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Say "aaa"

Rationale: This lesson teaches children about the short vowel correspondence a = /a/. In order to be able to read, students must learn to recognize words from their spelling. In this lesson, students will learn how to recognize, spell, and read words containing the short a vowel. They will learn a meaningful representation to help them remember (a baseball playing at bat), they will spell and read words containing this spelling in a letterbox lesson, and read a decodable book that focuses on this correspondence a = /a/.

 

Materials: Graphic image of a doctor checking throat, coverup critter; whiteboard and expo marker for modeling; individual letterboxes for each student, letter manipulative for each student and magnetic letters for teacher: a, b, d, f, g, l, n, r, s, t; list of spelling words on whiteboard to read; at, bad, ran, fast, glad, stand; decodable book: Pat’s Jam; assessment worksheet.

 

Procedure: 1. Say: In order to become a great reader, we need to learn the code that tells us how to pronounce words. Today we will be focussing on the short vowel correspondence a = /a/. When hear the short vowel a, I think of doctor saying “say aaaah”.  

 

2. Say: Before we learn the spelling of the short vowel a, we must first listen for /a/ in words. Here is a tongue tickler to practice listening for the short a sound: ‘Dr. Brad asked Sally to say “aaah”.’ When I listen for /a/ in words, I ask myself if I hear the doctor saying to say “aaah” and if I feel my mouth open like I am about to take a bite of a sandwich. [make a vocal gesture for /a/] Ill show you have to find the /a/ sound in the word flag. Lets stretch out the word flag: f-f-f-l-l-l-a-a-a-g. I heard the doctor say ‘say “aaah”’ Now lets see if we hear the /a/ sound in the word bend: b-e-e-n-n-d. Hmm, I didn't hear the doctor that time. Now you try. If you hear /a/, say “thats it.” if you don't hear the doctor, say “nehh.” Is it in sit, had, time, bat, tab, head? 

 

3. Say: Now lets look at the spelling of the /a/ sound. /a/ is spelled with the letter a [write on whiteboard]. What if I was trying to spell the word sad like “I am sad today.” To spell sad in letterboxes, I need to first know how many phonemes, or sounds it has in it. To do this, I need to stretch out the word and count the different sounds I hear. I hear /s/ /a/ /d/. How many sounds do you hear? Thats right! I heard three sound so we will need three letterboxes [project letters on whiteboard]. I heard /a/ before /d/ so I will put an a in the second letter box. The word starts with /s/ so I will need an s in the first box. The last sound I hear is /d/ so I will put a d in the last box. Now lets sound out each letter in the boxes and blend them together to see if we are correct: /s/ /a/ /d/, sad [point to each letter when stretching out and blending]. 

 

4. Say: Now we are going to practice spelling words in letterboxes. You will start with two boxes for at. What do you think should go in the first box? What would go in the second box? [check spellings]. You will need three boxes for the next word. Listen for the beginning sound that goes in the first letterbox then listen for the /a/ sound. The word is bad. [wait for students to spell word] [spell bad on the whiteboard in letterboxes]. See if your letters match mine. [repeat with the word ran] Now lets listen to the next word and count the phonemes to see how many letterboxes we will need. The word is fast. lets say it slowly: f-f-a-a-a-s-s-t. How many sounds did you hear? Thats right! you will need four letterboxes for this word. Try and see if you can spell the word fast. [wait for students’ attempt then spell it on the board] See if your word matches mine. [repeat for the word glad] Now lets listen to how many sounds are in the word stand. How many letterboxes will be need? Thats right! We will need five letterboxes. [Have a student come up to the board and try to spell stand]. 

 

5. Say: Now we are going to read the words that you have spelled but first I am going to show you how I would read a word. [write the word splat on the whiteboard and model reading the word] First, I see that there is an a in the middle. I am going to use a coverup critter to read the first part of the word. [uncover phoneme by phoneme and blend before the vowel, then with the vowel] /s/ /p/ /l/ spl. Now I am going to blend with the short a vowel; spla. Now all I need is the end; /t/ = /splat/. Splat. Now its your turn, everyone together. [have students read in unison the call on students to read one word on the list until everyone has had a turn].

  

6. Say: You have done a great job learning to spell and read words with the short vowel correspondence a = /a/. Now we are going to read a book called Pat’s Jam. This book is about a rabbit named Pat and his friend named Pam. Pat and Pam go to the grocery store to by ham and jam to make sandwiches. When they get in the van to go home, the van will not start. What will they do next? Lets read and find out!. [have children take turns reading a page with a partner and go around and monitor progress] [when finished, have class read each page together and discuss the plot between each page turn].

 

7. Say: that was such a fun story to read! Did you think that that was what was going to happen? Before we finish our lesson about the short vowel sound a = /a/, I want to see how you can solve a reading problem. [pass out short a worksheet] First you are going to say the name of each picture and color the picture that you hear the short a sound. In the second part, you are going to circle the words with a short a sound. In the last section you are going to write three words that have the short a sound. [collect worksheets to evaluate progress]. 

 

References:

 

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