First Grade Reading Lesson on Welded/Glued Sounds “an” and “am”

A Technology Integration Lesson Plan for First Grade Reading

Designed by Samantha James
sjjames@buffalo.edu

Lesson Summary

These next few days, the students will be focusing on the welded sounds or glued sounds, -an, and -am.  A glued sound is two or more letters that keep their individual sound but are glued together. These lessons are designed to follow the Fundations reading program. Students will be tapping their fingers to different sounds in a word. Previously, the students learned about the glued sound -all that is in words like ball or fall. To practice this skill, students will be reading a story while searching for the glued sounds. They will also be playing supplemental games called "Don't Get Stung" and -an/-am bingo. The students will be assessed by completing a TEDEd Lesson at the end of each class period.

Duration: This lesson will take approximately two class periods (Monday and Tuesday).

Standards:

1. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.1.3.A
1. Know the spelling-sound correspondences for common consonant digraphs.
2. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.1.3.B
1. Decode regularly spelled one-syllable words.
3. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.1.2
1. Demonstrate understanding of spoken words, syllables, and sounds (phonemes).

Objective: Students will be able to recognize words that have the welded sound –an in the “Dan and Pam Have Fun” reading, and the TEDEd Lesson.

Lesson Type: Students will be listening to the lesson as a whole group.  The games will be played in small groups.  The reading activity will be done in partners.  The TEDEd Lessons will be done independently. 

Materials:

• Information Graphic/Visual Handout
• Smartboard or Computer with Projector
• iPad or Chromebook
• Pencils and Highlighters
• Fundations Digraphs video
• Fundations random practice letters A - Z video
• Dan and Pam Have Fun
• Scavenger Hunt Worksheet
• Epic!
• TEDEd Lesson -an
• Don’t Get Stung Popsicle Stick Game
• Blank BINGO Board
• TEDEd Lesson -am

Technology Integration: The teacher will present videos from YouTube.com on the Smartboard or using the projector. Students will be using their individual iPads or Chromebooks to read a story on Epic!  and complete a TEDEd Lesson at the end of each class period.

Day One

Introduction (10 minutes)

• Use the Fundations sound cards and the videos Fundations random practice letters A - Z and Fundations Digraphs to review the letter sounds and digraphs.  Present the videos to the class on the Smartboard or Projector
• Review that some words need a bonus letter. These letters appear at the end of a word, after a short vowel sound.  The bonus letters include f, l, s, and sometimes z.
• Ask students how to tap and spell different words that require a bonus letter.
• Examples: mess, full, miss, pass, shell, puff

• Explain to students that when marking up the word, a star is put above the bonus letter

Lesson One (10 minutes)

• Teacher will explain to the students that they will now be learning about welded/glued sounds.  
• A welded sound, or a glued sound, is when two or more letters are put together to make one sound.  To tap these sounds out, use two or three fingers “glued” to represent the number of sounds working together.
• The teacher will then remind the students that they have previously learned the glued sound -all.  The sound we are going to be learning about today is the -an sound.
• Present the new glued sound card to the class.
• 
• Teacher will then have the students repeat “a, n, fan, an” then hang the card up with the other sounds they have learned.
• Teacher will then have the students tap out different words that end in “an” such as fan, man, can, pan.
• 
  
• Teacher will then have students try and think of words that end with the new glued sound. Write them down on a whiteboard or on the smartboard.
• The teacher will then explain that when marking up words with a glued sound, you would put a box around the two letters that make one sound.  For example, when you go to mark up the word “van,” you would put a box around the letters “an” to show they go together.
• The teacher will then have student volunteers come up, tap out a word, write it on the board, then mark it up.

Activity (15-20 minutes)

• Students will be given a partner to complete the reading of “Dan and Pam Have Fun”
• Students will take turns reading each sentence out loud.  After reading through it once, the students will then go back and highlight any word that ends with the glued sound -an.  
• Once finished, students will then record any -an words from the books on the bookshelves or on the website Epic! using their iPads or Chromebooks. The students will record these words on the Scavenger Hunt Worksheet

Formative Assessment (10 minutes)

• Students will use their iPads or Chromebooks independently to complete the TEDEd Lesson  on “an.” The students will watch the video Word Family -an | Phonics Song for Kids | Jack Hartmann and answer questions using the lesson created on TEDEd.

