Lesson Plan

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 Awareness of Alliteration

Time of Lesson and approximate time required: 2.5 hours

Age of children: Cycle 1 – Grade 2
Number of children: 20

Brief Description:

This activity will begin with a pre-reading discussion about the book Some Smug Slug, followed
by the reading of the story. The students will then take part in the writing process, where they
will review alliteration and practice their own alliterated sentence with the first letter from their
first name, creating a collaborative book as a classroom. They will have the opportunity to use
their knowledge of alliteration and creativity to write their own page in a book, and also read it
aloud to their classmates in a “Reader’s Theatre” style. As a follow-up activity, the students will
get to practice their phonemic awareness skills with the low-frequency words in the story book
that will be written on the chalk board. Children will then each be given one of these words in
teams of 2 that they will have to search (find the definition), and come up with a sentence in
which the word can be used. This will then be the start of a classroom dictionary with words the
students did not previously know, and from there, students will be able to add new words on a
whenever they come across a word they do not know.

Subject-Specific Competencies (English Language Arts):

Competency 2: To write self-expressive, narrative and information based text

 To follow a process when writing

 To self-evaluate her/his writing development
 To use writing as a system for communicating and constructing meaning

Competency 3: To represent her/his literacy in different media

 To follow a process to respond to media texts

 To apply appropriate strategies for constructing meaning

Cross-Curricular Competencies:

 Competency 1: To Use Information

 Competency 4: To Use Creativity
 Competency 5: To adopt effective work methods
 Competency 8: To cooperate with others

Objectives:

 The students will define alliteration

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  The students will create their own alliterated sentence using nouns, verbs, and adjectives
beginning with the same sound as the first letter in their name
 The students will demonstrate an understanding of the writing process through the
brainstorming, writing, editing, and publication of their own alliterated sentence
 The students will engage in Reader’s Theatre using props
 The students will explore new words of low-frequency use
 The students will collaborate in teams of two and research the meaning of the trickier
words

Rationale:
 In this activity, students will be working with the reading process as well as the writing
process. As seen in class, getting students to use the reading and writing process is
important for students to benefit the most from their reading and writing. According to
the article “A Classroom Investigation of the Growth of Metacognitive Awareness in
Kindergarten Children through the Writing Process”, children become better and more
confident writers when they use the writing process (Jacobs, 2004). As we’ve learned
from Dr. Martin-Chang’s lectures, phonemic awareness plays an important role in
learning how to read in young children, and alliteration is a good way to develop
phonemic awareness. Beginner readers begin to understand that words are made up of
sounds and that the sounds can be matched to letters, which helps them learn how to
apply this knowledge in their reading (Martin-Chang, 2018). I thought that by getting the
students to use their first name in the alliterated sentence, it could be a good way for the
students get to know each other a bit better as it is still the beginning of the school year.
Also, according to “The National Reading Panel Report: Practical Advice for Teachers”,
using children’s own names in activities maintains their interest (NRP, 2006). Overall,
Some Smug Slug is a great book to introduce the topic of alliteration to beginner readers.
 I chose the follow-up activity as an extension of the first part of the lesson plan. There are
many low-frequency words in the book Some Smug Slug that I, myself, had to search for
the definition, so I figured that most of my grade 2 students might not understand all the
words as well. Thus, getting the students to search the more difficult words in the book is
a good way to further their vocabulary comprehension and their ability to understand
these words. This is also a good way to introduce phonemic awareness as well as explore
new words. According to Allen & Lane (2010), “vocabulary knowledge has long been
identified as one of the best predictors of reading comprehension, reading performance in
general, and school achievement. [...] The more words the reader knows, the easier it will
be to read and understand what is read” (p. 364). Therefore, this follow-up activity is a
good way to promote students’ vocabulary growth. I also chose to work in teams of 2 as I
want to encourage team work.

Materials:
This lesson will require:
 1 big copy of the book Some Smug Slug (for myself to read to the classroom)
 10 copies of the book Some Smug Slug (for the students)
 20 comfortable cushions for the children to sit on as we introduce the book and read the
story

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  A bag full of pictures of different items for the alliteration game (See Appendix B)
 Different colored crayons, magazines, and crafts
 Scissors and glue
 Different colored sheets of paper
 A chalkboard and chalk that I will use to create a word wall of the more sophisticated
words in the book (See Appendix A)
 20 iPad’s
 20 dictionaries
 Laminating machine to put the book together at the end
 Rings to tie the book together

Organization of Space:

Part 1: As we engage in the pre-reading and reading part of the activity, myself and the students
will be seated together on comfortable cushions on the carpet so that everyone is able to hear and
see the story properly. Once the activity has been completed, the students will return to their
desks and work independently to create an alliterated sentence of their own for the classroom
book.
Part 2: Students will be asked to stand up at their desk to read the part of the book they wrote
during the “Reader’s Theatre”.
Part 3: Students will be allowed to work in teams of 2 when researching the low-frequency
words wherever they prefer in the classroom, such as the quiet area, the cushion area, the high
tables, the desks, and the lounge area. Students will have their own dictionary and iPad to do the
research.

