Emergent Literacy Lesson Design
By: Mariel D. Hall
Say
Aaah!
Emergent Literacy Lesson Design
By: Mariel D. Hall
Rationale: Children must recognize phonemes before
they can
match graphemes (letters) to phonemes (sounds). To learn to read
and
spell words, children need to know that letters stand for phonemes and
spellings map out phonemes in spoken words. Short vowels are
probably the
toughest phonemes to identify. This lesson will focus on
identifying /o/
(short o). Children will learn to recognize /o/ sounds in
spoken
and written words, and then practice finding /o/ in words.
Materials:
Primary paper and pencil
Chart with tongue twister: "Officer Oliver often observes the odd
octopus
in October" Drawing paper and crayons
Doc in the Fog (Educational insight)
Picture page (drawn by teacher) with box, bag, dog, sock, cat, shirt,
frog, top
Procedure:
1. Introduce the lesson by explaining that writing is a secret
code. The
tricky part is learning the sounds that letters symbolize. Today
we are
going to practice the mouth move /o/. At first /o/ may sound
hidden in
words, but as you practice it will be easier to find /o/ in many words.
2. Ask students: Has the doctor ever
told you to
open wide and say aaah? Have the students pretend to be patients
and say
/o/, stretching it out. Tell the students that /o/ is the sound
of short o
and that is what we will work on today.
3. Let's try a tongue twister with short
o,
(on chart) "Officer Oliver often observes the odd octopus in
October." I will say it first and then we will repeat it
together. Nice job!
This time, say it again,
stretching out the
/o/ sound you hear, saying it loudly. Great job!
4. (Have the students take out their
primary paper
and pencils). We can use the letter o to spell /o/.
Let's
write it. First, start at the fence line; curve around to the
sidewalk
without lifting your pencil, then curve back up to touch the fence
line.
Now you try to write it. When you have written an o,
raise your
hand. Once I have put a smile in your o, I want you to
make a row
of six or more o’s just like it. When you see the letter o
all by itself in a word, that's the signal to say /o/.
5. Model how to recognize the sound /o/
in
words. I am going to say a word and
decide if the word contains the /o/ sound by stretching out the spoken
word and
placing my mouth in the /o/ position (e. g. when the doctor asks you to
open up
and say aaah). For example, when I
stretch out the word hot (/h/ /o/ /t/), I can hear the /o/ sound and my
mouth
is in the /o/ position. But, when I
stretch out the word lap (/l/ /a/ /p/), I do not hear the /o/ sound and
my
mouth is not in the /o/ position. So, I
hear /o/ in hot and I do not hear /o/ in lap.
Call on students to answer questions and tell how they knew: Do
you hear
/o/ in crop or grass? Box or bag? Frog or fish?
Soft or hard? Clock or sun? Let’s see if you can spot the mouth move in
some words. Say /o/ if you hear /o/ or
say nah if you do not. (Give words one
by one). Officer, Oliver, often,
observes, the, odd, octopus, in, October.
6. Sing a song to the tune of Skip to My
Lou, but
change the words as follows: Who has a word that has an /o/? Has,
has,
has an /o/? Who has a word that has an /o/? Skip to My Lou,
my
darling! Children come up with words that answer the song.
For
example, in response, Frog is a word that has an /o/. Has, has,
has an
/o/. Frog is a word that has an /o/. Skip to My Lou, my
darling! Sing the song four times using words with /o/ suggested
by the
students. Sample words are box, frog, lock, and dog.
7. Read Doc in the Fog and talk
about the
story. Read it again and have the students raise their hand when
they
hear the sound /o/. List their words on the board. The
students
will draw a picture of one of the words written on the board and then
write a
message about it using invented spellings. Display the children’s
work.
8. For assessment, distribute the
picture page and
have them name each picture. Ask each student to circle the
pictures
whose names have the sound /o/ in them.
References:
1. Eldredge, J. Lloyd. (1995). Teach
Decoding Why and How. Pearson
Education,
2. Meredith Coblentz, Olly Octopus Says Ahhh. http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/illum/coblentzel.html.
(2001).
Click here to return to Connections.