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Ashley Goff
Phonemic Awareness Backward Design Lesson Plan
EDU 351 Teaching Reading in Elementary School
Professor Kristina McBean
June 5th, 2016

Topic
Phonemic Awareness, Rhyming, and Group Short Story Writing
English-Language Arts & Reading Foundational Skills - Kindergarten
60-70 Minutes

Activities
1. Read childrens picture book, One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss.
2. Discuss the rhymes we heard in the story or during the reading of the story.
3. As a class, write a story about a cat:
A. Brainstorm a list of words that rhyme with cat. Clapping out the syllables in the words the students
suggest, and then clapping out the syllables in that childs name to begin to touch on words with
multiple syllables.
B. Using at least 6-10 words from the list, write a story together having the main character be about a
cat.
4. The students will create their own books using the sentences they created together, adding
illustrations and more sentences individually.
5. If extra time, can come back together in a circle and sing, Old McDonald Had a Farm, and play
around with the onsets and phonemes in the chorus of the song. (Source: Phonological Awareness
is Childs Play! by Hallie Kay Yopp and Ruth Helen Yopp, Young Children Magazine, 2009).

Assessments
1. Students will work together with the teacher to create a story that uses rhyme.
2. Within the book, students will underline or highlight the words that rhyme.
3. If extra time, children can practice learning to isolate sounds and change onsets when singing Old
McDonald Had a Farm.
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Stage 1 - Desired Results

Established Goals: Phonemic Awareness

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.2
Demonstrate understanding of spoken words, syllables, and sounds (phonemes).

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.2.A
Recognize and produce rhyming words.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.2.C
Blend and segment onsets and rimes of single-syllable spoken words.

(Source: Common Core State Standards Initiative)

Understandings:
Students will understand that
Words have a certain number of sounds or pieces to them when we say them out loud, they are
called syllables. While slowly saying the words and clapping the sections of the words, we can count
and hear the different syllables.
Words that rhyme have similar spelling, in this case, the first letter may change in cat from c to b,
but the rest of the word at stays the same and, most importantly, sounds the same. When words
sound the same, that means they rhyme.

Essential Questions:
What different sounds do we hear in the words we say?
Can we change the first sound of a word to make it into a different word, but have it still rhyme with
the previous word?
What similarities are there in words that rhyme?
What silly, pretend words can we make up that rhyme with real words?
Can we change the sounds and onsets of words in a favorite song?
Can we begin to recognize three-letter-words as we copy them down in our books?

Students will know

How to recognize words that rhyme, through listening, speaking, and reading.
How to change the onset of a word to make it into a new word, identifying both the new isolated
sound and the new letter theyve used.

Students will be able to

Practice saying out loud words that rhyme.
Begin to become familiar with some of the most common three-letter sight-words.
Practice writing full sentences in a book they create, along with drawing pictures to represent those
sentences.
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Stage 2 - Assessment Evidence

Performance Tasks:

While the teacher records on the board, every student is asked to suggest aloud at least one word
that rhymes with the word cat, even if it does not become used in the story, its important that
everyone tries and contributes to the collective list. The list could even be a transferred to a more
permanent display in the room. When a student suggests a word, for example, one says, mat, the
teacher should then ask the student what the first sound is in the word, /m/, and what letter they think
that sound comes from, M. Thus asking, what does the word begin with? M. Then, what sound does
the word end with? /at/ or /a/-/t/ which is spelled with A-T. (onset and rime, phonemes and isolated
sounds)

The students will write and copy down the story into a pre-made story books with blank pages.
Students should write no more than one sentence on each page along with a drawing illustrating the
sentence, proving they understand the sentence. Students are also suggested to add one more
sentence on their own to the story after writing the sentences created together by the class. If time
runs out, they can choose to do this small last step at home. The teacher can provide assistance with
unfamiliar words. Lastly, students must highlight or underline the words that rhyme in their story.

Other Evidence:
If there is extra time, the teacher could set up a video camera, or an ed tech or teaching assistant can
record the class, and record the class singing along to an old favorite song such as Old McDonald
Had a Farm changing the onset each time. For example, a child can pick the letter B, or just say, Be-
bi-be-bi-bo, instead of e-i-e-i-o. The teacher can review the video documentation and watch for who
is really singing along and who might be struggling to follow along with changing the isolated sounds.
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Stage 3 - Learning Plan

Learning Activities:

1. Read childrens picture book, One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss.
2. Discuss the rhymes we heard in the story or during the reading of the story. Write on the board
some of the familiar words that rhymed next to each other to see the similarities and differences in
the words.
3. As a class, write a story about a cat:
A. Brainstorm a list of words that rhyme with cat. Talk about the different parts and sounds these
words have, called syllables. Clapping out the syllables in the words the students suggest, and then
clapping out the syllables in that childs name to begin to touch on words with multiple syllables.
(When writing the words on the board, write the onset in one color and the rime in another, being
consistent)
B. Using at least 6-10 words from the list, write a story together having the main character be about a
cat. With the list of words, help the students to create a story that flows. Asking thought provoking
questions using who, what, where, when, why, and how will keep the story going.
4. The students will create their own books using the sentences they created together, adding
illustrations and more sentences individually.
5. If extra time, can come back together in a circle and sing, Old McDonald Had a Farm, and play
around with the onsets and phonemes in the chorus of the song. (Source: Phonological Awareness
is Childs Play! by Hallie Kay Yopp and Ruth Helen Yopp, Young Children Magazine, 2009).

Reflection

I always really enjoy doing lesson plans in the universal backward design format. It
makes sense when working with the Common Core Standards. You start with what you know the
children need to take away from this lesson, and slowly work your way back to the beginning.
In this case, every reader needs to learn the fundamentals of phonemes and phonological
awareness skills to be a successful reader. I think that when we break down all of the different
skills and pieces to learning to read, such as identifying the isolated sounds and phonemes to
words and practicing rhyming, into a small fun activity, we can really assess exactly what the
children are learning.
Personally, the best, most original assessment comes from documentation. As a teacher,
in this lesson plan, I can look through the books that the children wrote, I also can look to see
how much they took away from this experience. I am not looking for every book to be the same,
these are just guidelines. If a student really wanted to write their own story, but instead of the
main character being a cat, they wanted a rat or a bat, I would say absolutely! They are still
showing me the same skills and understanding that I am looking for. Maybe a child does not
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excel at writing quite yet, but they are confident in their drawings, if the picture shows me that
they understand the sentence they are illustrating, that shows comprehension to me. Working
with the backward design lesson plan is the complete opposite of the Reggio Emilia philosophy I
have been working with the past two years. Reggio Emilia is more along the lines of, wondering
where do we begin? What are we interested in? Do we know what the end result looks like
already? Most importantly, its definitely okay if the end result we pictured in the beginning does
not look like what we have now. That only shows growth and change in the child. As teachers,
we provide tools and guidelines, and we want the same for every child, in this instance, to learn
the skills to be able to read, but we want to be able to listen to the child and understand what
works best for them. We need to be listening to what inspires them.
My job is to be flexible and willing to work with the natural languages of the child. If
they have no interest in writing about a cat, but instead they want to write about dog. Then we
would have to work together to think of words that rhyme with dog. I want to meet my students
half way and keep them inspired to keep trying and working towards their own personal goals.

Works Cited

National Governors Association Center for Best Practices & Council of Chief State School
Officers. (2010). Common Core State Standards for English language arts and literacy in
history/social studies, science, and technical subjects. Washington, DC: Authors.

Yopp, H. K., & Yopp, R. H. (2009, January). Phonological Awareness is Childs Play!
Young Children, 1-9.