CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.2.D
Isolate and pronounce the initial, medial vowel, and final sounds (phonemes) in
three-phoneme (consonant-vowel-consonant, or CVC) words.1 (This does not
include CVCs ending with /l/, /r/, or /x/.)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.3.A
Demonstrate basic knowledge of one-to-one letter-sound correspondences by
producing the primary sound or many of the most frequent sounds for each
consonant.
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.K.MD.B.3
Classify objects into given categories; count the numbers of objects in each
category and sort the categories by count.1
Student Learning Goal: State your Goal for the students to share
Students will match the sound of several common consonant letters (B, C, D, F, L,
M, N, P, R, T) with their alphabetic letters
Students will practice the skill of sounding out a word to determine its beginning
sound and letter
Students will increase their confidence at decoding unfamiliar words as they learn
to associate the beginning sounds of words with their associated letters. They will
work cooperatively as they consider how to categorize objects based on initial
sound.
Students may incorrectly identify the objects used for sorting, leading to
misunderstandings about how to categorize them. Students who are more concrete
thinkers may struggle to associate the objects with their beginning letters rather
than their uses and associations with other objects.
Part 2: My Class
My Classroom Composite: (TEACHER & LEARNER): Whole group
The class is composed of sixteen students; there are 9 girls and 7 boys. No students
have yet been formally identified with exceptionalities, but two students are suspected
to have some sort of learning disability (processing disorder and ADHD). Most
students are beginning to show an active interest in the sounds of words and their
associated letters. There has been an ongoing study surrounding a “letter of the
week,” which has spurred interest in the letters of the alphabet and their sounds, but
no formal phonics work has yet taken place. The classroom is play-based and
technology free. The class reflects a wide range of interests.
Focus Student #1: Special Needs Focus Student #2: English Language learner
STAGE 2: TEACHING
1. Gather students in a group (five or six students) and share the objects to be sorted
with them.
2. Take the objects out of the box one by one, asking students to name them. Correct
any misconceptions about what the objects are (for example: if students call the
“broom” a “mop,” make immediate corrections so that miscategorization does not
occur during the activity that might lead to confusion
3. Show students the picture cards with spaces for items to be sorted. Ask them to
name the pictures on the cards (again, clear up any misconceptions to prevent
confusion during the activity).
4. As students name the pictures on the cards, invite them to share what letter they
think that word starts with. Place appropriate letter tile above that card.
5. Invite students to select one item each that they would like to sort. Go around the
circle, inviting each student to sound out the name of their chosen object and match it
to the picture that begins with the same letter sound.
● If a student seems unable to make a match, ask them if they would like their
friends to help them. If so, open up a discussion with the students about where
they think the object should go and why.
● If students falter with making a match, show them how to sound out the word,
emphasizing the beginning sound, and sound out the pictures on the category
cards to help them hear the similarities and differences
● If items are mis-categorized and not corrected, demonstrate how
problem-solving could remedy the situation: “Hmmm. It looks like we have an
object that begins with the sound and letter “C,” but our “cake” card is already
full. Let’s check and make sure that all the objects on our “cake” card actually
begin with the letter/sound “C.”
6. When all objects have been sorted using the picture category cards, invite the
group to review which objects belong to which category.
Possible Extensions:
● Can you think of any other words that begin with that sound/letter?
● Create a collage of items that begin with the same letter; display the collage in
the classroom literacy space
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Mtn-v8DAJP-oe6P6QgTn1au5Ae3nZ9yzzwgE2
OjgTfU/edit?usp=sharing
Teacher will observe students’ interactions with the items to categorize and make
observations notes on the following criteria:
STAGE 3: ANALYZING/REFLECTING
What evidence of student learning have you collected?
While implementing my Learning Map, I collected data for the students who
participated by jotting down notes that I later inputted into an assessment table to
track their knowledge of beginning sounds.
I also jotted down notes during my implementation and reflected afterward about how
the activity was going, where changes needed to be made, and what I thought went
particularly well.
Specific Findings:
● I determined that out of the six students that I assessed, four need further
instruction and evaluation either because they did not know many beginning
sounds (two students), or because they chose not to participate in the game
(two students).
● I found that the sound/letter most challenging for the students assessed were
the letters “C” and “F” (1/6 students able to match their sounds), and the
easiest and most familiar were “R,” “M,” and “B” (3/6 students able to match
their sounds). In the middle were “D,” “L,” “N,” “P,” and “T” (2/6 students able to
match their sounds). This mirrors the suggestions provided by Bear, Invernizzi,
Templeton & Johnston (2016) to introduce beginning sounds in a specific
sequence and choose letters that are “very different in place of articulation” (p.
