“Aaaaaaa…a
Fast Crab!
“
Beginning Reading Design
Jessie Wiggins
Rationale: It is important
for
beginning readers to become aware of phonemes in words because they
need to
know the sounds each letter makes. A phoneme is the vocal gesture
identified in spoken words. The most difficult phonemes for children to
recognize are vowels. Short
vowels are the first letter-sound correspondences taught in beginning
reading
instruction. Therefore, the short vowel /a/ is what we will begin
learning first through phoneme gestures, a worksheet, and reading. We will be teaching a vowel correspondence
that will help students recognize the /a/ in spoken words through a
letter box
lesson, gestures, and tongue twisters.
Materials:
-Primary
paper
-Pencils
-Book:
A Cat Nap
(Educational Insights)- one for each student
-Letter
Boxes for
each child.
-Letters
for each
child: c, a, t, h, s, g, r, b, p, l, y, r, I, n, b, c, k, f, a, d, m, r
a, t.
-Plastic
baggies
for letters.
-Large
scale letter
box/letters for teacher.
-White
board
-Markers
Procedures:
Introduce the
lesson by explaining short /a/. “Good
morning everyone! Today we are going to
be working on the short vowel /a/. Does
anyone know what the sound /a/ makes? What
does you say when something scares you?
Aaaaaa! When you think of the short vowel /a/, throw your arms
up in the
air and say aaaaaaa!...like you are scared!
Ok, let’s try. Aaaaaa!! We can also remember short /a/ when we think
about a crying baby. Now, lets all cry
like babies! “aaaaaaaa!” Great! See short /a/ is easy to learn!
Does
everyone know how to write the letter a? “Grab
your primary paper and pencil! I am going
to write an “a” on the board. Everyone pay
attention! (while writing a, explain the
steps) I’m
going to start under the fence, not at the fence.
Go up and touch the fence, then around and
touch the sidewalk, around and straight down.
See there is an “a”! Now, you
try!”
Let’s
say a tongue twister to help us begin with
learning short /a/:
“Aaaaannie screamed aaaaaaaaa at the aaaaangry faaaast
craaaaab!” (written on white board)
Finding
/a/ in spoken words: Now I have some words I am going to read out…
-Which
word do you
hear /a/ in?
fit or
flash?
apple
or pear?
cone
or cat?
crab
or fish?
mad or
soap?
Letter
Box Lesson: “Now
I need everyone to open up
their plastic baggies with letters in them.
Turn them all on the letter faced side.
Get your letter box and open it up as well.”
I am going to first model a word with the
letter box/letters, then we will all do them together!
My word is “bad’. Ok, I hear the
/a/ (a-a-a-a) in bad. B-b-b-b-a-a-a. I
hear b. b-a. Ok so I’m going to place my
“b” first, then
my “a”. Ok now, b-a-d-d-d. I heard “d”. b-a-a-a-d. Now I will read it: Bad! Ok now you
try with these words: 3 phonemes- cat,
had,
Sam; 4 phonemes- sand, trap, grab, back; 5 phonemes- blank, scrap, and
draft,
plant. (walk around while doing lesson)
Book
Talk: Our
book we will read today is A Cat
Nap. This story is about a cat named
Tab. Tab is
a fat cat who likes to nap in a bag. A man named Sam owns Tab. Sam
likes to
play baseball and has a baseball bag he carries his bats in. Tab likes to sleep in Sam’s baseball bag, but
one day Sam goes to play baseball and takes Tab sleeping in his bag!
To
find out what happens next, you need to read the book!"
(Pass out books and have them read to
themselves) “Once finished, raise your
hand and I will give you a worksheet to work on! “
Assessment: “Now
I will pass out some worksheets. Follow
the directions given to identify the short vowel /a/. “ This worksheet
will
help students identify short /a/. (Rubric on worksheet)
RUBRIC:
ANSWERS: There are 3
pictures that have the short vowel /a/:
1. crab
2. sad
3. apple
Assessment: The
student shoud only miss one.
If more than one is missed, re-check the lesson.
References:
A Cat Nap. Educational
Insights,
Murray,
B.A., & Lesniak, T. (1999). The
Letterbox Lesson: A hands-on approach for teaching decoding. The