Age Level: 15-38
Ability Level: Pronunciation 2 (Correlated with levels 3 and 4 grammar)
Type of Lesson: New
Objectives- By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:
- Recognize the various forms and manifestations of sibilant sounds
- Understand the articulation (or mouth positions) required to make the sounds
Materials Needed:
- Percussion Instruments (Provided by the teacher)
- Cabeza
- Shaker
- Groove Shaker
- Rainmaker
- Maraca
- Students’ books
- Marker
- Index Cards
Preparation: The teacher will have brought with him the aforementioned materials in order to conduct an effective lesson.
Location: Regular Classroom
Warm up/Anticipatory Set/Activation (5 minutes): The teacher will begin the lesson with a “percussion” warm-up in which he will play the sounds of each of the percussion instruments listed above. He will then ask the students to describe the sound they heard. For example:
- Rainmaker: The rainmaker makes a “shhhh” or to some, a “ssssss” sound.
- Maraca: The maraca makes a “chhhh” sound.
- The Cabaza makes a staccato “ch/ch” sound
- The groove shaker with ridges makes a “zzz/zzz” or “dg/dg” sound
- The shaker makes a “sh/ch” sound
Once the students describe the sounds they heard, the teacher will praise the students for their ability to decode sound and will then write “sibilants” on the board.
Review (10 minutes): The teacher will ask the students to open their books to the page that contains information on sibilance. He will first point out that there are five main “hissing” sounds which constitute sibilance. Next, he will show the position of the tongue and mouth in order for these sounds to be made; the teacher will ask the students to make each sound along with him so that they can practice transitioning from one sound to the next as flawlessly as possible.
Presentation of New Material/Procedure (15 minutes): The teacher will present each student with the phonetic symbols of each of the sibilant sounds. Then, he will provide one student at a time with a card upon which a word containing a sibilant sound is written (ex. Judge, kiss, ship, chip, etc.); the teacher will make sure that similar sounds are especially emphasized such as the /sh/ and /ch/ sounds. The student who receives the card must say the word aloud and the rest of the class will be asked to hold the phonetic symbols of the sound that they heard; every student will be given at least one (if not two) opportunitie to say a word. It is important to disclose that the reason for the students holding up the transcriptions is to ensure that active listening is taking place—that is, while one student is speaking, the rest are listening for specific sounds.
Pronunciation (5 minutes): See presentation/procedure.
Grammar (5 minutes): Grammar will not be directly presented in this lesson; in tomorrow’s lesson, however, the students will practice writing and reading sentences with sibilant sounds while, at the same time, using correct grammatical structures.
Closing (5 minutes): As a closing activity, the teacher will write tongue twisters (appropriate for the students; level) on the board and challenge volunteers to attempt to read them aloud; of course, the articulation and pronunciation/transition of the sounds will be the main focus.
Examples:
- Judge Judy sailed a shady ship on the sea.
- Sheldon and Sally stole seven shells to sell at the store.
- The tongue twisters will help students practice switching and differentiating between the various sounds.
Rationale: This lesson has been structured to incorporate music, pronunciation, writing and listening into one. Not only does this lesson embody all of the elements of the communicative approach, but also it encourages students to be active in learning and teaches them how to transition from one sound to another, just as the teacher did with the percussion instruments.
By Robert J. Platt, M.A.