162). The authors go on to suggest introducing up to four contrasting sounds
in the recommended sequence of:
○ B/M/R/S
○ T/G/N/P
○ C/H/F/D
○ L/K/J/W
○ Y/Z/V
What instructional decisions can you make as a result of your analysis of the
evidence?
The instructional decisions that I can make based on my analysis of the evidence that
I collected are:
● Certain students do not enjoy sharing their knowledge in small group activities;
these students may need to be assessed one-on-one or through more
naturalistic observations, or provided with alternative opportunities to share
their knowledge.
● The introduction of certain phonemes should happen in a sequence rather than
all together, at least when these phonemes are novel to students. Students
particularly struggled with the similarity in sound and pronunciation of B, P, D,
and T initial sounds. Bear, Invernizzi, Templeton & Johnston (2016) suggest
beginning the study of consonant sounds for students in the letter
name-alphabetic stage with “frequently occurring initial consonants, in which
the contrasts or differences are clear both visually and phonetically” (p. 163).
STAGE 4: APPLYING
My Personal Reflection:
What new information did I get about my students in relation to their learning
preferences?
I learned that my students represent a very diverse knowledge set on phonics skills. I
will use this information to plan more activities that emphasize the sounds of letters,
such as more letter/sound matching activities and reading alphabet books to my
students.
I learned that my students respond well to phonics “games,” and will strive to present
these sorts of activities to them in a fun and playful manner.
My students have been asking to revisit this game, and I am brainstorming ways to
change it up to make it interesting and relevant to them. One idea that I had was to
tape a picture of each student over the stock picture on the picture cards and
encourage them to match the objects to their names instead of the stock pictures. I
also plan to bring in our “letter buckets” (small plastic buckets labeled with letters and
containing small objects that begin with that letter) and using those objects to provide
new opportunities for letter/sound matching.
How effective were my practices? What will I keep, what will I improve and what will I
discard?
● Creating a fun, game-like atmosphere and staying engaged with the students
while they completed the activity.
● Helping them sound out the words on the cards and the objects so they could
make a sound match.
● Encouraging the students to self-correct when they noticed that an answer
didn’t make sense (such as when a card was full but there was another object
that matched that picture’s sound: which object didn’t really belong?).
● Willingness to be spontaneous; when students wanted to brainstorm other
words that began with the same sound as the picture cards, we added that to
the game
● I feel that I should have articulated specific strategies to help students learn
how to sound a letter/word out, and encouraged them to do this work
themselves rather than sounding it out for them
● I feel that I should have decreased my level of control over the activity, and
allowed students to struggle a bit before I jumped in to assist.
I have learned that I am a flexible teacher, and willing to change an activity to meet
the needs of my students. When I needed to re-record the lesson, I tried several
different ways of doing it: re-implementing the activity as written, creating a circle time
activity out of it, and then changing gears and switching to rhyming words instead of
beginning sounds (which I learned, after creating my Learning Map, are more
accessible to students in the age group I was teaching to) (Bear, Invernizzi,
Templeton & Johnston, 2016; Moats & Tolman, n.d.).
As a teacher, I feel that I need to be more aware of how to integrate the teaching of
phonics and other word learning skills into what we do as a community in the
classroom, rather than creating isolated experiences for learning skills. This was a fun
activity, and it provided quite a bit of insight into my learners and myself, especially
my comprehension of phonics teaching. I know that I need to do more research and
investigate how to teach these important skills to young learners, especially in an
investigative fashion rather than a teacher-directed fashion. I also learned that it was
incredibly insightful to talk to another teacher about my experiences! I did not think I
would gain anything from that experience, but found that my thinking about this
activity and phonics lessons in general were affected by my conversation with my
colleague. So I learned that community as a teacher is important to the teaching
process.
I feel that I need to do more research on the sequence of teaching skills; I created my
Learning Map before realizing that rhyming skills precede phonics skills, and feel that
they rhyming alternative that I created fit the needs of my students better. So, just
being open to learning and growing as an educator is a high priority.
My central question after completing this activity is: how do I integrate phonics skills
into an inquiry-based learning environment? This is the question that I believe will fuel
my future teaching explorations.
References
Bear, D., Invernizzi, M., Templeton, S., & Johnston, F. (2016). Words their way: Word
study for phonics, vocabulary and spelling (6th ed.). Place of publication not
identified: Pearson.
Moats, L., & Tolman, C. (n.d.). The Development of Phonological Skills. Retrieved from
http://www.readingrockets.org/article/development-phonological-skills