AAAAAAHH! You Scared Me!!
Beginning Reading Lesson Plan
September 28, 2011
Rationale: As
a beginning reader, it is important for students to learn the correspondences
between letters and sounds. Short vowels are especially hard to learn;
therefore, it is especially important for students to have explicit instruction
and practice with short vowels. This lesson will help students to learn to
recognize and read the correspondence that a = /a/. The students will learn the
correspondence a = /a/ by making a memorable connection to the correspondence in
written and spoken words.
Materials:
Chart
with a tongue twister: "The awesome antelope asked Annie about apples"
Dry
erase board with marker
Letterboxes for each student and letters preselected for each student {a, b, c,
d, f, h, k, l, n, p, r, s, t}
A Cat Nap,
copy for each student
Primary
paper and pencils
Procedure:
1) Introduce the lesson by telling the children that our written language is a
secret code that we have to figure out in order to read. Also, explain to
children that each letter has its very own mouth movement and sound and today we
are going to be learning about the letter /a/.
2) Ask
the students: Has anyone ever jumped out and scared you? What is one of the
first things that you do? You scream and say aaaaaaaaaaa!!! Well that is what
the letter a says. It says aaaaaa and
we are going to help remember this by placing our hands on our face, like we are
scared, when we see the letter a.
3) I
have a tricky tongue twister we are going to say with our new sound in it. I'm
going to say it first and you all listen to all the /a/ sounds that you hear.
"The awesome antelope asked Annie about apples." Did everyone hear our special
sound? Good! Now let's say it together "The awesome antelope asked Annie about
apples." Great! Now let's say it again but pay extra close attention to the /a/
sound and let's stretch that sound out when we hear it. Also when you hear the
/a/ sound, put your hands to your face like you would do if you were scared.
4) Now
give each child primary paper and a pencil. Demonstrate how to make an A on a
dry erase board, and then tell the children to try making one on their paper. Go
around and check while they are doing this. Then tell the students to make 9
more for more practice. Do the same thing for lowercase a.
5) Now
we are going to do our letterbox lesson. Have the children pull out their
letterboxes and letters that have already been sorted for them. WE will do the
first one together, let's spell flat. What do we think should go in the first
box? F, that's right. (Put an F in
the box on the board.) Now what goes next? What is the sound we hear?
L, correct! What is the next sound?
A, good job! What next?
T, great! Repeat this process with
these words:
flag, crack, clap, crash, blank,
and strand. Make sure to remind them that the boxes are for the sounds of a
word, not the letters. Make sure to give each student the time they need to make
the words. While the children are making their words, be sure to walk around and
observe what they are doing.
6) Tell
the students that they are going to read a book full of words that make the /a/
sound. Hand out a copy of A Cat Nap to
each child. Tell the students this story is about a cat named Tab. Tab is a fat
cat who likes to nap in a bag. Sam is the man who owns Tab. Sam plays baseball.
Sam has a bat in his bag. To find out if Tab is near by, you need to read the
book. Have the children pair up, you may let them choose or choose their
partners for them. Have them read it through once to each other, where one
student reads 1 page, the other student reads the next. Walk around and observe
their reading. Then let them read it again and if they hear the /a/ sound, they
can make the motion of putting their hands on their face to act like they are
scared. This will be a way to assess the children to see if they understand the
sound.
7)
Assessment can also be done by giving the children a worksheet with words with
/a/ sounds and some without and then ask the children to circle the words that
have the /a/ sound.
Resources:
A Cat Nap. Educational
Insights, 1990.
Laura Slocum,
Ahhhhhhh! Stop the Crying Baby.
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/constr/slocumbr.html
Murray,
B.A., & Lesniak, T. (1999). The Letterbox Lesson: A hands-on approach for
teaching decoding.