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Beginning Reading Design

Aaaa, time for bed!!

Rationale: This lesson is going to teach the students about the short vowel correspondence a=/a/. in order to be able to read, the students must first learn to recognize the spellings that map word pronunciations. This lesson will teach students to recognize, spell, and read words containing the short vowel a. They will then learn a meaningful representation by saying “Aaaa, time for bed”, they will spell and read words containing spellings with the short a sound in a Letterbox lesson, and read a decodable book that focuses on the correspondence a=/a/.

 

Materials:

  1. Picture of a girl laying down in bed saying /a/.

  2. Cover-up critter

  3. White board and dry erase marker for modeling

  4. Letterboxes

  5. Lowercase letter manipulatives for students and magnetic letters for teacher: a, t, b, c, d, p, h, s, l

  6. Chart with Letterbox words on them for students to read: at, bat, cat, dad, catch, scalp.

  7. Decodable book “Nat the Cat”

  8. Short a worksheet

(URL for Book and Worksheet found below).

 

Procedures:

  1. Say: “To learn how to become a fluent reader, we have to learn how to decode and pronounce words. Today, we will learn about the short a. When I say /a/, I think about when I lay my head on my pillow and say “Aaaaa” after a long day.” Now, show the picture of the child laying their head on their pillow and have the students say /a/.

  2. Say: “First, we are going to start listening for the sound /a/ in different words. When we say the short a sound, we are opening our mouths and pushing air out from the back of our throats.” (Make a vocal gesture for /a/.) “Let’s practice with the word bat. I heard the relaxing /a/ sound, and I felt the air coming from the back of my throat when I opened my mouth to say the word. That means that there is a short a in the word bat. Now, let’s see if we hear the relaxing /a/ sound in the word sale. I don’t think I heard the relaxing /a/, do you?” Allow the class to answer. “Now I am going to say some words for you. I want you to listen for the relaxing /a/ sound, and if you hear it, I want you to put your hands under your head like you are laying down for bed. Do you hear the relaxing /a/ in ball? Lack? Say? Blow? Bad? Rat? Side? Get? Bath?

  3. Say: “Now we are going to learn to spell words that have the relaxing /a/ sound in them. What if I want to spell the word patch? First, we are going to count the phonemes. Catch has /p/ /a/ /tch/. Patch has three phonemes, so I will need three boxes.” Draw the three boxes on the whiteboard. “I heard the relaxing /a/ sound after the first phoneme, so I will put that in the second box. The first phoneme that I heard was /p/, /p/, /p/, so that means it starts with the letter p. I will put that in the first box. Finally we hear the /tch/, /tch/, /tch/ sound like a train. We know to put the letters tch together to make the train sound. So, tch goes in the last box and now we are done. Now, let’s sound out the word together and say it out loud: [/p/ /a/ /tch/], patch.”

  4. Say: “Now it is time for you to practice on your own with the letterboxes. Our first word is at, like you are at school right now. How many phonemes do you hear in the word at?” Let the class answer: [two]. “That’s it, now put down two boxes and put the letters inside.” Walk around the room to check the progress of the students. “good job everyone! Our next word is bat, like what you use to play baseball at recess. How many phonemes do we hear in the word bat?” Allow the students to answer [three]. “That’s it! Fill in the boxes while I walk around and check your work.” Walk around and observe the student’s work. Have the students spell cat (three), dad (three), catch (four), and scalp (five). Have the students count the phonemes as a class before spelling them. Model this for the students if extra help is needed.

  5. Say: “Now I am going to let you practice reading the words that you just spelled, but first, I will model how I would read a really tough word. [Show the chart with catch on it and model how you would read the word]. First I am going to find the relaxing /a/ sound. I am going to cover up the end of the word so we can figure out the first few letters. I know that batch starts with /b/. [uncover the end of the word]. After the relaxing /a/ sound, I heard the /t/ sound, followed by the train making the /ch/ sound. I know that is spelled t-c-h. So, now we have [/b/ /a/ /t/ /ch/], catch.” [Now, have the children read the words together. After, call on the students to read different words from the chart.

  6. Say: “Great job! Now we are going to read a book that is called Lad and the Fat Cat. This book is about Lad, a dog and his sibling, which is a fat cat. What do you think they will do? Do you think they will get along? Read with your partner to find out.”

  7. Say: “Wasn’t that a good book?” Allow the students to answer. “ For our final activity with the relaxing /a/, we are going to practice with a worksheet. You are going to cut and glue the boxes to make a short flip book of the relaxing /a/.” Distribute the worksheet, then collect them to check the students work. Allow them to take them home to practice. 

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References

"Lad and the Fat Cat" Lad and His Pals. (2019) Murray, Bruce and Murray, Geri. Genie Books, Auburn. AL. 

Assessment Worksheet: https://www.superteacherworksheets.com/letter-short-a.html#

Ellison Brewster, Sleepy Pooh Yawns O!

https://ellisonbrewster.wixsite.com/lessondesigns/beginning-reading

Extra Help: https://hayespeyton1999.wixsite.com/mysite/beginning-reading

Girl Laying in Bed: https://www.clipartkey.com/view/obRmmo_cartoon-girl-sleeping-png/

Insights.

http://wp.auburn.edu/rdggenie/home/classroom/insights/

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