Day Two

Introduction (5-10 minutes):

• Play the game “Don’t Get Stung”
• Teacher will have written words on the bottom of the popsicle sticks.  The words are all decodable.
• One student at a time will pick a popsicle stick out of a container. The student will then read the word on the stick out loud.
• If they read the word correctly, the student keeps the stick.  If the word is read incorrectly, the stick is put back into the container.
• If students pick out the stick with the bee, all students must put back their sticks in the container.  If students pick out the fly repellent, students can use it as a “save” if they were to pick the bee stick.
• Words include: mall, puff, mill, tall, fuss, puff, Jeff, fell, huff, shell, wall, ball, mess, cuff, Bill, hill, chill, yell, miss, Jill, pass, less, ran, tan, man, van, Dan, can, fan, pan

Lesson Two (10 minutes):

• The teacher will remind the students that they have already learned two glued sounds, the sound -all as in “ball” and -an as in “fan”.  The sound we are going to be learning about today is the -am sound.
• 
• Teacher will then have the students repeat “a, m, ham, am” then hang the card up with the other sounds they have learned.
• Teacher will then have the students tap out different words that end in -am such as ham, Pam, bam, jam, Sam, clam, etc.
• Teacher will then have students try and think of words that end with the new glued sound of -am.  Write them down on a whiteboard or on the smartboard.
• The teacher will then explain that when marking up words with a glued sound, you would put a box around the two letters that make one sound.
• The teacher will then have student volunteers come up, tap out a word, write it on the board, then mark it up.

Activity (15-20 minutes)

• Explain to the students that we will now be playing -am, -an bingo. The teacher will hand out a blank Bingo Board to each student.
• The teacher will pull up the saved list of -an words the students came up with in the previous lesson.  With both lists of words ending in -am and -an, have the students fill out their Bingo boards.
• Once every student has filled their bingo boards, call out one word at a time.  The first student to get five words in a row is the winner.

Formative Assessment (10 minutes)

• Students will use their iPads or Chromebooks to complete the TEDEd Lesson on -am independently.

Evaluation:

• Students will be evaluated on their ability to read and recognize words that end in the glued sounds -an and -am. Their knowledge will be assessed by the completion of the TEDEd lessons and their ability to locate the glued sound -an in the reading "Dan and Pam Have Fun."

Natives vs Immigrants to Technology

I have never thought of classifying a person as a "digital native" or a "digital immigrant."  There is definitely a digital divide between the generations growing up without computers than those growing with the technology.  Nowadays, everywhere you turn there is a flashing screen or a computer.  You can't seem to survive in this century without the knowledge of some basic computer skills.  In the YouTube Video, Do Digital Natives Exist it mentions the question of “Is there a danger in assuming that they don’t need to be taught how to computer?”  

As a digital native myself, I find it frustrating that people expect me know everything there is to know about a computer.  The digital immigrants (my grandmother for example) assume that I know exactly how to use every program there is and how to fix any glitch on a computer.  There is so much information about the every adapting technology that it is hard to keep up.  I have learned a lot about how to keep up with technology through my graduate program and have been given resources that allow me to hear about the latest technologies.  There are so many resources available on how to use the latest technologies that I am feeling more confident in my abilities to use them.  However, not everyone that I work with is so easily adaptable with the technology as I am.  In Sree Sreenivasan's TedTalk, he mentions that “Digital natives are fearless, they embrace technology and love technology.” 

I do not agree with this statement completely.  It creates this stereotype that everyone who grew up in the digital age is willing to use and "love" technology.  Many of the people I went to high school with aren't as willing to use technology.  They prefer to work with their hands and do things in a tactile way.  One of my friends growing up didn't have a cell phone until he was a senior in college.  He felt that he didn't want to fall into the "trap" that sucks everyone in and being connected all the time.  I feel that information about the use of technology needs to be shared.  Teachers need to learn how to use the technology and integrate it into their classes.  

Hey Onion! You’re Makin’ Me Cry!

Every day, dozens of stories are broadcast on the radio, and they have the potential to offer our students that same rich experience, helping them connect to the content in ways written text can’t reach them. Now, you can with podcasts.   

Wow in the World is an educational podcast created by two really cool people, Guy Raz and Mindy Thomas.  Guy Raz is a host, co-creator, and editorial director of three NPR programs, including TED Radio Hour and How I Built This.  Mindy Thomas has worked for 16 years on SiriusXM’s Kid’s Place Live Channel where she hosts the Absolutely Mindy Show and where she served as Program Director for ten years.  Together they knew there was a need for smart, creative, curiosity-inspiring podcasts that kids and grownups could listen to together. 