Procedures:

Introduction:
(Pre-reading) I will have the students sit together on the carpet in the reading corner. I will then
tell the students that we will be focusing on a concept called alliteration. I will discuss the word
alliteration and it’s meaning with the students: “Alliteration happens when a series of words with
the same beginning sound or consonant are used in a sentence. For example, the words Mickey
Mouse have the same beginning sound “m”. Authors often used alliteration to make their writing
more descriptive. Can anyone think of an example of two words that would have the same
beginning sound?” Once a few students have given examples, I will explain the rules of the first
activity. Each student will have their turn to pick a picture of an item from the bag, and will have
to come up with a word that has the same beginning sound as the image. I will then give an
example. I will pick an item from the bag (let’s say I pick the picture of the spider), and will say
aloud to the students “Scary Spider”. In this case, the S is the alliteration being used in “scary”
and “spider”. Next, have each student select an item from the bag and have them say a word that
starts with the same letter sound. If a student is having difficulty coming up with a word, I will
allow them to ask one of their classmates for help or guidance. On the other hand, if a student
comes up with a word that does not start with the same letter (meaning they do no understand the
concept of alliteration), I will allow one of their classmates to explain why the word chosen
would not be considered an alliteration, and scaffold them in finding a word with the same
beginning sound. For example, if a student were to say “Big Spider”, I would say: “Very nice

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try, however big has the sound “b”, where as spider has the sound “s”. Do you see how the sound
of the first letter is different in both words?” Once each student has had their turn saying their
word, I will congratulate the students on their great participation and examples. Next, I will
explain to the students that I will now be reading a book called Some Smug Slug by Pamela
Duncan Edwards (See Appendix C1 for pre-reading questions). Before reading the book to the
classroom, I will remind students to watch out for any alliteration sentences they hear throughout
the book, as well as to look out for some trickier words as we will be doing an activity with those
words at the end.

Development:
(Reading) I will read the book to the students once slowly. As I read, I will emphasize the
beginning sound of the letter “S” from the words in the book to model the alliteration being used.
(Responding) Once the book has been read, I will ask the students questions about the book (See
Appendix C2), and discuss the questions as a group.
(Exploring) Once the discussion is done, I will ask students to go back to their desks. Once
everyone is seated, I will explain to the students that they will now have the opportunity to work
on their own alliterated sentence. Based on their name, students will have to come up with a
sentence where at least 4 of the words will have to begin with the same letter sound as the first
letter in their name. I will guide students by giving an example on the chalk board with my
name: Julie-Anne wrote a journal of her journey of joy to Japan. I will then ask a student to
come up to the chalkboard and circle the alliteration being used in my sentence. I will explain to
the students the reason I chose these words is because I love to travel and chose to write my
sentence based off of that. I will remind students that they can try to choose words related to
their personality, favorite activities, or things they like.
(Applying + Prewriting) Students will have one full class period to work on their own sentence.
The prewriting part of the writing process will start now. The students will be given a piece of
paper to brainstorm their ideas and jot down a bunch of different words that come to mind that
start with the same sound as the letter in their name. Students will be allowed to ask their
classmates for help if needed as well as use their individual iPad’s to search some words.
(Writing) Once students have a plan and are ready to start writing, they will write a rough draft
of their alliterated sentence. I will remind students that grammar does not count here, and they
should be focusing more on content and making sure that they have at least 4 words that start
with the same beginning sound as the first letter in their name. Students must also have at least
one noun, verb, and adjective in their sentence.
(Revision) Once students are done their draft, they will have to self-edit their own work using a
checklist that I will write on the chalkboard (See Appendix D).
(Editing) I will then pair up two students and they will each review their other peer’s work to
make sure that the checklist is correct.
(Publishing) Students will then be given a new sheet of paper, where they will write their revised
and edited sentence on the page. Once the sentence has been written, the students will have the
opportunity to illustrate their alliterated sentence on the same sheet of paper using markers,
magazines, crafts, etc. I will give my example again: Julie-Anne wrote a journal of her journey
of joy to Japan, and explain to the students that I would maybe draw the Japanese flag, or draw
the world, or a journal, etc.
If some students finish earlier than others, I will encourage them to either help out their peers, or
write another sentence if they have enough time.

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Closure, transition:
Once all the students are done their sentence as well as their illustration, I will collect each one
and create a classroom collaborative book (as seen in the class presentations) in which each
student in the classroom will have participated to its creation. I will make holes and use the rings
to tie each page together. I will then read the book out loud to the classroom once for all the
students to hear their classmate’s sentences. I will have one student for each page tell me what
the alliteration is in that sentence. Finally, students will be able to go home and prepare to read
their sentence out loud to the classroom the next day. Students are encouraged to bring props
and/or costumes, or anything related to their sentence. The next day, the students will engage in a
Reader’s Theater style with the book they contributed to. Students will have the opportunity to
wear/use their prop, and read one after the other, their sentence from the book. This is a good
way to close the activity as it involves oral reading from a book that the students collaboratively
made.

