Stephens Reading Lesson Plan #1

Jamie Stephens Reading Lesson Plan # 1 Adapted from Lesson 30 of Making Words 5th Grade (Pearson)
Grade: 5th grade
Rationale: The students are currently working on phonics and spelling in class and some students are particularly struggling. One student does poorly on the spelling test every week, so it is important that she learns how to relate words so that she can connect reasons why a word is spelled in a certain way. This lesson follows the word study GLCEs for fifth grade, including R.WS.05.05 acquire and apply strategies to identify unknown words or word parts, and construct meaning by analyzing derivatives, defining meanings of affixes, and applying knowledge of word origins.

Objective for this lesson (performance, condition, criteria): Students will be able to recognize the spelling and meaning of the 20 frequently encountered words listed below, working as a class and using their knowledge of prefixes and suffixes.
Materials & supplies needed: student language arts journals, whiteboard and marker, 12 sets of papers with the following letters on them: a, e, I, u, d, d, m, n, n, r, s, s, t (one copy per student); 20 index cards with the following words written on them: mad, sad, arm, aid, use, read, sane, train, insane, disarm, misuse, madder, sadder, saddest, maddest, misread, unaided, untrained, understand, misunderstand
Procedures and approximate time allocated for each event
• Introduction to the lesson Tell the students to move to the carpet for this activity. I think that you have all had experiences with word studies in the past. Today we will be using a word study to help us learn to spell and find the meaning of some common words. (1 minute)

• OUTLINE of key events during the lesson Hand out the sets of letters to all of the students. First, lay the letters I gave you out on the floor and sort them in alphabetical order. Wait for the students to finish that task, and check that each student sorted them correctly. I am going to give you a word and the amount of letters in that word. Use the letters that I gave you to try to figure out how to spell the word. When you finish spelling it, raise your hand. I will come and look at it, to make sure that it is correct. After each of the following words, walk around and check to make sure the students have the words spelled correctly. Do not move on until all students have the word spelled correctly. Encourage the students who are struggling by helping them sound out the word. Use three letters now to spell arm. I fell off my bike and broke my arm. Add three letters to spell disarm. The policeman had to disarm the dangerous criminal by taking the gun out of his arms. Spell the three letter word, aid. When someone gets hurt, they may need some aid. Add four letters to spell unaided. I tried to aid the girl when she fell off of her bike, but she refused my help and walked away unaided. Use four letters to spell read. When I was little, I read a lot of books every day. Add two letters to spell misread. I read the sign that said “dogs on rollerskates”, but it didn’t make any sense so I thought I must have misread it. Use three letters to spell use. You can use duct tape to make many different things. Add three letters to spell misuse. If you use a paintbrush to wash the bathtub, you misuse it. (5 minutes)
The secret word today is the compound word that you can make using all of the letters. I’ll give you three minutes right now to figure out what the secret word is. Raise your hand when you think you’ve got it. Let the students work. When they raise their hand, let them guess the word out loud. The correct answer is misunderstand. If they get it, congratulate them. If not say that’s not it, but good guess. If the students do not get the word after one minute, tell them the word their looking for has a root word which is a verb that is the opposite of sit. If the students do not get the word after three minutes, tell them the word you are looking for is related to the word “understand”. Keep letting them guess and giving clues until they get the word. (3 minutes)
On the whiteboard, write the following prefixes and suffixes and their meanings: Dis-: not or opposite; in-: not or opposite; un-: not or opposite; mis-: wrong or badly; -er/est: more/most. Have the students copy them down in their language arts journal. Tell them these prefixes and suffixes can help you to find the meanings of words. Lay out the words on the index cards on the floor. Have the students pronounce them chorally one by one as you point your finger at them. Now we are going to look for word families. A word family is a group of words which have the same root word. For example, mad, madder, and maddest are a word family. Lay those cards out next to each other in order from smallest to largest. What does mad mean? Look for the response angry. What is –er in the word madder? Look for the response “a suffix”. What does -er mean? Look for the response more or most. So what would the word madder mean? Look for the response more angry. Let volunteers choose sets of related words and help them explain how the prefixes and suffixes change the root words. Sets include: mad, madder, maddest; sad, sadder, saddest; arm, disarm; sane, insane; aid, unaided; train, untrained; use, misuse; read, misread; understood, misunderstood. After all the words are grouped into word families, ask the students Why is it helpful to know the meanings of prefixes and suffixes? (10 minutes)

Closing summary for the lesson Have the students use the prefixes dis- and in- to come up with two of their own word families (at least two words apiece). Have them write down the words when they are done and raise their hands to show them to you. Ask them each individually what the root word is and what it means. Then ask them what their prefix means and what the other word in the family means. Let them go do individual work when they are done. (5 minutes)

Ongoing-Assessment: I will observe what the words the students are forming during the first activity. I will use a checklist to note who participates. I will try to make sure that all students participate by calling on them if they have the word but do not raise their hand and giving them extra time if they need it. If they are often struggling with spelling the words that I am asking them to spell, I will know that they need more practice with those words. If they are struggling with the last activity, I will know that they need more practice with these prefixes and suffixes.

Based on what you know about your focus students, what Academic, Social and/or Linguistic Support will be needed during the lesson? I will need to closely monitor the struggling students during the lesson, just to make sure that they are keeping up (especially student O). I will also need to keep the accelerated students motivated by encouraging them to find the secret word if they finish the first activity too early. The first activity is supposed to be quick-paced, so that students will not get bored as they go through it.