The podcast episode I listened to was Hey Onion! You're Makin Me Cry! It was so much fun to listen to.  I actually wanted to learn about onion plants and why they make us cry. It was a very silly and very informative.  I can see using this podcast for many science lessons.  They have different episodes that cover the planets, recycling, medicine.  These two really have a way of making very complex situations and explaining them in words children can understand.  

Flipping for Ted Ed

You can use TED-Ed's videos and lessons to supplement almost any subject.  Their videos and lessons are engaging and can take even sometimes-boring subjects and transform them into wildly interesting content.


The lesson I created on TED-Ed was on what happens to a plastic bottle after it is thrown away.  My main objective for this lesson is for students to the importance of recycling and protecting our planet. The two common core standards addressed in my lesson are CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RST.6-8.6: Analyze the author’s purpose in providing an explanation, describing a procedure, or discussing an experiment in a text. and  CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.6.7: Conduct short research projects to answer a question, drawing on several sources and refocusing the inquiry when appropriate.

I can see showing my flipped lesson to learn about protecting the environment, pollution, or celebrating Earth Day.  I can also see myself showing this video during a social studies lesson that teaches students what it means to be a good citizen. 

Catch you on the flip side

"Aren't you supposed to be doing your homework and not watching videos?"

"But mom, this IS homework!"

This is a conversation I have with my mother at least once a week.  Homework isn't all about worksheets or readings in the text book anymore.  The flipped classroom is changing the game of education.  

With a flipped classroom, teachers are able to provide instruction while students are at home and work on homework during school hours.  In the article Flipping Your EL Classroom: A Primer it states "learners gain control over their learning. Learners have the power of the pause button to control the videos. Learners who get lost in class as the teacher explains more quickly than they can process can now stop the video and review. They can use the Internet to research issues the video may have raised."

Since the students are learning the main instruction outside of the class, they are able to have more time with the teacher to clarify confusing topics.  

In the article Three Reasons to Flip Your Classroom, the author mentions that "Flipped classroom adopters state that the approach is not about the videos, but about the best use of class time."   Since the students already received instruction through the flipped video, students come to class ready to contribute and collaborate.  This gives the teacher to implement more in-depth projects and debates.  The teacher can also assign work that would usually be for homework.  This way he/she can see the students at the moment frustration or confusion appears.  Students receive immediate feedback and  

"Dude get off Twitter the teacher is coming"

A teacher that allows student to use Twitter in class? Best day ever! Although Twitter might be the latest social media "fad" it has many ingenious ways to be integrated into the classroom.  

 The National Education Association  gave some examples how Twitter is being integrated into the classroom.  Some teachers use it to review lessons and remind students what is going to be covered in class that day or the next. In the article, Christopher Bergeron states: "Twitter is like the ticker at the bottom of CNN -- only a ticker populated with information about those people or things you care about, want to learn from, or want to know about.”

Amanda Wynter writes about one English class utilization of Twitter in her article 

Bringing Twitter to the Classroom.  Twitter provided the classroom with the social and communicative platform that the previous curriculum failed to foster.  Once the students were familiar with the "dos and don'ts" of Twitter, they were multiple times a day, even after school has ended.  This provided a sense of an ongoing conversation about one theme in a book or a current event.  The students seemed to be reading more closely and the shy kid in class was being retweeted and favorited by teachers from around the world.  

So Teachers, please look past all of the selfies, memes and the other nonsense and see the potential of using social media in the classroom.  It makes learning more fun, interesting, and caters to many 21st Century skills the students may need for their future career endeavors.  

#games4ed

I have never really been into Twitter or using hashtags.  But that was before I ever heard of a Twitter Chat.  A chat on Twitter is people with similar interested coming together to discuss a certain topic using a #hashtag.  Finding a chat I wanted to participate in, that also fit my crazy schedule, was the biggest challenge.  Then I came across this website called Education Chats.  It maps out all of the hashtags for the Twitter chats and in what time frame they are.  The website also could add the chat you desire to participate in to your google calendar.  It will also send you a notification when the chat is about to start.
The chat that I participated in was #games4ed.  I appreciated how organized a Twitter chat is.  #games4ed was a chat specifically designed for teachers from around the world to discuss how to implement different games into their lessons.  Our chat was based on games with mysteries.  The chat leader posted the image below to guide our discussion with open ended questions.  

I read about so many great ideas on how to make my lessons more interesting.  Students learn best when they are having fun.  Gaming is a great way to facilitate that learning and put their skills to the test.  I thoroughly enjoyed participating in a Twitter chat and I will definitely be researching new hashtags to take part in them more!