Lesson Plan for Language: Syllables

Content Area: Language

Grade Level: 1st grade
Time Duration: 45 minutes (Two Sessions)

Content Standards:
 CC.1.1.1.C
o Demonstrate understanding of spoken words, syllables, and sounds (phonemes).
o Distinguish long from short vowel sounds in spoken single-syllable words.
o Count, pronounce, blend, and segment syllables in spoken and written words.
o Orally produce single-syllable words, including consonant blends and digraphs
o Isolate and pronounce initial, medial vowel, and final sounds (phonemes) in spoken
single-syllable words
o Add or substitute individual sounds (phonemes) in one-syllable words to make new
words.
 CC.1.1.1.D
o Decode one and two-syllable words with common patterns.

Content Objective: Students will be able to identify and count the number of syllables in
grade-appropriate words.

Materials/Texts:
Whiteboard/markers
Textbook
Scissors
Activity Worksheets

Instructional Techniques:

Introduction (10 minutes):

①. Before actually starting the lesson, instruct the students to drink water or go to the bathroom.
②. Gather all and instruct them to sit at their desk and open up their textbook.
③. We will go over a page or two in the textbook carefully going over the instructions for each
textbook exercise and doing it together.
④. After finishing the assigned pages for the day, I will instruct the students to close their textbook
and introduce the main topic that we will be going over in class today: syllables.
⑤. Ask the students what they think “syllables” are. Discuss and talk about.

I Do (Teacher model-10 minutes):

①. Display on the white board all the student’s names (first and last). Ask how a person would
learn how to pronounce a name if they had never seen the name before. Ask for response and
discuss.
②. Introduce syllables by dividing my own name (clapping method). After ask the students to try to
do the same with their own names. Share their findings.
③. Display more words on the board and explain why syllables are helpful in reading.
④. Teach then the hand on chin method.
We Do/They Do (Guided Practice-20 minutes):
①. Divide the students into two groups
②. Distribute the Activity pages
③. Read and review the instructions
④. Distribute scissors
⑤. Stress that some of the syllables may be used more than once and some may only be used one
time.
⑥. Give them time to do the exercise (10 minutes)
⑦. Allow students to share their words from their lists. Discuss the answers.

For those who are struggling: I will circulate the classroom and monitor and give
redirections or feedbacks to assist.

Assessment:
 Practice page will be given for individual practice is time allows-if not it will be given for
homework. I will check and review the students’ responses in class and in their homework’s
 If the students seem like they are advanced or want more additional practice, I will also
distribute another worksheet with an syllables activity to do at home.

Conclusion (5 minutes):
①. |In closing, I will ask students if breaking words into syllables helped them discover how to
pronounce the new words? If time allows, display random words on the board and ask number
of syllables in each word.
②. Assign the homework: practice worksheet and homework worksheet (depending on the progress
in the lesson, level and time).

Domain 3 Reflection Paper on Instructions

After conducting these lessons (2 sessions) on syllables, I reflected on the Domain 3: Instructional

Delivery aspects of the lessons. The students seemed to enjoy the lessons and was engaged

throughout the lesson from what I can see. I felt that I did a great job communicating with

students. Working with the first graders, I pay attention to how I give the instructions and

procedures. I try my best to keep it straight forward and concise and use repetitions if necessary. I

try to incorporate as much visual aids as possible. I felt that the first graders really learn better

when they see the writing instead of audio dominance. For an example, with when explaining

concepts-the students seem to understand the concepts better when they see pictures and words

written or displayed on the whiteboard. For this lesson, we were learning about syllables and it

really seemed to help when writing down the words on the board and visually breaking down the
word into syllables instead of saying the word without visual input and trying to verbally break it

down. I do anticipate possible questions and do try to answer any comments or concerns during

the lesson. When I was displaying everyone’s names on the whiteboard and as a class, we were

trying to figure out how many syllables were in the names. One student, his name was Hugo

Kennedy but when they were instructed to find their full name’s syllables on their own, he

exclaimed that he had eleven syllables. I asked the student why he thought he had eleven syllables

and as a class we looked at how many syllables “Hugo Kennedy” had. He shared with the class that

his full name consisted two more names-“Hugo William Nagita Kennedy” and a class we added

those names and figured out that he did in fact have eleven syllables in his name.

