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Beginning Reading
Cry Baby Cry

Rationale: This lesson teaches children about the short vowel correspondence a= /a/. In order to be able to read, children must learn to recognize the spellings that map word pronunciations. In this lesson children will learn to recognize, spell, and read words containing a. They will learn a meaningful representation (baby crying), 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/.

Materials:

  1. Graphic image of a baby crying; cover-up critter

  2. Whiteboard or smartboard Elkonin boxes for modeling and individual Elkonin boxes for each student

  3. Letter manipulatives for each child and magnetic or smartboard letters for teacher: a, c, t, b, j, m, v, n, d, r, g, p, s, l

  4. List of spelling words on poster or whiteboard to read: act, cab, jam, had, drag, brand

  5. Decodable text: A Cat Nap

  6. Assessment worksheet.

Procedures:

1. Say: In order to become expert readers we need to learn the code that tells us how to pronounce words. We have already learned our consonants, like m, and today we are going to learn about short a. When I say /a/ I think of a baby crying AHHH! [show graphic image].

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 hear a say /a/ and my mouth is open like this. [Make vocal gesture for /a/.] I’ll show you first: class. I heard ah and I felt my mouth open [show open mouth]. There is a short A in class. Now I’m going to see if it’s in same. Hmm, I didn’t hear ah and my mouth didn’t open right. Now you try. If you hear /a/ say, “Look, Ahhh” If you don’t hear /a/ say, “That’s not it.” Is it in log, plan, smell, snap, hose, smash? [Have them pretend to cry when they hear /a/] Ah?

3. Say: Now let’s look at the spelling of /a/ that we’ll learn today. To spell /a/ is with the letter A to say Ah. [Write a on the board.] What if I want to spell the word strand? “I found a strand of hair on my jacket.” Strand means a piece of hair in this sentence. To spell strand in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word so I stretch it out and count: /s/ /t/ /r/ /a/ /n/ /d/. I need 6 boxes. I heard that /a/ just before the /n/ so I’m going to put an A in the 5th box. The word starts with /s/, that’s easy; I need an s. Now it gets a little tricky so I’m going to say it slowly, /s/ /t/ /r/ /a/ /n/ /d/. I think I heard /t/ so I’ll put a t right after the s. One more before the /a/, hmm . . . /s/ /t/ /r/ /a/ /n/ /d/, I think I heard growling /r/ so I need an r. I have two empty boxes now. [Point to letters in boxes when stretching out the word: /s/ /t/ /r/ /a/ /n/ /d/.] The missing ones are /n/ and /d/.

4. Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You’ll start out easy with three boxes for act. Act is something you can do like in a performance you can act, “My friends and I want to act in the play.” 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.] You’ll need three letterboxes for the next word. Listen for the beginning sound that goes in the first box. Then listen for /a/. Here’s the word: cab, I hopped in the cab to get back home, [Allow children to spell words.] Time to check your work. Watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the board: c-a-b and see if you’ve spelled it the same way. Try another with three boxes: jam, I love my sandwiches with peanut butter and jam. [Have volunteer spell it in the letterbox on the front board for children to check their work. Repeat this step for each new word.] Next word. Listen to see if this word has /a/ in it before you spell it: had, I had a big breakfast this morning. Now let’s try 4 phonemes: drag, I must drag the tire to the car. One more then we’re done with spelling, and this time you need five boxes: brand, my favorite brand of cereal is Cheerio’s. Remember to stretch it out to get this tough word.

 5. Say: Now I am going to let you read the words you’ve spelled, but first I’ll show you how I would read a tough word. [Display poster with stroke on the top and model reading the word.] There’s the vowel a. It must say /a/. I’m going to use a cover-up to get the first part. [Uncover and blend sequentially before the vowel, then blend with the vowel. /s/+/t/=/st/+/r/=/str/. Now I am going to add in the vowel sound /a/ so it is /stra/. Now all I need is to add the ending which is /nd/ /stra/+/nd/=/strand/. Strand is right. 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]. S t r a n d.

6. Say: You’ve done a great job and reading words with our new spelling for /a/= a. Now we are going to read a book called A Cat’s Nap. This book is about a cat named Tab. Tab likes to nap and one day, he takes a nap in a bag. Sam doesn’t know and picks up the bag with tab inside. Oh no, what's going to happen to Tab? Where is he going? We'll have to read and find out. Let’s pair up and take turns reading. [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’s Nap aloud together, and stops between page turns to discuss the plot.]

7. Say: That was a fun story. What happened to Tab the cat? (wait for response) Where did Sam take Tab? (wait for response). Before we finish up with our lesson about /a/ = a, I want to see how you can solve a reading problem. On this worksheet, we have a picture and some mixed up letters. Your job is to connect the mixed up letters to find the name of the object in the picture. First try naming the object in the picture, then connect the letters to create the word. Reread your answers to see if they make sense. [Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress.]

Resources: Noie Yancey, Oh, Oh, My Knee Hurts: http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/invitations/yanceybr.htm 

Murray, G. (2004) A Cat’s Nap. Reading Genie: http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/bookindex.html

Assessment worksheet:  http://www.funfonix.com/book1/ffonix_book1_2.gif

Index: http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/Entries.html

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