Lesson Plan for Bethany

Name: Ashley Henderson

Grade: 5th Grade
Area of Reading: Advanced Phonics Decoding Multisyllabic Words
Lesson Title: Breaking Apart Multisyllabic Words
Enduring Understandings (What big idea(s) will students understand as a result of this
lesson?):

You can use these letter sounds to break apart a multisyllabic word into easily understood
parts.
Reading involves combining these easily understood parts to create bigger words.
Many irregular words are regular in many of their sound-spelling connections.

Essential Questions (What question(s) will students grapple with as they learn through this
lesson?):

How do I know where to break apart letters for sounds?

Why are some letters combined to make one sound?
How can I use these skills to decode irregular and multisyllabic words?

Primary Content Objectives:

Students will know (facts/information):

How to divide a word into individual syllables.

The different types of syllables.
The common letter patterns.
Letters are combined into syllables and these syllables are combined to create
multisyllabic words.
Reading involves combining these easily understood parts into multisyllabic words.
Many irregular words are regular in many of their sound-spelling connections.

Students will understand (big ideas):

The difference between vowels and consonants

Multisyllabic words are combinations of smaller, easily understood syllables.

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The decoding practices used for one syllable words can be applied to multisyllabic words.

Students will be able to do (skills and behaviors):

Recognize common letter patterns in provided words

Recognize the various syllable types and their pronunciation
Chunk the sounds in words
Recognize common prefixes, suffixes, and base words
Mark syllables based on vowels

Related state or national standards (Examples include State Standards of Learning, Common
Core State Standards, Next Generation Science Standards or National Curriculum Standards for
Social Studies)

SOL Standards
o Reading
5.4: The student will expand vocabulary when reading.
a. Use context to clarify meaning of unfamiliar words and phrases.
c. Use knowledge of roots, affixes, synonyms, antonyms, and
homophones.
5.6: The student will read and demonstrate comprehension of nonfiction
texts.
b. Use prior knowledge and build additional background knowledge
as context for new learning.
l. Use reading strategies throughout the reading process to monitor
comprehension.
m. Read with fluency and accuracy.
Common Core Standards
o CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.5.3
Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.5.3.A
Use combined knowledge of all letter-sound correspondences,
syllabication patterns, and morphology (e.g., roots and affixes) to read
accurately unfamiliar multisyllabic words in context and out of context.

Materials and Resources: (List here all materials that you will need in order to successfully
teach this lesson. Include technology and website links, texts, graphic organizers, student
handouts, physical manipulatives, etc.)

Dry Erase Markers

White Board
Grade Level Books (Assigned for another topic, but used in this lesson)

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Key Vocabulary and Definitions:

Types of Syllables
o Open Syllable: a syllable ending with a single vowel (vowel sound usually long)
o Closed Syllable: a syllable in which a single vowel is followed by a consonant
(vowel sound usually short)
o R-Controlled Syllable: a syllable in which the vowel(s) is followed by the single
letter r. (vowel sound is neither long or short)
o Vowel Team: a syllable containing two letters that together make one vowel sound
(vowel can be long, short, or dipthong)
o Vowel-Silent E: a syllable with a long vowel-consonant-silent e pattern
o Consonant le: an unaccented final syllable containing a consonant plus le

Lesson Procedures (Note: This will take multiple short sessions to build fluency with the
practice of recognizing and breaking apart syllables to eventually introduce her to the BEST
Strategy and give her practice, which will allow her take the skills and use them on her own in
an organized manner. The lesson is written in a tier three one-on-one format, but Bethany is not
at that point, so other students could easily be added in a small group tier two format, but they
are not mentioned in my lesson plan. These students would be doing the exact same things that
Bethany is doing and would be practicing at the same time and completing the same homework.
Additionally, these could be done as a small reading group with this group designated as the
enrichment or potentially basic level students. This small group could meet once a day for a
brief amount of time or twice a day for a brief amount of time, so that the students would not
have homework, but could complete the independent practice as independent classwork. At the
same time, homework is preferable because it serves as a lead in to the next days instruction.):
1. Introduction and goal orientation: As Bethany is struggling with multisyllabic words, I will
be starting with the introduction of the different types of syllables. Scripting: Today, we are
going to be learning about multiple types of syllables. This will help you to break apart
words when you are reading and you see a word that you do not know. The first word type of
syllable we will be learning today is called an open syllable. An open syllable is a syllable
ending with one vowel that is usually long. At this point in time, I will pull out the white
board and marker to give some examples of one syllable words that have open syllables, such
as me and to. I will also show her some examples of two syllable words that end with an
open syllable, such as veto. At this point in time, I would have her practice marking syllables
(which is described in the next section), so that she can begin implementing the practice with
words that she experiences that are multisyllabic and have an open syllable at the end. We
would follow this same pattern over the next few short sessions by learning a new syllable
each time and practicing with the marking syllables skill using the new syllable type of the
day and syllable types learned in earlier sessions. Each new session will begin with a review
of the old type of syllable, which will involve the homework described in the closure section.
The next syllable type would be a closed syllable, which would be explained as a syllable
with a usually short vowel followed by a consonant. This is different than an open syllable,
which was a consonant followed by a vowel. The examples would be one and two syllable
words, such as cat, rabbit, and picnic. The next type of syllable would be r-controlled, which

