Biting
into an Apple with…/a/, /a/, /a//a//a/
Rationale:
It
is necessary for beginning readers to be able
to recognize that phonemes and letters correspond with each other in
order to
become a proficient reader. Through the knowledge gained in this
activity,
students will learn to recognize, spell, and read words that contain
the
correspondence a= /a/.
Materials:
Single card with an a
printed on it, Word cards with the following words printed on it: bat
and
bug, rack and ring, sat
and sit, rug and mat,
Sentence
Strip with Tongue Twister printed on it: Andy’s
apples are amazing!, Elkonin Letterboxes per student, Letter
manipulative (s,
u, n, c, b, h, g, m, a, t, d, r, j, p, f,
k, l, i), Chalk or White-board erase marker, Pat’s Jam, by:
Sheila
Cushman, Educational Insights. (one per pair of students), Primary
paper and
pencil, Picture page with the following pictures: bag, track,
fan,
hat, cat, frog, and flag,
Letterbox Matching Word/Picture Worksheet
Procedure:
1. Introduce the a = /a/ correspondence and how
to spot it in written text. Today we are going to work with the letter a
in written text (hold the letter a card for the students to
see). The
letter a makes the /a/ sound. How does our mouth move when we
say /a/?
Our mouth is open and our tongue stays still. This is like the sound
that you
could make right before biting into an apple. Everyone practice
making
the /a/ sound and open your mouth like your fixing to bite into an
apple.
2.
To practice
recognizing the letter a in written text, I will hold up two
cards at a
time (cards with words bat and bug, rack and ring,
sat
and sit, and rug and mat). Ask students which
word
contains the letter a. Hold up one card and as a group say it
together,
then do the same with the second card. Ask the following questions: Which
word has the /a/ sound in it? and Can someone point the letter
a
in this word? Student’s should raise hand, call on one student.
3.
Now I want us to
practice saying our funny sentence together. Andy’s apples are
amazing. Say
together several times. Now I want us to say our tongue twister, but
let’s
stretch out the /a/: Aaandy aaapples
aaare aaamazing. Remember to open
your mouth like you were biting into an apple when you hear the /a/
sound.
4.
Draw Elkonin
letterbox on the board for teacher use during this portion of the
lesson. Make
sure that each student has an Elkonin letterbox with his or her own
letter
tiles. Ask the students to make sure that each student’s tiles on
lower-case
side up. We are going to practice spelling words with the /a/ sound.
Look at
the board and notice that I have two boxes drawn—this is for two mouth
movies.
Right now, I am going to spell the word at. The first box is
for the
first sound in at, the /a/, which is like our biting the apple.
The
second box is for the /t/. Now you are going to practice with the
following
words: {3} can, ant, air, pal, fat; {4} snack, fast, hand; {5} stamp.
Make sure
that each time the number of phonemes changes that the students are
prompted to
open their letterbox up by one more box. (A review word should be
included.)
5.
Write each word from
the letterbox lesson on the board one at a time. Model for students how
to read
a word written on the board. We are going to read the word pat.
Let us
start with the /a/, then add /p/ to /a/= /pa/, next let’s add the /t/
to /pa/.
Say it together. Now we have pat. Our word is pat. Everyone say
it. Call
on one student to read the word, then have the class repeat the word as
a
group.
6.
The students will be
placed in pairs to read Pat’s Jam. Book talk: Pat is a rat that
has a
pal named Pam. She is a rat too. They both ride in a van. Pat has ham
and Pam
has jam. They are both in the van and the van runs out of gas. Can Pam
and Pat
get out of this jam? We will have to read and find out. Pass out one
book per
pair of students. The students will take turns reading the book to each
other.
I will walk around, listen, and observe each pair of students.
7.
Write a message about
what you would do if you ran out of gas. Remember that when we make the
letter a
that we start at the belt line and go around in a circle motion to
the shoe
up to the belt then without lift your pencil draw a straight line back
down to
the belt. (Children should use invented spelling.)
8.
Assessment: - I will
use words from the letterbox lesson and have them match the word to the
picture
that best fits it. While students work on the picture page, I will call
students up one at a time to assess their reading of Pat’s Jam and
their
understanding of the correspondence a = /a/. I will be using a running
record.
References:
Beck, I. L. (2006). Making Sense of Phonics. New
York, NY: The Guilford Press.
Murray, B. (n.d.). Emergent
Literacy Design Plan. Retrieved 3 9, 2009, from https://blackboard.auburn.edu/webct/urw/lc22554136011.tp0/cobaltMainFrame.dowebct
Murray, B. (n.d.). The
Reading Genie. Retrieved March 9, 2009, from Letterbox Word
Examples with 4, 5, or 6 Phonemes: http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/phonwords.html