Rationale: This lesson teaches children about the short vowel correspondence i = /i/. Students will learn to recognize, spell, and read words containing “i”. They will learn a meaningful representation (like having something icky or gross on your hands), they will spell and read words in a letterbox lesson, and read a decodable book that focuses on the correspondence i = /i/.

 

Materials:

• Graphic image of the /i/ sound, a woman who has her hands messy.

• Letterboxes

• Letter manipulative for each student  ( i, s, w, m, g, r, n, t, l, k, d, h)

• Liz is Six – decodable book

• Assessment worksheet

 

 

Procedures:

• Say: “Sometimes we need to learn codes to help us pronounce words. We have already learned short vowel a, in words like bag, fat, and cat. Today, we are going to learn about a new vowel: short i. When I say /i/, think of something icky and gross on your hands, like when you play with slime. (show image).

• Say: “Before we learn about the spelling of /i/, we need to listen for it in some words. Let’s see if we can hear our /i/ sound in our new tongue tickler, “The icky, sticky pig hit Izzy in the lip.” “When you hear the /i/ sound in these words, make your icky, sticky hands.” (demonstrate with vocal gesture of /i/). “Now let’s stretch out our /i/ sound: “The iiiicky, stiiiicky, piiiig hiiit IIIIzzy iiin the liiip.” “Good, I saw all of your icky, sticky hands!”

• Say: “I’ll show you how I can listen for /i/ in the word. I felt my mouth slightly open, and my tongue lowered. There is a short i in the word: big, now I’m going to see if I can hear it in the word: huge. I didn’t feel my mouth open and my tongue lower. Now you try. If you hear /i/ in these words then do your icky, sticky hands: six, bat, thin, chip.

• Say: “Now what if I want to spell the word ship? “I want to get on a ship and sail across the ocean.” Ship means boat in the sentence. To spell ship in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word so I stretch it out and count: /sh/ /i/ /p/. I need 3 boxes. I heard the /i/ sound just before the /p/ so I’m going to put the letter I in the 2nd box and the letter p in the 3rd box. What did I hear before the /i/ sound? Let’s say it again /sh/ /i/ /p/, Oh! I heard /sh/, so I will put the letter s and letter h in the first box together. Let’s read it together, /sh/ /i/ /p/, sh-i-p, that spells ship!”

• Say: “Now I will show you how I would read a tough word. (Display poster with switch on the top and model reading the word). “I’m going to start with the /i/ sound. Now I’m going to put the beginning letters with it: s-w-i. Now I’ll put that chunk together with the last sound, swi-tch. “Oh, switch, like “I am going to switch on the lights in the classroom.”

• Say: “Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. We will start out easy with just two boxes for is. “I’ll check your spelling while I walk around the room. (Observe progress). “You will need three letter boxes for the next word. Listen for the beginning sound to spell in the first box, then listen for our /i/ sound, and don’t forget to put the letter you hear at the end. Here is the word: swim, I want to go swim in the pool; swim. (Allow students to spell remaining words, giving sentences for each word: grin, twin, trip, milk, dish.

• Say: “Now I am going to let you read the words you’ve spelled. (Show the words: is, swim, grin, twin, trip, milk, dish, the extra words wish and miss and the pseudoword list.) (Have students read the words together. Then, call on individuals to read words until everyone has had a turn.)

• Say: “You have done such a great job reading these words with our new spelling for /i/. I think it’s time that we read a new book! The book is Liz is Six. It is Liz’s birthday today! Her and Pig decide to play a game of baseball! Liz hits the ball very hard, but let’s find out if Pig is going to actually catch it! Let’s pair up and take turn’s reading Liz is Six. (Students pair up and take turns reading alternate pages. Walk around and monitor progress. After individual paired reading, the class rereads Liz is Six together as a class and talk about it.)

• Say: “Did you all enjoy that book? Did Pig catch the ball?” (Allow students to answer). “We are almost finished with our lesson on i = /i/, and you all have done so well! I want to challenge you with one more thing, I want to see how you can do this worksheet individually. You have to look at all these words and pictures and decide which ones have our short i sound /i/ in them. Not all of them have the /i/ sound in them so be careful! Once, you have chosen all the ones short i words, then color the ones which have our /i/ sound. (Collect the worksheets to evaluate individual student’s progress).

 

 

Resources:

• Cushman, Shelia. Liz is Six: Book 5: Short I

• Assessment Worksheet - http://schoolexpress.com/fws/ws/phonics/vowels/Short_Vowel_Ii_Book_1.4.pdf

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