Universally Designed Lesson
Beginning writing and reading lesson
Video for parents, teachers, siblings and students to learn how to teach reading. The child will write and illustrate his or her own personal book. This sample lesson is from Elina. Your child would use his or her own name.

Elementary kindergarten through second grade, USA, age 5 to 7, beginners English

Common Core Standards fulfilled with this lesson type: kindergarten language standards; Conventions of standard English; Common Core State Standards USA
1. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking
A. Print many upper and lowercase letters.
B. Use frequently occurring nouns and verbs.
C. Form regular plural nouns
D. Understand and use question words
E. Use most frequently occurring prepositions
F. Produce and expand complete sentences and shared language activities.
2. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.
A. Capitalize the first word in the sentence and the pronoun I.
B. Recognize and name and punctuation.
C. Write a letter or letters for most content and short vowel sounds (phonemes).
D. Spell simple words phonetically, drawing on knowledge of sound-letter relationships.
Knowledge of language; Vocabulary acquisition and use
4. Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on kindergarten reading and content.
A. Identified new meanings for familiar words and apply them accurately
B. Use the most frequently occurring inflections and affixes such as -ed – s as a clue to the meaning of an unknown word.
5. With guidance and support from adults, explore word relationships and nuances in word meanings.
A. Sort common objects into categories for example shapes and foods to gain a sense of the concepts the categories were present. (This is why there is drawing in the lesson. Help child to learn to draw using shapes.)
B. Demonstrate understanding of frequently occurring verbs and adjectives by relating them to their opposites (antonyms).
C. Identify real-life connections between words and their use (e.g. “Which animals have you seen?”).
D. Distinguish shades of meaning among verbs describing the same general action for example “know/knows” and “nose” and “no” or “no’s” by acting out the meanings.
6. Use words and phrases acquired through conversations, reading and being read to, and responding to texts. Use these or other Discussion questions to engage students
Materials: Blank paper for drawing, pencils and crayons.
The video models how this lesson is taught.
1. Make two horizontal lines on the paper. Write the first line of the story well pronouncing the words (“blending”) slowly.
2. Make sure student can see how you hold the pencil and move your hand as you write each letter in each sentence. Each sentence is one page of the story.
3. Student then writes on the line below, mimicking your work. Some students will need to trace your handwriting exactly. Allow them to do so and help until they can do it on their own.
4. Help them read each word, slowly pointing at each word, prompting with first letters and sounds, using one sound at a time for unfamiliar words.
5. Start at the beginning of the story and read it. Go through the entire story allowing the student to pronounce each word independently. Help by showing and pronouncing each sound until the student can do it on his or her own. Many of the words are taught “by sight” which means they are NOT spelled like they sound, which is why it is so important to do the lesson with the children as explained here.
Here is the text of the story:
Ali was his name.
He lives on Earth.
He waters and flowers grow.
He plants seeds.
He knows the ocean.
He knows the animals.
He knows the wind and rain.
The sun brings light when it is dark.
You can also write your own stories. But here is another one that uses rhyming words and also commas and quotation marks for you to explain as well as more sight words. There is ample opportunity to practice drawing pictures and you can address that the girl’s name is May, which is one of the months of the year.
Meet my friend May.
She likes to play.
We say, “Hello”.
We sing. We dance.
We jump. We learn.
We try to fly.
She is my friend May.
I hope you enjoy the music from our friends at Creative Commons. The Musicians are Rendezvous Park and the song is called “Closer to Being Here.”