Rationale: This lesson teaches children about the long 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 letter o. They will learn a meaningful representation (say “ahhh” at the doctor), 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/.
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Materials: picture of the capital and lowercase letter “O”; image of a child opening his mouth for the doctor, saying /o/; cover-up critter; whiteboard or smartboard letterboxes for modeling; letterboxes for each student; letter manipulatives for each child smartboard letters for teacher: b, c, d, f, g, k, l, m, n, o, p, r, s, t; list of spelling words on a poster to read: dog, crop, spot, smog, blob, stomp, frost, smock, blond, brot; decodable text Doc in the Fog (one for each pair of students); assessment worksheet (one for each student).
Procedures:
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Say: In order to become great readers, we need to learn the code that tells us how to pronounce words. We have already learned a few of the short vowels and the sound them make like a = /a/, e=/e/, and i=/i/. Today we are going to learn about a letter that we see and use every day, short o! [Show students capital and lowercase letter “O”]. We will learn about the sound short makes and how our mouth looks when we say its sound. When I say /o/, I want you to pretend you are at the doctor, and he needs to check your throat. So you say “ahhh.” [Show the graphic image and demonstrate.] Can you see what my mouth is doing when I say /o/? [Make vocal gesture for /o/]. Now I want you to try. Pretend you are at the doctor and press your thumb in front of your mouth like this (pretend if thumb were a tongue depressor) and say AAAHHHH. Good job!
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Say: Before we learn about the spelling of /o/, we need to listen for it in a few words. I’ll show you first: top. I heard /o/ says its name and I felt my mouth open to make a big O [make a circle motion around opened mouth]. There is a short o in mop. Now I will test to see if it is in the word book. Hmm, I didn’t hear the sound I make when I open my mouth for the doctor and my lips didn’t open and make a big O shape. Now you try. Listen to the words I say and if you hear the /o/ sound open your mouth and press your thumb on your lip as if your doctor is looking down your throat. If you do not hear the /o/ sound close your mouth tight. Ready? Is it in block, game, strong, ball, trot, smock?
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Say: What if I want to spell the word frost? “There is a lot of frost covering the lawn.” To spell in letterboxes, I first need to know how many phonemes I have in the word. Let’s 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 in the 3rd box. The word starts with /f/, so I need to put a 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 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 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/, so I am going to put an in the 2nd box. Great! We’ve spelled the word ! Now I’ll show you how I would read a tough word. [Display poster with on the top and model reading the word.] I’m going to start with the o; that part says /o/. Now I’m going to put the beginning letters with it: s-t-r-o, /stro/. Now I’ll put that chunk together with the last sound, /stro-ng/. Oh, , like “He is very strong.”
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Say: Now I am going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You will start out with three boxes for our first word . My dog loves to play outside. What letter would we put in the first box? What about the second box? The third box? I will check your spelling as I walk around the room. For our next word you will need four boxes. Make sure to listen carefully at the first sound to spell in the first box, and then for the /o/ sound and work from there. The word is . There is a frog sitting on a lily pad; frog. [Allow students to spell remaining words, giving sentences for each word: , and .]
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Say: Now I am going to let you read the words you’ve spelled. [Show the words the extra words and , and the pseudoword .] Have children read words in unison. Afterwards, call on individuals to read one word on the list until everyone has a turn.]
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Say: You’ve done a great job and reading words with our new spelling for /o/: o. Now we are now going to read a book called . This story is about a wizard named Doc who changes things! One day, while he was doing magic, a dark fog came around him. Let’s pair up and take turns reading to find out what will happen to Doc with the dark fog around him! [Students will take turns reading alternate pages with their partner while teacher walks around the room monitoring their progress. Once the students have finished reading, have the class read aloud together. Stop between pages to discuss the story.]
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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 with word fits best to make sense of this very short story. 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.]
References:
Adapted from: “Say Ahhhh!” by Caroline Rush https://sites.google.com/site/carolineslessondesigns/home/say-ahhhh
Adapted from: “Say “Ahhhhh” by Rachel Heavlin http://rah0032.wixsite.com/ctrd/beginning-reader
Short Vowel Phonics Readers: Doc in the Fog by Sheila Cushman
Assessment worksheet: https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxrbWMwMDQ0Y3RyZHxneDo3Njk1MDFmNGM0NmYwNDk4