(B)aaaaa Goes the Sheep!

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Palina Luangkhot

Beginning Reading

 

Rationale: In order for students to learn how to read, they must first learn vowel correspondences. Short vowels are the hardest correspondences to learn and identify, so we will start with a = /a/. To become good readers, children must learn to recognize words and their spelling maps. In this lesson, students will learn to recognize, spell, and read words that have the short vowel correspondence, a = /a/. Students will learn the meaningful representation of sheep saying (B)aaaaa, spell and read words that contain this correspondence in a letterbox lesson, and read a decodable book that focuses on the correspondence a = /a/. 

 

Materials:

1. Graphic of sheep saying (B)aaaaa

2. Laminated sheep picture

3. Cover up critter

4. Whiteboard

5. Letter boxes for each student

6. Letter tiles 

7. List of spelling words on poster to read

8. Decodable book: Pat’s Jam

9. Assessment worksheet

 

Procedures:

1. Say: “Today we are going to learn the short a sound. When I say /a/,I want you to think of a sheep saying (B)aaaaa (shows graphic). Now let’s look at which letter makes the /a/ sound.” I will have the student find the letter a.

2. Say: “Before we learn about the spelling of /a/, we are going to listen for the sound in some words. When I say /a/, my jaw drops and my tongue is down. (shows vocal gesture). When I say “bag,” I heard the /a/ sound and felt my jaw drop and my tongue down. There is a short a in bag. Now let’s see if it is in “gum.” I did not hear the /a/ sound in gum, nor my jaw drop and tongue down. Now it is your turn to try. When you hear the /a/ sound in a word, hold up your sheep. Is it in lip, mat, tag, cook, at?

3. Say: “Now let’s look at the words we are going to spell today. What if I want to spell the word bat?” “The baseball player uses a bat to hit the ball. A bat is an equipment baseball players use at their games.” To spell batwith our letterboxes, I need to know how many phonemes are in the word so I can stretch it out and count. /b/, /a/, /t/. I need 3 letter tiles. I heart /a/ after /b/ and /t/, so I am going to put ain the 2ndletterbox. The word starts with a b, so I am going to put it in the 1stletterbox. There is one more tile after the a. Hmmm. /b/ /a/. The last letter tile is /t/. Bat. Now I am going to show you how to read a tough word. Show students the word crab on a sheet of paper. I am going to start with the letter tile a, which makes our /a/ sound. Now im going to put the beginning letters with it: c-r-a, /cra/. Now I will put that chunk together with the last sound. /cra-b/. Oh, crab as in, “I saw a crab in the sand at the beach.” 

4. Say: “Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You’ll start out easy with 3 boxes. The word is lap, like, “I sat in Santa’s lap.” What letter should go in the first box? What goes in the second and third box? (I will walk around and check everyone’s spelling) Make sure you listen for the /a/ sound in the word.” Allow children to spell remaining words: mad, pat, cat, flap, past.

5. Say: “Now I am going to let you read the words you spelled.” Show the words mad, pat, cat, flap, past- smash, glass, pseudowordcag. Have children read words in unison. Afterwards, call on individuals to read one word on the list until everyone has a turn. 

6. Say: “You have done a great job reading words with our new spelling for /a/. Now we are going to read a book called, “Pat’s Jam,” Booktalk: Pat is a rat and he goes to the store with his friend Pam. They get into their car to go home and there is no gas. What do you think will happen? Let’s pair up and take turns reading 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 Pat’s Jam chorally, stopping between page turns to discuss the story.)

7. Say: “Before we finish up with our lesson about one way to spell a= /a/, I want to see how you can solve a reading problem. On this worksheet, we have some words missing. Your job is to look in the box or word choices and decide which a word fits best to make sense of the story. First try reading all the words in the box, then choose the word that fits best in the space. Reread your answers to see if they make sense. (Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress.)

Assessment: Say: “That was a great story! Before we finish up our lesson, I want you to work on this worksheet. You will color the words that have the short a sound.” 

 

References: 

Anderson, Morgan. “Aaaa, an Alligator!”  https://morgananderson0011.wixsite.com/mysite-1/beginning-reading

Assessment worksheet: https://www.education.com/worksheet/article/short-a-sounds/

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