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would be defined as a syllable with a vowel followed by the letter r. In some words, there is
more than one vowel before the letter r. In r-controlled words, the letter r makes a sound that
is combined with the sound of the vowel, such as in chart, fern, pour, for, and tour. The
fourth session would focus on the vowel team syllable type. This type is a syllable
containing two vowels that make one sound. This is different from the r-controlled vowels
learned in the previous session because these two vowels make a sound together that is not
connected to a consonant, like the letter r. Examples of this type of syllable include: plain,
show, heavy, boy, cow, cloudy, boiling. The fifth session will include the vowel-silent e
syllable type, which is a syllable with a consonant separating a long vowel and a silent e.
This type of syllable may be familiar to the students as a CVCe syllable. Examples of this
type of syllable include shape, cube, slide, and behave. The sixth session will discuss the
final type of syllable, consonant le. This syllable is usually found at the end of words and
can be seen in the words apple and table. The ending le is connected to at least one
consonant in this type of syllable.
2. Connecting to prior knowledge and experiences (Questions or activities that help students
make links) - Marking Syllables: When provided with a word, she is going to be asked to
label the vowels in the word with a small V underneath the letter. Once she has identified all
of the vowels, then she will be instructed to identify the consonants by writing a small C
under the consonants. After labeling the different letters as vowel or consonant, she will be
instructed to break apart the words into the separate syllables that she has been taught in the
previous (explained in the previous section. These words will become increasingly difficult
and will by session three be all multisyllabic words, which is her biggest struggle, to allow
her to practice breaking apart the different types of syllables. This will prepare her to put
into practice on her own the BEST strategy that she will be learning in the seventh session
(described in the next section).
3. Tasks and activities (What challenging tasks and activities will students engage in as they
construct knowledge, learn new skills or behaviors and develop understandings?): I will be
introducing the BEST Strategy with one of Bethanys homework words from the previous
night. This word should involve multiple syllable parts because by this point she has leaned
all of th syllable types and has had practice working with multisyllabic words. Today, we
are going to learn the BEST strategy! This strategy will help you to use the syllable skills we
have learned when you read on your own. This strategy will help you to break apart syllables
without writing everything down, but we are going to start by writing the steps down until we
have some practice with this strategy. In your homework last night, you broke apart this
word into multiple syllables. That is the first step of the BEST strategy. First, you break
apart the word. Can you make this hand gesture with me (Breaking something with two
hands)? What do we do first in the BEST Strategy? That is correct; first, we break apart the
word. In your homework, you marked the different syllables to help you figure out the word.
This is examining each part of the word. So, the next step of the BEST strategy is to examine
each part of the word. This is where you could think about the different syllable types and
how they make different sounds (long and short vowels, combined vowel sounds, rcontrolled vowels). Can you make the hand gesture with me (pretend to have binoculars)?
What is the next step of the BEST strategy? That is correct examine each part or syllable
of the word. The third step is the S. The S stands for say each part. At this point we say

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each part of the word separately, but in the next step we put that all together to say the whole
word. The final step is the T, which stands for say the whole thing in context. This means
we read the sentence again with the new word that we worked through and sounded through
each part. So, the letters of best are B-E-S-T. What does the B stand for? Yes and what is a
hand symbol we can make to remember this step? What does the E stand for? What hand
symbol do we make for that step? What do we do for the S? What do we do at the end?
That is correct! We put it all together and re-read the sentence with the new word we worked
through.
4. Closure (How will you wrap up the lesson and reinforce key ideas? Closure may include
some form of assessment or exit slip): Each day, Bethany will be given homework to
practice identifying that days type of syllable and marking the syllables in the words that she
finds in her assigned reading from her general education classroom or a book she is reading
for pleasure. As we move forward and continue to learn new syllable types, she will be
responsible for identifying multisyllabic words that have syllable types that she knows and
can identify. On the day of the BEST lesson, she will find multisyllabic words in her
homework reading and write out how she used the process, which can be shown with lines,
such as those used in the marking syllables process.
Matching Instruction to Student Needs (How did you select this lesson for the specific student.
Be sure to address any accommodations you would make for the student.): As a fifth grader,
Bethany is reading at a seventh grade independent/instructional level (she was borderline) and
has an eighth grade instructional level vocabulary. She is clearly reading above grade level and
has adequately shown her comprehension of these higher leveled texts. This means that
phonological awareness, fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary are not her biggest struggles.
(Note: She does lack prosody when she reads aloud, but this can be improved through repeated
exposure to an accurate fluent model, such as the teacher reading aloud to the class, and
continuing practice in reading aloud with teacher prompts to pace herself.) For this reason, I
chose to focus this reading lesson with Bethany on advanced phonics, more specifically decoding
multisyllabic words, because this was the area where Bethany showed the most difficulty in both
the vocabulary and the reading passage sections. Adams (1990) found that a skilled readers
ability to read long words is dependent on their ability to decode these words or break the word
into syllables, a skill that can be used for both familiar and unfamiliar words. So, it is with this
in mind that I chose to focus on open/closed syllables, vowel types, and based words because
Bethany is beyond the emergent and beginning reader stages.
Evaluation (How will you determine whether children have met objectives/goals of the activity?
How will you identify students for the next tier of instruction?): Each day, Bethany will be given
homework to practice identifying that days type of syllable and marking the syllables in the
words that she finds in her assigned reading from her general education classroom or a book she
is reading for pleasure. As we move forward and continue to learn new syllable types, she will
be responsible for identifying multisyllabic words that have syllable types that she knows and
can identify. On the day of the BEST lesson, she will find multisyllabic words in her homework
reading and write out how she used the process, which can be shown with lines, such as those
used in the marking syllables process. The end of the BEST model instruction will reveal
whether Bethany has developed and understood a strategy that allows her to correctly read and

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break apart an unknown multisyllabic word into parts that she can understand. If at this point,
she is still struggling, then a more specialized decoding lesson for multisyllabic words will be
developed.