Beginning Reading

The crying baby says aaaa!

Lindsay Laycock, Beginning Reading

Rationale: This lesson design is to help teach children about the short vowel correspondence, a = /a/. In order for children to be able to read, they must be able to recognize the spellings that map word pronunciations. After this lesson, your students will be able to spell, read, and recognize different words that contain the letter a. Continuing, they will be taught a new meaningful representation [crying baby says aaa], spell and read words containing this spelling in a letterbox lesson, and be able to read a decodable book that concentrates on the correspondence a = /a/.

Materials:

- Graphic image of a crying baby saying aaa

- Cover-up critter

- Letterbox materials for each student

- List of spelling words: (ad, pan, tag, tack, rant)

- Decodable text: Zac the Rat

- Assessment worksheet (page 5)

Procedures:

1. Say: If we are going to become expert readers, we need to first learn the code that tells us how to pronounce different words. So, today we are going to be learning about the short a that makes the /a/ sound. Whenever I say the /a/ sound, I always think of a baby crying and screaming aaaa! [show graphic image of crying baby saying aaa.

2. Say: Before we begin learning about the spelling of /a/, we should first listen for it in a few words. When I listen for /a/ in words I hear its name /a/ while my mouth is open. [make vocal gesture for sound /a/]. Here, let me show you: cat – while saying this word, I hear the /a/ sound while my mouth is open [provide a visual representation of this action]. Now, let’s try another word: bird – I don’t hear the /a/ sound in bird and my mouth did not open up the same way. Now it’s your turn! I am going to give you a list of words and if you hear the /a/ sound, say aaaa!, but if you don’t hear the /a/ sound, say Nope! Words: car, mat, cow, four, port, part. [read the words aloud to children one by one and have them say them out loud to see if they hear the /a/ sound and if their mouths make the correct shape].

3. Say: Okay everybody, now we are going to learn about the spelling of /a/. Here’s an easy way to spell /a/: begin with your pencil at the top of the dotted line, loop it around to make a circle, then add a stick on the right side of it. [draw an a on the board]. Let’s try and spell the word car – My car is almost out of gas! Before we begin spelling gas we need to first note how many phonemes we have in the word. This word begins with g, so we will need /g/, we then hear /a/ so we will need an a next. Last, we hear /s/, so we need s. Now, let’s put these into letterboxes. Since we just discovered that we have three phonemes, we will need 3 letterboxes. Who can tell me which letters go in which boxes? [observe students’ responses and correct them if needed].

4. Say: Now it’s your turn to spell different words in using letterboxes. We are going to start out with an easy word, ad. An ad is something you see when people are trying to sell something – I saw an ad on the television this morning. Which letter do you think should go in the first box? [respond to students’ answers]. What about the second box? [respond to students’ answers]. Let’s try another word, but this time we will need three letterboxes. Here is your word: pan – I cooked an egg in the pan this morning. [allow students to complete letterboxes]. Now, I want you to check your work by seeing if you have what is on the board. Here is another word to try with three letterboxes: tag – There was a price tag on my shirt. [allow students to complete letterboxes; model for them and allow them to check their word]. Now, this one is a little more difficult because we have four letters in the word but will only need three letterboxes. Here is your word: tack – There is a tack in the wall. Since ck makes the /ck/ sound, we will only need one letterbox for that phoneme. [allow children to complete letterboxes and have them check/correct their work with what you have written on the board]. Your last word will need for letterboxes: rant – I began to rant about my bad grade. [allow students to complete letterboxes and compare with your work on the board].

5. Say: Since we have completed our letterbox lesson, I will not let you read the words you have spelled. I am first going to show you a tip on how to read tough words [have the word tack displayed on the board for modeling]. I notice that there is an a in the middle of the word, so that tells me the word must say /a/. For the rest of the word, I will use a cover-up critter [begin uncovering each letter while blending sequentially before the vowel and then with the vowel]. /t/ /a/ = /ta/. Now let’s blend in the ending of the word into what we have already uncovered. /t/ /a/ /ck/ = tack – good job! Now, I want you to finish reading the rest of the words whenever I point to it on the board [allow the students to read each word together as a class].

6. Say: Wow! You all have done a fantastic job with learning how to read and spell words with our new spelling for a = /a/! Since everybody has done such a great job, we will not read a book called Zac the Rat. This story is about a cool rat named Zac. Zac finds a can of jam, but ants begin to race towards the jam. Will Zac be able to find a solution to the ant problem? Let’s read more to find out. I will put you in groups of three and would like each member in your group to take turns reading a page [walk around and monitor progress; once they are finished, read the book to the whole class].

7. Say: What a story! Everybody has done such an amazing job today with our new spelling a = /a/. We have one more thing to do before we finish up – now that we have learned so much about a = /a/, I want to see how much you know. I am going to give you a worksheet and want you to circle the word that makes the most sense with the provided picture, then write the word you chose in the blank.

Resources:

- Picture: https://www.clipartkey.com/view/TihwhR_baby-clipart-cry-baby-cry-clip-art/

- Zac the Rat: https://www.starfall.com/ni/level-a/short-a/sa-bw.pdf

- Assessment Worksheet (page 5): https://www.starfall.com/ni/download/level-1b/wk201b-short-a.pdf

- Boyd, Logan. Icky Sticky. https://lolomakayla99.wixsite.com/mysite/icky-sticky

- Murray, Bruce. The Reading Genie. http://wp.auburn.edu/rdggenie/

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