Jessi Hodge
Aaaaaaa, Don’t Cry Baby
Beginning to Read
Rationale:
In order
for children to read and spell words they need an understanding that
letters
stand for phonemes. “Phonemic awareness focuses on children’s
understanding of the nature of spoken words. (Eldredge,
p. 30) ” Phonemic awareness is an indicator that children are ready to
begin reading. Through this lesson children will show an understanding
of the
phoneme a =/a/.
Materials: Primary
paper and pencil; poster board with “Adam the alligator had apples on
his
mat” written on it and the book A Cat Nap by Educational
Insights.
Procedures:
1.) Introduce the lesson. “Today we are going to talk about the letter a and the sound it makes. Can anyone tell
me what the
letter a sounds like? Good! That’s right a makes the /a/ sound.”
2.) “Have you
ever heard a baby cry? What does that
baby sound like? It says /a/. That’s right the baby says the sound for
the letter a. We are going to see if we can act like a baby and say
/a/. Very
good, you doing an excellent job making the baby sound.
3.) “Now we
are going to try to say a tongue twister.
Are you ready? Okay, here it is. Everyone repeat after me. Adam the
alligator
had apples on his mat. That was great. Now every time we hear /a/. I
want us to
use a gesture so we can remember that sound easier.” I will show
students
the gesture of the baby crying and putting our hands up to our eyes.
The
students will practice doing this when they hear /a/ in the tongue
twister.
4.) Ask the
students to take out their primary paper and
pencil. “Now that we know what a says.
We
are going to write out our a so
that we can
practice writing words that say /a/. Remember that when writing an a we start at the fence come around to
the ground,
complete the circle and add a tail on at the end. Way to go, you are
doing a
great job.”
5.) “Now boys
and girls I am now going to say some
words. Each time you hear a word with the /a/ sound I want you to do
our
gesture like a crying baby. If you don’t hear the /a/ sound I want you
to
say…Awe Shucks! Apples, cookie, add, chop, grape, alligator, nap, can,
tug, slap
6.) We will
end this lesson by reading A Cat Nap. I
will read the book to the students while they continue to recognize the
sounds
and complete the gestures when they hear the /a/ sound. I will assess
by using
miscue analysis in small groups after the completion of the lesson.
This miscue
analysis will help me know what correspondences the students are
missing and
what needs to be taught or reviewed.
Reference:
Emily
Wheeler.
Eldredge,
Lloyd J. (2005). Teach Decoding: Why and How.
Pearson Education, Inc.