Phonics Lesson Plan
PHONICS LESSON PLAN
ConnectionRecall and read a sentence from a book that you and the students have read.
Write the following sample sentence from “The Tiger Rising” on the board or another area where all students can see it.
So as he waited for the bus under the Kentucky Star sign, and as the first drops of rain fell from the sullen sky, Rob imagined the tiger on top of his suitcase, blinking his golden eyes, sitting proud and strong, unaffected by all the not-thoughts inside straining to come out.
Often times as we read, we come across a word we don’t know or maybe we just recognize parts of the word. In this sentence, the word unaffected may be a word you recognize but don’t fully understand.
A strategy good readers use is to break the word into parts to understand the meaning of the word.
Teaching Point
So let’s read the sentence again. (Teacher models reading the sentence again and pauses at the word unaffected.)
Teacher thinks aloud: “Unaffected is a word I do not fully understand. The teacher writes the word on a white board. I am going to break the word apart to see if that helps. We have been talking about prefixes and suffixes so let’s see if separating those from the base word helps. Teacher writes un * affect * ed below the other word.
The base word is affect and that means to act upon something ~ in this story and sentence, the tiger could be acting upon his thoughts.
The word also has a suffix -ed. I know that means it already happened or it is past.
The last part of the word is un-. It is a prefix meaning it comes before the base word. The prefix un- means “not, or the opposite of . .”
Now that I have broken the word down and can read it easier, (Teacher points to each part of the word and reads it) let’s see if I can figure out the meaning. Teacher write the meaning below the word parts. ** See sample below **
unaffected
un * affec
not * acting upon or changing*
By knowing the meaning of the prefix -un, I can figure out that unaffected means not acting upon. That means in the sentence “, , , Rob imagined the tiger on top of his suitcase, blinking his golden eyes, sitting proud and strong, unaffected by all the not-thoughts inside straining to come out.” the tiger was not acting upon all of the not-thoughts. This makes sense because it says the tiger is sitting proud and strong and just blinking his eyes. In my mind, I picture him almost frozen, not moving a muscle. He isn’t acting upon his thoughts.
Knowing the meaning of the prefix really helps to figure out unknown words. There are other prefixes that also mean “not”. Those prefixes are dis- like discomfort (teacher writes on board), in- such as indirect, and non- like nonfiction.
Active Engagement
With a partner, read the next two chapters of “The Tiger Rising.” When you come across a word with a prefix, write the word on a sticky note. After you have finished reading the chapters, take all your sticky notes and sort them by their prefix. (Teacher models with several words).
Next, using one index card per word, choose one word from each category (un-, non-, dis- , etc.) and write the meaning below the word parts just like I did before (see above).
Because prefixes change the meaning of word, the last thing we need to do is write the word in a sentence.
Teaching Share
Teacher calls the group back together. She restates the objective starting with “Today we learned about prefixes that mean “not.” We also practiced figuring out the meanings of words that contain these prefixes.
Turn to your shoulder partner and share your index cards. Begin by reading the word and its definition.