Before you teach — read this first
Grade 2 · Lesson 71 — What a phrase is
U2 · Level Three — Phrases · What a phrase is (—) · 10–15 minutes · 16 slides ·
Launch → I do → We do → You do → Closure
What this lesson is
A review day. No new concept: today drills rhyme, alliteration. Choose the focus from the last assessment rather than from a plan made months ago — the sheet works on whatever you pick. The worked example is built on The foaming river plunges down, a roar of bubble-sound., ringing foaming river plunges.
Why it matters — say this in your own words, about ten seconds.
“We learn the kinds of words so we can say exactly what we mean.”
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 + Alliteration · Alliteration. 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
- Ten seconds on why it matters — “We learn the kinds of words so we can say exactly what we mean.” Your words, not those; it is a different reason every lesson so what lands is the idea rather than a sentence they can recite.
- Then you do one yourself, on screen, one click per move: The foaming river plunges down, a roar of bubble-sound. · the question · ring foaming river plunges · name it rhyme. 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 rhyme, 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 The foaming river plunges down, a roar of bubble-sound. still marked when they start work.
- The We-do runs 3 items on whiteboards — Each set of four lines is a ballad stanza?Do the sounds match, and where?, He was an author, and you can't stop authors.Do the sounds match, and where?, The wind said wh as the wind machine slowed.Do the sounds match, and where?. 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 · Read the question above each one BEFORE you answer it · Find the rhyme or the alliteration. Then they work alone, with the same worked example printed at the head of their sheet.
- Close on The wind said wh as the wind machine slowed. — an item they have not met, so it measures rather than reminds — then the line they leave with: “Rhyme is about sound.”
- Watch for: Judges by spelling instead of sound — Spelling is visible; sound has to be produced. If you see it: “Say them both out loud. Do they END the same?” (Remedial sheet 24.)