Shared reading lessons

​​​Shared reading is a strategy that can support the teaching of the Big Six elements of reading:  oral language and early experiences with print, phonological awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension. (Konza, 2016).

Day one can focus on reading for meaning and enjoyment. Day two to five could focus on a rereading with explicit teaching based on the above elements.

Using fluency and expression to read a text with repetitive segments

Lesson overview

This lesson will require students to listen to and join in with the reading of an enlarged, shared text that contains rhyme and repetition. 

Text details

Sharing Fruit, Author Jenny Feely.

Reproduced by permission. Source: Sharing Fruit, Author Jenny Feely, Program Flying Start to Literacy published by Eleanor Curtain Publishing Pty Ltd. © EC Licensing Pty Ltd.

Text contains

The text contains opportunities for the teacher to:

  • model fluent and expressive reading
  • encourage students to identify and generate rhyming words
  • blend and segment single syllable words.

The text contains opportunities for the student to:

  • hear what fluent and expressive reading sounds like
  • track text as it is being read to reinforce early reading behaviours
  • join in with the teacher on the repetitive sections of the text
  • identify and generate examples of onset and rime (such as vine, mine)
  • see the teacher model strategies to ensure reading for meaning.

The text contains: 

  • rhyme (tree/me, lunch/munch)
  • rhythm (such as, two red apples on the tree. One for you and one for me.)
  • repeated segments (munch, munch, munch)
  • digraph /ch/ in munch, lunch, bunch, crunchy, each, cherries
  • blend ‘cr’ in crispy, crunchy
  • punctuation marks: full stop, capital letter, comma, question mark, exclamation mark, quotation marks.

Links to the Victorian Curriculum - English

Foundation - Reading and viewing

Read texts with familiar structures and features, practising phrasing and fluency, and monitor meaning using concepts about print and emerging phonic, semantic, contextual and grammatical knowledge. For more information, see: Content description VCELY152.

Level 1 - Reading and viewing

Read texts with familiar features and structures using developing phrasing, fluency, phonic, semantic, contextual, and grammatical knowledge and emerging text processing strategies, including prediction, monitoring meaning and rereading. For more information, see: Content description VCELY187.

Level 2 - Reading and viewing

Read familiar and some unfamiliar texts with phrasing and fluency by combining phonic, semantic, contextual and grammatical knowledge using text processing strategies, including monitoring meaning, predicting, rereading and self correcting. For more information, see: Content description VCELY221.

Links to Victorian Curriculum - English as an Additional Language (EAL)

Pathway A

Reading and viewing
Level A1

  • Read short, familiar texts (VCEALC030)
  • Adopt the teacher's intonation patterns when reading familiar texts (VCEALL054)
  • Participate in shared reading activities (VCEALA037)
  • Identify repetitive words or phrases in known texts (VCEALL047)
  • Adopt the teacher's intonation patterns when reading familiar texts (VCEALL054)

Level A2 

  • Understand information in texts read and viewed in class (VCEALC113)
  • Use knowledge of context, text structure and language to understand literal and inferred meanings (VCEALC114)
  • Read familiar texts with some fluency (VCEALL135)
  • Participate in simple group activities based on shared texts (VCEALA119)
  • Read familiar phrases and sentences with fluency (VCEALL128)
  • Read familiar texts with some fluency (VCEALL135)

Learning intention

We are learning to read with phrasing and fluency.

Success criteria

I can use the rhythm of the text and placement of words on the page to help me read with phrasing and fluency.

