LESSON PLAN OUTLINE

JMU Elementary Education Program

Fall 2015
Semester I-Read 366
Erin O'Connor
December 16, 2015
Ms. Higgs, Kindergarten, Mountain View Elementary
Date presented in class: November 17, 2015

I. TITLE OF LESSON Reading group with focus on the letter /B/

II. CONTEXT OF LESSON
Reading group lessons are important because they give children small group attention and if needed
one on one attention. With the focus on the letter /B/, children practice identifying letter sounds,
identifying beginning sounds in words, comprehension, and book discussion. I have observed the
students learning different consonants and the sounds they make. The students have already been
discussing the letter since it is the letter of the week so the students will have base knowledge, which
this lesson will build off of.
III. LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Review: Students will recall previously learned consonant names (/s/, /m/, and /p/) and the sounds that
they make.
Understand: The student will understand the letter /b/ is a consonant with a specific sound.
Know: Students will learn characteristics of the letter /b/ and the how it sounds at the beginning of a
word.
IV. COLLECTION OF ASSESSMENT DATA
Children will play a matching game with previously learned consonants. Each set of letters (/s/, /p/, /m/
and /b/) has a lower-case letter and two pictures with the beginning sound of that consonant that will be
matched to the upper-case letter. The teacher will pass mix up the lower-case letters and the pictures
and randomly pass them out to each student and have the students match their cards one at a time to the
correct upper-case letter. When the children have mastered the matching game (no mistakes) then we
will do a shared reading of a book that focuses on the letter /b/ (i.e. the book is on their reading level
and each page has site words along with one word that begins with the letter /b/ and the picture is of the
word beginning with the letter /b/).
V. RELATED VIRGINIA STANDARDS OF LEARNING
Reading
K.7 The student will develop an understanding of basic phonetic principles.
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a) Identify and name the uppercase and lowercase letters of the alphabet.
b) Match consonant, short vowel, and initial consonant digraph sounds to appropriate letters.
c) Demonstrate a speech-to-print match through accurate finger-point reading in familiar text
that includes words with more than one syllable.
d) Identify beginning consonant sounds in single-syllable words.
VI. MATERIALS NEEDED
Letter /b/ song
o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5D3ySh7s2c
A Bug, a Bear, and a Boy by: David Mcphail
o A copy for each student and me (5 in total)
Matching game
o Cut up 3x5 cards that have the upper-case, lower-case and two pictures for two
consonants already learned (/s/, /m/ and /p/) and the letter /b/
VII. PROCEDURE
A. PREPARATION OF THE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT
I will have all necessary materials with me at the teacher table (a small group table where
reading centers happen). There will be four wipe boards in front of seats for the children who
come to me to hear the lesson.
B. INTRODUCTION AND ORGANIZATION
Start reading centers with a brain break and play the letter /b/ song. Then ask the first group of
children that will be doing my activity to meet me at the teacher table. Ask them to practice
writing letters that they know while I get centers started. Help children be where they are
supposed to be and make sure there are no questions before going over to the teacher table to
begin lesson.
C. IMPLEMENTATION
Collect the wipe boards.
Begin lesson with the upper-case letters of the matching card game laying out for all the
children to see. Ask one child to identify what one of the letters is by me pointing to it and them
naming it and the sound if makes (if the child does not know have them pick a friend at the
table to help but they have learned all the letters except /b/ and should know them). Ask another
child for the next letter and its sound and so on until every letter but /b/ has been named. Ask
the child who has not named a letter: what is this letter? (About the letter /b/)
If answered correctly: Good! Do you know the sound it makes? If answered correctly:
Great! Everyone say /b/ (they repeat). The letter /b/ makes the sound buh, everyone
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say buh (everyone repeats). If answered incorrectly: ask the child to look again and
maybe pick a friend at the table to help. Once someone answers it correctly, do if
answered correctly.
If answered incorrectly: Ask them to try again or pick a friend at the table to help them.
Once someone answers it correctly, do first if answered correctly above.
Ask: Can anyone come up with a word that starts with the letter /b/?
When a few have been named: good! Now were going to play a matching game with our
consonants. (Pass out the different lower case letters and pictures and name what each picture is
a picture of). Say: You guys are going to place the lower-case letter under its matching uppercase letter and the pictures under the letter that the pictures name starts with (have each one of
the children take turns matching their letters and pictures to the correct letters until they are all
under a upper-case heading).
If all correct: Good job everyone! (Go over the letters name and the pictures names
while placing emphasis on the beginning sound of each pictures name)
If some incorrect ask the child to look again and help them by either placing emphasis
on the beginning sound and asking the sound of the letter it is placed under or asking
them the letter name and asking them the letter it is placed under. Then have them move
it to where it should be. (See if all correct above for what to do next)
Collect the matching game and pass out the shared reading book. Explain to the children that I
am going to read the page first while they follow along by pointing to each word as I say it and
then they will reread the page by whisper reading it to themselves and pointing to each word.
(Help when needed and correct finger placement and movement when needed) Make sure that
the children know to wait with their finger on the first word on the new page until I start reading
so that we can wait for those children who take longer to turn the page so that we can all be
together.
D. CLOSURE
Finish reading the book and have each child tell what is their favorite page was from the book.
Have the child locate and name the words on their favorite page that start with the letter /b/.
Have each of the children in the group repeat each word one at a time. Continue this until each
child has gotten a chance to say their favorite page and the /b/ words on it.
E. CLEAN UP
Collect the all materials and put in the basket for the next reading group. Ring the bell for
centers to change.
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VIII. DIFFERENTIATION
This lesson accommodates for different types of learners by utilizing all different types of
learning styles: visual, auditory and hands on. Talking about the different letters, naming their sounds
and naming the pictures and talking about their beginning sounds incorporates the auditory learners.
While playing the matching game and reading the story gets the visual and hands on learners involved.
When the children are figuring out the letter name and sound the teacher will allow plenty of thinking
time before asking them to ask a friend for help. I will also need to be aware of the one child who
struggles with his behavior in this group. I can do so by making sure he stays on task and when I see
him getting off task have call on him and get him involved in the game and the shared reading.
IX. WHAT COULD GO WRONG WITH THIS LESSON AND WHAT WILL YOU DO ABOUT
IT?
Opening of the Lesson:
Some students may not know the letter /b/ song. Model expected behavior and what to do while the
song is playing. If necessary or wanted, play the song again so that every child gets involved, has a fun
time and knows what or how to do the song and dance.
Lesson:
When I ask the student about what the letter name is or what sound it is, they may not know it. Make
sure to make it clear that it is okay to make a mistake and our friends can help remind us what the
correct answer is. If none of the children can come up with the correct answer for any of the letters
make sure to clearly explain its name and sound. Use the pictures with the letter as its beginning
sound as props to teach the letter.
Closing of the Lesson:
Students may have trouble reading the /b/ words on their favorite page. Ask them to use context clues
(i.e. pictures on the page, words on the page that they know, or the first letter and second letter sound to
try to sound out the word). If the child still can not come up with what the word is, read the whole page
over and then have the child identify the /b/ words on the page. Also could have a friend at the table
help him with the /b/ words.
X. REFLECTION

