Ms. Cooley's Cool Reads

Rationale: This lesson will teach children about the short vowel correspondence o=/o/. It is vital for children to be able to recognize phonemes that map out spellings. During this lesson, children will be able to read, spell, and recognize words that contain the correspondence o=/o/. Students will learn a meaningful visual cue, the doctor making little Scotty say ah, to help them remember the sound that the short vowel o makes. Students will also spell and read words containing the correspondence o=/o/ in a letterbox lesson and read a decodable book that’s main focus is the short vowel o.

Materials: Image of a child at the doctor’s office (opening his mouth and saying “ah”), whiteboard/marker for modeling LBL, individual letterboxes for each student, letter tiles for each students (o,n,c,p,l,t,b,b,f,c,k,r,s,s,g,t,a,i) magnetic letters for whiteboard modeling, poster with the word prompt displayed,  cover-up critter, words on poster: on, cap, lot, blob, flick, cross, strong, frost. Decodable text: In the Big Top. Assessment worksheet.

Procedures:

1. Say: In order to become great readers, we need to learn how to pronounce words correctly. Today, we are going to learn one of the codes to help us do that! We are going to learn about the short vowel o and how it makes the “ah” sound in certain words. To help you remember, think about going to the doctor and how sometimes the doctor tells you to open your mouth and say “ah” so they can look in your throat. Think about the shape your mouth makes when you do that. It makes a big o shape doesn’t it? And you make the “ah” sound when you open your mouth. (Show image).

2. Say:  Before we learn about spelling with /o/, we are going to practice listening for it in words. When saying the /o/ sound in words, our mouth is open in a big o shape just like what we do for the doctor to look into our throat {make vocal gesture for /o/}.  So when listening to the words I am going to say, I want you to repeat the word and see if your mouth is open and jaw is drops like this {demonstrate again}. I’ll show you first: shop. I heard the /o/ sound and felt my mouth open and jaw drop. Therefore, there is a short o in mop. Now I’m going to see if it’s in broom. Hmm, I didn’t hear o make the /o/ sound like when I go to the doctor’s office and my mouth was not fully open nor was my jaw dropped. Now you try. If you hear /o/ open your mouth and stick out your tongue like you are at the doctor’s office. If you don’t hear /o/ shut your mouth and shake your head back and forth. Is it in stop, frog, fish, run, hop? {Have children check the position of their mouth when they feel the /o/ sound in a word} That was a great job listening for the /o/ sound, now lets learn how to spell with short o.

3.  Say: What if I want to spell the word frost? “There is frost covering the lawn”. To spell frost in letterboxes, I first need to know how many phonemes I have in the word. Lets stretch it out and count: /f//r//o//s//t/. There are 5 phonemes in frost, so I need five boxes. I heard the /o/ sound right before /s/ so I am going to put an o in the 3rd box. The word starts with /f/, so I need to put a f at the beginning. Let me say the word again slowly to see what I should put down next, /f//r//o//s//t/. That’s right, I heard the /o/ before /s/ so I am going to put a s in the 4th box after o. I also heard /t/ after the /s/ at the end of the word, so I am going to put a t in the 5th box. Now I only have one missing box – f    o  s  t. I am going to say the word slowly again to find what goes in the missing box: /f//r//o//s//t/ [point to the letters in boxes when stretching out the word]. The missing one is /r/ and I am going to put that in the 2nd box. I have spelled the word frost

4. Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You’ll start out easy with three boxes and I want you to spell  log. A log is a part of a tree trunk or a large branch of a tree that has fallen or been cut off.  “There was a huge log in the road.” I’ll check your spelling while I walk around the room. {Observe progress} {if they get it wrong, pronounce what they spell and scaffold them that way. If this is tricky try modeling for the whole group again.}

[Repeat these steps for each word in the LBL. Rotate between having the students spell the words themselves and having volunteers come up and spell them on the board. Use the words: on(2), cap(3), lot(3), blob(4), flick(4), cross(4), strong(5), blond(5)}

5. Say: Now we are going to read the words that you just spelled, but first I will show you how I would read a difficult word. [Display poster with prompt on the top and model reading the word.] Let’s start with the letter o, which we know says /o/. Let’s add the beginning letters with it: p-r-o, /pro/. Now let’s add the letter after o, /m/. Now we have /pro-m/. Finally, I will put that chunk together with the ending sound /pt/, /prom-pt/. Oh, prompt, like “You should be prompt for class so your teacher will not be upset.” {Show the words: on, cap, lot, blob, flick, cross, strong, blond the extra words set and prop, and the pseudoword, zock. 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 have all done a great job reading and spelling words with /o/. Now we are going to read a book called In the Big Top. Have you ever been to the circus? Let’s see what happens when this circus family gets ready to go to their performance! Will they all fit in the car? [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 In the Big Top aloud together, and stops between page turns to discuss the plot.]

 7. Say: Before we finish up with our lesson about how to spell words with the correspondence o=/o/, I want to see how you can solve a reading problem. On this worksheet, we have to draw lines to match the word to their corresponding picture. First, try to read all of the words and then match them to their picture. Make sure to reread and check your answers once you finish! {Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress.}

References:

Cushman, Sheila. In the Big Top. Educational Insights, 1990

McGahan, Kathleen say “AH” for short O

http://kmcgahan318.wix.com/msmcgahansmarvels#!beginning-reading/cjg9

Assessment Worksheet: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/alphabet/matchwordsandpix/shorto/

Visual cue: http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/phonpics.html