Melanie Tuma

October 2014
Segmenting Sentences
- Lesson Objectives:
Students will segment four worded sentences that are provided orally using manipulatives
to support their segmenting attempts 3/5 times.
Student H will isolate four phoneme words that are provided orally using manipulatives to
support her isolating attempts 4/6 times.

- I Can Statements:
I can count words when something is read to me.
Student H: I can count sounds when a word is said to me.

-Pre-Kindergarten Ohio Early Learning and Development Standard:

Phonological Awareness: With modeling and support recognize words in spoken sentences.
On Thursday, October 16, I gave seven students the sentence segmentation portion
of the PASS assessment. The portion only contained five questions, so it was a quick
assessment to see what my students already know. Out of the seven students, two received
a score of 1/5, three received a score of 2/5, one received a score of 4/5, and the last
student would not speak to me at all, so I was unable to assess his knowledge. Both students
that received a score of 1/5 only answered correctly on the two worded sentence. All the
students that received a score of 2/5 answered both the two worded and three worded
sentences correctly. The student who received a score of 4/5 answered all the questions
correctly except for the sentence with the largest amount of words in it (six words). This
data shows that the more words the sentence contains, the harder the question becomes.
Most of the students cannot segment sentences that contain more than two to three words.
Overall, the results show that my students will benefit from a lesson on sentence
segmentation.
The reason I gave my students the sentence segmentation portion of PASS rather
than a different portion of the test relates to the facts and truths of study. Segmentation,
isolation, and blending are easier tasks than deleting, substituting, and matching (Rosner,
1974). Additionally, students have an easier time segmenting larger chunks of sound, such
as sentences, than they do smaller chunks of sound, such as phonemes (Stahl & Murray,
1994). Based on this knowledge, I reasoned that one of the easier portions of PASS would be
to segment sentences. I wanted to assess my students from the bottom up (easiest content
first). The data I collected gave me an accurate view of what my class knows and needs to
know.

-Formative Assessment:
During the guided practice portion of the lesson, I will know what my students are thinking
and learning by observation and asking questions. As we do some examples together, I will
watch what each student does. If I see a student struggle, I will ask them why they put that

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many candies into their cup. This will help me to see what they are thinking so that I can
help guide them in the correct direction.

-Summative Assessment:
I will determine if the student reached the instructional goal at the end of the lesson by
collecting data during their independent practice of segmenting four worded sentences. If
the student can segment a four worded sentence 3/5 times, I will know they have met the
learning objective. If not, I will know they need some re-teaching. For Student Hs lesson, I
will also collect data during her independent
practice to see if she has met her instructional goal.
-Seed, Sprout, Pumpkin, Pie by Jill Esbaum
-cups
-pumpkin candies
-Note: The idea of putting manipulatives into cups
to count words came from Sentence Segmentation
(Sentence Segmentation, n.d.).
-Word
A common misunderstanding I might encounter would be for students to put two candies
into their cup for words that have two syllables. For example, a student might put two
candies in the cup for the word pumpkin even though pumpkin is only one word. I will
address this misunderstanding by doing a hand signal each time I say a word to help them
distinguish the words. I may also model a sentence with two syllable words to show that I
only put one candy in when I say a two syllable word.

Procedures

-Before the Lesson:

Teacher reads the book Seed, Sprout, Pumpkin, Pie to the class in the
morning during circle time.

-Introduction of Lesson:
Teacher introduces lesson by saying, Today we are going to do an
activity that will help you become good listeners so that you can
read and write. Do you remember the book we read at circle time?
We are going to do an activity using some sentences from that
book.
-Goals and Objectives:
Teacher reads I can statement for the lesson.

Scaffolding,
Supports, &
Differentiation

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-Introducing Academic Language:

Teacher explains that students will learn to count words. Teacher
asks students to listen to the sentence: Pick pumpkins. Teacher asks
if students hear a pause between pick and pumpkins. Teacher
repeats sentence, and again asks if students hear the pause. Teacher
says, When you hear a pause, that means that I am about to say a
word. Listen to this sentence: Hello, pumpkin. Can you tell me where
you heard the pause? (students respond) Good, the pause is
between hello and pumpkin.

-Teacher Models Segmenting Words:

Teacher says, I am going to say a sentence aloud. Every time I hear
a word, I am going to put one candy into my cup. Watch me.
Pumpkins are orange. Now I am going to count how many candies
are in my cup. Look, there are three candies in the cup. There are
three words in the sentence pumpkins are orange.

-Guided Practice Segmenting Words:

Teacher asks students to do the activity with her by saying, Now
lets do it together. Listen to the sentence: Carve pumpkins. Lets
count the words. Ready? Carve pumpkins. Can someone tell me how
many candies they have in their cup? (student responds) Nice
counting! There are two words in the sentence carve pumpkins.
Teacher continues guided practice with sentences seeds are snacks
and seeds might be saved.

-Summative Assessment:
Students count words on their own using these sentences:
1. There are tall pumpkins.
2. Left behind are pumpkins.
3. They can be orange.
4. There are smooth pumpkins.
5. Seeds might be saved.