Lesson sequence 

  1. Introduce the learning intention and success criteria for the lesson.
    • Today we are learning about how to read with phrasing and fluency. When we read fluently and group words together in phrases, it can help us understand what we read. It is important to understand what we are reading.
    • I am going to show you how to group your words together in phrased units and use the rhythm of the text to help me read this text. You will have a chance to practise this skill reading some of the pages in this book; to yourself and with a partner. You will know you are successfully reading with phrasing and fluency when you receive feedback from each other and me at the lesson conclusion.
  2. Ensure text is displayed in front of students so they can see the enlarged font and photographs. Introduce text. “This text is about two children who share some fruit.  While I read, see if you can name and remember all the different types of fruit they share and eat”.
  3. Begin reading. Use a pointer to track the words so students can see early reading behaviours such as left to right, return sweep, top to bottom, word by word matching.
  4. As the text is read, model phrasing and fluency, using the natural rhythm of the text to assist.
  5. After reading, check for understanding.
    • Ask students who was in the text, what and how much fruit was eaten (literal comprehension).
    • Ask students why the boy ate all the other fruit except for the lemon? (inferential comprehension).
  6. Reread the text. Ask students to listen out for the way the text sounds. Encourage students to join in with the repetitive segments. Discuss.
  7. Return to page 2. Model reading page 2 and ask students to clap the pattern as the teacher reads. What do they notice? Ask them to join in and reread page 2 again. Point out that the text has been written to support phrasing and fluency. Each line is a new phrase.
  8. Repeat process with page 3.
  9. Make copies of the written text from page 2 and 3. Ask students to read with a partner, using the rhythm to assist their phrasing and fluency. Partners give feedback on whether the reading sounds phrased and fluent. The teacher roams the paired groups modelling and giving feedback as required. Select students to share their reading.
  10. Students return to the main group. Selected students share their reading with the whole group. Listen for rhythm, phrasing and fluency.
  11. Revisit success criteria. Check which students feel confident reading with phrasing and fluency and which students require more practise. Annotate student records.

Identifying and generating rhyming words

Lesson overview

This lesson will require students to listen to and join in with the reading of an enlarged, shared text that contains rhyme and repetition. The lesson is suitable for groups of beginning readers who are learning about rhymes, consolidating their understandings about the concepts of print and who are becoming more familiar with grapheme-phoneme correspondence. 

Text details

Sharing Fruit, Author Jenny Feely.

Reproduced by permission. Source: Sharing Fruit, Author Jenny Feely, Program Flying Start to Literacy published by Eleanor Curtain Publishing Pty Ltd. © EC Licensing Pty Ltd

​

Text contains

Enlarged text (big book), unlevelled.

The text contains opportunities for the teacher to:

  • model fluent and expressive reading
  • encourage students to identify and generate rhyming words
  • blend and segment single syllable words.

The text contains opportunities for students to:

  • hear what fluent and expressive reading sounds like
  • track text as it is being read to reinforce early reading behaviours
  • join in with the teacher on the repetitive sections of the text 
  • identify and generate examples of onset and rime (eg: vine, mine)
  • see the teacher model strategies to ensure reading for meaning.

The text contains: 

  • rhyme (such as tree/me, lunch/munch)
  • rhythm (such as two red apples on the tree. One for you and one for me)
  • repeated segments (eg: munch, munch, munch)
  • digraph /ch/ in munch, lunch, bunch, crunchy, each, cherries
  • blend ‘cr’ in crispy, crunchy
  • punctuation marks: full stop, capital letter, comma, question mark, exclamation mark, quotation marks.

Links to the Victorian Curriculum - English

Foundation

Speaking and listening

Identify rhyming words, alliteration patterns, syllables and some sounds (phonemes) in spoken words. For more information, see: Content description VCELA168.

Links to Victorian Curriculum - English as an Additional Language (EAL)

Pathway A

Speaking and listening
Level A1

  • Imitate pronunciation, stress and intonation patterns (VCEALL027)

Level A2 

  • Identify and produce phonemes in blends or clusters at the beginning and end of syllables (VCEALL110)


Learning intention

We are learning to hear words that rhyme and think of other examples that can rhyme with them. 

Success criteria

I can hear and identify at least one set of words that rhyme in this text. I can also think of another word that is not in the text but could rhyme with the ones I identified.

