different cars,  a beginning, middle, and end.  The words that we are going to read today all have a beginning sound, middle sound, and end sound.  In your bags you have cards with letters on them.  Each card makes one sound. But some have only one letter, and some have two letters.  Can you think of two letters that make a single sound?" Remember sometimes two letters make a single sound, this is called a digraph.  Take out your letters and lets look at what you have" 

 OUTLINE of key events during the lesson (15 minuets) 

First I will have the students separate their letters in three piles by color (red, green, and blue). 

•  I will explain,  "All of the blue cards have a consonant on them. Remember that a constant is a letter that is not a vowel.  Can you give me an example of a consonant?"
•  "All of the green cards have digraphs on them. Digraphs are when to letters make a single sound. Can you give me an example of a digraph?"
• "All of the red cards have a vowel on them. Remember that all words need to have at least one vowel.  Can you give me an example of a vowel?"

I will model how to do the activity  

•  I will say "First I am going to use my mate to read a word.  I am going to but down three sound cards. Listen carefully to how I blend the sounds together   This time I will be the only one saying the sounds.  You will get a chance in a minute."
•   I will put the letters "b" "a" "t" on my mat in that order.  I will  have the students put it on their mat too.  I will say each individual sound and then repeat it faster and faster blending the sounds together to say the word "bat".  

For the main part of the activity I will give the student three sound cards to put on their mat (one at the

beginning, one in the middle, and one at the end).  I will go over each sound with them and then let them

practice blending the sounds.  

•  Words I will make include: hat, pan, hen, pin, that, chip, duck, sock, path, & wish
•  For the last couple words I will give less support, having the students identify the sounds and blend them together on their own. 

I will then let the children use their letters to create at least one word and then swap mats with a friend and have them sound out their word. 

•  I will let the students experiment for a little bit as to all the different words they can make. 

Closing summary for the lesson 

• To bring the lesson to a close I will have each student share one word that they created with the rest of the group. 
• I will have the students put their sounds cards back in the bags.  I will let them each take the activity home for further practice. "You can take home this activity to practice with your family.  Try working with someone in your family and show them how you can blend the sounds together to make different words." 

Ongoing-Assessment: I will make a record for each student.  I will record what words the students were able to read on their own and what words they needed support with.  I will also note the words that the students were able to create on their own.  I can use this information to make a follow-up activity.