"Aaaaaaaaa!" The baby cried.
Beginning Reading
Rationale: This lesson will teach
students learning how to read how to say the short a sound by associating it
with a baby crying. Learning the
sound a phoneme makes is one of the first steps to learning how to read.
Materials: letter boxes, primary paper, letter tiles (a,t,h,m,p,d,r,g,c,l,s,s,f,b,n),
poster with tongue twister written on it (listed below), white board,
overhead/document cam, worksheet (listed at the bottom of the page), books for
each student (A Cat Nap)
Procedure:
1.
Introduce the lesson by telling the students that the written language is like a
secret code that we have to figure out in order to read. Also, explain to the
students that all letters make different sounds and we move our mouth a certain
way to make those sounds. "Today class we are going to learn about the /a/
sound.
2.
Do any of you have any younger brothers or sisters?
If you do then I am sure you have heard them cry.
What sound do they make when they cry?
That's right "aaaaaaaa!" That is the correct mouth shape to make the
sound for short a.
3.
Next show the students their tongue tickler.
"Andrew and Alice asked if Annie's active animals were agitated." Let's
all say it together. After this tell
students that we will say it again and if they hear the /a/ sound in a word to
hold up their hand. (repeat tongue twister) Now have students stretch out the
/a/ sound. (Ex: Aaaaaandrew aaaand Aaaaalice…) Good Job!
4.
Now, I would like everyone to take out their letter box tiles so that we can
spell some words with /a/ in them.
(Words include: 2-at, 3- hat, map, mad, rag 4- class, flag, band 5- stamp)
(letter tiles needed: a,t,h,m,p,d,r,g,c,l,s,s,f,b,n) I want everyone to watch
closely as I spell out the word stand with my letter boxes.
(First sound out the word slowly as you pick up your letters, then place
them into the correct letter boxes , one for each letter)
Now, as I call out words, I want each of you to spell the words in your
letter boxes. (Walk around observing as you call out the words to make sure that
all students understand the task. Go over each word after enough time has
passed. The teacher should also use
the word in a sentence for the students.)
After spelling the words, have students read words aloud from the board
together as a class.
5.
Now the student's will read A Cat Nap.
Tell them that the /a/ sound is in this book and they need to watch for
it. Give a short book talk: "Tab is
Sam's cat. Tab likes to sleep in
Sam's baseball bag. Will Tab end up
being forgotten in the bag? We will
have to read to find out!"
6.
You can have the students read by themselves or partner read.
Be sure to walk around and observe while students are reading.
7.
Next, ask the students to take out their primary paper and pencils. "We are
going to practice writing /a/ on our primary paper. Start at the fence, make a
circle only going as far as the ground, and then draw a straight line from the
fence down to the ground (model for the students). I would like each of
you to practice writing this letter several times on your paper."
8.
Finally pass out a worksheet. This worksheet is on whether or not children
understand the phoneme for the letter a. This will serve as the assessment
piece. (listed in resources)
Resources: Letterbox lesson: Murray, B.A. & Lesniak, T. (1999). The
Letterbox Lesson: A hands-on approach for teaching decoding. The Reading
Teacher, 52, 644-650
Book: A Cat Nap. Educational Insights, 1990.