Lesson sequence

  1. Introduce the learning intention and success criteria for the lesson. Today we are learning about words that rhyme. We know that words rhyme when the last part of a word sounds the same as the last part of another word. I am going to read you this text that has lots of rhyming words in it. I want you to listen out for words that sound the same at the end.  By the end of this session I want you to tell me at least 2 words that rhyme from the text. I also want you to think of another word that is not in the text but could rhyme with the words you identified.
  2. Ensure text is displayed in front of students so they can see the enlarged font and photographs. Introduce text. “This text is about two children who share some fruit.  While I read, see if you can name and remember all the different types of fruit they share and eat”.
  3. Begin reading. Use a pointer to track the words so students can see early reading behaviours such as left to right, return sweep, top to bottom, word by word matching.
  4. After reading, check for understanding.  Ask students who was in the text, what and how much fruit was eaten (literal comprehension). Ask students why the boy ate all the other fruit except for the lemon? (inferential comprehension).
  5. Reread the text. Ask students to listen carefully for any rhyming words they hear. The teacher uses intonation and stress to delineate the rhyming words as they read.  If students hear a rhyming word, the teacher asks them to clap/put their hand up/click their fingers etc.
  6. As the rhyming words are identified, the teacher records the words where all student can see them. (eg: lunch/munch, see/me, do/you, vine/mine). Discuss why the words rhyme (ie: the ends of both the words sound the same).
  7. Ask students to look at the word endings. What do they notice? (ie: Rhyming words may sound the same but word endings are not always spelt the same).
  8. Ask students to find a spot around the room by themselves. Give each student a card with a rhyming word written on it from the text. Their task is to say the word and find another person in the classroom with a word that rhymes with their word (i.e. do and you, tree and me. A further scaffold might be to write each rhyming pair in the same colour). When they have found a rhyming partner sit down on the carpet with their partner and identify the part of the word that rhymes and its sound.  Rove pairs to assist.
  9. Return to whole group. Students share their matched words and the rhyming sound they can hear at the end of each matched pair. As a group encourage students to generate another word that rhymes with the rhyming pair. Scaffold students’ attempts at new words with prompts such as think of another rhyming word that starts with the digraph /th/, consonant blend 'cr' or begins with the sound /s/. Record the generated words with the rhyming pairs. Accept real and made up words. Underline the part of each word that rhymes.
  10. Revisit the success criteria.  Ask students to use the thumbs up/down/sideways gesture to signal whether they could hear 2 words that rhymed. Repeat process for whether they could think of another word that rhymed that was not in the text. 

Going further

Repeat the explicit teaching of identifying and generating words that rhyme with a range of texts that contain rhyming words. See Multiple Exposures in High Impact Teaching Strategies:

Differentiated practice

Some students will require more support to identify rhymes in sentences. These students can further their understandings through activities and games that focuses on identifying rhymes using single words. Additionally, these students should be exposed to songs, chants and stories that use rhyme. Students who understand rhyme and can identify the rhymes in texts, such as 'Sharing Fruit' can innovate on the text to generate their own rhymes. These students can also be introduced to rhyme in more complex texts, for example, where the rhyme occurs in lines 2 and 4 of a stanza.

Blend and segment onset and rime

Lesson overview

This lesson will require students to listen to and join in with the reading of an enlarged, shared text that contains rhyme and repetition. 

The text contains opportunities for the teacher to:

  • model fluent and expressive reading
  • encourage students to identify
  • generate rhyming words and blend and segment single syllable words.

The text contains opportunities for students to: 

  • hear what fluent and expressive reading sounds like
  • track text as it is being read to reinforce early reading behaviours
  • join in with the teacher on the repetitive sections of the text
  • identify and generate examples of onset and rime (eg: vine, mine)
  • see the teacher model strategies to ensure reading for meaning.

The text contains: 

  • rhyme (eg: tree/me, lunch/munch)
  • rhythm (eg: Two red apples on the tree. One for you and one for me)
  • repeated segments (eg: munch, munch, munch)
  • digraph /ch/ in munch, lunch, bunch, crunchy, each, cherries
  • blend ‘cr’ in crispy, crunchy
  • punctuation marks: full stop, capital letter, comma, question mark, exclamation mark, quotation marks.

Text details

Sharing Fruit, Author Jenny Feely.

Reproduced by permission. Source: Sharing Fruit, Author Jenny Feely, Program Flying Start to Literacy published by Eleanor Curtain Publishing Pty Ltd. © EC Licensing Pty Ltd.

​

Text contains

Enlarged text (big book), unlevelled

Links to the Victorian Curriculum - English

Foundation

Reading and viewing

Blend sounds associated with letters when reading consonant-vowel-consonant words. For more information, see: Content description VCELA147.

Level one

Understand how to spell one and two syllable words with common letter patterns. For more information, see: Content description VCELA182.

