**Welcome to At the River News**

November 2016

Monthly, this newsletter offers ESL/literacy teaching tips and ideas. Many of these are designed for use with At the River and Other Stories for Adult Emergent Readers, but you can apply these strategies in any way you choose.

In November, the focus is on building words and fluency with the short i sound from Unit 3 of At the River. I've included a photo. If you don't see it, try clicking on "view this email in your browser."

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Shelley Hale Lee
Author, At the River and Other Stories for Adult Emergent Readers
attheriver@emergentreaders.org
www.emergentreaders.org
http://wayzgoosepress.com/shl.html

Lesson: Fluency with short i words, Unit 3 of At the River

Goals: Students will be able to 1) produce the sounds for CV (consonant/vowel) pairs; 2) choose and write a consonant sound to finish the word; 3) read the list of words fluently.
Rationale: Literacy level students need repetition along with a variety of practice activities to achieve fluency in decoding. Also, some students don't pronounce the final sounds of words in English. This lesson will help them focus on the importance of that final sound.
Materials needed: markers and white board; At the River p. 21; flash cards for short i, d, p, t, j, m, n, s, l. Optional: pictures and realia for decodable words Jim, Tim, tin, pin, sip, dip, lip, lid, sit; tape or magnets.

1. Sounds: Use flash cards to review sounds. Display the short i card. I use India as a key word since many of my students are from that region. Extra support: Display consonant cards also.
2. Building words: Write the CV pairs on the board from the top half of p. 21. Students can watch and some may begin decoding them.
3. Go over the list, asking students to repeat each pair.
4. Optional fluency practice: Identifying pairs. Give each student a marker. Say, "Di. Di. Can one student come and circle di?" (Remember that the i is short.) After a student has successfully circled each "di", continue calling out pairs until all of them are circled. Go over the list, then erase the circles.
5. Optional: Display pictures and realia for dip, tin, lip, sit, Jim, Tim, lid, sip, and pin. Number the items for easy reference.
6. Point to the first CV pair, "si." Ask, "What's the sound?" Ss: "Si." T: "That's right, si. What word can we make with si? What's missing here?" Point to the spot where the final letter goes. Ss: "Sip." T: "Good. Please come write /p/". After a student writes the last sound, ask students to read the word "sip." Continue with all of the pairs.
7. Fluency/reading: Do a choral reading of the word list. For variety, read the words in rows first, then columns. Or, ask all of the women to read, then the men. Ask everyone who is wearing a skirt to read, then everyone who is wearing pants. And so on.
8: Optional: Segmenting and blending. Segment the sounds for students to blend and then circle. T: "Listen. I'll give you some sounds. /T/.../i/.../m/. What's the word?" Ss: "Tim." T: "Good. Can one student circle Tim?" Ensure that the student changes the first letter from lower to uppercase for the name Tim. Continue with all.
9. Fluency/writing: Students work on p. 21 in pairs. They finish the words, then read to each other.
10. Early finishers: Ask them to copy the words from p. 21 into their notebook, then read them to a partner. Next, one student can dictate the words while their partner writes. Then they switch roles.
11: Assessment: As students work in pairs, ask each individual to read their finished word list to you independently. Note sounds that they struggle with for future practice.

Repeat these activities as needed with CV pairs in Units 1-6 of At the River.