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EL Support Lesson
Reading Games
Objectives
Academic
Students will be able to identify letters in a variety of real life environments.
Language
Students will be able to explain where to find letters in real life settings using peer support.
Introduction
(3 minutes)- Gather students together for a read-aloud.
- Ask students to sing the alphabet song aloud with you (as you sing, point to the corresponding letters on a classroom alphabet chart).
Building academic language
Word
(10 minutes)- Display the the text for Alphabet City by Stephen T. Johnson and do a brief picture walk, highlighting the letters on each page.
- Read aloud the text, encouraging students to search, or look carefully, for the letters on each page.
Sentence
(15 minutes)- Define scavenger hunt and demonstrate how to search for letters using the Animal Alphabet worksheet. Model saying the letter sound and coloring in the letter on your worksheet when you find it in the classroom.
- Review the English names for the pictures on the worksheet.
- Explain that students will now get to go on their very own letter scavenger hunt in the classroom.
- Pass out an Animal Alphabet worksheet to each student and encourage the class to look at student name tags, word wall, signs, posters, etc. to find all of their letters.
Discourse
(2 minutes)- Gather the class back together and have students pair-share with a partner where they found the letters. Provide students with the sentence frame: "I found the letter __ __ __ __ on the __ __ __ __." Encourage students to share words that begin with each letter if time allows.
Additional EL adaptations
Beginning
- Pair students together to go on the scavenger hunt. Prior to the activity, work with student on identifying different letters in a pre-identifed areas of the classroom. Encourage students to say the sound of each letter as they find it.
Advanced
- Have students practice finding objects that relate to each letter of the alphabet. Pair students with a partner to share the objects they found. Partner A asks, "What did you find that starts with __ __ __ __?" Partner B responds, "I found __ __ __ __." Then have them switch roles.
Formative Assessment of Academic Language
(3 minutes)- As students are searching for letters, ask them guiding questions to assess their ability to differentiate between letter sounds such as: "How do you know this is an __ __ __ __ ?" "What sound does the __ __ __ __ make?" "What is a word that starts with the same sound?"
Review and closing
(2 minutes)- Review the alphabet by singing the alpahbet song one more time and saying, "We can find letters all around us! The more we learn about letters and their sounds, the more we will be able to read and write!"