This lesson reflects the course content because it teaches the foundation blocks for beginning
and emergent readers. By learning the letter names and the sound that they make, the students
develop their phonemic awareness and phonetic knowledge. Through the matching game the
students are reviewing and expanding their letter/sound knowledge as well as their knowledge of
beginning sounds. By doing a shared reading, the students are learning fluency. The children follow
along with the reading and point to each word as I read the story, which teaches them pacing while
reading.
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For this lesson I planned out what I wanted the students to learn first. Then I decided on an
activity for them to learn what I wanted them to. Lastly, I made the objectives for this lesson and
came up with a way to evaluate learning. Even though this was a very teacher led activity, I allowed
for choice when the students were able to pick their favorite page of the book and talk about the
words that began with the letter /b/. I got every student involved in the activity by making sure that
each of them had a consonant to name and then 3 cards to match up under different consonants.
Additionally, getting the students to all follow along with the shared reading instead of doing a read
aloud had all of the students engaged in the story and gave them an opportunity to see each of the
words that started with the letter /b/ right in front of them as I read. By doing this it reinforced what
the letter /b/ looked like and how it sounds in the beginning of the words.

I assessed my students progress towards meeting my objectives by watching them play the
matching game. If there was a mistake, we talked about it as a group and I tried to have them come
up with the correct answer on their own instead of me just telling them what the answer was.
Additionally, after the game was completed we have a discussion about each consonant, the sound
each made, and how it sounds at the beginning of a word (with the pictures). The students were
extremely engaged in the matching game and I think that this allowed them learn a lot and meet all
objectives from the lesson. Ive seen that almost any time that you include a game to teach students
that they learn more than they would if you were just spitting information at them. The students
were excited when they got their little matching squares and were immediately looking at where to
put them. They whispered the letter they had and its sound and did trial and error with the uppercase letters until the found where the letter went. After the game, every student was able to identify
every one of the consonants and their sounds so I think it was very effective. I dont think that they
were as engaged in the shared reading, mostly because a lot of them are not yet able to read but I do
think that they learned some new words that begin with the letter /b/ and it was important to hear
them as a beginning sound in more words than just having the matching game allowed. During the
reading I saw some of the students looking at the pictures instead of the words so when I asked
them for the words on their favorite page that started with the letter /b/ they had a hard a time
coming up with answers because they were not focused during reading.

I was much more confident when doing this lesson than I was with the first lesson. I knew the
class more so I had learned ways to control behavior and keep them focused on the content.
Additionally, I was more confident in my teaching ability, Ive learned what works and what
doesnt with these students, which really helped me when designing my lesson. I also was in a
smaller group for this lesson so it was easier to keep their attention because they had fewer
distractions to focus on. Moreover, they were more engaged in this lesson with the game and then
the shared reading where they had the book in front of them. I think having the children more
involved allowed for learning and discussion to occur easier.

I would definitely do this lesson again. I feel like the discussion before the matching game
allowed the children to gain confidence from talking about previous knowledge they came to the
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table with. The matching game got the children really involved in their own learning and allowed
them to move around a little instead of just being talked at, which I think helps children learn much
more. However, I think it would have been better if I had done a picture walk with them first and
then done the shared reading so that the pictures wouldnt have been so distracting to them while
we were trying to read the story and they could have focused more on the words that began with the
letter /b/ on each page. If I had done the picture walk it also would have allowed me to ask the
children to make predictions about the story, which Ive found gets the children even more involved
because they pay attention to see if what they think is going to happen actually happens.
Additionally, if I had done this it would have allowed me to have a discussion about comprehension
at the end of the lesson as well.

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