Aargh Says The Pirate!
A Beginning Reading Lesson
Rationale:
This lesson teaches children about the correspondence
ar= /ar/.
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 ar.
They will learn a meaningful representation (pirate saying aargh), they will
spell and read words containing this spelling in a letterbox lesson, and read a
decodable book that focuses on the correspondence
ar=/ar/.
Materials:
Graphic image of pirate; cover-up critter; whiteboard or smartboard Elkonin
boxes for modeling and individual Elkonin boxes for each student; letter
manipulatives for each child and magnetic or smartboard letters for teacher:
c, a, r, s, t, l, d, k, m, a, y; list
of spelling words on white board or poster to be read: car, star, dark, alarm,
yard; Decodable text: The Barn Party and assessment
worksheet.
Procedures:
1.
Say: In order to become great readers we need to learn the code that tells us
how to pronounce words. We have already learned to read short vowel words with
a, like cat, and today we are going
to pair a letter with a and learn to
read words with ar. When I say
/ar/, I think of a pirate
saying, “Aargh!” (show graphic picture of pirate looking through a spyglass).
Let’s look at the spelling of /ar/.
One letter of the alphabet is bossy. When a vowel is in front of this
letter, they say a new sound. It is not a short vowel sound or a long vowel
sound. It gets a whole new sound! The letter that does this is
Rr. We call
Rr the bossy
Rr.
2.
Say: Before we learn the /ar/
spelling, let’s look at some words and listen for
/ar/.
When I listen for /ar/
in words, I hear bossy Rr take
control of the word. My lips open like its making the
/a/ sound and then bossy
Rr takes over and my mouth stays open
and my tongue moves to the roof of my mouth (make vocal gesture for
/ar/).
I’ll show you before you give it a try:
far (make a circle with your hand and place it over your eye like your
looking out of a spyglass). I heard
bossy R take control and I felt my
mouth open and then my tongue moves to the roof of my mouth. There is
/ar/
in far. Now I’m going to see if it’s
in place. I didn’t hear bossy
R and my mouth didn’t open and
R take control and make my tongue
touch the roof of my mouth. Now you try. If you hear
/ar/
say, “Aargh.” If you don’t hear /ar/
say, “That’s not it.” Is it in park, barn, snow, shark, star, lips? (Have
children make a circle with their hand and place it near their eye like they are
a pirate looking through a spyglass).
4.
Say: Now I am going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. Let’s start
with two boxes and spell an easy word:
car. “We rode in the car to the supermarket.” What should go in the first
box? (Respond to children’s answers). What goes in the second box? I’ll check
your spelling as 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 two boxes. Then listen for the /ar/.
Here is the word: star, I saw
a shooting star last night; star.
(Allow children to spell the remaining words:
dark, alarm, and
yard.) Now we are going to read the
words we just spelled together. Read as I point to the word (have the words
written on a piece of poster board).
5.
Say: Now I am going to let you read the words you’ve spelled. (Have children
read the words in unison. Afterwards, call on individuals to read one word on
the list until everyone has had a turn.)
6.
Say: You all have done a great job spelling words with our new spelling for
ar=/ar/.
Now we are going to read a book called
The Barn Party. This is a story about a family who live on a farm. One day a
storm was coming. They had to get all their farm animals into the barn before
they all got drenched! Let’s pair up and take turns reading
The Barn Party and see how and if
they get all the animals in the barn in time. (Children pair up and alternate
reading a page at a time. During this time, the teacher walks around the room
and monitors progress. After the children are done reading, the teacher reads
The Barn Party aloud while stopping
between pages to discuss the plot.)
7.
To finish up our lesson about one way to spell
/ar/=
ar, we are going to partner read The
Barn Party. I am going to put you in groups and I want you to alternate
reading the text. Once you are finished with the text and I have come around to
your group and heard each partner read, you can work on this worksheet (pass the
worksheet out). On this work sheet we have some words that are scrambled. On the
right side of the page there are pictures of what the scrambled words could be.
Once you have written the unscrambled word next to the scrambles letters, draw a
line to the correct picture. Be sure and read each word and make sure that it
matches a picture to the right. (Collect worksheets to evaluate individual
progress.)
Resources:
Assessment Worksheet:
http://www.free-phonics-worksheets.com/html/phonics_worksheet_v2-17.html
Murray, G. (2004) The Barn Party.
Reading Genie:
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/bookindex.html
Murray, G. Oh, I Didn’t Know.