Links to Victorian Curriculum - English as an Additional Language (EAL)

Pathway A

Reading and viewing
Level A1

  • Identify some sounds in words (VCEALL050)
  • Recognise some common letters and letter patterns in words (VCEALL051)

Level A2 

  • Relate most letters of the alphabet to sounds (VCEALL131)
  • Use knowledge of letters and sounds to read a new word or locate key words (VCEALL132)


Learning intention

We are learning to blend and segment onset and rime in words.

For more information, see: Onset-Rime Segmentation​ (docx - 250.94kb)

Success criteria

I can find the rime in a word I know, change the onset and help spell at least 2 new words.

Lesson sequence

  1. Introduce the learning intention and success criteria for the lesson. Today we are learning how to use a word we already know to help us get to another word that looks and sounds alike. This strategy is useful when we are writing and when decoding text. It helps us get to new words from words we already know. I am going to show you how to break up a word into its rime and onset and then change the onset to make a new word.  By the end of the session I want you to be able to break up a word into its onset and rime and then change the onset to spell 2 new words.
  2. Ensure text is displayed in front of students so they can see the enlarged font and photographs. Introduce text. “This text is about two children who share some fruit.  While I read, see if you can name and remember all the different types of fruit they share and eat”.
  3. Begin reading. Use a pointer to track the words so students can see early reading behaviours such as left to right, return sweep, top to bottom, word by word matching.
  4. After reading, check for understanding. Ask students who was in the text, what and how much fruit was eaten (literal comprehension). Ask students why the boy ate all the other fruit except for the lemon? (inferential comprehension).
  5. Reread page 2.  Record the word ‘red’ where all students can see it.
  6. Make the word ‘red’ with magnetic letters underneath. Show students how to break it up into onset and rime. Underline the rime and point out that a rime always starts with a vowel. Introduce the metalanguage ‘rime’ to students. Discuss its meaning and how it is different from rhyme.
  7. Place the magnetic letters b, f, l, t, w, sh above the word. Say ‘I can make another word that looks and sounds like /r/ ‘ed’ if I change the first letter and replace it with another (eg: /b/ ‘ed’).
  8. Ask individual students to come up and make and break the onset and rime to make new ‘ed’ rimes. Introduce the metalanguage ‘onset’ and discuss its meaning.
  9. Draw students’ attention to the reciprocity of this knowledge; knowing one word can help you get to another and the usefulness of this when decoding or encoding.
  10. Revisit the success criteria. Ask students to silently identify the rime in ‘red’ and think of 2 new onsets for that rime. Ask them to turn and share with a partner. As students share rove group and give feedback. Ask students to use the thumbs up/down/sideways gesture to signal their success at this task.  

Going further

As a follow up, students make a flip rime book. Fold several A5 blank pages in half to form a small book. Staple. Leave the back page intact. Record the rime on the bottom right corner of the back page. Cut a small square out of the right bottom corner on each of the other pages so the recorded rime is visible.

Students then record an onset on each page as close to the rime as possible. They illustrate, blend, read and learn to spell the rimes. Students keep flip book in their book box to be referred to during literacy activities.  

Differentiated practice

Students who require support in working with onset and rime will need further exposure to texts that rhyme, including songs, chants and picture books. More guided practice with an adult will be required for these students to identify the onset and rime and match them to the corresponding graphemes. For example, engaging in activities with magnetic letters. These students should use the displayed onsets to make their ‘ed’ flip book, with opportunity to read their flip book to the teacher on different occasions throughout the day. Once students are familiar with the words and the sounds, the teacher can suggest other words for students to determine if they fit into their flip book. 

Students who are confident with simple onset and rimes could use other single syllable words from the text for example, vine, lunch, green) and generate rimes. These students could use more complex letter patterns to generate rhymes, such as digraphs and trigraphs.

 

Foundation Level: Hearing and generating words that rhyme

Text

My Dog Rags, Author Kerrie Shanahan, Program Flying Start to Literacy
Published by Eleanor Curtain Publishing Pty Ltd.
© EC Licensing Pty Ltd. Reproduced by permission

Resources required

Links to the Victorian Curriculum - English

  • English, Speaking and Listening, Language: Phonics and word knowledge
  • Foundation: Identify rhyming words, alliteration patterns, syllables and some sounds (phonemes) in spoken words (Content description VCELA168)
  • English, Reading and Viewing, Language: Phonics and word knowledge
  • Foundation: Recognise all upper- and lower-case letters and the most common sound that each letter represents (Content description VCELA146)
  • English, Reading and Viewing, Language: Expressing and developing ideas
  • Foundation: Recognise that texts are made up of words and groups of words that make meaning (Content description VCELA144).

