What Does the Doctor say?
Ah!!!!!
Beginning to Read
Rationale:
This lesson teaches
children
about
the
short
vowel
correspondence
o =
/o/.
In order
to be able to
read,
children
must learn
to recognize
the spellings
that map
word
pronunciations.
In this
lesson children
will learn
to recognize,
spell, and
read words
containing
the spelling
o. They
will learn
a
meaningful
representation
(patient the at doctor saying ahh),
they
will spell
and read
words containing
this spelling
in a
Letterbox
lesson, and read
a decodable
book that
focuses
on the correspondence
o =
/o/.
Materials:
Graphic
image
of patient in doctor’s chair
Cover-up
critter
Whiteboard or
smartboard
Elkonin boxes
for modeling
Individual
Elkonin boxes
for each
student;
Letter
manipulatives
for
each
child
P, o, t, s, n, f, f, m, b, d, e, h, c, l, c, k,
Magnetic
or smartboard
letters for
teacher:
p, o, t, a, m, s
List of spelling
words on poster
or whiteboard
to read:
pot, stop, on, off, mop, bed, hot, stop, clock, sock, plot
Decodable text: A Hot Spot
Assessment worksheet.
Procedures:
1. Say:
In order
to become
skilled
readers
we
need
to learn
the code
that tells us how to pronounce
words.
We
have
already
been learning so many short vowel words. Last time we learned short
i like in sit,
and today
we are
going
to learn
about
short o.
When
I say
/o/ I
think of
a patient at a doctor’s office saying
“ahhh” to get his throat examined [show
graphic
image].
Now let’s
look at
the
spelling of
/o/ that we’ll
learn today.
It looks like a perfect circle, which sits between the base line and the fence
line on our paper.
2. Say:
Before
we
learn
about the
spelling of /o/,
we need
to listen
for it
in some
words.
When
I listen
for
/o/ in words,
I hear the same sound I would make if a doctor was looking down my throat.
[Make
vocal
gesture
for
/o/.]
I’ll show
you first:
pot.
I
felt
my
mouth open wide [make
mouth open wide]. There
is a short o in pot. Now
I’m
going
to see if it’s in school.
Hmm,
I didn’t hear
ahhh and my mouth didn’t open up wide. Now
you try.
If
you hear
/o/ say,
“I
am not well, Doctor. Ahhh.”
If
you
don’t hear /o/ cover your
mouth with your hand like you are being quiet.
Is
it in
rock, dot, pat, mop, block, rot, snow?
[Have
children
open their mouths wide to say /o/ when they hear it. If they do not hear it have
them cover their mouths.]
3. What
if
I
want
to spell
the word
top?
“I
took the top off the cup.” To spell
top
in letterboxes,
first I
need
to know how many
phonemes
I have
in the
word so
I stretch
it out
and
count:
/t//o//p/. I
need
3 boxes.
I
heard
that /o/ just before
the /p/ so
I’m
going
to put
an
o in
the
2nd
box.
The word
starts with
/t/,
that’s
easy;
I
need
a
t. I have
one empty
box now.
[Point
to letters
in boxes
when stretching
out the
word:
/t//o//p/.]
The missing
one is
/p/. Now
I’ll show
you how
I would read
it without the boxes. [Display
poster
with
top
on it and model
reading
the word.]
Here is how I would know how to read
the word without the letter boxes, /t/. /o/ /to-p/.
Oh, top, like “I like that top.”
4. Say:
Now
I’m
going
to have
you spell
some words
in letterboxes.
You’ll
start out
working with words with three
phonemes, such as pot, “I cooked the
soup in a pot.”
What
should go in
the
first box?
[Respond
to children’s
answers].
What
goes
in the second
box?
And the third?
I’ll check
your spelling
while I
walk
around
the room.
[Observe
progress.]
You’ll
need four
letterboxes
for the next
word.
Listen
for the
beginning
sound to spell
in the
first box. Then
listen
for /o/. Here’s
the
word:
stop,
“I
stop my bike when I come to road;”
stop. [Allow
children
to spell
remaining
words:]
2- [on, off] 3-[mop, bed, hot] 4- [stop, clock, sock, plot.]
5. Say:
Now I
am
going
to let
you
read
the words
you’ve
spelled. [Have
children
read
words in unison. Afterwards,
call
on individuals
to read
one word
on the list until
everyone
has
had
a turn.]
6. Say:
You’ve
done a
great
job
and reading
words
with our new spelling
for
/o/: o. Now
we are
going
to read
a book
called
A Hot Spot.
This is the story of a boy named Tim who has accidentally spilled his mom’s
drink on a hot day. He has to get a job to get her more to drink. Now let’s get
in our pairs and read A Hot Spot to find out if he and his family are
able to cool down. [Children
pair up
and take
turns
reading
alternate
pages
each while teacher
walks around
the room monitoring
progress.
After
individual paired
reading,
the
class rereads
A Hot Spot
aloud
together,
and stops between
page
turns to discuss
the
plot.]
7. Say:
Before
we
finish up with our
lesson about one
way
to spell
/o/ using the letter o,
I want
to see
how
you
can
solve a
reading
problem.
On this worksheet,
we have
two words
missing.
Your job
is to
look at the pictures and use the
given letters to spell the short o words. Reread
your
answers to see
if they
make
sense.
[Collect
worksheets
to
evaluate
individual
child
progress.]
Resources:
Deason, Morgan Grace: Open up wide
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/awakenings/deasonmgbr.htm
Murray,
G. (2004)
A Hot Spot. Reading
Genie:
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/bookindex.html
Build A Word KidZone! Preschool and Kindergarten Assessment
worksheets:
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/alphabet/matchwordsandpix/shorto/
Murray, G: Oh, I didn’t know!
http://www.auburn.edu/~murrag1/BRMurrayG.htm