Rikki Hamilton

rikkihamilton@u.boisestate.edu

Lesson:

Exploring Letters and Letter Sounds

Quick Overview of Lesson
In 100 words or less, give a description of the lesson.
Using the Moby Alphabet from BrainPop Jr. will help develop emerging literacy skills. By printing out the Moby alphabet,
which has Mobys body in the shape of each letter, the students will get to explore learning their letters and the sounds each
individual letter makes.

Why Do Students Care About This Lesson?

Why are they excited about the lesson, and how will you engage students who are not as interested in the lesson?
This is the beginning step for children to learn how to read on their own, whats more exciting than that?! Students who are not
interested in this should be reminded of all the amazing doors that will open up to them once they learn their letters which in
turn leads to learning to read.

Part 1
Essential Question:
List the question students should be considering as they complete the project. This is a driving question that hooks the students
into lesson or unit and is what they can answer at the end of the lesson. You should have ONE.
Which exact letter is this from the alphabet?

Learning Objectives:
Write your learning objectives (see (LO) & identify the Depth of Knowledge (DOK) level (DOK is listed later in this document).

LOs start with a verb (NOT students will). Do not use the words
understand or learn
One objective per (dont use and).
Do NOT mention the task.
What are students able to do or know at the END of the lesson?
DOK is how much critical thinking the STUDENT is doing.

Learning Objectives

DOK level

Develop emerging literacy skills

Explore letters

Explore letter sounds

Content Area Standard:

What content area standard will you be addressing?
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.K.2
Demonstrate understanding of spoken words, syllables, and sounds (phonemes).

Context:
Think about who your students are, you need to know the needs and levels of your students along with their personal interests
when you design your lessons. Create a fictional class in detail. Consider the diversity your class WILL have.
Who are your learners?
Students
Grade Level:
Kindergarten

Part 2
Materials:
List materials required
This lesson plan is required to integrate technology
Internet Access

Moby Alphabet
Cardstock
Glue

Anticipatory Set:
How will you introduce the lesson with a student-centered activity that captures their attention?
How will you activate prior knowledge? Can you build on a topic or skill they have already mastered?
Sing the alphabet song. Sing it again, slower only this time point to a visual of each letter as you sing and ask the class to follow
along and watch as you point to each letter.

Teaching Steps:
1.

Describe the scope and sequence of the activity; listing step by step what will be occurring both by the teacher and by the students.

2.

Do NOT mention the teacher. Your lesson should come from the student perspective.

3.

For each task, list the DOK level. How much critical thinking is the student involved in?

Task/Step

DOK level

Mix up the Moby Alphabet cards and hold them up one at a time for the class. Have
students say the name of the letter or the sound the letter makes. Set a timer and see how
fast the class can name the letters or sounds, and encourage them to beat their time! Or,
have students name, point to, write, or draw something that starts with each letter.

To meet the needs of kinesthetic learners, hold up different cards and challenge students to

position their bodies like Moby while they recite the letter name or sound.
Give each student a letter. Write a sight word on the board with a blank in place of one
letter. Ask students to come to the front of the room and stand in front of the blank where
their letter should be. Does more than one letter make sense? You may want to use the
Rhyming movie and features to supplement this activity.

Distribute one letter to each student, and divide the class into small groups. Set a timer for
five minutes and see how many words each group can make with the letters they have.
Have students change groups and repeat the activity. Which letters were the easiest to
make words with? The hardest? Why?
Put the cards in a literacy center for students to explore on their own or with a partner
throughout the school year. The corresponding activities can vary according to what you're
studying each month: students can put the cards in alphabetical order, use them to make
words, or sort them by self-selected or predetermined criteria. The possibilities are
endless!

Closure:
How will the lesson end?
End the lesson with some type of individual worksheet on letter matching with pictures that begin with that letter.

Modern Lesson Design: 4 Cs

Student connections to the 4cs:

Describe how your lesson

addresses each of the 4 Cs

Critically think:
Students are asked to...

Name the letter of the alphabet and the sound each letter makes

Critical thinking is coming up with their own ideas and defending them or creating something new or applying to a new situation.

Collaborate:
Students are...

Working together to come up with words that start with a particular letter of the
alphabet

Collaboration is not just working together, but to be reliant on each other. There should be some level of task switching.

Communicate:
Students will...

Communicating which letter belongs in the missing space on the board

Communicate is not talking; it is clearly communicating ideas.

Create:
Students will develop...

By creating groups of words that all begin with the same letter

Create is how students are being CREATIVE. This is NOT creating art. This is NOT creating a PowerPoint.

DOK Levels
What DOK levels are addressed in this activity?
Remember it is NOT how HARD the task is, but the complexity of thinking.
You may only address ONE DOK level in this lesson
or up to all 4. Describe how your lesson addresses the
DOK level.
DOK 1: Memorize/Follow steps

Memorize the alphabet and sounds

DOK 2: Think

Think of which sound a letter makes

DOK 3: Critically think

Critically think of which letter is missing in a site word

DOK 4: Original thinking

Originally come up with words that have the begin

with a particular letter

Assessment:
How will you know students have learned?

Formative assessment (see related info at the bottom of this document)

I will know which students are doing well with the alphabet and their sounds by gauging which ones picked up the alphabet
quickly and was able to tell me every letter and its sound. I will know which student struggles with this by gauging which ones
hesitated or didn't know all the letters or the sounds.

Summative assessment (see related info at the bottom of this document)

I would overall see how well students are doing with this lessons after they have completed the end lesson worksheet

Questions to Ask Yourself:

(They need to be considered while creating the lesson plan, but do not need to be recorded here.)
How do you offer your students choice and a piece of control?
What decisions do the students get to make?
How does your lesson show that the student is the most
important?
How do you differentiate for student needs? Why is this lesson
appropriate for your lowest student and your highest student?
How do you differentiate for student needs? Why is this lesson
appropriate for your lowest student and your highest student?
How do you accommodate students with learning disabilities
or language issues?
What digital citizenship do you address in this lesson?

RESOURCES:
What is the difference between formative and summative
assessment?
Formative assessment
The goal of formative assessment is to monitor student learning to provide ongoing feedback that can be
used by instructors to improve their teaching and by students to improve their learning. More specifically,
formative assessments:
help students identify their strengths and weaknesses and target areas that need work
help faculty recognize where students are struggling and address problems immediately

Formative assessments are generally low stakes, which means that they have low or no point value.
Examples of formative assessments include asking students to:
draw a concept map in class to represent their understanding of a topic
submit one or two sentences identifying the main point of a lecture
turn in a research proposal for early feedback

Summative assessment
The goal of summative assessment is to evaluate student learning at the end of an instructional unit by
comparing it against some standard or benchmark.
Summative assessments are often high stakes, which means that they have a high point value. Examples of
summative assessments include:

a midterm exam
a final project
a paper
a senior recital
Information from summative assessments can be used formatively when students or faculty use it to guide
their efforts and activities in subsequent courses.
Retrieved 10/2/16 from: https://www.cmu.edu/teaching/assessment/basics/formative-summative.html
Teaching Excellence & Educational Innovation Copyright 2008, 2015, Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence & Educational
Innovation, Carnegie Mellon University.
Lesson Plan Template retrieved 10/2/16 and adapted from:
http://alicekeeler.com/2016/02/21/my-lesson-plan-template
Teacher Tech blog by Alice Keeler