Leslie Chasteen
Beginning Reading
A Likes the
Rain
Rationale: After learning short vowel
sounds,
students should become familiar with long vowels. Even if they know
that long
vowels “say their names,” they should know that there are
correspondences such
as ai and ay that make the same sounds as the long vowel /A/. This
lesson will
help students recognize ai and ay in words and understand that they say
/A/.
Materials:
Letterboxes
Plastic Letter tiles
Primary Paper
Pencil
Copies of James
and the Good Day (by Sheila Cushman
and Rona Kornblum, Educational Insights, 1990.) for each student.
Procedures:
I.
Introduce
the lesson by explaining that the correspondences ay and ai are just
like the phonemes
that we have talked about before. Even though they have two letters,
they only
make one vocal gesture and sound. It may be kind of tricky at first,
but soon
you will be able to easily recognize ai= /A/.
II.
Ask
students about the word rain. We will spell the word and note that the
ai says
/A/. That will be our “gesture” for the ai and ay= /A/. Whenever we
hear the
sound /A/. We will do the gesture for rain. (Move fingers in a
sprinkling rain
motion). Let’s make sure that we have got it. When I say rain you let
me know
when you hear /A/ by showing me your rain. If ai and ay say the same
thing,
tell me something about the word d-a-y. That’s right!
It says day. Do you hear the /A/ in day?
Where’s your rain. Good job. I’m going to say a sentence once. After I
say it,
we will all say it together and show me your rain when you /A/. Okay?
Jay likes
to play in the rain. Great job!
III.
Letterbox
Lesson: Review and model how to do the letterbox lesson. Explain that
each box
should contain each single vocal gesture in a word.I'm going to show
you how to do the word ray. Okay, I hear /r/ so the letter r will go in
the first box. Then I hear /A/ and we know that /ay/ makes the /A/
sound. So I am going to put /ay/ in the second box. I only used two
boxes because there are only two sounds. Now I want you to spell
some words using your letterboxes. Remember what correspondences that
we are
looking for and remember the rain. Okay?
Words: 2-[day, bay, say, at], 3- [laid, play, wait, mad],
4-[stray,
drain, fast], 5-[strain]
IV.
Now
I’m going to spell out some words with the letter tiles, and I want you
to tell
me what they are. When you tell me the words, show me the rain when you
hear
/A/. Okay? {Spell words that students spelled in letter box lesson:
day, bay,
laid, play, wait, mad, drain, stray, strain}.
V.
Give
each student a copy of James and the Good
Day. Now we are going to read a book. Book talk: This book is about
James.
One morning when James wakes up he just knows that it is going to be a
good
day. However, when James gets ready to take a bath and play with his
boats
something happens: he begins running his water but forgets about it!
The water
begins to flow out of the bathtub. What’s going to happen James’ good
day? Let’s read and find out.
VI.
Ask
students to read the book to themselves and write down the words with
/A/ on
their primary paper. Also have them circle the letters that say /A/ in
the
word. As the students read, ask some of them to quietly share some of
the words
they have found. After they have all finished, talk about some of the
words
that they found in the book and write them on the board.
VII.
The
assessment will be the words that they have written from the book and
the
identification of the letters that say /A/ in the words.
References:
Long
A Sound words: http://www.sadlier-oxford.com/phonics/grade_k_1/longa.htm
Borders, Emily. Beginning
Reading: Shake with A: http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/connect/bordersbr.html
Click here to return to Constructions