Will Wonders Never Cease? Daily Dose of Tomato Sauce

article by Mina , photo by Alamy

Learning Intention:

 

I am learning to read different types of texts, integrating phonic knowledge so that I can decode unfamiliar words accurately and fluently.

 

Success Criteria:

  • I am learning to use a range of strategies to decode unfamiliar words.
  • I can identify words that are unfamiliar to me.
  • I can select the most useful strategy to allow me to decode the word.

Essential knowledge:

 

Ensure students are familiar with terms such as, chunking/stretching the sounds.

View Phonological Awareness from the Department of Education for further information. Scroll down to find the resource Advanced Phonemic Awareness for information relevant to stage 2.

 

Oral language and communication:

 

Display the following pseudo words (made-up words):

  • Snozzcup
  • Elephins
  • Zatan
  • Ishliv
  • Tesban
  • Apfil

Place students with a partner. Instruct them to read the words and discuss the strategies they used to read them. Sample responses include:

  • Looking for familiar words or patterns in the words
  • Using phonemic knowledge to sound the words out
  • Stretching the sounds into familiar blends or syllables before blending them

 

Understanding text:

 

Read Will Wonders Never Cease? Daily Dose of Tomato Sauce. Instruct students to note on post-it-notes any words they find challenging to read. Most likely, words will include:

  • Condiment
  • keh-jup
  • koe-cheup
  • aches
  • cholera
  • medicine
  • hype

If students do not report having found these words challenging to read, display them anyway. Invite students to share how they read/might read the words, and the strategies they used/could use. If students don’t share ideas for each of the words, discuss strategies, such as:

  • condiment (Stretch the sounds, con-di-ment, to enable me to blend the word)
  • poisonous (I know that ‘oi’ makes an ‘oy’ sound the sound ‘ous’ so I blended them together
  • decorative (Stretch the sounds, dec-or-a-tive to enable me to blend the word)
  • keh-jup (I saw the word ‘eh’ in keh so I knew it would make a sound similar to whispering and I saw a ‘j’ in ‘jup’ so I knew it would make a ‘j’ sound rather than a ‘ch’ as I would usually use when pronouncing the word ketchup)
  • koe-cheup (I thought of the word ‘toe’ to assist with how I might pronounce ‘koe’ to rhyme with this word and I ‘eup’ so separated these sounds as ‘e’ and ‘up’)
  • aches, cholera (I know words with German origins pronounce ch as ‘k’ so I tried this for aches, and I know that ch often makes a ‘k’ sound when it is at the beginning of a word, so I tried this to listen if it sounded right for cholera)
  • medicine (I know that when an i, e or y appears after the letter c it makes a soft sound)
  • hype (I know that ‘y’ makes the long ‘I’ sound when it comes at the end of a short word)

 

Creating text:

Identify Tier 2 and Tier 3 vocabulary most relevant to your students by viewing Vocabulary- Selecting Words to Teach.

Alternatively, provide students access to Tier 2 and Tier 3 Vocabulary Words. Instruct students to identify five words they are unfamiliar with and discuss with a partner the strategies they might use to decode them. Suitable vocabulary might include:

  • Initiate
  • Delineate
  • Exemplify
  • Decontextualise
  • Conjecture

Tell students to write each of the words they have selected in their workbooks. Instruct students to note the strategies they have used to decode each word, for example:

  • Identifying familiar words or patterns in the words
  • Using phonemic knowledge to sound the words out
  • Stretching the sounds into familiar blends or syllables before blending them (Note: Students can use diagonal lines placed within the words to identify the syllables)

 

Assessment for/as learning:

Instruct students to respond to the following exit ticket questions in their workbooks:

  • When decoding unfamiliar words, I can use the following strategies to help me:

(Sample responses include any/all of those discussed within the lesson)

For more on assessment, view Assessment for, as and of Learning.