Rationale:
Children need to know that letters stand for phonemes and
spellings map
out the phonemes in oral language in order to be able to read and write
words. Before kids can make a correlation
between phonemes and letters, they must realize that phonemes exist in
oral
language. This lesson will help to
enable students to identify /o/ (short o).
Children will learn to recognize /o/ in oral language by
learning a fun
and memorable gesture to go along with the sound and then by
recognizing /o/ in
words.
Materials:
Primary paper and pencil; poster board
with tongue twister “Oliver had an
operation in October, and Oscar gave him an octopus”; In the Big
Top (Educational
Insights)- copy for each pair of students; 3 pages of pictures with
three
pictures a piece (cop, mop, hat)(dot, dog, cat)(pot, frog, pin)- personally
created; piece of paper for each pair of students.
Procedures:
- Introduce
the day’s lesson by saying that our language is sometimes really
tricky, but there are fun ways to make it easier. Tell
students that they can make mouth movements for the different sounds in
our language. Then say, “Today we’re going
to work on the mouth move /o/. We are
going to practice finding /o/ in different words and help you to
remember its mouth movement.
- Ask
the students if they have ever been to the doctor? If they have, did
the doctor ever put a stick in their mouth and ask them to say ah? Then say that we are going to pretend the
doctor has just asked you to say ah, and we are all going to do as the
Doc says. Together, everyone says /o/ a
few times. After they make this sound,
students will stick out their tongue to pretend the doctor has the
stick in their mouths. Now, everyone say
/o/ so Doc can make sure we’re ok.
- "Now,
lets try something else really fun. I want
everyone to listen to what this poster says, 'Oliver had
an operation in October, and Oscar gave him an octopus.'”
Each student takes a turn saying the tongue twister. Then as a class, stretch out the /o/ sound at
the beginning of the words. “Ooooliver had
an ooooperation in Ooooctober, and Ooooscar gave him an ooooctopus.” Good, now this time separate the /o/ from the
rest of the words when it is at the beginning of a word.
“ /o/ liver had an /o/ peration in /o/ ctober, and /o/ scar
gave him an /o/ ctopus.”
-
Next student get out the primary paper and pencil. Tell students that they can use the letter o
to spell the sound /o/. Students write the
letter. Start below the broken line and
swoop to the left toward the solid line, curve around back up to the
broken line and touch your starting point. When
everyone is done, show the person next to you. Does
it look about the same? Now, take turns
writing the letter o on each other’s paper. Whenever
you see the letter o in a
word, that is when you can pretend you are at the doctor and follow his
orders and say /o/.
- Then
give the students two words. One word with
/o/ sound in it, one without and have each student tell you how he or
she knew which word it was. Example: “Do you hear /o/ in cop or tub?” “Do
you hear /o/ in mop or cat?” “Do
you hear /o/ in hot or big?” After
each student has done one example, get out the book.
- Read
the story In the Big Top by Sheila Cushman to the students. During the story have students predict what
will happen. After story, summarize it. Then have students split into groups of two
and read the story alternating pages. When
the person listening hears the /o/ sounds, he or she will stick out his
or her tongue and make the visual gesture of the sound.
Then have each pair of students invent a story about and
octopus and their adventure with this octopus. Students
share their stories.
- For assessment, have student’s work on 'which
one does not belong' worksheets. Student
is given three pictures, 2 that have the /o/ sound in them. Students circle the picture that does not have
the /o/ sound in it. Grade students work and go
over correct answers as a class and instruct students to make
corrections.
Reference: Ehri, L. C. (1998).
Grapheme-phoneme knowledge is essential for learning to read words in
English. In J. L. Metsala & L. C. Ehri (Eds.), Word recognition in beginning literacy.
Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Click here to return to Guidelines.
