Crying Babies Say “Aaaa!”
Beginning Reading Lesson
Rationale:
In this lesson students will learn about the short vowel correspondence a = /a/. Children must learn to recognize the spellings that map word pronunciations in order to read. In this lesson children will learn to recognize, spell, and read words with the correspondence a = /a/. They will learn a meaningful representation (acting like a baby crying), they will model their understanding of the sound with a tongue tickler, they will spell and read words containing the a = /a/ correspondence in a letterbox lesson, and read a decodable book that focuses on the correspondence a=/a/.
Materials:
-
Image of a crying baby saying “AHHH!”
-
Cover-up critter
-
Whiteboard
-
Large letterboxes box for modeling
-
Individual letterboxes for each student
-
Letter manipulative for each child: a, c, e, h, k, l, m, p, p, r, s, t
-
Magnetic letters for teacher: a, c, e, h, k, l, m, p, p, r, s, t
-
List of spelling words on poster to read: 3-ham, 3- back, 3-apple 4-mask, 4- grab, 4- slap, and 4-trash
-
Decodable text: A Cat Nap
-
Assessment worksheet
Procedure:
-
Say: “Good morning boys and girls! I hope you are all having a fantastic day and are ready to put on your thinking caps to learn some really cool and exciting things today! To become expert readers we need to learn about a secret code that tells us how to pronounce words. Does anyone know anything about secret codes?” Listen to 2-3 students answers then move on to continue teaching. “Today we will be learning about the secret code that allows us to read! Today’s lesson will teach us all about the short vowel a and the mouth movements we make in order to say /a/. When I say /a/ I think of a baby crying, “Aaaah”! [show image of the crying baby]. Anytime we hear the /a/ sound today let’s make our best crying baby face! Let me see your best crying baby faces while you say /a/.” Students will make their crying baby faces and practice saying /a/. “Before we dive in I want to tell you a little story about Alice and Annie. Alice and Annie have always been best friends, but lately Annie’s animals have been angry. Alice asked Annie if her animals are still angry. Let me hear you all say that last sentence together and see your crying babies when you hear /a/. Aaaaaalice aaaasked Aaaaannie if her aaaaanimals are still aaaaaangry. I love all the hard work everyone is showing me!”
2. Say: “Before we can learn about the spelling of /a/, we need to listen for it in some more words. When we hear /a/ in words, we hear the letter a say its name /a/ and our jaw drops and our tongue is down. [Make vocal gesture for /a/.] I’ll show you how your mouth should look: aaaact. When I heard a say /a/ I felt my jaw drop and my tongue go down. Now lets see if I can find /a/ in the word feet. Ffffeeeeeeeettttt. Hmm, I didn’t hear a say its name and my jaw didn’t drop. Now you try. If you hear /a/, show me your crying baby face. If you don’t hear /a/, put your hands behind your back. Do you hear /a/ in the word apple? (wait for reply), fed (wait for reply), rat (wait for reply), tool (wait for reply), flash (wait for reply), black (wait for reply)?”
3. Say: “Now we are going to look at some words we are going to spell today. What if I want to spell the word back? “Lets go back to the zoo.” The word back in our sentence is telling us we have been to the zoo before. Now I need all of you sweet boys and girls to please quietly take out your letterboxes and your bag of letters. (Wait for everyone to have out their supplies) Lets remember how we use our letterbox lesson tools. Step 1) count the number of phonemes, or different letter sounds, we hear in the word. Step 2) Find where our vowel goes and place it in the correct box. Step 3) Listen to see what sounds we hear before the vowel and place them in their appropriate boxes. Step 4) Listen to see what sounds we hear after the vowel and place those letters in their appropriate boxes. Step 5) Use your wonderful blending skills to blend all of the letter sounds you chose together to check your spelling. You may use your cover up critter at this point if you need it. To spell the word back with letterboxes, first I will need to know how many phonemes I have in the word so I stretch it out and count: /b//a//ck/. I need 3 boxes. (Fold your letterboxes so you only have 3 boxes showing and clip it onto your whiteboard.) I heard our sound /a/ in the middle of the word just before the /ck/ so I’m going to put an a in the 2nd box. The word starts with the sound /b/ like the bouncing basketball we learned about a few weeks ago, that’s easy; I need the letter b. One more missing box after the /a/, hmm . .. /b//a//ck/. [Point to letters in boxes when stretching out the word: /b//a//ck/ The missing phoneme is the sound /ck/. So I put both letters c and k in the last box to make the sound /ck/. Now I’m going to show you how I would read a tough word. [Display poster with the word grab written or typed on it in large letters and model reading the word.] I’m going to start with the a; that part says /a/. Now I’m going to put the beginning letters with it: /g/ /r/ /a/, /gra/. Now I’ll take that chunk and put it together with the last sound, /b/ -- /gra-b/. Oh, grab, like “Grab the end of this rope.”