Links to Victorian Curriculum - English as an Additional Language (EAL)

Pathway A

Speaking and listening
Level A1

  • Imitate pronunciation, stress and intonation patterns (VCEALL027)

Reading and viewing 

Level A2
Speaking and listening

  • Identify and produce phonemes in blends or clusters at the beginning and end of syllables (VCEALL110)

Reading and viewing

  • Recognise all letters of the alphabet (VCEALL130)
  • Relate most letters of the alphabet to sounds (VCEALL131)
  • Use knowledge of letters and sounds to read a new word or locate key words (VCEALL132)

Learning intention

I am learning to hear and say words that rhyme by listening to the middle and final part of a word.

Success criteria

I can hear and say two words that rhyme.
I can think of another word that rhymes with my pair.

  1. Listen to My Dog Rags clip on YouTube  (e.g. 0.00-0.40 chorus only)

    Model actions for flip flop, wig wag and zig zag. Children join in on the second viewing. Aurally identify the words that rhyme e.g. Rags/sags, wag/zag, wig/zig, he/me and what part of the word makes them rhyme.

  2. Use the shared reading practice to read big book My Dog Rags by Kerrie Shanahan for enjoyment and understanding. Reread the text and ask students to listen out for rhyming words on selected pages e.g. 2,5,16. Reinforce what makes each set of words rhyme. Write rhyming words on whiteboard (e.g. Rags/sags, slops/stops, pet/met, see/me) and on prepared flashcards.
  3. Model game of tic tac toe with selected rhyming words to support phonic identification.
  4. Students work with a partner. Each pair has a set of cards with rhyming words from the story written on. Play a game of tic tac toe to identify the words.
  5. Pairs turn cards over. Play a game of concentration/memory where partners have to find 2 words that rhyme to make a pair. Teacher roves student pairs to support or differentiates by working with a small group.
  6. Ask pairs to choose one set of rhyming words from their memory game. Say the words and think of new words that rhyme with the pair.
  7. Return to main group and a member from each group share a rhyming pair and a new rhyming word.
  8. Return to success criteria. Students turn to their partner and share the 2 rhyming words they know. Additionally share a new rhyming word that matches the pair. Use the thumbs up/sideways/down to signal their success at the task.

Differentiated practice

Some students will need more assistance to hear words that rhyme. These students could work in small groups with the teacher or work independently with cards that have pictures of items the students know. Students match the rhyming pairs. Some students will be able to create their own rhyming pairs but may require some prompts. For example, by providing them with a word to rhyme. Students with strong knowledge about rhymes could work with a partner to innovate on the text and create their own rhyming story. 

Pronoun reference

Lesson Overview

This text provides opportunities for:

  • investigating the use of pronoun references used as linking devices to make a text cohesive. One way an author sets up links in a text is to use pronouns to refer back to a noun or noun group which has already been mentioned.
  • building comprehension by supporting students to understand that pronouns can take the place of nouns or noun groups in a text. By linking the pronouns to the correct noun or noun group, readers are better able to understand the content including character development and the interplay between characters.

Text

Go to Sleep, Jessie!
Text copyright © Libby Gleeson 2014, Illustrations copyright © Freya Blackwood 2014
Published by Little Hare, an imprint of Hardie Grant Egmont

This picture story book is a narrative about two siblings. Jessie, the baby, moves into her big sister's bedroom and her crying quickly unsettles her big sister. The story follows the big sister's unsuccessful attempts to placate the baby and get her to sleep. After Dad intervenes and takes Jessie for a ride in the car, the big sister realises her bedroom is not the same without her baby sister. The story concludes with both siblings asleep in Jessie's cot.

Links to the Victorian Curriculum - English

English, Writing, Language: Text structure and organisation

Level 4: Understand how texts are made cohesive through the use of linking devices including pronoun reference and text connectives (Content description VCELA290).

English, Reading and Viewing, Literacy: Interpreting, analysing, evaluating

Level 4: Use comprehension strategies to build literal and inferred meaning to expand content knowledge, integrating and linking ideas and analysing and evaluating texts (Content description VCELY288).

