Module 8: S Blends- Language Arts 1 - Course Guide

Module Overview:

In this module, learners will focus on recognizing and decoding s blends—words that begin with blends like st, sp, and sw. They will practice hearing and blending these sounds in words, including multisyllabic ones, to improve reading fluency. Learners will build vocabulary by using context clues to understand new words and will practice reading and spelling high-frequency words. They will also learn to identify verbs and nouns, and create sentences using present and past tense verbs. As learners read stories, they will practice recalling key details and organizing their writing by identifying the parts of a paragraph, including writing concluding sentences. They will also explore rhyming words with s blends and practice modifying words by deleting or substituting sounds to create new words. By the end of the module, learners will confidently read, write, and comprehend texts with s-blend words and demonstrate fluency with decodable books.

Module Materials:

Lesson #	Lesson Title	Material(s)
1	8.1 S Blends	Spelling Notebook Handwriting Notebook Journal Notebook Words of the Week Notebook Book: From Seed to Pumpkin By: Wendy Pfeffer (optional)
2	8.2 S Blends	Spelling Notebook Journal Notebook scissors glue crayons or colored pencils (assorted colors)
3	8.3 S Blends	Spelling Notebook Handwriting Notebook Journal Notebook modeling clay note cards crayons or colored pencils (assorted colors)
4	8.4 S Blends	Handwriting Notebook Spelling Notebook Journal Notebook red pencil or crayon scissors glue
5	8.5 S Blends	Handwriting Notebook Spelling Notebook Journal Notebook modeling clay

Module Objectives:

Lesson #	Lesson Title	Objective(s)
1	8.1 S Blends	Identify consonant sounds in s blends. Identify words with s blends. Define the parts of a paragraph. Use context clues to distinguish the meaning of vocabulary words.
2	8.2 S Blends	Recognize graphemes to decode s-blend words. Construct an s-blend word by blending two syllables. Identify verbs in a sentence. Recognize and decode high-frequency words.
3	8.3 S Blends	Identify the phonemes in a one-syllable s-blend word. Recall key details from a story. Create sentences with present and past tense verbs. Identify and practice spelling words.
4	8.4 S Blends	Modify an s-blend word by deleting the beginning blend sound to make a new word. Create a concluding sentence for their paragraph. Identify rhyming s-blend words.
5	8.5 S Blends	Modify an s-blend word by substituting the beginning blend sound to make a new word. Read and show comprehension of decodable sentences containing s-blend words. Classify words as nouns or verbs. Demonstrate the ability to independently read the decodable book with fluency.

Module Key Words:

Key Words	Words of the Week	Spelling Words	Vocabulary Words
s blends concluding sentences context clues consonants syllables key details verbs past tense present tense concluding sentence rhyming nouns decoding	its my I part see	sled slid snap stub spill swan log men hut can	slippery mask grin fascinating artistic

Module Assignments:

Lesson #	Lesson Title	Page #	Assignment Title
2	8.2 S Blends	11	Grammar
3	8.3 S Blends	8	Comprehension
4	8.4 S Blends	3	Phonics

Learning Coach Notes:

