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. http://www.auburn.edu/~murrag1/BRMurrayG.htm