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Beginning Reading

By: Mallory Kelley

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Aaaaa, An Alligator!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

~ Allie the alligator ate all the amazing apples ~

 

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 the spelling a = /a/. They will learn a meaningful representation (crying baby saying “a = /a/” from the alligator). 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:

  • Graphic image of the crying baby saying “a = /a/”

  • Poster with tongue tickler “Allie the alligator ate all the amazing apples.”

  • Whiteboard for modeling Elkonin boxes

  • Individual Elkonin letterboxes for each student

  • Letter manipulatives for each child

  • Magnetic letters for teacher: a, b, c, d, g, l, n, p, r, t

  • List of spelling words on whiteboard to read: at, rag, cab, tan, bat, pal, dad, tab, pan, and lan

  • Decodable text: Lad and the Fat Cat (Bruce and Geri Murray, 2019)

  • Assessment worksheet: Short Aa Worksheet and NAP Worksheet

 

Procedures:

1. Say: In order to become expert readers, we need to learn the code that tells us how to pronounce words. Today we are going to learn about short a. When I say /a/ I think of a crying baby saying “a = /a/” from an alligator [show graphic image]. Now let’s look at the spelling of /a/ that we’ll learn today. When you see the alligator, think about screaming “Aaaaaa” because you are scared, and it’s about to bite you.

 

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 feel my mouth open while my tongue stays at the bottom of my mouth. [Make this vocal gesture for /a/]. I’ll show you first: cat. I felt my mouth open while my tongue stays at the bottom of my mouth [Make this vocal gesture for a = /a/]. Now I’m going to see if it’s in make. Hmm, I didn’t hear the crying baby “Aaaaa” sound. Now you try. If you hear /a/ say, “Aaaaaa! An alligator!” If you don’t hear /a/ say “That’s not it.” Is it in glad, mat, shame, flat, cake, rat? [Have children make the vocal gesture for a = /a/ when they feel the /a/ sound.]

Lets practice our “Aaaaa” sound with the tongue tickler that is on the poster. Allie is an alligator that really loves eating apples. She always seems to find the most amazing apples that everyone else wishes they had too. Here is our tickler: ‘Allie the alligator ate all the amazing apples.’ Everybody say it three times together. [Model with class.]

 

3. What if I want to spell the word hand? “I waved my hand high in the air.” In this sentence, hand means one of our hands being used. To spell hand in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word, so I stretch it out and count: /h/ /a/ /n/ /d/. I need 4 boxes. I hear that /a/ just after the /h/ so I’m going to put an a in the second box. The word starts with /h/, that’s easy; I need an h. Now I’m going to say it slowly so we can figure out the rest of the word, /h/ /a/ /n/ /d/. I think I heard a wave runner /n/. I have one empty box now. [Point to the letter in boxes when stretching out the word: /h/ /a/ /n/ /d/]. The missing one is /d/.

Now I’ll show you how I would read a tough word. [Display poster with bandon the top 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: b-a, /ba/. Now I’ll put that chunk together with the last sound, /ba-nd/. Oh, band, like “The band had a great performance.”

 

4. Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You’ll start out easy with two boxes for at. The word at tells us a place or time, “You should arrive at school at 7:30.” 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 to spell in the first box. Then listen for the /a/. Here’s the word: rag, I wiped my face off with a rag; rag. [Allow children to spell remaining words, giving sentences for each word: cab, tan, bat, pal, and dad.]

 

5. Say: Now I am going to let you read the words you’ve spelled. [Show the words at, rag, cab, tan, bat, pal, dad, the extra words tab and pan, and the psuedoword lan. 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: You’ve done a great job with reading words with our new spelling for a = /a/. Now we are going to read a book called Lad and the Fat Cat. This is a story of a dog, Lad, who wants to take a nap on his mat, but the Fat Cat is already there. Let’s pair up and take turns reading Lad and the Fat Cat to find out if Lad’s growl will convince the Fat Cat to find her own mat. [Children pair up and take turns reading alternate pages each while the teacher walks around the room monitoring progress. After paired reading, the class rereads Lad and the Fat Cat orally, stopping between page turns to discuss the story.]

 

7. Say: Before we finish up with our lesson about how to spell a = /a/, I want to see how you can solve a reading problem. On this worksheet, we have some words that contain the crying baby saying “Aaaaa” sound. Your job is to say each word and listen to see if you hear the a = /a/. First, circle the pictures that have the a = /a/, then circle each word in the pair that contains the a = /a/. Reread your answers to see if they make sense. [Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress.]

 

Resources:

Assessment Worksheet: Short Aa Worksheet - https://www.easyteacherworksheets.com/pages/pdf/languagearts/phonics/shortvowels/26.html

- https://primarylearning.org/worksheet/nap-worksheet-learn-short-a-sound/

Book: Lad and the Fat Cat​

Lesson Design: 

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