Tricky Y

1. Students will begin the lesson on the carpet. The teacher will start the lesson by telling students that many letters end up making more than one sound. Ask students to think about letters that make more than one sound. Show students the word ‘Candy’ and ‘Circus’ under the document camera, and discuss how even though they both start with the letter ‘C’, the letter ‘C’ makes two different sounds. Then tell students how they will be learning about another tricky letter today, and that’s the letter ‘Y’.
2. Place the word ‘My’ under the document camera to show students. Read the word together and discuss how the letter ‘Y’ sounds like the letter ‘I’. Then, say the word ‘Very’ and have students try and write it on their personal whiteboards. After giving students a minute to do this, write the word ‘Very’ out on the board, slowly, listening for each sound as you write it, and then discuss how the letter ‘Y’ makes the letter ‘E’ sound.
3. Have students discuss with a partner ‘what does the letter Y do at the end of a word, and how does it try to trick you?’ While students are discussing this, create a T-Chart on chart paper with the titles ‘Long E’ and ‘Long Y’. Add the words ‘My’ and ‘Very’ under the correct side from which you discussed with students.
4. Bring students back together and have them share some of their answers aloud that they discussed with their partners. Tell students that you want them to practice more with tricky Y, and say the words ‘Try, and Scary’. Have students try and write the words on their personal whiteboards and decide which column it goes under on the chart. Once you give students a minute or two to do this on their own, go over the words with students, first by reading them together, slowly, then listening for each sound as you write it and place it on the chart.
5. Review what you have on the chart so far with students, and then partner students up. Give each person in the room a tricky y word. Ex. Sky, By, Any, Baby, Lucky, etc. Have students tell their partner a word and have them practice writing the word and deciding which column it goes under on the T-chart. Then, have the other partner do the same thing. Give students about 5-7 minutes to do this.
6. After students have worked with their partners, have students write their words on a sticky note, and each partnership should come up and add their word to the side of the chart it goes with.
7. Read through chart one last time with students to close the lesson.

The students will be assessed through the questioning that is done during the lesson. They will also be assessed through the partner work that is given.