4. Say: “Now I’m going to have you spell some words in your own letterboxes. The first word you will spell is the word at. Like, “I was at the play last night”. Do we know how many boxes we should have for the word at? (Let students say how many boxes they think they should have) That’s right! We should have two boxes for our letters since the word at have two phonemes. What should go in the first box? [Respond to children’s answers]. What goes in the second box? I’ll check your spelling while I walk around the room. [Observe progress then make your way to the board to show students the correct answer if anyone missed it or if everyone was correct say “Nice job boys and girls! I love your hard work!) Lets try another word. Make sure you turn your listening ears up all the way so you can use that secret code to figure out how many boxes you need. Our next word is cap, “Are you wearing your baseball cap?”; cap. Locate where your vowel goes first, then the letters before the vowel, then move on to the letters after the vowel. I am going to walk around and check while we do these next few words so you can ask me any questions you may have.” [Allow children to spell remaining words: 3-ham, 3- back, 3-apple 4-mask, 4- grab, 4- slap, and 4-trash.]
5. Say: “Now I am going to let you read the words you’ve spelled, but first I’ll show you again how I would read a difficult word. [Display poster with the word trash written or typed in large letters and model the reading word.] First, I see there our letter a in the middle so I know it must say /a/. Next I am going to use my cover up critter to uncover the first part of the word before our vowel a. [Uncover and blend sequentially before the vowel, then blend with the vowel.] /t//r/=/tr/. Now I’m going to blend that with /a/=/tra/. Now all I need is the end, /sh/. /tra/ /sh/=/trash/. Trash; that’s it! Now it’s your turn, everyone together. [Have children read words in unison. Afterwards, call on individuals to read one word on the list until everyone has had a turn.]
6. Say: “I am so proud of all the hard work I have seen this morning! You have all done an excellent job reading words with our new spelling for /a/: a. Now we are going to read a book called A Cat Nap. A cat name Tab likes to take naps in a bag. Sam takes the bag that Tab is in to a baseball game. What happens when tab is found in the bag at the baseball game? Let’s read and find out! Let’s pair up and take turns reading A Cat Nap to find out what happens.” [Children pair up and take turns reading alternate pages each while teacher walks around the room monitoring progress. After individual paired reading, the class rereads A Cat Nap aloud together, and stops between page turns to talk before you turn.]
Assessment:
Say: “Before we finish up with our lesson about a = /a/ I want to see how you can solve a spelling problem. You will be given 6 different letters per word and you need to use those letters to figure out how to spell the word. You figure out the words by looking at the pictures beside the letters. Make sure you look at the pictures to check your work. (Go over what the pictures are: 1. Cat 2. Bat 3. Jam 4. Mad 5. Map 6. Fan) [Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress. Any students you realize are having problems you can work with individually by reviewing the letterbox lesson and reading excerpts from the book.]
Resources:
Murray PowerPoint: Creating Literacy Design:
https://sites.google.com/site/readingwritingconnection/beggingreadingdesign
Erin Cooper: A Cat Nap
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/catalysts/cooperbr.html
Reading Genie Website
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/
Assessment:
http://www.funfonix.com/book1/ffonix_book1_2.gif
