Sadie Shell's
Reading Lesson Designs
Beginning Reading
o
The Yawning O
Beginning Reading
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 short vowel o. They will learn a meaningful representation (yawning Mickey yawning “ahhh”), 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 Mickey Mouse yawning; 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: d, o, g, t, s, f, r, g, l, i, e, p, c, k, alist of spelling words on poster or whiteboard to read: dog, frog, stop, sock, fail (review), gift (review), crop (example word); 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 other short vowel words with /a/, /e/, and /i/. Today we are going to learn about short o. When I say /o/ I think of Mickey Mouse yawning really big, saying “ahhh” [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 have to think “Did I hear a yawning ahhh in that word?”. [Make vocal gesture for /o/.] I’ll show you first: not. [make a yawning gesture while drawing out the o] I heard a yawn in that word. There is a short o in not. Now I’m going to see if it’s in home. Hmm, I didn’t hear o yawn, did you? Now you try. If you hear /o/, yawn really big and stretch. If you don’t hear /o/ say, “No yawns here!” Is it in jog, train, clock, box? [Have children make yawn and stretch.]
“Ahhh”
3. Say: One way to spell /o/ is with the letter o. [Write o on the board.] What if I wanted to spell the word crop? “We grew a crop of corn.” To spell crop in the letterboxes, I need to know how many phonemes, or sounds, it has. To do this, I need to stretch out the word and count what I hear: /c/ /r/ /o/ /p/. How many sounds did you hear? That’s right! I heard three sounds, so we need three boxes. [Project letterboxes on the board.] I heard /o/ just before the /p/ so I’m going to put an o in the third box. The word starts with /c/, so I need to put c in first box. The next sound I hear is /r/ so I need to put the rin the second letterbox. The last sound I hear is /p/, so we put p in the last, box. Now let’s sound out each letter in the boxes and blend them together to see if we spelled crop correctly: /c/ /r/ /o/ /p/, crop! [Point to each letter in boxes when stretching out and blending the word.]
4. Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You’ll start out easy with three boxes for dog, Billy has a brown dog. What should go in the first box? [Respond to children’s answers]. What goes in the second box? I’ll check your spelling while I walk around the room. [Observe progress.] You’ll need four letterboxes for the next word. Listen for the beginning sound that goes in the first box. Then listen for /o/. Here’s the word: frog, I have a pet frog; nose. [Allow children to spell words.] Time to check your work. Watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the board: f – r – o – g and see if you’ve spelled it the same way. Try another with four boxes: stop; I need to stop at the store. [Have volunteer spell it in the letterbox on the front board for children to check their work. Repeat this step for each new word.] Watch how I spell sock in my letterboxes: s – o – ck. Be careful with ck; ck makes one sound so it goes in the same box. Next word. Listen to see if this word has /o/ in it before you spell it: fail; she was afraid she might fail. Did you hear the yawn? [volunteer spells it on the front board.] The word is sock; “What color is your left sock?” sock. This word is a little tricky. [Allow students to spell words.] Now let’s check your work.
5. 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 word. [Display poster with sock on the top and model reading the word.] First I see there’s a single o in the middle; that’s my signal that the vowel will yawn and say “ahhh”. 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/ = /s/ Now I’m going to blend that with /o/ = /so/. Now all I need is the end, /ck/ = /sok/. Sock; 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.]
6. 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 of a wizard named Doc! If Doc taps something then, zot! That thing changes into something new. Let’s get into pairs and see what Doc is able to zot into existence! [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 and the Fog aloud together, and stops between page turns to discuss the plot.]
7. Say: That was a fun story. What happened to Doc? Right, the fog got Doc! Did you think that was going to happen? 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 pictures. Your job is to identify what each of the pictures are of. Once you do this, color only the pictures that have the yawning ahh sound. If you need to, say the words aloud and stretch out the sounds. [Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress.]
Resources:
DiChiara, Tina. “Ahhhhh Pooh Bear is Tired!”
http://ttd0005.wixsite.com/msdichiara/beginning-reading-design
Cushman, S., & Briles, P. (1990). Doc in the fog. Dominguez, CA: Educational Insights.
Assessment worksheet: (page 6 of packet)
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/FreeDownload/Short-O-Word-Work-2106889
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