Links to Victorian Curriculum - English as an Additional Language (EAL)

Pathway B

Speaking and listening
Level BL

  • Use words from sets related to immediate communicative need, interest or experience (VCEALL180)

Level B1 

Level B2

  • Use, in speech, vocabulary and structures learnt from spoken and written texts (VCEALL341)

Reading and viewing
Level BL

  • Understand the sequence of events in a familiar text (VCEALL201)
  • Use basic terminology of reading (VCEALL202)
  • Make simple predictions or inferences about a text, with support (VCEALC189)

Level B1

  • Understand the sequence of key words, phrases or ideas in a familiar text (VCEALL281)
  • Use some of the terminology of reading (VCEALL282)
  • Make simple predictions or inferences about a text (VCEALC269)

Level B2 

  • Understand the relationships between events or ideas in a text (VCEALL362)
  • Understand and use a range of learnt metalanguage to talk about text (VCEALL363)
  • Make and substantiate inferences and predictions when reading or listening to a text read aloud (VCEALC350)

Level B3 

  • Understand the cohesion of ideas between and within paragraphs (VCEALL441)
  • Understand and use the appropriate metalanguage to talk about the structures and features of a text (VCEALL442)
  • Discuss texts with some understanding of meaning beyond the literal level, moving towards the inferential level (VCEALC429)

Group size

Small group.

Learning intention

We are learning that when we read pronouns can take the place of nouns or noun groups in a text. 

Success criteria 

  • I can locate the pronouns in a page of text I am reading.
  • I can link the pronouns to a noun or noun group in the text.

Lesson sequence

  1. Introduce the learning intention. Explain to students that authors use pronouns in their texts to take the place of nouns or noun groups. They do this to make their texts more cohesive. Readers need to be aware of what pronoun refers to what noun or noun groups so they can make meaning of the text.
  2. Revise what pronouns are and display in a prominent place where the small group can see view easily.

    Personal pronouns
    I, me (singular) us, we (plural) [first person, 'speaking']
    you (singular and plural) [second person - 'spoken to']
    he, she, him, her, it (singular) they them (plural) [third person - 'spoken 'of]
  3. Read Go To Sleep Jessie! by Libby Gleeson and Freya Blackwood for enjoyment and understanding.
  4. Reread pages 2 and 3 again with the students, making sure the small group can see the words in the text or enlarge a section for ease of viewing. As students join in the reading, ask them to look carefully for the personal pronouns and identify them.

    e.g. Jessie is screaming.
    Every night she does this. Ever since she moved into my room.
    'Be quiet,' I say. 'Go to sleep.'

    Then ask who the pronouns are referring to. For example, 
    " Who is the pronoun 'she' referring to? She takes the place of the noun or noun group. What noun in the first sentence is she referring to? Students reread. She must be referring to Jessie. I can test in the next sentence when I see she again. Does it make sense to say Jessie moved into my room? Does that fit with the meaning in the story? Yes it does.

    " Who is the pronoun 'I' referring to ('Be quiet,' I say)? Ask students to reread the last sentence on page 3. From the illustration on page 3 I can see a big sister sitting on a bed. She must be telling the story. I wonder what her name is? It is her room that Jessie the baby has moved into. I know because she calls the room 'my room'.

    Note to teachers: The word 'my' is not a pronoun. It is a possessive determiner (often called a possessive adjective). My comes before the noun 'room' to show who owns the room.

    Students work in pairs. Refer to the success criteria. Give them a section of the text and ask them to highlight the pronouns and make the link to the relevant noun or noun group. Suggested pages might be:

    Page 5
    Jessie keeps screaming.
    'If you stop screaming,' I say.
    'I'll let you hold T-Bear.'
    I climb out of my bed and pass him to her.

    Double page 19 and 20
    I stand at the window and watch the car drive down the street and turn the corner.
    Then it does it again and again.

  5. Pairs share their work and their thinking. Ask students to replace the pronouns with the relevant nouns or noun groups. How does this alter the text? Reiterate the use of pronouns is one way to make a text appear more cohesive.
  6. Ask students to read independently. As they read use a sticky note to highlight a section that contains pronouns. 
  7. After reading students attempt to link the pronouns to the correct noun or noun group. Record in their Reading Response Book.
  8. The teacher selects a representative to articulate their learning to the main group at the conclusion of the reading lesson.