Lesson #	Lesson Title	Notes
1	8.1 S Blends	Students will study s-blends this week, specifically sc, sk, sl, sm, sn, sp, st, and sw. Blends are letter teams that blend two sounds. You can hear both individual sounds in the blend. Many of the words students have decoded prior to this module have been three-letter words. With your learner, practice identifying s-blends in words and teaming up the letters as blended sounds. This will help your learner decode words with s-blends. If your learner struggles to hear both letters, demonstrate how to say the word and ask the learner to repeat the sounds. If your learner is easily identifying s-blends, give them multisyllabic words with s-blends and ask them to identify the letters that make up the blend. (These do not need to be words they can decode. The focus is on identifying the s-blend.)
2	8.2 S Blends	Recognizing s-blends is the first step to decoding words with s-blends. S blends are different from digraphs. The s and consonant maintain their individual sounds unlike the digraph sh. If your learner needs extra practice identifying s-blends, you can do a sorting activity using notecards. Write words with s-blends and words that have an s but do not have an s-blend. Have your learner circle the s in each word. Then, have them look at the letter next to the s and identify it as a vowel or consonant. Assist your learner in recognizing if these letters team up to make an s-blend. Practice making the s-blend sounds with your learner. If your learner is able to recognize and read the blends easily, challenge them to find words with s-blends in texts. You can create a game to see how many s-blends your learner can find.
3	8.3 S Blends	In this lesson, the focus is on segmenting phonemes in words with s-blends. If your learner is struggling with segmenting phonemes in words or saying each individual sound, practice using words with only two phonemes, like the word say. Have your learner finger stretch each sound: /s/ /long a/. Then, try words with three phonemes and so on. If your learner is mastering segmenting the phonemes of word with s-blends, expand their learning by verbally practicing phoneme or sound substitutions in words. For example, say the word smug and ask your learner to replace /sm/ with /sl/. This can be done with both nonsense words and real words.
4	8.4 S Blends	Rhyming helps students understand word families. It also aids in spelling and reading by allowing students to apply patterns to new words. If your learner needs extra support with rhyming, start by breaking a word into the onset and rime (the beginning sound and group of ending sounds). Give your learner two additional words to break into onset and rime. Then, have your learner choose which is the rhyming word from the two. If your learner is progressing with rhyming, ask them to generate a list of rhyming words or nonsense words.
5	8.5 S Blends	In the fifth lesson of each module, take a moment to monitor your learner’s progress with some of the key areas and skills of the module. Spelling, Words of the Week, and Decodable Book. Read the spelling words aloud to your learner, using each word in a sentence. Have your learner write the words from memory. Practice misspelled words with your learner until they are more confident. Write the Words of the Week on notecards and ask your student to read them aloud. While your learner reads the Decodable Book, take note of words they need help decoding. Practice these words with your learner by pointing them out in other texts. This will build your learner’s confidence in reading the Decodable Book.

Guiding Questions
Suggested Books

Module Guiding Questions:

When a student starts a lesson ask them questions to check for prior knowledge and understanding and to review concepts being taught. At the end of the lesson ask the questions again to see if their answer changes.

Lesson Title	Question
8.1 S Blends	What are the parts of a paragraph?
8.2 S Blends	Can you read words with s blends?
8.3 S Blends	What are the key details in the story?
8.4 S Blends	Can you create a concluding sentence?
8.5 S Blends	Can you identify the beginning sound in a word?

Module Video Questions:

When a student watches a video take time to ask them questions about what they watched. Suggested questions for the videos in this module are listed here. Suggestion: Have the student watch the entire video first all the way through. Then have them watch the video a second time, as they watch it pause the video and ask the questions.

Lesson Title	Video	Question

Module Suggested Read Aloud Books:

Take time to read to your student or have them read aloud to you. Read a different book each day. While reading the book point out concepts being taught. You may purchase these books or find them at your local library. Suggested things to discuss while reading the book:

What is the main idea?
What are three things new you learned?
How does this book relate to what you are learning about?

#	Book	Author	Lexile Level
1	The Magic Hockey Skates	Allen Morgan
2	Little Millie Ford and Her New Skateboard	Ashley Norris
3	The Three Little Pigs' Sledding Adventure	Stephen Krensky	570L
4	Roll, Slope, and Slide: A Book About Ramps	Michael Dahl
5	The Sweet Touch	Lorna Balian	AD660L
6	Snail Trail	Ruth Brown
7	Fireman Small	Wong Herbert Yee	NP
8	Little Swan	Jonathan London	AD900L

Module Outing:

Take some time to apply what your student is learning to the real world. Suggested outings are below.

#	Outing
1	Find a local ice skating rink that offers open skate times and take your student ice skating to celebrate s-blends such as skate, slip, and slide.