Doc on top
Beginning Reader Lesson
Rationale:
Reading fluency is very important to improvement of reading comprehension, which is the ultimate goal of reading instruction. In order for a student to become a fluent and skillful reader, the student must learn to recognize correspondences in words. In this lesson, students will be learning the o=/o/ correspondence. They will learn to recognize o=/o/ in words. Mastering short vowel sounds is imperative before moving on to more difficult correspondences, and to becoming a more fluent reader.
Materials:
1. Elkonin letterboxes
2. letter manipulatives (o, f, f, n, i, t, l, c, k, p, h, s, r, g, b, x)
3. primary paper
4. pencils
5. The Big Top
6. poster board with ãDoc had a sock on the top of the pot.ä
Procedure:
1. First, I will review the
short vowel correspondences to be learned before o=/o/. I will do this
by playing a game with the children. I will tell them that I am looking
at a b-a-t. Can anyone tell me what this is? Then I will continue until
I feel that the children have a grasp on the short vowels. I will
ask the students to tell me what short vowel sounds we have learned so
far, and have them give me an example.
2. Today, we are going to learn a new short vowel sound. It
is the /o/ sound. The letter o makes the /o/ sound. You
make this sound when the doctor tells you to open your mouth wide and
say /o/. Try it with me. Open your mouth really wide and
make the /o/ sound with your throat. Ready.../o/. Great
job!
3. I will have poster board with a tongue twister written on
it. Now, we are going to learn a tongue twister with our new
sound /o/ in it. Listen closely as I say it. ãOlly the
octopus yelled olly olly oxenfree.ä Now, everyone say it with me
and make sure to make the /o/ sound you make at the doctor. ãOlly
the octopus yelled olly olly oxenfree.ä Great job! Now,
letâs stretch out the /o/ sound. ãOoolly the oooctopus yelled
ooolly ooolly oooxenfree.ä Good work! I really heard the
/o/ that time.
4. Everyone take out your letterboxes and your letters. I
will remind you how this works. I will call out a word, and you
spell it on your letterbox. I will model the example b-o-x for
them.
The following are the words I will use for the letterbox:
2 [on, off, it]
3 [lock, pot, hop, box, fit]
4 [frog, stop, flip]
I will tell the students how many boxes to have showing. Then, I
will say the words that are appropriate for that number of boxes.
I will walk around and check to see how everyone is doing and scaffold
as needed.
5. Next, I will spell the words for the children on the
whiteboard and have them read the words together for assessment and
understanding.
6. I will tell them to get out your primary paper and pencil
because we are going to write a message. We are going to write
about frogs hopping. You can write anything you want about them,
but remember that when you write the o in frog that it makes the /o/
sound. Try to think of other words that have the /o/ sound in
them in your message or somewhere else on your paper. I will also have
the students to copy the words from our letterbox lesson that are on
the boards onto their primary paper.
7. Then I will pass out copies of The Big Top to every pair of
students. I will have them take turns reading to each other as I
walk around the room. I will provide help (scaffold) as needed. After
they have finished, I will have each group of children write two
sentences about the book.
8. I will have the students come to the front of the room and sit
down. I will reread The Big Top to them. I will tell them
that when they hear a word with the doctor sound /o/ in it to raise
their hands.
Assessment:
I will observe the students throughout the lesson. I will have a checklist on what to look for in every studentâs understanding. I will also take up their journal and check to see if they copied the words correctly and to make sure they made all of their letters correctly. That way I can work with a student if he/she is not printing correctly.
Checklist:
-blending
-segmenting
-pronunciation
-best effort given
References:
Eldredge, J. Lloyd.
Teaching Decoding in Holistic Classroom. Prentice Hall
Publishing Company. Upper Saddle River, NJ: 1995.
Murray, B. A. and T.
Lesniak. ãThe Letterbox Lesson: A Hands-on Approach
for Teaching Decoding.ä The Reading Teacher.
1999. 644-650.
www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/inroads/nicolbr.html
www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/inroads/stricklandbr.html
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