Cydney Dorsey, Beginning Reading
Rationale: For students to
become successful readers, they must begin with explicit phonics
instruction.
The first step must be the ability to recognize the phonemic sounds in
spoken
words and how these phonemes correspond to the letters in written
words.
Starting with vowel correspondences makes good sense in setting
students up to
become good decoders. Students with strong decoding skills have higher
success
rates as fluent readers. This lesson will focus on teaching students
the a=/a/
correspondence, through giving them auditory and visual experience with
a=/a/.
Materials:
-Large
Primary Paper Teacher Tablet
-Marker
-Tongue
Twister Poster
-Large
cut-outs of A/a
-Primary
Paper Writing Tablets (per student)
-Pencils
(per student)
-Letterboxes
(for each student)
-Letter
Tiles (for each student)
-A Cat Nap books (one for each student)
-Alphabet
Journals (per student)
Procedures:
1.
Introduce the lesson to the students.
Say:
"Today, we are going to talk about a letter that makes a sound you are
all
probably familiar with. What do you usually say when you sneeze?"
[The
students will probably respond with achoo!]
Say:
"That's right! We usually say AAAAAAA-choo! when we sneeze. All the
different
letters we have make different sounds when we say them, and they make
our
mouths move in different ways. Today, we are going to learn about the
letter A."
[Show
the students a large "A/a" on board.]
Say:
"The letter 'a' makes that AAAAAA sound that we say in AAAAA-choo! See
how
my mouth moves? Listen and watch me practice – AaaaaAaa-choo! Can you
all
practice the sneezing sound with me?"
[Practice
with students.]
Say:
"Good job! You’ve already got the hang of it!"
2.
Introduce the tongue twister chart.
An
awesome ant asked Ann for an apple.
Read
the sentence to the students once, normally. Have them repeat 3 times.
Then,
read the sentence to the students, accentuating and exaggerating the
a=/a/
sound in each word.
(Aaaaan
aaaawesome aaaant aaaasked Aaaan for aaaaan aaaaapple.)
Have
the students repeat the tongue twister this way along with you three
times.
Give
positive praise and recognition.
3.
LetterBox Lesson.
Now,
have the students take out their individual letterboxes and letter
tiles.
Say:
"I am going to say some words for you all, and I would like to you all
to
spell them out in your letterboxes."
[Students
should already be familiar with the concept of the letterboxes.] Say:
"Remember,
that each letter box is for a sound you hear in a word, not necessarily
just
one letter. Watch me do it once."
[Model
the word glad in your letterboxes
before the whole class.]
Say:
"Now, it is your turn to give it a try."
Have
students spell out the words {at, nap, and, hat, crab, ask, smash,
trap, last}.
Teacher should walk around the room during this activity, checking for
students’ correct completion, and helping students who are having
trouble.
Once
finished, go over each word as a whole class, and then put the words up
on the
board and have the students read them aloud.
4.
Letter Writing.
Now,
the teacher will instruct the students on writing the upper-and
lower-case A/a.
Say:
"When writing the upper-case A, start at the roof, slide down to the
sidewalk, and again the other way…then cross where the fence is."
[Model
on the board. Have students practice upper-case A’s 6 times. Walk
around and
help those who are having trouble.]
Say:
"When writing the lower-case a, start just below the fence, wrap around
until you touch the sidewalk and back to where you started…finish by
coming
straight down from the fence to the sidewalk."
[Model
on the board. Have students practice writing lower-case a’s 6 times.
Walk
around and help those who are having trouble.]
5.
Buddy Reading
Introduce
the book, A Cat Nap.
Say:
"This book is about a boy named Sam who has a cat named Tab. Tab likes
to
take naps, especially in Sam's baseball bag. One day, Tab gets in Sam's
bag
right before he has to go play a game. Get with your reading buddy to
read A
Cat
Nap to see what happens to Tab and Sam."
Students
should buddy read A Cat Nap with their reading buddy. Teacher
should circulate around the room while students read, observing for
miscues,
and helping students when needed. Teacher will lead a whole class
discussion to
check for comprehension after reading.
6.
Alphabet Journal
Say:
After you have finished reading your stories, you and your reading
buddy should
return to your desks and take out your alphabet journals. Make an entry
for
today and write using some of the words we talked about today, or some
other
words that have our target phoneme in them. AAaaaaaa-chooo!
Resources:
Goodwin,
Candace. Aaaa-Aaaa-Choo!
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/passages/goodwinbr.html
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/passages/rapebr.html
A
Cat Nap.
Educational
Insights,
Carson, CA. 1990.