Rationale:

To learn to read and spell words children have to understand that letters represent phonemes, so that spellings can be mapped out by a sequence of phonemes in spoken and written words.  They must also understand that without vowels, words would not be decodable, and would be impossible to spell.  Students will learn through this lesson the correspondence of the grapheme/phoneme equivalency a = /a/, how it is used in words, and where it is located in spoken and written words.

Materials:

Elkonin boxes and letterbox letters (b, a, d, d, t, r, g, s, c, f, l, h) for each child, a chalkboard, chalk, a copy of The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss for each child, primary paper, pencils, tongue twister, "Matt sat on his hat as the last batter batted", and a page of illustrations containing pictures of a bat, glove, shoe, hat, flag, man, pan, and a pen.

Procedures:

1.  Tell the students that in order to make words that we can read we must make sure that they all have vowels.  Explain to them that vowels are like glue, and they make our words stick together like two pieces of paper.  "Today we are going to glue our words together with a special vowel.  We are going to learn how to find /a/ in words.  Once you learn how it works and how it sounds, it will be easier to spot in words you are reading."

2.   "Have you ever heard a baby crying?  Well, if you listen really close, it sounds like /aaaaaaaaaaa/!  That is the sound we are looking for today!  Let's look at the word 'pat'.  I will see if I can find the crying baby sound.  'Pppp- aaaa (OH!  There it is!)'.

3.   "Now let's try a tongue twister to see when we hear the crying baby say /aaaa/.  I want everybody to listen the first time, while I say it.  'Matt sat on his hat as the last batter batted.'  Let's try it all together, but why don't we stretch out the /a/ so we can all hear the crying baby.  'Maaaatt saaat with his haaat aaas the laaast baaatter baaatted.'  Nice job everyone!"

4.  Have the students take out their Elkonin boxes and the letters b, a, d, d, t, r, g, s, c, f, l, h.  Draw the boxes on the board.  Model for the children how to spell the words starting with the vowel sound first.  "I am going to spell a word in my boxes that has the /a/ sound in it.  The word I have is cab.  I know I hear the crying baby in the middle, so I am going to put my a in the middle box.  Now, I add /k/ to the beginning, but that doesn't make a word yet.  Let me try /b/ at the end, and oh, yes, that makes a word, cab.  Now I want to see you spell some words like I did."  Use these words: bad, tab, rag, dad, scab, flag, and Chad.

5.   Model for the children how to read the words they just spelled.  "Since I know I have spelled the word cab, I want to see if I can read it without my boxes."  Put the word on the board.  Cover up the c and b.  Start with the vowel, and add the body and then the coda.  "Now I want you to read these words for me.  Remember to listen for the crying baby, /a/."  Put the words on the board one at a time for the children to read.

6.  Give each child a copy of The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss.  Pair them up with a buddy to read the story with.  Ask them to get out primary paper and a pencil.  When they have finished reading the book, have them find words with a=/a/, and write them down on their paper.

7.  For assessment, I will pass out the illustrations page, go over the pictures with the children, and have them circle the words that contain /a/.  I could also have some words for them to determine which one from sound has /a/ in it.  The words I would use for this assessment would be "do you hear /a/ in back or base?  Toad or tap?  Pass or fail?"

References:

Murray, B.A., & Lesniak, T. (1999). The letterbox lesson: A hands-on approach for teaching decoding. The Reading Teacher, 52, p. 644-650.

York, Lindsay. (2003)  Meet Lee, the Sleepy Bee.  A beginning reading design created by Lindsay York.  Auburn University, Reading Genie Website: retrieved    July 7, 2003. http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/openings/yorkbr.html.

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