Amanda Taylor

This lesson plan is for students of a young age and a beginning to intermediate level. These students must have some experience with reading, but are not too advanced. The lesson will take several days.

Objective: Students will improve their reading skills through the use of music. They will learn to sing "I Know an Old Lady" and to read the words of the song.

Activities:

1. The teacher explains to the students that they are going to learn a song, and first she will sing it to them. She then sings (perhaps using accompaniment of some sort, such as a guitar or piano) the song "I Know an Old Lady," which is a repetitive song about an old lady who swallowed a fly, always ending with "I don't know why she swallowed that fly...perhaps she'll die." The song builds on itself, with the old lady swallowing a spider that "wiggled and jiggled and tickled inside her...She swallowed the spider to catch the fly. I don't know why..." etc., etc. Each animal has a rhyming line and is specified as having been swallowed in order to catch the last animal. The song ends with her swallowing a horse, and "She died, of course!"

THIS IS A KIND OF PRE-READING ACTIVITY, GETTING THE KIDS INTERESTED IN WHAT THEY WILL BE DOING AND READY TO BEGIN.

2. The teacher will then sing the song again, telling the students that if they would like to join in (most likely during the last line), they may do so. As she sings the song, she will use a large flip chart that has all the words to the song as well as illustrations. The teacher points to each word as she sings it.

THE FLIP CHART INTRODUCES THE WRITTEN WORDS TO THE CHILDREN SO THEY BEGIN TO BECOME FAMILIAR WITH THEM.

THE ILLUSTRATIONS HELP THEM LEARN THE SONG. THE REPETITION OF THE WORDS, THE RHYMES, AND THE PATTERNS ALL HELP THE 2ND-LANGUAGE LEARNERS TO ACQUITRE SPEAKING AND READING SKILLS IN A FUN ENVIRONMENT. SINGING THE SONG TWICE WITHOUT SPECIFICALLY ASKING THE STUDENTS TO READ AND SING ALONG HELPS THEM BECOME COMFORTABLE WITH IT AT FIRST, INTERNALIZING IT QUIETLY IF THEY WISH, BEFORE STARTING IN THEMSELVES.

3. Now the students are asked to sing along with the teacher as she points to each of the words. It is important also for the teacher to be energetic and have good facial expressions so that students are excited about the activity. The class will sing through the song several times using the chart.

4. After singing it through several times, the teacher will then call on several students to come up and point out specific words on the c hart.

THIS HELPS ASSESS WHICH STUDENTS ARE LEARNING TO READ THE WORDS THAT ARE ON THE CHART. IT ALSO GIVES THESE STUDENTS A SENSE OF SATISFACTION TO BE ABLE TO COMPLETE A SPECIFIC TASK IN FRONT OF THE CLASS.

5. Several of the rhyming words will them be pointed out, such as "cat" and "that." ("Imagine that! She swallowed a cat!") These can be evaluated by the class to help them reinforce specific sounds of letters.

Through questioning, students will be guided to understand exactly what rhyming words are, and notice that rhyming words sound a lot alike as well as looking a lot alike. They will understand individual letter sounds and be able to pick out more rhyming words in the song.

THIS HELPS STUDENTS RECOGNIZE NOT ONLY INDIVIDUAL LETTERS, BUT WORDS. IT COMBINES THE WHOLE READING APPROACH WITH THE PHONICS APPROACH, BOTH BEING IMPORTANT.

6. After several repetitions of singing the song and looking specifically at words, students should both know the song from memory and be able to read the words. The students will have a special performance of the song either for parents at back-to-school night or for another class during an assembly or something of that nature.

THIS IS A GOOD WAY FOR STUDENTS TO HAVE FUN AND BE PROUD OF WHAT THEY HAVE LEARNED.

Evaluation:

To evaluate the students' understanding of the words, they will be assessed by being given either a formal or informal test which asks them to read specific words out loud. This testing will help the teacher know whether the student learned all of these words, and if not, what kind of help the student needs.