Wh-aaaaa-l-e of an A!
Rationale: This
lesson will help children identify /A/, the phoneme represented by a_e. Students
will learn to recognize /A/ in spoken words by learning a meaningful
representation (waving while saying “aaaayy!”; think Fonzie from Happy Days) and
the grapheme a_e, practice finding /A/ in words, and apply phoneme
awareness with /A/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing words
with similar vowel sounds.
Materials: Primary
paper and pencil; letter boxes, letter tiles: a,b,c,d,e,f,k,l,m, p,r,s,t. Tongue
twister on chart: "Abe
the ape ate Amy’s acorn.", Jane
and Babe (Educational Insights, 1990) for all students; word cards with
MADE, ACE, LAKE, GATE, and
BRAVE, paper and crayons, assessment
worksheet identifying pictures with /A/ (URL below).
Procedures:
1. Say: In our language there are times when two letters sound a lot a like, for
example 'c' and 'k'. The tricky part is learning what letters stand for--the
mouth moves we make as we say words. Today we're going to work on spotting the
mouth move /A/. We can spell /A/ with letters a_e. The blank stands for
another letter which comes between the a and e. /A/ makes the same sound as if
you were saying hey to someone without pronouncing the /h/ sound, "/A/!".
2. Practice with me, /A/, /A/, /A/. [Wave to one another] Notice how you shaped
your mouth. When we say /A/, we are actually saying the letter name A.
3. Let me show you how to find /A/ in the word pail. I'm going to
stretch fade out in super slow motion and listen for me saying the letter A.
Ff-aa-dd-e. Slower: Ff-aaaaaa-dd-e. There it was! I felt my mouth say the
letter A. I can feel the /A / in fade.
4. Let's try a tongue twister [on chart]. "Abe
the ape ate Amy’s acorn."
Everybody say it three times together. Now say it again, and this time, stretch
the /A/ at the beginning of the words. "
Aaaa-b-e the aaaa-p-e aaaa-t-e Aaaa-m-y’s aaaa-c-o-r-n
" Try it again, and this time break it off the word: " /A/be
the /A/pe /A/te /A/my’s /A/corn.”
5. [Have students take out primary paper and pencil]. We use letter a_e to
spell /A/. Let's write the lowercase letters a_e. Start just below the
fence and make a curve like you are about to write the letter o. When you
get back to where you started on the fence, draw a straight line down. That's
the letter a, but to make the /A/ sound, we must imagine another letter
following the a, then an e. For
this, leave enough space after the letter a for an imaginary letter. Start
in between the fence and the sidewalk, then draw a straight line out to the
right. Next, without picking your pencil up, draw a
c by curving up to the fence, down to
the sidewalk, and around stopping before you complete a circle. That is a_e.
I want to see everybody's a_e. After you are done, I will come around and
give you a sticker. Then practice writing five more.
6. Call on students to answer and tell how they knew: Do you hear /A/ in maze or mad? Ball
or bake? Age or at? Fall or fade ? Face or fad?
Say: Let's see if you can spot the mouth move /A/ in some words. Put your thumb
up if you hear /A/: The, able, snatch, tailed, him, pain, plate.
7. Pass out letter tiles and letterboxes. Say, “We are going to practice
spelling the sounds we say.” Model first word,
pale. /p/ /A/ /l/ e. Pale. Instruct
the students to practice along with the first word. Next call out each word as
they spell it out using their materials: 2-- [ate], 3--[fate, male, tame],
4--[ place, spade, brake, blame], and 5--[scrape].
8. Say: "We are going to read a book called,
Jane and Babe. In this book, we will
learn about a woman Jane, who works as a zookeeper and takes care of a lion
named, Babe. One day, while babe is sleeping, Jane wakes him up! Will Babe be
mad? Read to find out! Put your thumbs up if you hear /A/ as you read." Ask the
students to read it individually. Come around and ask children to say words with a_e
and draw out the /A/ sound. Ask children if they can think of other words
with /A/. Ask them to think of something that has the /A/ sound . Then have each
student write the name of the object and draw a picture of their /A/ object.
Have the students exchange papers and read other students /A/ words.
9. Show MADE and model how to decide if it is made or mall: /A/,
so this word is mm-aaa-dd-e, made. You try some: ACE: ace or at?
LAKE: lamp or lake? GATE: gate or gab? BRAVE: brat or brave?
10. For assessment, distribute the worksheet. Students are to color the
pictures that contain long a blue, and those with short a gray to discover what
Ann and Abe are looking for. Call students individually to read the phonetic cue
words from step #8.
References:
Bruce Murray. Emergent Literacy Lesson. "Brush Your Teeth with F". http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/sightings/murrayel.html
"Jane and Babe" Educational Insights, Carson, CA (USA). 1990.
Assessment worksheet: http://www.free-phonics-worksheets.com/html/phonics_worksheet_v1-36.html
Krista Doyle. Beginning Reading Lesson.
“/A/! Hit by Hail!”
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/adventures/doylebr.htm
Tongue Tickler:
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/ticklers.html