-Wrap Up:
Teacher wraps up by saying, You guys did a fantastic job counting
words today. I have one more question for you before you can eat
your pumpkins. I am going to say a sentence, and I want you to listen
to the pause. We learn. What does the pause tell me? (choral
response) Good! The pause tells me that I am about to hear a word.
Today when you counted words, you had to listen carefully for the
pause. Listening carefully is something that you will need to do to
become a good reader and writer. Now you may eat your
pumpkins.

-Student H will
isolate phonemes
when the
following words
are read aloud to
her: seeds, bump,
left, best, snack,
dried.
-Student B will
need additional
modeling to
comprehend the
directions of the
assessment.

Melanie Tuma

Rosner, J. (1974). Auditory analysis training with prereaders. The Reading Teacher, 27, 379384.
Sentence Segmentation. (n.d.). Sentence Segmentation. Retrieved October 19, 2014, from
http://moodle.intolearning.ie/webdav/users
Stahl, S.A., & Murray, B.A. (1994). Defining phonological awareness and its relationship to
early reading. Journal of Educational Pyschology, 86, 221-234.

Melanie Tuma

Commentaries for Segmenting Sentences Lesson

Absent
Absent
Student H

Used HOH

Above is a picture of the summative data I collected during the independent practice
portion of my lesson. As you can see, the learning objectives are listed at the top of the page.
The objective in green is for all the students except for Student H. The objective in blue is for
Student H. Below the student names are the sentences that the students had to segment
independently. In Student Hs case, I listed the words I had her isolate the phonemes in. The
far right column shows whether each student met their learning objective. Two students did
not participate in my lesson because they were absent.
The majority of the class (7/10 students) was able to meet the learning objective of
my lesson. I noticed that in most of the students, the guided practice offered a lot of help to
them. During the first couple of guided practice questions, I could see the students watching
my hands. By the last guided practice question, they were doing it without their eyes glued
to my hands. During independent practice, four students got 5/5 questions correct, two
students got 4/5 questions correct, and one student earned a score of 3/5. This data shows
me that the students appear to have a good grasp on segmenting four worded sentences.

Melanie Tuma
Student J and Student O struggled with sentence segmentation. During the guided
practice (formative assessment time), I noticed that Student J took a long time to process
the sentences I said orally. In order to help him, I did a hand motion each time I said a word
(as described in the Common Misunderstandings section of my lesson plan). This method
did not seem to work very well, because instead of putting a pumpkin into the bowl for each
hand motion I did, he started mimicking my hand motion. I re-explained that he needed to
put a pumpkin in the bowl instead of mimicking my hand motion, but he did not change his
action. To solve the problem, I did hand over hand with him for two sentences. When it was
time for independent practice without my help, he struggled and received a score of 2/5.
This shows that he needs to practice sentence segmentation some more. He will need to
start segmenting smaller sentences independently and work his way up to segmenting
larger sentences.
As for Student O, I also had to use hand over hand during the guided practice section
for him to succeed. When I had him do the independent practice without my help, he was
able to segment the first two words of the sentence correctly, but he was distracted and
staring off into space by the third word. This shows me that he struggles with focusing on
the task at hand. Segmenting a four worded sentence may have been too difficult for him,
making him give up midway through the sentence. Overall, I know Student O needs some reteaching on sentence segmentation because he received a score of 1/5.
Student H struggled with her learning objective. She was able to correctly isolate the
phonemes independently in 1/6 words. I noticed that during the formative assessment, she
kept combining the initial and middle phoneme as one phoneme, throwing off her count.
This tells me that she needs to learn how to isolate the middle phoneme in a word before
she will be successful at isolating a four phoneme word.
At the beginning of the lesson, I explained some academic language by telling the
students what I meant by word. I said to them, Listen to this sentence: Pick pumpkins. Do
you hear how there is a pause between pick and pumpkins? Listen again, this time, pay
attention to that pause. Pick pumpkins. Do you hear the pause? (students responded) When
you hear a pause, that means I am about to say a word. Listen to this sentence: Hello,
pumpkin. Can you tell me where you heard the pause? (students responded) Good, the
pause is between hello and pumpkin. Throughout the lesson, I used the academic language
target often. I would say, Count the words. It was important for the students to
understand what I meant.
I assessed their knowledge of the academic language target at the end of my lesson
by saying, You guys did a fantastic job counting words today. I have one more question for
you before you can eat your pumpkins. I am going to say a sentence, and I want you to listen
to the pause. We learn. What does the pause tell me? In a choral response, they exclaimed,
You are going to say a word! This shows me that they understood what I meant by word.
The concept of a word is not an easy one to grasp, but this lesson helped them to get a better
idea of how to identify a word when listening to a sentence. This requires good listening,
which will be a beneficial skill for them when they start to isolate phonemes in words.
If I could teach this lesson again, there are a couple of things I would do differently.
First, I would give Student H a lesson on isolating middle phonemes in CVC words instead of
isolating the phonemes in a four phoneme word. The words I gave her were too challenging
for her. She kept combining the initial and middle phonemes, which shows that a lesson on
middle phoneme isolation would have benefitted her more. Another thing I would do

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differently is to conduct the lesson in a quieter area, such as the hallway. Since I taught this
lesson at a center, the room was loud and full of action. I noticed a couple of times that some
of the students were getting distracted, especially when a student from a different center
was crying because he was in timeout. I think teaching in a quieter area with fewer
distractions would have helped the students focus more on the lesson instead of their
surroundings.