Title
Date Taught
Homophones
4-8-10
Scenario
Large group (17 students), daily for Language Arts, comes at the beginning of the unit on
homophones, over one class period.
Grade level: 1st
Teacher Focus: Talking loud enough for everyone to hear and making sure visuals are
always visible to all students.
Iowa Core Curriculum Standard and/or Benchmark
Acquires several new words.
Objective(s):
With 80% accuracy, in a large group, TLW understand and practice what it means for a
word to be a homophone. TLW also be able to identify the correct use of different
homophones.
The Lesson:
Attention-Getter
“Today we are going to learn about homophones. Does anyone know what a
homophone is? Well a homophone is a word that sounds the same as another word
but they are spelled differently and have different meanings (WRITE DEFINITION
ON BOARD). Like the words SEE and SEA, SUN and SON, WEEK and WEAK, and
other words that relate to this rule (write on board and explain why they are different). In
order to be able to understand homophones a little bit more I am going to read you
the book Dear Deer by Gene Barretta. This is a funny book all about homophones so
I want us to all to be super quiet listeners and as I read a page that has homophones
on it I want you to touch your nose. If I see you touching your nose I might call on you
to tell me which homophones I just read about, so make sure to keep a special eye out for
those silly homophones. So for example when I tell you the title DEAR DEER what
should we all do? (Touch our noses) CFU= ask why they decided to touch their nose
and make sure to review what a homophone is again.
Lesson Goal: To introduce/practice/reteach/review/assess (identify the topic/skill)
To understand and practice as a group correctly identifying and using homophones while
listening to the book Dear Deer, in sentence form, and through class discussion.
Activities: input → model → guided practice → independent practice → closure
 Attention-Getter: Describing what a homophone is as well as reading the book
Dear Deer.
 Write on a large piece of paper beforehand: 3 different pairs of sentences with
spot missing in the sentence where a set f homophones should be placed. It is up
to the class to figure it out as a group where each word should be placed.
1. The homophones (know and no) will be given, with the sentences: There were
_________ apple trees in the yard. I do not _________ your name.
2. (for/four) She was________ years old. He walked_______ days and days.
3. (hear/here) Did you_______ me call your name? I want you to stand ______.
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We will have a class discussion on each sentence and why we chose one word
over the other.
Next, I will give them different words and they will have to identify whether or
not they are homophones or not. “Since you are all experts at identifying
homophones, I am going to tell you two different words and you are going to
tell me whether or not they are homophones and why you think that. For
example if I were to give you the words: won and one would those be
considered homophones? Why? What about the words bat and mat? Why
don’t those work?
Ok to make this exciting instead of raising your hands when you know the
answer how about we sit up really tall and smile the biggest smile we have
ever smiled!
MAKE SURE TO SAY AND WRITE HOMOPHONE AND NONHOMOPHONE PAIRS ON THE BOARD.
CFU =What are we looking for and how are you going to shoe me you know an
answer?
1. Flower, flour
2. See, sea
3. Hear, here
4. Maid, made
5. Bad, mad
6. White, night
7. Bear, bare
8. Hair, hare
9. To, two, too
10. None, done
11. Pear, pair
12. Bath, math
13. Won, one
14. Week, weak
15. Shirt, dirt
16. Map, lap
17. Bed, pillow
18. Plane, plain
19. Write, right
20. Blue, blew
21. Car, bike
22. Eye, I
23. Sail, sale
24. Meat, meet
25. Dog, cat
26. Peace, piece

27. Flee, flea
28. Heal, heel
Closure: Ok you all did a great job today working on your homophones but before
we leave, can someone tell me what they remember about homophones?
Accommodations:
Due to the fact that I have 5 ELL students and one IEP student in my room, I will make
sure to constantly check for understanding while also putting major emphasis on the
meaning of homophones. I also plan on drawing pictures to demonstrate what the words
mean, when I am able to.
Assessment: Relates to the Objectives
With 80% accuracy, they will put their knowledge about homophones to use when it
comes to the attention-getter, practicing with homophones in sentence form, and through
class discussion on the topic.
Materials needed for the lesson
Dear Deer: A Book About Homophones, a white board, and big sheet of paper with the
three sentences already written on it.
Reflection:
From watching the students as I taught, I noticed how much fun they were having.
They were all really active and involved in my lesson and I could not be happier as to
how the lesson went. One specific part of my lesson that my students really enjoyed was
when I read the book Dear Deer by Gene Barretta and had them touch their nose if they
thought they heard any homophones. They loved the book and were always laughing. Not
only was it a funny book, but also it really did a great job helping me teach my students
what it means to be a homophone.
I thought I was more than prepared for this lesson, it ran very smoothly, and I
would not change a thing. One thing that I thought was really helpful as I taught my
students this lesson would be the fact that I used constant visuals. It really helped my
students to be able to see and picture the words I was asking them about. I also thought
that constantly reviewing what it meant to be a homophone also played a major role in
their understanding.
At first, I was nervous that my 5 ELL students would have trouble with this
concept and was warned about this ahead of time but while teaching the lesson, I was
pleasantly surprised! Some of my ELL students were the ones that participated the most.
I thought I was very accommodating to them by incorporating a lot of different ways in
which they could learn the concept. All my students did so well and I am so proud of
them! This was such a fun lesson and I really enjoyed teaching it!