Rationale: In this lesson students will learn about the short vowel correspondence i =/i/. Children must learn to recognize the spellings that map word pronunciations in order to read. In this lesson children will learn to recognize, spell, and read words with the correspondence i = /i/. They will learn a meaningful representation (sticky hands), they will model their understanding of the sound with a tongue tickler, they will spell and read words containing the i = /i/ correspondence in a letterbox lesson, and read a decodable book that focuses on the correspondence i = /i/.
Materials:
• Graphic image of sticky hands.
• Cover-up critter.
• Whiteboard or smartboard Elkonin boxes for modeling.
• Individual Elkonin boxes for each student.
• Letter manipulatives for each student.
• Magnetic or smartboard letters for teacher: i, t, r, p, g, t, s, c, k, d, n, l, b.
• List of spelling words on poster or whiteboard to read off: it, rip, get, pig, stick, dent, clip, blink; pseudoword: fim
• Decodable text: Lad and His Pals; Slip and Spin; and assessment worksheet (https://www.education.com/worksheet/article/meet-word-family-short-i/).
Procedure:
1. Say: “Good morning! I hope everyone is excited to learn today! In order to become expert readers, we must first learn the code that tells us how to pronounce words. Today we are going to be learning about the short vowel I and the sound that it makes. Every time you see an /i/ in a word, think of the sound we make when we touch something really sticky, like when we eat popsicles! [Show graphic image while stretching /i/ and showing hand gesture of waving or wiping hands with something sticky on them.] Now everybody try to make the sound of eating sticky popsicles and show me your hand gestures.
2. Say: Before we learn the spellings of /i/, we need to listen for it in some words. When we say /i/ we can see that our mouths stay open, but our tongues stay low. Try it with me /i/, /i/, /i/ [make vocal gesture of /i/]. Now let’s try our i = /i/ in a tongue tickler, “The important Indian was ill with injuries inside the igloo.” Say it slowly and stretch out the words so that we can listen for /i/ and do our hand gesture. The iiiiiiimportant IIIIIIIndian was iiiiiiill with iiiiiiinjuries iiiiiiinside the iiiiigloo. Great job remembering our sticky hands! Let me show you how the listen for /i/ in the word stick. [Do hand gestures while vocalizing] Stiiick, yes! I hear our short I in the word stick. Why don’t we try and see if pants has the /i/ sound? Hmmm, I didn’t hear our /i/ sound in pants. Now, if you hear /i/ I want you to make our sticky hand motion. If you don’t hear /i/ I want you to shake your head no. Is it in rig, cat, lint, plant, sink?
3. Say: Now let’s take a look at the spellings of /i/ that we’ll learn today. We spell the sound /i/ using the lowercase letter i. What if I want to spell the word dip? “He went for a dip in the pool.” To spell dip with our letterboxes, I need to know how many phonemes are in the word, so I stretch it out and count: /d/ /i/ /p/. So, I need three boxes. I heard that /i/ just before the /p/, so I am going to put the letter i in the second box. The word starts with /d/ that’s easy; I need a d in our first letterbox to complete the spelling of the word dip.
4. Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You’ll start out easy with two boxes for it. Like, “it was really sunny outside.” What should go in the first box? [Respond to student’s answers.] What goes in the second box? I’ll check your spelling while I walk around the room. [Observe the students’ progress.] You’ll need three letterboxes for the next word. Listen for the beginning sounds that goes in the first box. Then listen for /i/. Here’s the word: win, “They celebrated their big win with some ice cream; win”. [Allow students to spell remaining words while giving them sentences for each of the words: rip, get, stick, dent, clip, blink.]” Remind students to listen to each word to see if they hear the /i/ sound before spelling.
5. Say: Great job with those letterboxes! I want us to practice the words we just spelled so well. Remember, when we want to read a word that has sticky i, we start with /i/, add the first part of the word to /i/ and then add the rest of the word. [Display board with each word written in large print: it, rip, get, pig, stick, dent, clip, blink; pseudoword: fim.] I want everyone to try to read the words together now and then I will call each student up to read a few words with me.
6. Say: Amazing job reading those words everyone! I think we’re all ready to try reading a book. The book we are going to read today is called Slip and Spin. This book is about Tim’s got a new pet and he’s home, and Elf the cat is curious. What is it? Oh no it’s slippery, Elf better be careful! I want everyone to find a partner. You and your partner will take turns reading Slip and Spin and I want everyone to pay special attention to the words with our sticky i. [Teacher walks around the room monitoring progress. After each group is finished reading, the class rereads Slip and Spin together, and stops between page turns to discuss the story.]
7. Say: Before we finish up our lesson, I want you all to complete this worksheet. Please listen to the directions very carefully. I want you to read the words in the left column and figure out what ending they all share, and circle that in the box. Then, using the picture as a clue, write another word with that same ending that matched the picture. For example, if there are words in the column ending in ‘ig’, and there is a picture of a wig, I would write wig on the line. [Teacher will provide help to students who need it and collect each worksheet to score each student’s progress.]
Resources:
• Murray, Bruce. (2012). Making Sight Words.
• A Confused Caveman says “uuuhhh” by Ivy Hughs https://ivyhughes0004.wixsite.com/iah0004/beginning-reading-design
• Icky, Sticky, Icee by Saragrace Sawyer https://sps0040.wixsite.com/website/beginning-to-read
• Icky Sticky Ice Cream by Sarah Elliot https://sae0016.wixsite.com/my-site/beginning-reading
• Murray, Geri and Bruce. (2019) Lad and His Pals; Slip and Spin.
• Assessment- Short vowel sounds: “i” https://www.education.com/worksheet/article/meet-word-family-short-i/