Hoppin' Pop
Emergent Literacy
Tamara Hill

Rationale:  In order for children to learn to read and spell words, they need to understand that letters stand for phonemes so that spellings map out the phoneme sequence in spoken words.  Before children can learn correspondences, they have to recognize phonemes.  Short vowels are the toughest to identify because the differences in sound and mouth shape are so subtle.  This lesson will help students identify /o/ (short o).  Students will learn to recognize /o/ in spoken words by learning a meaningful representation and a letter symbol, and then they will practice finding /o/ in words.

Materials:
-primary paper and pencil
-chart with "Pop likes to hop on top of a hot rock."
-class set of cards with o on one side and ? on the other; white paper and crayons; Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss, Random House Pub.; a poster with illustrations of a rock, pot, top, octopus, ostrich, mop, knot, peacock

Procedures:  1. Introduce the lesson by telling the students that writing is a "secret code".  What's hard is that each letter has a sound that goes with it.  Our mouth moves in different ways so that the right sounds will come out of them to say words.  Today we're going figure how to make the sound that a short o makes which is /o/.  Once we know how to make the sound with our mouths, we'll be able to spot /o/ in any word.

2. Ask students:  Have you ever been to the doctor for a check-up, and the doctor made you open your mouth with a tongue depressor and say ahhhh?  That's the sound that we're going to try and spot in words.  Now I want you to pretend that a doctor is here and see if you can say /o/.  I'm going to see if /o/ is in top, t-t-t-aahhhh-p.  Tahhhh·There it is!  There's the doctor sound, /o/.
3. Let's try a tongue twister (on chart).  "Pop likes to hop on top of a hot rock."  Everybody say it together.  Now say it again, but this time, try to stretch out the /o/ in the middle of each word.  "Po-o-o-op likes to ho-o-o-op on to-o-o-op of a     ho-o-ot  ro-o-o-ock."  This time, I want you to say it again and separate /o/ from the beginning and endings of each word: "/p/ /o/ /p/ likes to /h/ /o/ /p/ on /t/ /o/ /p/ of a /h/ /o/ /t/ /r/ /o/ /ck/."  Great job!
4. Have students take out primary paper and pencil.  We can use the letter o to spell /o/.  Let's write it.  Start at the fence line and draw a circle that touches the sidewalk and comes back up to the fence.  I'm going to walk around and look at your o's, and if I say /o/ to you, then I want you to write 10 more o's just like your first one.  When you see the letter o by itself in a word, that's our secret message to say /ah/.
5. Call on students to answer and tell them to tell you how they figured it out: Do you hear /o/ in octopus or fish?  Mop or broom?  Even or odd?  Hot or cold?  (Pass out the /o/ cards to each student.)  Say: Let's se if you can spot the mouth move to say /ah/ in some words.  If you hear /o/ in a word, show me o and show me the question mark if you don't hear it in the word.  (Give words one by one)  Pop, likes, to, hop, on, top, of, a, hot, rock.
6. Read Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss and have the students raise their hands whey they hear words with /o/ in them.  First read a sentence and model raising your hand when you hear /o/.  List the words that have short o on the board from the book.  Have each student draw an octopus and write a message about it using invented spelling.  Display their work.
7. For assessment, give each student a picture page with different short o illustrations.  Help students name each picture.  Ask each student to circle the pictures whose names have /o/ in them.
 

Reference:   Adams, Marilyn Jager.  Learning to Read: Thinking and Learning about Print.  A Summary prepared by: Steven A. Stahl, Jean Osborn, and Fran Lehr.  1990.

http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/openings/onealel.html

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