For this lesson, I tried to bring in discussions and questions frequently so that the students to think

more on their own to generate answers, stay actively engaged, and also to think in higher levels. I

started out the lesson on syllables by asking the student what they would do when they meet

people for the first time with a very complicated name. For an example I brought up their main

classroom teacher’s (my mentor) name which was Adesola Victoria Idowu-Peters. They always

refer to her as “Ms. Victoria” so they were first not familiar with her official full name. I wrote it on

the white board and asked how they would start to read this. And how the skills of breaking down

into their syllables will help with their reading. I try to initiate higher level of thinking by bringing in

real life scenarios and examples for them to think about so that they know why we are learning

this concept and how useful it can be in our daily life. Additionally, through group work for

matching word parts (syllables) and formulating words in their group provided opportunity for the

students to actively discuss together and generate answers (teamwork) while I circulated the

classroom to redirect, assist or answer any questions. I always keep my ears open for any

questions or any comments-making sure all voices are heard. I have a student; his name is Shun

and he likes to talk and blab out what comes up in his mind throughout the lesson. I am working
with him throughout the lesson so that he can raise his hand and wait to be called before he starts

to talk. Although, we still need to work on this routine with him, I do try to listen to his comments

and ideas by redirecting him to raise his hand and being called so that he may speak and share. I

try my best to answer any questions that pops up during the lesson.

For engaging students in learning aspects-I feel that I do a good job with this in my lessons,

especially because in the first-grade class I have now there are only five students. This makes it

easier for me to have all students engaged most of the time. When discussing or having students

answer to my prompts or questions, I try to give all a chance to voice their ideas, comments or

answers. If I see that one of the students is not raising their hand or not contributing to the

learning experience or the group work, I will assist or redirect or just call on them even if their

hand is not raised. There is a student in my class who is struggling because he entered into the

school later than everyone else. He usually takes more time than everyone else in the class and by

the time everyone is raising their hand, he will be too busy catching up with the previous exercise

or in the process of comprehending what is being asked. Then, I will call on him regardless of him

raising his hand or not, repeat myself with what I am asking if necessary and give him a

opportunity to share his answer.

One of the areas that I need to work on is giving and providing more opportunity for the students

to reflect on their thinking and the overall structure/pacing of the lesson so that I can allow the

students to reflect and have closure for the lesson. I usually run out of time and have to quickly

end the lesson, leaving less time for closure, recap or reflection by the students. For this lesson

especially, I felt that I needed to make it into two sessions so that I can work better with time

management and have flexibility so that these criteria’s can be met. Compared to the other

lessons where I ran out of time, I felt that there was more time for monitoring progress, have
discussions and group work where I can see their thinking process as well as give some time for

closure.

Assessments are used throughout the lesson in all my lessons, especially to test their

understandings and their progress. Throughout the lesson and its discussions, I constantly test

their comprehension. When demonstrating how to generate the number of syllables in their

names-I ask them to first do it individually and then share their finding to the class which lets me

know if they can do the task accurately on their own. Working in their groups with formulating

words with syllables parts in the group-I circulate the classroom monitoring the students and what

or how they are discussing with each other to complete the activity. I give homework’s that relate

and reflect their understandings which will be collected before next class so that I can grade and

see if anybody needs more practice or if I need to make the next lesson more challenging. The

homework and closing discussions allow me to see if the students met the learning objectives. The

work done in class and the homework’s allows me to monitor and self-assess if the lesson was at

the suitable level and if they need more practice or not. This lesson seemed at the right level of

complexity and the homework grades as well as their motivations I saw when doing the group

work showed me that it was the right amount of work and level for these fist graders. The

students showing interest and motivation to continue with the group activity (what they didn’t

finish in the class time provided) lets me know that they enjoyed the lesson as well as wanting to

do more!

I personally value monitoring and constant observation of the student and what is happening in

the classroom very important. Every chance I have during a lesson, I make sure to walk around,

circulate the classroom and monitor the students. When I see students not doing the instructed

work then I redirect. If I see students finished and not doing any sort of work, distracted or bored-I
try to give them more to do or further instructions. For this lesson, when students were cutting

the syllables and I saw that one of the students was already finished and just waiting for the rest, I

gave him more to cut to help the other student in his group who are having a hard time finishing.

Being flexible and having an open space for adjustments to occur depending on the work progress

and the students is very useful tactic in these lessons. I try my best to be responsive to the

students at all times. However, I did receive some feedbacks from my supervisor that I need to pay

more attention to the “teaching moments” during the lessons. During the lesson, when students

talk, sometimes there are moments where they make the perfect mistake in their grammar or

unconsciously give the teacher a moment to teach or reteach the concept of the lesson. For an

example, the other day we were learning about singular and plural words and their difference.

While we were talking about the homework at the end of the lesson, one of the student made a

comment with a mistake that could have been corrected by me which related to singular and

plural words but I was preoccupied with writing the homework on the board and missed the

opportunity. I feel that I need more practice and experience in order to improve myself in taking

on these “teaching moments” that occur in the classroom. I need to be able to take these

opportunities to build on and enhance learning that occurs in my lessons.

All that said, I need to keep in mind the few goals that I reflected on through Domain 3. One was

to give more opportunity to the students to reflect on their thinking. The other was my time

management, structure and overall pacing of the lesson so it allows more time for the students

throughout the lesson. I view time management to be the area that I need to improve the most. I

would like to use more varieties of assessments and ways of monitoring the students. And lastly, I

need to be able to distinguish and take on the opportunities-“teaching moments” to enhance the

student’s learnings.