The Crying Baby Goes, “Aaaaaaa”
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Beginning Reading Design
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Rationale: In order for students to learn to read, they must first learn vowel correspondences. Short vowels are the hardest correspondences to identify so we will only work on one. This lesson will teach students about the short vowel correspondence “a = /a/”. To become good readers, children must learn to recognize words and their spelling maps. In this lesson, students will learn to recognize, spell, and read words that have the a = /a/ correspondence. Students will learn the meaningful representation of a baby crying, spell and read words containing this correspondence in a letterbox lesson, and read a decodable book that focuses on the correspondence a = /a/.
Materials:
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Image of a crying baby to display during the lesson
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Cover-up critter
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Whiteboard
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Letter boxes for each student
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Magnetic letters for the teacher: map (m, a, p)
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Letter tiles for the students: a, b, c, g, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, s, t
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List of spelling words on a poster board: at, cap, bad, rat, lack, crab, past, mask, brag, grass
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The decodable text: A Cat Nap
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Assessment worksheet
Procedures:
1) Say: If we want to become expert readers, we have to learn what sound each letter makes so that we can pronounce words. Today we are going to learn to read the first short vowel, a. When I say /a/ I think of a baby crying, "aaaaahhh…" [show the image of a baby crying]. Can everyone show me the sound that an "a" makes? Remember to pretend like you are a baby crying and make a hand motion like you are wiping your tears when you say the /a/ sound.
2) Say: Before we can practice spelling words with the a = /a/ correspondence, we need to hear it in some words. When I am listening for the short "a", I am listening for the aahh sound. When I make the /a/ sound, my jaw drops, my tongue is down, and I can feel the sound vibrating in my throat. I'll show you first: mad. I heard /a/ say its name. I know I heard /a/ because I felt my jaw drop, my tongue go down, and I felt my throat vibrate. There is a short /a/ in mad. Now I'm going to see if it is in shape. Hmm, I didn't hear my crying baby sound in that one. Now you try! If you hear the /a/ sound, pretend like you are a crying baby. If you do not hear /a/ say, “That’s not it. Example words: pick, fat, last, test, shack, fun.
3) Say: Now let’s look at the spelling of /a/. We spell the /a/ with the letter “a.” [Write “a” on the board.] What if I want to spell the word map? “If I look at the map, I will know where to go.” A map is any object that allows people to figure out where they are and how to get to other places. To spell map in letter boxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word, so I stretch it out and count /m/ /a/ /p/. I need three boxes. I heard the /a/ before the /p/, so I am going to put an a in the second box. The word starts with /m/, that’s easy; I need an m. I have one empty box. [Point to letters in boxes when stretching out the word /m//a//p/]. The missing one is /p/. Now, I will put both p in the last box.
4) Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. [pass out letter boxes] You’ll start out easy with two boxes for at. Like, “I was at the Auburn football game yesterday.” What should go in the first box? [Respond to children’s answers]. What goes in the second box? I’ll check to see how you did while I walk around the room. [Observe progress.] For the next word, you are going to need three letterboxes. Listen for the beginning sound and put it in the first box. Then, listen for /a/. Here’s the word: cap. “The player put his cap on his head.” Cap. [Allow students to spell the remaining words: bad, rat, lack, crab, past, mask, brag, grass. Have a volunteer student come up to the board and spell the word so the other students can check their work.]
5) Say: Now I am going to let you read to words you have spelled, but first I’ll show you how to spell a tough one. [Display poster with bad on it and model reading the word.] I am going to start with the a; that part says /a/. Now I am going to put the beginning letter with it, b-a, /b-a/. Then, I will put that together with the last sound: d, b-a-d, /ba-d/. Oh, bad, like "Sammy was bad at the new game." [Have students read words in unison. Afterwards, call on individuals to read one word on the list until everyone has had a turn].
6) [Take out your copy of A Cat Nap] Say: You’ve done a great job at reading words with our new correspondence a=/a/. Now we are going to read a book called A Cat Nap. This is the story of a cat named, Tab. Like all cats, Tab likes to take naps. Tab takes a long nap in a place he’s not supposed to nap. Sam, “the man,” takes the bag that Tab is napping in and doesn’t realize that Tab is in the bag. What will happen to Tab? Let’s pair up and take turns reading A Cat Nap to find out what happens to Tab. [Children pair up and take turns reading alternate pages each while teacher walks around the room monitoring progress. After individual paired reading, the teacher will reread the book aloud to the class, stopping between page-turns to discuss the plot.]
7) Say: That was a funny story, right? Where did Sam take the bag that Tab was in? Right, the baseball field! What happened to Tab? Sam nabs him. Awesome job class! Before we finish our lesson on the correspondence a=/a/, I want you guys to complete this worksheet. [The teacher will now pass out assessment worksheet provided below.] It is your job to trace the words, read them and then decide which picture the word goes with. [Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress.]
Resources:
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Reading Genie Website: http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/Entries.html
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Assessment worksheet: http://www.funfonix.com/worksheets/swf/book1_page5.swf
Lesson adaptation:
Purtle, Hannah. Summer 2014. “Open Wide and Say Aaaa” https://sites.google.com/site/hap0005auburn/open-wide-and-say-ahhh
Murray, Geri, Oh, I didn’t know!: (canvas)
Decodable book: A Cat Nap. Phonics Readers Long Vowels. Educational Insights
Image: Valerie Gilmore's Phoneme Pictures, Reading Genie Website. http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/phonpics.html
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