Alexis the
Antelope
Beginning
Reading
Rationale:
In order for beginning readers to
become successful in reading and writing, they must first comprehend
and be
familiar with that each letter in the alphabet represents a different
sound. By
learning about phonemes and letter correspondences, beginning readers
can
become fluent readers. Short vowels are often tricky for students to
recognize
and therefore, this lesson will focus on the vowel correspondence a
=
/a/. The students will learn the /a/ correspondence through a
meaningful illustration.
In addition, they will learn to spell and read words with the /a/ sound
through
a letterbox lesson and through a decodable book.
Materials:
-Chart with tongue twister, Alexis the
antelope asks for an apple.
-Elkonin boxes for students (up to 6
boxes)
-Plastic letters for each student ( a,
b, c, d, f, h, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t )
-Laminated big letters and pouch to
demonstrate with
-Copy of A Cat Nap for each
student
-Pseudoword sheet with daf, lan, fam, wat,
fap
Procedures:
1. Begin by explaining to
students that they are going to learn the letter a and the
sound it
makes. “This is the letter a and we hear the /a/ sound in
many
words! Today we are going to learn to recognize this sound and
also learn
to read and write words with it.”
2. Relate the sound to
students. Ask, “Have you ever been scared by something and you
scream
ahhh? Well that’s what sound the a makes in some
words. We
open our mouths and our tongue stays on the bottom of it. Now I want
you to
practice. Pretend you are scared of something, put your hands on
your
cheeks and say Aaaaa!”
3. Give students a tongue twister
to help them remember the sound. “Say the tongue twister with me
when I
point to the words. Alexis the antelope ate an apple.
Great!
This time when we say it, stretch out the /a/ sound when you hear it,
and put
your hands on your cheeks like you’re scared! Aaalexis the
aaantelope aaasks
for aaan aaapple. Good job!”
4. Give students practice with
phoneme awareness. “Now let’s see if we hear the /a/ sound in
spoken
words. Do you hear /a/ in orange or apple? Pig or
cat? Bat or
dog? Fun or can?”
5. Do a group letterbox lesson
using the /a/ sound. “Now I want you to spread out all of your
letters
for our lesson and make sure you can see all of them. We are
going to try
to spell some words. Remember, put each sound in its own
box! Iâll
show you how to spell one first. I want to spell snack.
s-n--aaa-ck.
The first sound /p/ goes in the first box, the second /l/, goes in the
second
box, the third /a/ goes in the third box, and the last sound /ck/ goes
together
in the last box. Some boxes may have two letters in it if they
make one
sound. Now it’s your turn to spell some words.” Tell
students to
use their letterboxes to spell the following words: {2- an; 3- can,
fan, sack;
4- slack, champ, fact, crash; 5- drank, scrap, sprang; 6- strand} Make
sure to
tell students how many boxes to use before they try to spell each
word.
After they are finished spelling the words in the letterboxes, I will
have the
students read the words outside the boxes.
6. Tell the students to put away
their letters after they are finished. Spell the words used in
the lesson
for the students and have them read them. If the students are
having
trouble, isolate the vowel sound using a cover-up and then blend
body-coda.
7. Give children practice reading
the /a/ sound. “Now we are going to read a book called A Cat
Nap.
This is about a fat cat named Tab. He likes to nap in a
bag. Sam is
a man who likes to play baseball and loves Tab. You’ll have to
read A
Cap Nap to see what happens to Tab!” Ask children to read the
book
silently, then I will read the book to the class. When finished,
ask what
words contained the /a/ sound and make a chart.
Assessment: Give students a
pseudo word test to see if they can decode the /a/ sound. Ask
them to
read daf, lan, fam, wat, fap. “These aren’t real words, but I
want you to
see if you can read these silly words to me.”
Checklist for teacher to use:
-Can the student identify which words
have the /a/ sound in spoken words?
-Can the student put each sound in its
own letterbox when doing the letterbox lesson?
-Can the student identify which words
make the /a/ sound after reading A Cat Nap and make a chart?
-Can the student decode the /a/ sounds
when given a pseudo word test?
Reference:
Murray, B.A & Lesniak, T. (1990).
”The Letterbox Lesson: A hands-on approach for Teaching
decoding.” The
Reading Teacher, Volume 52, No. 6, 644-650.
Cushman, S (1990). A Cat Nap.
Carson , CA : Educational Insights.
Hozapfel, Kim, Allie the Alligator http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/persp/holzapfelbr.html
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