Beginning Reading 

Rationale: This lesson will teach children about the short vowel correspondence a = /a/. Beginning readers must first learn short vowel correspondences so that they can decode words. In this lesson children will be able to recognize, spell, and read words containing the correspondence a = /a/. They will learn meaningful representation (crying baby says aaa), they will spell and read words containing this spelling in a letterbox lesson and read a decodable book that focuses on the correspondence a = /a/.

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Materials: Graphic image of a crying baby; cover-up critter; whiteboard or smartboard Elkonin boxes for modeling and individual Elkonin boxes for each student; letter manipulatives for each student and magnetic or smartboard letters for the teacher: m, a, n, t, c, r, b, p, l, s, d, r, k; list of spelling words: man, at, crab, plant, sand, and prank displayed on poster or whiteboard; Decodable Text: Pat’s Jam and assessment worksheet.

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Procedures:

1. Say: In order to become expert readers, we need to learn the code that tells us how to pronounce words. We will learn that every letter has its own sound, and the mouth moves in different ways to make that sound. Today we will learn about the letter a and the sound it makes. The letter a makes the sound /a/. When you hear /a/, I want you to think of the sound a crying baby makes “aaa”.

2. Say: Before we learn about the spelling of /a/, we need to listen for it in some words. When I listen for /a/ in words, I say a my mouth opens wide and my tongue rests on the bottom of my mouth. Ill show you first: Slam. I heard a and I felt my mouth open wide (make a circle moution around open mouth.) There is a short a in slam. Now you try. If you hear /a/ make the sound of a crying baby. If you don’t hear /a/ say, “that’s not it.” Is it in band, dog, mouse, crack, hand? Have children make a circle motion around their open mouths when they feel /a/ say its name.

3. Say: Now let’s look at the spelling of /a/ that we’ll learn today. When spelling with /a/, we use the letter a. Lets work on spelling the word bat, like a baseball bat. First, we need to know how many phonemes are in the word, so that we can spell it using our letterboxes. Lets stretch out the word to count the phonemes, /b//a//t/. We need 3 boxes. I heard, “bb” so I will start with b, then I heard a crying baby “aaa” so next I will put a, and last I heard “tt” so I will put t in the last box.

4. Say: Now I am going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. When we talk about where we are, we can use the word at. “Where are you at?” “I am at school.” What should go in the first box? (Respond to children as they answer.) What about the second box, what goes there? (Walk around room and observe students progress.) For the next word, we will need 3 letterboxes. I want you to listen for the beginning sound that will go in the first box. Then listen for /a/ and finally, listen for the sound that will finish the word. Here is the word: sat, I sat on the floor; sat. Give children time to spell the word. Okay lets check our work together. Watch how I spell the word sat in my letterboxes and see if that’s how you spelled it: s-a-t. Lets try another word with three boxes. The word is pan: I cooked dinner in a pan; pan. Give children time to spell the word, then demonstrate how to spell the word on the board, ask the students to compare their spelling. Lets try a word with four phonemes: mask, I had a green face mask; mask. Give students time to spell the word and them demonstrate to the class the correct spelling. For our last word, lets try one with five phonemes: blast, I had a blast on the field trip: blast. Remember to stretch this word out if you are having trouble. Give students time to spell, demonstrate to the class on the board, allow students to check their own work.

5. Say: Now I want you to read through the words you have spelled. First, I will show you how I read a hard word. (Demonstrate on the board modeling reading the word scram.) I know this is a long word, so I start from the beginning. I uncover one letter at a time. First, I see /s/, then /c/, then /r/, next I hear /a/, and the word ends with /m/. Now I can read it, ssscccrrraaaaammm, scram. Now you can try it! Allow the class to read words aloud then call on individual students to read a word, allow each student to have a turn.

6. Say: You have done a great job reading and spelling words using a = /a/. Now we are going to read a book called Pat’s Jam. Pam and Pat are best friends. One day they decide to drive their van to the grocery store. They pick out ALL of their groceries and get back to the van but the van won’t turn on! What are they going to do? Lets read the story to find out. (Let students break into pairs and take turns reading pages.) Teacher walks around and observes progress. After partner reading, the class will read the book as a whole group and stops between pages to discuss what is happening in the story.

7. Say: That was a fun story. The two rats, Pam and Pat bought all their groceries, but they ran out of gas. They were not sad, they ate the snacks they bought at the store! Before we finish our lesson, I want you to help me solve a reading problem using what you have learned about /a/. On this worksheet, you will cut out short a words and glue them to the matching picture. Before gluing the words down, make sure to choose the word that best fits the picture. (Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress.)

 

Resources:

• Assessment Worksheet: Short a Worksheet.

https://www.superteacherworksheets.com/phonics-long-short-a/short-a-words-cutglue_BTREW.pdf?up=1555321289

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• Book: Pat’s Jam

Pat's%20Jam%20(2)

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• Williams, Allie. “Aaaaaaa, an alligator!” Lesson

https://alliemwilliams3.wixsite.com/mysite-1/beginning-reading

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• Murray, Bruce. The Reading Genie Website

http://wp.auburn.edu/rdggenie/