Before you teach — read this first
Grade 2 · Lesson 57 — All four devices
U1 · Poetics + grammar maintenance · Alliteration (11 of 11) · 10–15 minutes · 18 slides ·
Launch → I do → We do → You do → Closure
What this lesson is
Lesson 11 of 11 on alliteration. The single idea is: Rhyme, assonance, consonance, alliteration — I know all four. The tool the children are handed is the question “Do the sounds match, and where?” — by the end of the topic that question, not the teacher, settles every case. Held constant today: Review and celebration. No new content. The worked example is built on Screef, said the leaf that had been silent until now., ringing said the leaf.
Why it matters — say this in your own words, about ten seconds.
“Every one of these words is a tool you will keep for life.”
A different reason every lesson, on purpose. It is not on a slide and it
is not a script — if you have a better reason today, use yours. What should land is the
idea, not a sentence they can recite.
Recall — sixty seconds, before anything new
Retrieve: Rhyme · Two-level analysis in context. Ask for it before you introduce anything, take the answers from boards rather than from hands so you see all thirty, and do not re-teach — note who has lost it and carry on. This is the middle of the launch: context, then this, then why it matters. Only what today leans on — a minute spent retrieving something unrelated costs the same and buys nothing, and the child who cannot recall the prerequisite is the one you will lose in the I-do.
How it goes
- Sixty seconds of retrieval opens it: “Yesterday: all four devices. Quick — one together.” Same language as when it was taught, a new example. If the class cannot do this, that is today's real work — stop and reteach.
- Ten seconds on why it matters — “Every one of these words is a tool you will keep for life.” Your words, not those; it is a different reason every lesson so what lands is the idea rather than a sentence they can recite.
- You name the one idea: Rhyme, assonance, consonance, alliteration — I know all four. Then the plan — what it is, the question we ask, and that we will find them together.
- Then you do one yourself, on screen, one click per move: Screef, said the leaf that had been silent until now. · the question · ring said the leaf · name it alliteration. Do it exactly the way you want it done — this is the task they are about to do on their boards, not an easier one.
- You build the same thing on the board and leave it up for alliteration. The four steps are identical in every lesson of this unit — sentence, question, test, answer — so the children read the method rather than the layout, and today's board shows Screef, said the leaf that had been silent until now. still marked when they start work.
- The We-do runs 4 items on whiteboards — For Poodle and What?, there was nothing else to do. (p.75), That growly thing was full of grouchy grrr's and kkdd's. (p.79), leaves / breeze, The lonely lantern lit the lane.. You are scanning for who applies the question and who is guessing from meaning; those look identical on a right answer and completely different on a wrong one.
- Exit directions in full, standing still, before anyone moves — Sheet and pencil · Ask the question on every item · Find the alliteration in each one. Then they work alone, with the same worked example printed at the head of their sheet.
- Close on I want you roaring grbrt skrptle grbrk all the time! — an item they have not met, so it measures rather than reminds — then the line they leave with: “Alliteration is about sound.”
- Watch for: Judges by first LETTER instead of first sound — The letter is visible and the sound is not — and for four lessons they agreed. If you see it: “Say them. Do they START the same? 'City' and 'cat' do not.” (Remedial sheet 24.)