ABC Education Literacy Mini Lessons

The Department collaborated with ABC Education to create a series of videos. All 16 mini lessons based on content from the Literacy Teaching Toolkit are available on the ABC Education literacy mini lessons page.

Level 1 syllable lesson

This lesson will introduce the traditional rhyme 'Miss Mary Mack' via an enlarged text through the practice of shared reading. 

The teacher will select some of the words from the text to introduce and teach syllables. Metalanguage such as vowel, consonant and syllable will be taught/reinforced.

Students will have the opportunity to investigate words and the number of syllables via clapping and clave sticks.​​

Text

Traditional Rhyme 'Miss Mary Mack'

Miss Mary Mack, Mack, Mack
All dressed in black, black, black
With silver buttons, buttons, buttons
All down her back, back, back.

She asked her mother, mother, mother
for fifty cents, cents, cents
To see the elephants, elephants, elephants 
Jump over the fence, fence, fence.​

They jumped so high, high, high
they reached the sky, sky, sky
And didn't come back, back, back
Till the 4th of July, July, July.

Links to the Victorian C​​urriculum - English

Victorian Curriculum (English), Speaking and Listening, Language: Phonics and word knowledge

  • Foundation: Identify rhyming words, alliteration patterns, syllables and some sounds (phonemes) in spoken words (Content description VCELA168).
  • Level one: Identify the separate phonemes in consonant blends or clusters at the beginnings and ends of syllables (Content description VCELA203).

Victorian Curriculum (English), Reading and Viewing, Language: Phonics and word knowledge

Links to Victorian Curriculum - English as an Additional Language (EAL)

Pathway A

Speaking and listening
Level A1

  • Imitate pronunciation, stress and intonation patterns (VCEALL027)

Level A2 

  • Repeat or modify a sentence or phrase, modelling rhythm, intonation and pronunciation on the speech of others (VCEALL109)

Reading and viewing
Level A1

  • Recognise some common letters and letter patterns in words (VCEALL051)
  • Adopt the teacher's intonation patterns when reading familiar texts (VCEALL054)

Level A2

  • Use knowledge of letters and sounds to read a new word or locate key words (VCEALL132)
  • Read familiar texts with some fluency (VCEALL135)

Resources required​

Learning intention​

We are learning how to break words up into syllables.

Success criteria

  • I can say what a syllable is.
  • I can clap the number of syllables in a word.
  • To help me work out the number of syllables I can cross check by looking at a word to find the vowel or vowel-like sounds within it.

​Lesson sequence

  1. Introduce the traditional rhyme Miss Mary Mack through the teaching practice of shared reading. Ask students to join in on the repetitive sections of the text.
  2. Refer to the learning intention and define syllable (see syllable awareness, definition of a syllable), vowel and consonant. Record the vowels where students can see them.
  3. Refer to the success criteria and explain.
  4. Use the prepared flashcards with individual words from the rhyme written on them (e.g. button, fence, July, see, elephants, over, sky, back, mother, fifty, didn't, they). Think aloud to model how to establish the number of syllables in some of the words.

    Clap the beat
    Cross check by listening for the vowel sounds
    Identify the vowels or letters that make vowel-like sounds on the flashcards including (e.g. July, fifty), words that have silent letters (e.g. fence) or are contractions (e.g. didn't)

  5. Hand out musical instruments to students. Select some examples and ask students to turn and work with a partner. Identify the number of syllables in a word by playing the beats with their instruments.
  6. Share student findings. Prompt students to explain their thinking. 
  7. Make link to why knowing syllables is an important skill for writing and reading

    If you can break a word into syllables, you can hear the sounds and then match to letters to write it down (encode)
    If you are reading and you come across a new/unknown word you can break into syllables to help decode it.

  8. Revisit the enlarged version of Miss Mary Mack. Students reread a verse clapping the syllables (or playing their instrument).
  9. Return to the success criteria. Check students understanding of what a syllable is and their confidence with clapping the number of syllables in a word.

ABC Education Literacy Mini Lessons

The Department collaborated with ABC Education to create a series of videos. All 16 mini lessons based on content from the Literacy Teaching Toolkit are available on the ABC Education literacy mini lessons page.