Beginning Reading Design
Emily Griffin, CTRD 3000
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 (yawning angel says /o/), 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 yawning angel; cover-up critter; whiteboard or smartboard Elkonin boxes for modeling and individual Elkonin boxes for each student; letter manipulatives for each child and magnetic or smartboard letters for teacher: o, f, f, p, t, m, r, c, k, z, i, s, l, b; list of spelling
words on poster or whiteboard to read: off, pot, mop, zip, slob, stomp; decodable text: Doc in the Fog, and assessment worksheet.
Procedures:
1. Say: In order to become expert readers, we need to learn the code that tells us how to pronounce words. We have already learned to read short vowel words with other vowels, like short a (hat), short e (pet), and short i (lip), and today we are going to learn about short o and the way it says its name, /o/. When I say /o/ I think of a sweet little angel saying Yawn! It’s time for bed! (/yon/). When she yawns, it would sound like /o/. [show graphic image].
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 o make the yawning sound /o/ and my mouth is as open and relaxed as it can be, just like a yawn. [Make vocal gesture for /o/.] I’ll show you first: dog. I heard o make the yawning sound and my mouth relax and open like a wide oval as I made the sound [make a motion towards the relaxed, oval shaped mouth; gesture a big yawning stretch]. There is a short o in dog. Now I’m going to see if it’s in bone. Hmm, I didn’t hear o make a yawn and my mouth didn’t make that relaxed oval. Now you try. If you hear /o/, make the yawning noise /o/. If you don’t hear /o/ say, “That’s not it.” Is it in sock, pest, frog, cat, boss, spin? [Have children make a stretching motion when they feel /o/ make its yawning sound.]
3. Now we are going to practice using /o/ in words by using a tongue tickler. First, I am going to tell you a short story about a silly dog named Oscar. His owner Oliver bought a lot of candy to hand out on Halloween. A week before Halloween, Oscar found the candy and ate all of it! Oliver knew that human candy would make Oscar sick, so he rushed him to the vet to have an operation. Here’s our tongue tickler: Oliver’s dog Oscar had an operation in October. Let’s say it together three times. [Teacher leads the first two times and lets students practice alone the third time.] Next, we are going to stretch out the short o sound /o/ in each word as we say it: “Ooooliver’s dooooog Oooscar had an ooooperation in Oooctober.” Good! The last thing we are going to do is split off /o/ from the rest of the word: /o/-liver’s d-/o/-g /o/-scar had an /o/-peration in /o/-ctober.
4. Say: Now let’s look at the spelling of /o/ that we’ll learn today. One way to spell /o/ is with the letter o. [Write o on the board.] What if I want to spell the word stomp? “When I want to kill a scary bug, I stomp on it.” Stomp means to step on in this sentence. To spell stomp in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word, so I stretch it out and count: /s//t//o//m//p/. I need 5 boxes. I heard that /o/ just before the /m/ so I’m going to put an o in the 3rd box in the middle. The word starts with /s/, that’s easy; I need an s. Now it gets a little tricky so I’m going to say it slowly, /s//t//o//m//p/. I think I heard /t/ so I’ll put a t right after the s. Next is my short o=/o/, which I added at the beginning! Hmm, what comes next . . . /s//t//o//m//p/, I think I heard yummy /m/ so I need an m. I have one empty box now. [Point to letters in boxes when stretching out the word: /s//t//o//m//p/.] The missing one is /p/ = p. Now I'm going to model reading a tough word (vowel-first body-coda blending: show shock written on the board). When I see a tough word like this, I am going to find the vowel first (underline o). Here it is! Let's rewrite it underneath. I know that this letter, o, says /o/. Now let's add it together with the beginning sound of this word. I see the letters sh (rewrite sh in front of the o written below). I know that the letters sh together say /sh/. Let's add it to our vowel now. /sh/ /o/; /sho/(slowly), /sho/ (full speed). So we know the first half of our word says /sho/! Let's add the letters at the end! This word is tricky because these two letters also work together to make one sound. I see the letters ck (write down underneath with the newly written word). I now that these letters say /k/. Now let's add it to the rest of the word! /sh/ /o/ /k/; /shok/(slowly); /shok/(full speed). This word says shock! Shock is a word that can mean surprise or a jolt of electricity. Example sentences: Maddie got a shock when she walked into her surprise birthday party. Rachel felt a static shock when she rubbed her fuzzy jacket and then touched the metal door handle.
5. Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You’ll start out easy with two boxes for off. “Our teacher turned off the light when she wanted us to be quiet.” What should go in the first box? [Respond to children’s answers]. What goes in the second box? Did you remember what is special about hearing /f/ at the end of a word? (double f). Did you remember to spell /f/ with ff? I’ll check your spelling while I walk around the room. [Observe progress.] You’ll need three letterboxes for the next word. Listen for the beginning sound that goes in the first box. Then listen for /o/. Here’s the word: pot, I cooked pasta in a pot; pot. [Allow children to spell words.] Time to check your work. Watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the board: p – o – t and see if you’ve spelled it the same way. Try another with three boxes: mop; I need a mop to clean up the mess on the floor. [Have volunteer spell it in the letterbox on the front board for children to check their work. Repeat this step for each new word.] Next word. Listen to see if this word has /o/ in it before you spell it: zip; make sure you zip your jacket before you go outside. Did you need a short o? Why not? Right, we are reviewing our icky sticky short vowel i=/i/ from last week with this word, not using yawning short o=/o/. We spell it with our short vowel i. [volunteer spells it on the front board.] Now let’s try 4 phonemes: slob; my slob of a brother leaves messes all over the house. One more then we’re done with spelling, and this time you need five boxes: stomp; If I stomp on a scary bug it will get squished! Remember to stretch it out to get this tough word.
6. Say: Now I am going to let you read the words you’ve spelled, but first I’ll show you how I would read a tough word. [Display poster with stomp on the top and model reading the word.] First, I see there’s an o in the middle for the vowel; that’s my signal that the vowel will yawn and say /o/. I’m going to use a cover-up to get the first part. [Uncover and blend sequentially before the vowel, then blend with the vowel.] /s//t/ = /st/. Now I’m going to blend that with /o/ = /sto/. Now all I need is the end, /m/ + /p/ = /stomp/. Stomp; that’s it. Now it’s your turn, everyone together. [Have children read words in unison. Afterwards, call on individuals to read one word on the list until everyone has had a turn.]
7. 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 Doc in the Fog. This is a story about a magical wizard named Doc. Doc performs some magic spells on the things around him and they do some silly things! Let’s pair up and take turns reading Doc in the Fog to find out what kind of spells Doc knows how to cast. [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 Doc in the Fog aloud together, and stops between page turns to discuss the plot.]
8. Say: That was a fun story. What kind of spells could Doc do? Right, he changed the doll into lots of silly objects. What happened when Doc tapped the fog? Right, he disappeared. Before we finish up with our lesson about one way to spell /o/ = o, I want to see how you can solve a reading problem. On this worksheet, we have some words missing. Your job is to look in the box of word choices and decide which o word fits best to make sense of each sentence. First try reading all the words in the box, then choose the word that fits best in the space. Reread your answers to see if they make sense. [Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress.]
Resources:
Laura Catrett, Yawn Like an Angel and say, /o/: https://lct0011.wixsite.com/growingstudentminds/blog/beginning-reading-design
Cushman, S. (1990) Doc in the Fog. Carson, CA: Educational Insights.
Assessment Worksheet: https://www.enchantedlearning.com/alphabet/spellingquestions/shorto/index.shtml
Emily Griffin: [email protected]