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Igh, igh Captain!

Beginning Reading

Katherine Hope Youngblood

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rationale: In this lesson plan, the students will be taught the long vowel correspondence igh= /I/. The students must learn to recognize spellings that map word pronunciations in order to be able to read. In this lesson the students will learn to recognize, spell, and read words containing the spelling igh. The students will learn a meaningful representation (Igh, Igh Captain!), the students will spell and read words containing the spelling in the Letterbox lesson, and read a decodable book that focuses on the correspondence igh= /I/.

 

Materials: Graphic image of a sailor saluting (saying igh, igh captain); cover-up critter; smartboard with letter boxes on a PowerPoint, letter box squares for each student; smartboard letters for teacher: r, h, s, f, l, t, n, i, g, h; list of spelling words on PowerPoint to read off the smartboard: right, sight, high, sick, sight, flight, night; decodable text: The Big Fright and assessment worksheet.

 

Procedures:

  1. Say: In order to become professional readers, we have to learn the special code that helps us know how to pronounce words. Remember at the beginning of the year when we learned the short vowel i, like in lip? We also learned how i_e and y both make the long vowel I sound. Well, today we are learn about how long vowel I and the silent gh that is used to make I say its name, /I/. When I say /I/ I think of a sailor saluting his captain saying “Igh, igh Captain!” [Show graphic].

  2. Say: Before we start spellings some really cool words with the long vowel /I/, let’s listen for the /I/ in some words. When I listen for /I/ in words, I hear i say its name /I/ and my mouth is open and tongue is slightly lower [demonstrate with vocal gesture and point at tongue where your finger is making the I letter]. There is a long I in high. Now I’m going to see if it’s in sit. Oh no, I didn’t hear i say its name and my mouth wasn’t all the way open with my tongue slightly lower. Now it’s your turn to give it a try! If you hear /I/ say, “Igh, igh Captain!” If you don’t  hear /I/ say, “Walk the plank!” Is it in light, man, leap, snake, noses, sigh? [Have children point to their tongue when they feel the /I/ say its name.]

  3. Say: Now let’s look at the spelling of /I/ that we’ll learn today. Today, we are going to focus on spelling /I/ with the letter i and the signal of gh after the i to tell us to say I’s name. [Write igh on the smartboard.] When igh is together it makes the /I/ sound. What if I want to spell the word bright? “The sun is really bright today.” Bright means a really sunny day in this sentence. To spell bright in the letterboxes, first I need to find out how many phonemes I have in the word. To do this I will stretch out the word and count: /b/ /r/ /I/ /t/. I need 4 boxes. I heard the /I/ just before the /t/ so I’m going to put igh in the 3th box. The word starts /b/, that’s really easy; lets pull the b to our first letter box. Let’s listen to the word one more time and say it slowly, /b/ /r/ /I/ /t/. I think I heard the growling /r/ so I need a r in the second letter box. I have one empty box now. [point at letters in boxes when stretching out the word: /b//r//I//t/.] The missing letter is /t/ = t.

  4. Say: Now we are going to spell words in the letterboxes. We will start out easy with two boxes for high. The word high means above normal height. “I had to reach to get the book off the high shelve.” What should go in the first box? [Respond to children’s answers]. What goes in the first box? Did you remember to put igh in the same box?  I’ll check your spelling will I walk around the room.  [observe progress.] You’ll need 3 letterboxes for the next word. Listen for the beginning sound that goes in the first box. Then listen for /I/ and don’t forget to put the silent gh after your i in the same box as your i. Here’s the word: right, I got the right answer; right. [Allow children to spell words.] Let’s check our work! Watch how I spell it in my letterbox on the smartboard: r-igh-t and see if your spelling is the same way. Try another with three boxes: sight; There is not a tree in sight. [Call on a student to spell the word on the smartboard for students to check their work. Repeat this step for each new word.] Next word. Listen to see if this word has /I/ in it before you spell it: Sick; I was sick yesterday. Did you remember to spell /k/ with ck? Now lets try 4 phonemes: flight; The bird had a nice flight. One more then we’re done with spelling, and we are going to do another 4 phoneme word: nights; Sometimes the nights are cold. Remember to stretch it out to get this tough word.

  5. Say: Now I am going to let you read the words you’ve spelled, but first I’ll show you how I would read a tough word. [Display slide with bright on the top and model reading the word]. First I see there’s a silent gh after my i; that’s my signal that the vowel will say its name. There’s the vowel I. It must say /I/. I’m going to use a cover-up to get the first part. [Uncover and blend sequentially before the vowel, then blend with the vowel.] /b//r/ = /b/+/r/= /br/. Now I’m going to blend that with /I/ = /brI/. Now all I need is the end, /t/ = /brIt/. Bright; that’s it. Now it’s your turn, everyone together. [Have children read words in unison. Afterwards, call on individuals to read one word on the list until everyone has had a turn.]

  6. Say: You’ve done a great job and reading words with our new spelling for /I/: igh. Now we are going to read a book called The Big Fright. This story is about a boy named Tim who has a bad dream about his pig. Tim's dream was so scary that it woke him up, but then things from his dream start coming true! What will happen? Will his pig be okay? [Children pair up and take turns reading alternate pages each while teacher walks around the room monitoring progress. After individual paired reading, the class rereads The Big Fright aloud together, and stops between page turns to discuss the plot.]

  7. Say: That was a fun story.  Who were the characters in the story? (Tim and Slim.) What was Tim’s dream about? Did his dream come true? What happened to Slim? Before we finish up with our lesson about one way to spell /I/=i, I want to see how you can solve a reading problem. On this worksheet, we have some different pictures with the word of what it is next to them. Your job is to look at the pictures and the words, and decide which word has an /I/ in it. First try reading all the words underneath the picture, then choose the picture that has an /I/ in the word. Reread your answers to see if they make sense. [Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress.]

 

Resources:

The Big Fright by Gerri Murray http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/bookindex.html

Bailey Samples: http://brs0008.wix.com/missbailey#!about1/cnae

Assessment worksheet: http://urbrainy.com/get/2252/igh-words-6451

 

 

 

 

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