Something’s “Fishy” Here!
Beginning Reading Lesson on Crosschecking
Rationale: This lesson aims to teach children about the process of crosschecking. In order to read with fluency and comprehension, students must be able to identify words that don’t make sense in context and correct their reading to maintain interest and understanding. In this lesson children will learn to point out unfamiliar words, recognize words improperly decoded, and identify correct pronunciations based on the context of the sentence. They will learn a meaningful trick (something’s fishy here, put the fish graphic over word that needs crosschecking, reel fish in when you’ve correctly crosschecked), watch modeling by the teacher, practice their crosschecking ability in various activities, and read a list of sentences with previously learned short vowel correspondences and a few unfamiliar words that will require crosschecking.
Materials: Graphics of fish for each student to use as cover-up critter; whiteboard and marker for unfamiliar words, large-scale versions of primary paper with sample words for each student: Wednesday, bologna, sushi, colonel; assessment worksheet with crosschecking sentences
Procedures
1. Say: When we read books, we want to understand every word so that we can enjoy the story. In order to do this, we need to learn to identify words that don’t make sense in the sentences that surround them, and study the context to figure out the correct word. This is called crosschecking! When I read a sentence that doesn’t make sense, I put my little fish over the word that is messing up the meaning in my head. Now, I can study the rest of the sentence and figure out where I went wrong! When this happens to you, I want you to say, “Something’s fishy here!” and place your fish over the “fishy” word. After you crosscheck, which we are about to learn how to do, you can reel your fish back in and continue with the story! Everyone say it with me: “Something’s fishy here!” Now let’s get to the bottom of this… [Pass out fish cover-up critters to the class]
2. Say: Before we learn how to crosscheck on our own, I want to show you how important this skill can be. I’m going to show you some words that have what we call “irregular spellings.” They don’t sound the way they should, and we are going to see how hard it can be to understand the meaning of a word with no context! [Write words on board: Wednesday, bologna, colonel, sushi; Call on students to read the words from the board] See? These words aren’t so easy to figure out! Sometimes, we need to see the words in the rest of the sentence to figure these words out.
3. Say: I’m going to show you how I use crosschecking to help me understand the meaning of a sentence with a “fishy” word! This word is extra fishy… [Read sentence: Some people don’t like raw fish, but I think that sushi tastes awesome.] “Some people don’t like raw fish, but I think that /s/ /u/ /sh/ /i/ tastes awesome.” Hm… sss---uuu---ssshhh---iii… That seems like the fishy word to me. I’ve never head of /s/ /u/ /sh/ /i/ before! I think I need to use crosschecking. [Place fish graphic over the word sushi.] When I look at the rest of this sentence, I can see that the meaning has something to do with the way things taste, and the “fishy” word is something raw. It must be a food!! I think this word must be sushi! I figured it out using crosschecking. The u should sound like /u/, but it sounds like /oo/ instead, and the I should sound like /i/, but it says /ee/! I need to mentally mark these two letters so that next time I see this word, I’ll know how to read it quickly! I figured out that fishy word and now I get to “reel it in!” Students, everyone use your hands to pretend like you’re reeling in a fish. We need to go back and read the sentence one more time to make sure we understand now that we know the fishy word. “Some people don’t like raw fish, but I think that sushi tastes awesome.”
4. Say: Now we’re going to look at some sentences. I’m going to read them to you, and you will have to decide which word I read wrong. Then, you’ll each get a turn to use you cover-up fish to look at the context of the sentence. We will decide as a class what we think the correct pronunciation is.
Now… Read out loud and allow students to crosscheck to correct irregular words’ pronunciations: [Be sure to reread all sentences for comprehension after we figure out the “fishy” words]
In the war, the /c/ /o/ /l/ /o/ /n/ /e/ /l/ saved lots of lives and led his troops to victory. (talk through pronunciation of /k/ /e/ /r/ /n/ /e/ /l/)
I thought it was finally Friday, but it was only /w/ /e/ /d/ /n/ /e/ /s/ /d/ /ay/. (Talk through silent “d”)
My mom likes honeyed ham, but I prefer /b/ /o/ /l/ /o/ /g/ /n/ /a/ on my sandwich. (Explain silent “g” and pronunciation of a as /ee/ instead of /a/)
Say: You’ve all done an awesome job crosschecking! Now lets reel in our fish… We’ve solved the mystery of the fishy words!
7. Say: Now that you all know how to use crosschecking, we are going to read a book called Cookies. This book is about Frog and Toad. They have lots of cookies, but they want to save some for later and avoid a belly-ache! They both love sugar and can’t seem to stop eating the cookies… Let’s pair up with a partner and read this book to find out if Frog and Toad can control themselves and avoid getting sick! [Children pair up and take turns reading alternate pages each while teacher walks around the room monitoring progress. After individual paired reading for 6-8 minutes, the class rereads Cookies aloud together, and stops between page turns to discuss the plot and crosscheck words that seemed “fishy.”]
8. Say: Wasn’t that a fun story? I love cookies, too. I was so impressed by Frog and Toad for not eating all of the cookies! Before we finish up, I want to give you all a chance to show me hoe well you can crosscheck when you read sentences. We’re going to look at a worksheet. Make sure to use your cover-up fish for words that seem “fishy” or out of place in their sentences, and reel them in when you figure out how to say the word that didn’t make sense!
You are going to match each sentence on the left with the picture that it goes with on the right. Draw a line to connect the sentence with its picture. Be sure to use crosschecking or you won’t be able to figure out the meaning of the sentence and find its picture! [Walk around to monitor progress, and collect each student’s assessment worksheet for evaluating individual progress.]
Resources:
Jane Kate Blackmon, Cross-checking: An early reading strategy: http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/3774?ref=search
Lobel, Arnold, and Arnold Lobel. "Cookies." Frog and Toad Together. New York: Harper & Row, 1972. N. pag. Print.
Assessment worksheet:
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