ORC Lesson Plan

My dream is to be a first grade teacher. So I chose a lesson plan that would be perfect and interactive for this grade level. English Language Arts (ELA) is one of my strongest area in teaching, therefore it was to no surprise that I picked this area. The lesson plan that caught my eye was a very fun, yet essential an topic in Early Childhood Education. Building Letter Recognition Fluency is one of the building blocks to reading, and eventually writing. In this particular lesson, the students will be practicing letter recognition, and sound these letters out. The lesson is split into three parts or three days. On the first day, they will go on a "letter hunt" where 3-4 students will look for letters around the classroom. Then the students will get the opportunity to use a computer website to practice recognition. The next couple lessons will include naming words, and then applying these words.

Standards

COMMON CORE STANDARDS

This resource has been aligned to the Common Core State Standards for states in which they have been adopted. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, CCSS alignments are forthcoming.

Ohio's State Standards

• Subject: Language Arts
  Grade(s): 1
  Standard: 1.A.  –  Use letter-sound correspondence knowledge and structural analysis to decode words.
• Subject: Language Arts
  Grade(s): 1
  Standard: 1.3.  –  Grade Level Indicator: Demonstrate an understanding of letter-sound correspondence by saying the sounds from all letters and from a variety of letter patterns, such as consonant blends and long- and short-vowel patterns, and by matching sounds to the corresponding letters.
• Subject: Language Arts
  Grade(s): 1
  Standard: 3.7.  –  Grade Level Indicator: Comprehension Strategies: Create and use graphic organizers such as Venn diagrams or webs, with teacher assistance, to demonstrate comprehension.
• Subject: Language Arts
  Grade(s): 1
  Standard: 6.G.  –  Publish writing samples for display or sharing with others, using techniques such as electronic resources and graphics.

When students go on a letter hunt, they use their letter-sound correspondence knowledge, and their previous knowledge from Kindergarten. Standard 1.A. explains how students will decode words. During this lesson, the first graders will have the opportunity to recognize words with these beginning letter and sounds. The other standard states that students will be able to create and use graphic organizers in this activity. During this lesson, the students will help create a chart of their names and categorizing them into the beginning letter and sounds. Most importantly, children will have the opportunity to sound out these letters, which is very important in early readers.

This is a great lesson that I would include in the first couple weeks of class. This allows me to pre-assess children and their knowledge of letter recognition. I would implement this lesson following the ideas and steps with a few minor changes. I will include in my routine the singing of the alphabet sounds "A.. a.. a... Abby is sad, A... a... a... says A." In the original plan, the teacher plans to have students go into the computer. However, I think that first graders need to constant guidance when it comes to using technology. Therefore, I would change this lesson plan by using the SmartBoard instead, and have a group interaction, instead of having to do this activity individually. In addition to the lesson, I would make an alphabet chart of the students' names. This allows the students to make learning meaningful, especially if they recognize the letters of their names and their friends'. I also think that differentiation is important for this lesson. I may have students who have different reading abilities, learning disabilities or English Language Learners. Therefore, I should allow questions and activities that will help all students with differentiation.

Click HERE for a full view of the Lesson: A is for Apple: Building Letter Recognition and Fluency