Rationale: This lesson is designed to teach children about the short vowel correspondence i=/i/. Students will learn a meaningful representation (sticky hands: “iiiiick”), they will spell and read words containing this spelling in a Letterbox lesson, they will read pseudowords with this spelling, and read a decodable book that focuses on the correspondence i=/i/.
Materials: Graphic image of icky hands; tongue tickler on poster; white board boxes for modeling (may be made with marker or magnets) and individual Elkonin boxes for each student; letter tiles for each student and magnetic letters for the teacher: i, l, c, k, t, a, p, d, h, r, b, s; list of spelling words on poster to read: if, lick, tap, chip, brat, stink. And pseudowords: brip, tid; decodable book: Liz is Six. Phonics Readers, Educational Insights (1990). (multiple copies for pairs); assessment worksheet and crayons.
Procedures:
1. Say: Our written language is a secret code. We have to learn what each letter stands for. In order to do this, we need to pay attention to how our mouth moves when we say a letter. Today, we are going to make the short vowel sound /i/. When we make our /i/ sound we with pretend like we have something icky on our hands. We are going to hold our hands out and say “iiiiick”.
2. Say: Before we learn to spell words with “i,” we are going to listen for it in some words. When I listen for /i/ in words, I feel my mouth widen and air blow out as I say “iii, iii, iii.” I will show you how to check if our short is in the word "H-iii-t" I heard my "iiick" sound and my mouth widen to push out air. There is the short i in hit. Now I am going to check and see if it is in the word cup. "Cc-uuuu-pp" Nope. I didn’t hear /i/.
3. Say: Let’s practice making our /i/ sound by saying a tongue tickler together. I will read it off the poster board first and then we will read it together. “The important Indian was ill with injuries.” (reread together).
4. Say: Now I am going to have you spell some words in letter boxes. I will draw how many boxes we are using for each word on the board. You will place that many boxes in front of you in a horizontal line. We are going to start off easy with two boxes for the word it. “I saw a box on my porch, so I went to grab it.” What goes in the first box? [Wait for answers and respond] (i, that’s right!) What goes in our second box? [Look around the room to check] (t, that’s correct!). For the next word, we will need three letterboxes. Remember, if you are having trouble spelling the word, try to listen for the vowel first, add the beginning, and then finish with the ending after the vowel. Here’s the word: lick. “I felt my puppy lick my face”; lick. [Allow children time to spell words.] Time to check your work. Watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the board: l-i-c-k. The tricky part of this word is that we put two letter (c and k) in one box. We do this because they work together to make the same /k/ sound. Next word. Listen to see if you hear /i/ in it before you spell it: tap. “I felt my mom tap my head” Tap. Did we hear our short vowel i? No, we didn’t. Why? Right. Because we didn’t hear our “iiick” sound. We spell it with our short vowel a. Let’s try another word with three boxes: chip. “My favorite snack is a potato chip; chip. Now, let’s try one with four phonemes: brat. “The baby was being a brat”; brat. [Have a student come to the board and demonstrate] One more and we are done with spelling. This time you will need five boxes: stink. “The trash began to stink”; stink. [Walk around and observe answers.]
5. Say: Now I am going to let you read the words we spelled. First, I will show you how I would read a tough word. [Display poster with stink on the top and model reading the word.] First, I see my short i in the middle. Next, I cover up the last part to find out the beginning. [Uncover and blend before the vowel, then blend the vowel.] /s//t/=/st/+/i/=/sti/. Now all I need is the end, /n/+/k/=/nk/. /sti/+/nk/=/stink/. Stink; that’s it! Now it’s your turn. We are all going to read together. [Point at the word on the poster and have students read in unison.]
6. Say: You guys did so well reading words with our new vowel “i.” Now we get to read a book called Liz is Six. This is a story of a girl named Liz. It is Liz’s sixth birthday party and she gets a baseball mitt! Her friend the pig gets a big hit and Liz catches it in her mitt. When it is Liz’s turn to hit, the pig is ready for a big catch. But, her hit is a big one! Will the pig catch it? {Students will pair up and take turns reading pages. The teacher will walk around the classroom and monitor reading progress. After each pair finishes reading their book, the class reads Liz is Six aloud together, with an interactive “talk before you turn” prompt provided by the teacher to spark discussion about the plot.
7. Say: That was a fun story. Did Liz have a good birthday? Did Pig make the catch? Yes, that’s right. Before we finish with our lesson today, I want to see if you can recognize our short in words. I will give you a worksheet and you color in the parts of the picture that have a word with the /i/ sound in it. Reread the words a few times to make sure you are correct before you color it in. Once you have finished coloring, come to my desk and we will read the words together. (assess students' understanding as they read the words in the picture)
References:
Deshazo, Paige. Ick!! Icky Sticky!! https://pmd0015.wixsite.com/mysite/beginning-reading
Murray, Bruce. The Reading Genie. http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/.
Assessment Worksheet: https://www.education.com/worksheet/article/short-sounds-i/