Follow-up Activity:
As a follow-up activity, the students will have the opportunity to explore some of the low-
frequency words in the book. I will start the activity by establishing a connection between the
first part of the lesson plan on the book. I will say “In our last activity, we read the book Some
Smug Slug. There were some tricky words in that book, does anyone remember some of the
words they didn’t know?” I will allow time for responses. Next, I will tell the students that today,
we will be focusing on a different aspect of the book: the more unfamiliar words that they may
not have understood while reading the book.
On the chalk board, I will write a list of the 14 more unfamiliar words taken from the book (See
Appendix A), and assign teams of 2 with one word. The students will have to write that word on
a sheet of paper handed out. Each team will also each be given one copy of the book in case they
want to refer to it for the word being used and see how it was used in the sentence. Students will
have access to dictionaries and iPad’s, where they will have to do some research on their given
word. Students will have a full class period to do their research, and come up with a short
sentence in which the word could be used. For example, if the word is “shrieked”, the team
would write at the top of the page the definition (“to cry out in a high-pitched voice”), and then
write a sentence at the bottom: “I shrieked when I saw a rat”. This will allow students to put into
context the word, giving it more meaning. This will also allow other students to better
understand the meaning of the word when looking at the classroom dictionary. If a team is
finished before the given time, they can use another word on the chalkboard that has not been
given yet, and do the same with that word.
Once each team is done their research, and has come up with a sentence using that word, I will
collect the worksheets. I will assemble and compile the worksheets in order to make a classroom
dictionary, where students will be able to add words they do not understand on a daily basis.

Alternate or Contingency Plan:

If I see that some students are having difficulty coming up with an alliterated sentence, I will
allow those students to come up with less words in the sentence with the same consonant (2-3
words instead of minimum 4).
As for the follow-up activity, if the words are too sophisticated for the children and they are
having a hard time understand what they mean, we will do the activity as a group. We will use

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the low-frequency words from the book and research what they are together, and come up with
sentences as a group.

How to Assess:
My activities allow me to asses my objectives that are given to my students. The students will be
assessed based on their alliteration sentence and if it follows the guidelines. I will assess the
student based off if they have used the same letter sound as the first letter in their name, if they
used a noun, verb, and adjective, if the sentence has at least 4 words starting with the same letter
sound, and if the sentence has a matching illustration/drawing. I will be circulating around the
classroom as students are writing to make sure that they are all working on their sentence.
For the follow-up activity, I will assess the teams based off if they got the right definition of the
word, and if their sentence makes sense, and are appropriate with the given word.

Appendix A

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Words that are more sophisticated/low-frequency use in the book Some Smug Slug

Soil

Shrieked

Scurrying

Swallotail

Swooshing

Snickered

Skink

Sauntered

Swagger

Scolded

Shantung

Seldom

Sham

Succulent

Appendix B

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Appendix C1

Pre-reading questions:
1. “Based on the title of the book Some Smug Slug, who of my friends can tell me what this
book will be about?” (Anticipate answers such as “The book will be about alliteration”)
2. “Can someone point out to me the alliteration in the title?” (Anticipate answers such as
“the words all start with the same letter!”)
3. “Does anyone know what a slug is?”
4. “Can anyone come up with another word to describe the slug that starts with the letter
S?”
5. “What do you think will happen to the slug in the book?”

Appendix C2

Responding
Ask questions such as:
1. “What was different from this book?” (Anticipate answers such as “All the words started
with the same letter”)
2. “What alliteration sound did you hear?” (Anticipate answers such as “I heard the sound
“S”)
3. “What letter of the alphabet did it focus on?” (Anticipate answers such as “the words
started with the same letter S”)
4. “Can you remember some examples from the book?”

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Appendix D

Self-Edit Alliteration checklist:

1. Do at least 4 words in the sentence begin with the same letter or letter sound as the first
letter in your name?
2. Does the sentence start with a capital letter?
3. Is there at least one verb, adjective, and noun?
4. Does the illustration match your alliterated sentence?

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 References

CPALMS (2017). All about Alliteration. Retrieved from

http://www.cpalms.org/Public/PreviewResourceLesson/Preview/43386

Jacobs, G. M. (2004). A classroom investigation of the growth of metacognitive awareness in

kindergarten children through the writing process. Early Childhood Education
Journal, 32(1), 17-23.
doi:http://0-dx.doi.org.mercury.concordia.ca/10.1023/B:ECEJ.0000039639.70536.13

Lane, H. B., & Allen, S. A. (2010). The vocabulary-rich classroom: Modeling sophisticated word
use to promote word consciousness and vocabulary growth. Reading Teacher, 63(5),
362-370. doi:http://0-dx.doi.org.mercury.concordia.ca/10.1598/RT.63.5.2

Shanahan, T. (2006). The National Reading Panel Report: Practical Advice for Teachers.
University of Illinois at Chicago.

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