Literacy lesson plans should be age-appropriate. Young children learn letters, sounds, and writing through games and art projects. Older children focus on composition, grammar, and reading comprehension with more challenging books and writing assignments.
Literacy lesson plans should be adapted to the age of the students. In early childhood, the goal is typically learning to write, learning letters and the sounds of letters, and learning to read. Once writing and reading have been mastered, literacy lesson plans for older children will transition into developing correct composition, reading comprehension, and improving vocabulary.
Children between the ages of three and five typically focus on learning to recognize the letters of the alphabet, the sounds of the letters, strengthening the hand coordination needed to write, and starting to write letters. At this age, lesson plans typically involve games and songs that provide repeated exposure to letter names and repetition of letter sounds. Children will eventually begin learning to read, and lesson plans will involve learning to spell words, memorizing sightwords or words encountered over and over again, and practicing reading simple books.
To strengthen the hand coordination necessary for writing, lesson plans for three- to five-year-olds will also focus on making art projects that require coloring, gluing, cutting, and manipulating materials. Lesson plans will also include listening to picture books read aloud to work on language assembly and reading comprehension. Learning to read and write can be difficult and frustrating for young children, so lesson plans for this age group need to challenge and reinforce skills but not frustrate and should be accompanied by frequent praise and positive feedback.
Literacy lesson plans for five to nine year olds will focus on continuing to strengthen the ability to write the alphabet in upper and lower case letters and eventually introduce cursive writing. Lesson plans will also start working on composition by teaching simple rules of grammar, writing style and spelling. Reading comprehension skills will be strengthened by providing more sophisticated and longer books. At this age, lesson plans will often aim to hone more than one skill at a time. For example, a lesson plan may involve children writing books, poems, and letters, which will simultaneously strengthen their writing, practice proper sentence formation, and work on vocabulary and spelling.
Most children over the age of nine will have basic writing and reading skills, so literacy lesson plans will shift to improving writing style, grammar, and vocabulary. Children of this age are typically taught various forms of writing, such as poetry, the standard business letter, and essays. Lesson plans will include teaching research and gathering facts to add depth to the writing. In order to test reading comprehension and expand their vocabulary, literacy lesson plans will also aim to expose older children to varied and challenging books.
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