Sample Mini Lesson
Using Known Words to Figure Out New Words
Time: 10 minutes, following a recording of daily news
Materials: News of the day (or any type of morning message
you prefer)
Objective: To introduce children to the analogy method for
decoding words and give them an opportunity to practice it
with word families found in the “daily news” and words in
their speaking vocabulary.
Teacher Modeling: T: First, thinking of what would make
sense and sound right helps your brain come up with ideas.
Then, you have to decide which sensible word is the word in
front of you. Looking at “hunks and chunks” of words makes
knowing it quicker. That’s important when you’re reading
because you don’t want to forget what’s happening in the story.
In the news today — in Melissa’s sentence — if I didn’t know
the word clown, I’d think about who would come to a birthday
party and make those twisty balloons for everyone. If I still
didn’t know the word, I’d look at it and think it has a part like
the color word brown. I just have to put a different beginning
on it, a c-l,/cl/ with the /own/ part and “presto bingo!” I’ve got
clown. And that makes sense in her sentence because she was
talking about a clown who came to the birthday party and
made twisty balloons for everyone. Clowns do that.
Let’s try to think of other words we can make with the /own/
part.
Guided Practice: T: How would you finish this sentence? The
animal musicians were on their way to Bremen ____ (blank).
C: Town. Like the Bremen Town Musicians in the story.
T: How would town look? What would spell the /t/ part and
what would spell the /own/ part?
C: t and o-w-n.
T: Tommy will you write town right here.
T: If I make a face like this (teacher demonstrates a frown),
people would call my expression the word I’ll write right here.
(Slowly write the word frown.) Who can read this word?
C: /fr/ — /own/ Oh, it’s frown. That’s what they call a sad face.
Independent Practice: T: When you’re reading today and
come across a word you don’t know, I want you to think about
what the sentence is all about. Use word chunks that are just
like parts of other words you know to figure it out. When
you’re writing in your journals and are trying to spell a new
word, compare parts you hear in it to chunks that sound the
same in a word you already know how to spell.
Closure: T: Who can explain the strategy we learned today?
C: When I don’t know a word I come to, I can think about
what’s happening or reread to remember what’s happening. If I
still don’t know it, I can look for word parts in it that are like
parts of words I know. Then, you just have to change the
beginning or ending and make a new word. It’s like my
transformers when I turn them into something else.
C: You can use word parts to spell too. Then you spell a bigger
part at a time instead of one letter, another letter, then, another
letter — like that.
Evaluation: Observe children’s comments and responses
during the lesson as well as their independent use of the skill
in everyday reading and writing activities. Determine their
level of competence with it. Decide if further class, small group,
or individual reinforcement are necessary