Domain 2 - Word Analysis

Kimberly Taron
Domain 2: Word Analysis
Competency 7: Syllabic Analysis
2nd Grade

INSTRUCTION: This week, I observed the teacher working with the students on vocabulary.  The teacher had the students open up their vocabulary notebook, where they fill in each vocabulary word, the definition, a synonym, an antonym and in the last part, they break up the word by syllables.  They do this both visually and as a listening activity.  She has the students clap their hands as they say each syllable of the word together.  She then says, how many syllables are there in this word?  How many times did we clap?  Sometimes the students have to repeat the clapping sequence before answering.  This is a way to show students how to find syllables in words.  They then draw a line in the word to separate the syllables.  Throughout this process, she reminded the students of some of the rules when dealing with multisyllabic words.  For instance, the students were reminded that when two consonants are in the middle of the word, they are twins and they fight so they need to be separated.  Therefore, that is the spot where the syllables are separated.  This was a great trick to help the students remember this rule.  She also helped them pick out prefixes and suffixes to separate the syllables.  She was reviewing and reinforcing things they had already discussed as a class in a prior lesson while applying it to these vocabulary words.  She wrote along with the students on her own vocabulary sheet on the overhead projector, so the students could follow along while listening and could write at their own pace by looking back at her sheet.   

INSTRUCTIONAL SETTING:  The instructional setting provided some evidence of support for this lesson.  The teacher was writing on her own sheet to help the students follow along on the overhead.  This was visual support and helped the students follow along and see the words and syllable separations that the teacher was talking about.