Ready to Read -am Word Family Active Instruction Lesson 5

Ready to Read – Word Family -am Reading with Picture Reinforcement.  Multi-Sensory Instruction with Letter and Sound Review, Auditory Drill, Blending Drill, Decodable Reading, Word Dictation, and a Phonemic Awareness Activity: Rhyme.

Lesson 5 in a series. These lessons were created to use with whole group blended learning (virtual and in-person students) for kindergarten and beginning First Grade.  They were so successful that once all students returned to in-person instruction, I continued using them.  All students can easily see the Smartboard, and it is so much easier than if I have to juggle letter cards, books, and different materials.  I can easily save different versions of the presentation, and edit each one to fit the needs of various students for additional work with a tutor or in small group. It also works well with small groups, RTI, Resource, and SPED.

These lessons build on each other, and last about 30 - 45 minutes depending on changes you make, the size of your group, and the pace. Of course, some students/classes go through quicker, some slower, so adapt as needed.  Lesson 5 (-am) consists of 161 slides. 

You will download a zip file that contains a PowerPoint Presentation, a note to read first, a file with extra slides if you need to change or add slides, and a PDF that has a link to make a copy in Google Slides if you do not use PowerPoint.

The slides start out with a quick attention-getter, followed by letter review - say letter, say sound, and keyword (" B, ball, /b/"). All letters are included in alphabetical order, however, I typically use only the ones my students need to work on and not in alphabetical order - especially in later lessons. Use as is, or delete or move slides around based on the needs of your class. IF you teach qu instead of q you can find that option in the file with extra slides - simply click slide 23, select "format background," select "picture or texture fill," and from the included file, select "qu option."

Next, we learn a NEW Concept - the Glued Sound /am/. Letters a and m together make one sound instead of two because the letter m changes the sound the a makes.

This is followed by an auditory drill. IF you have letter tiles or magnetic letters, this is a great time to get those out. If not, just use the letter tiles on the SmartBoard without additional student material or have them air write the letters or write with crayons, pencil and paper, or simply say the letter. For this, there are letter tiles on the slide. The teacher says the sound of one of the letters. The students repeat the sound and then identify the letter. For example, teacher says /b/. Students repeat /b/ and then say B. If they have letter tiles or magnetic letters they can pull those, or point to them.

Then we move to blending. Students say the sound of the letter the car is beneath. For example, On one slide, the car is beneath the letter h, so the students say /h/. On the next slide, the car is beneath the am tile and students will make the glued /am/ sound. On the following slide, the car "drives" beneath all three letters and the students read "ham." This continues through multiple -am word family words.

Time to Read - this starts with reading the words we just blended. A picture of the word on the following slides reinforce the correct answer, and really helps out some of the students who struggle more..

Sight Words. Slides for High Frequency Words, Red Words, and Trick Words are included in an additional file, so you can easily use the term that correlates with your preference or curriculum. Add any other words you are working on. I have a few basic ones, and what the students will need to read the next slides.

Sentence Reading - a few very basic sentences. The presentations will build on each other, so students constantly review what they have learned and build on it.

We then review rhyme - Thumbs up or down with rhyming pairs. Typically phonemic awareness activities are done prior to a lesson like this, but for the past couple of years, my students had so much trouble with rhyme, and when I put the rhyming activity after all the word family work, they are more successful than if I start with it. Of course, you can move the rhyme slides to the beginning of the presentation if you want to stick with traditional format.

Finally, there is the Exit Ticket or Dictation - slides show pictures from earlier in the lesson plus one from a previous lesson (always reviewing). They will write each word on their paper (or if you have your letter tiles or magnetic letters you can easily use them). Written work is important, and it will help show progress, allow you to examine which students need help and hopefully see their misconceptions, and it helps you to give grades if required.

Orton-Gillingham, IMSE, Wilson Reading System, and FUNdations curriculums influenced the way this is put together. If you have access to Hooked on Phonics Videos, they work well to plug into these lessons prior to the blending drill. They are quick little "brain brakes" of sorts, or sometimes attention getters, but always educational and catchy, and my students loved them.