Beginning Reading Lesson Design

This lesson is intended for students who have just begun the journey of learning how to read.

Sam wears Socks

Beginning Reading Design

Rationale: This lesson teaches children about the short vowel correspondence o=/o/. 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 (Sam wears Socks), 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 boy wearing socks; graphic of someone drinking water; 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: h, o, t, s, p, r, m, n, p, l, c, k, g; list of spelling words on poster or whiteboard to read: hot, stop, prompt, on, pot, mop, rock, slot, strong; decodable text: Doc in the Fog, and assessment worksheet.

Procedures: 

1. Say: 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 a, like sat, and e, like pet, and i, like fish, and today we are going to learn about short o and say its name, /o/. When I say /o/ I think of a little boy drinking a cool glass of water saying “ahhhh” {Show graphic image--attached}.

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 say “ahhh” like drinking a cool glass of water and my lips make a large o shape. [Make vocal gesture for /o/.] I’ll show you first: hot. I heard o say “ahhh” and I felt my lips make a large o shape [make a circle motion around mouth]. There is a short o in hot. Now I’m going to see if it’s in run. Hmm, I didn’t hear o say ahhh and my lips didn’t make that large o shape. Now you try. If you hear /o/ say, “Sam wears Socks.” If you don’t hear /o/ say, “That’s not it.” Is it in drop, mat, spot, that, stomp? [Have children make a circle motion around their mouth when they feel /o/ say its name.]

Ahhhh

3. Say: Now let’s look at the spelling of /o/. We spell /o/ with the letter “o”. What if I want to spell the word stop? “We had to stop playing around in class so that we could learn to read!” To spell stop 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/ /p/. I need 4 boxes. I heard that /o/ just before the /p/ so I’m going to put an o in the third letterbox. The word starts with /s/, that’s easy; I need an s. The s goes in the first letterbox. Now it gets a little tricky so I’m going to say it slowly, /s//t//o//p/. I think I heard /t/ so I’ll put a t right after the s. Now we must finish the word with the last letterbox. That means the letter tile /p/ goes in the last letterbox. I’m now going to show you how to read a tough word on the poster board (grabs poster board with the word prompt on it and tapes it to the whiteboard). I need to put the beginning letters with it: p-r-o, /pro/. Now I’ll put the chunk together with the very last sounds /pro-mpt/. Like I am going to be prompt, or on time, for my meeting.

4. Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. Let’s start out with two boxes. Since I only have two boxes, that means there will only be two phonemes. Your first word is on. “Did Sam forget to turn the light on?” 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 three letterboxes for the next word. Listen to the beginning sound that goes in the first box. Then listen for /o/. Here’s the word: pot, I cook my dinner in a 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 to mop my floors. [Have volunteers 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: rock; be careful when you climb on the rock. Did you hear the short o? We spell it with our short vowel o. [volunteer spells it on the front board.] Did you remember to spell /k/ with a ck? Now let’s try 4 phonemes: slot; the slot was not big enough to fit the ball in. One more then we’re done with spelling, and this time you need five boxes: strong; If I get strong enough, I will win the competition. Remember to stretch it out to get this tough word.

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 tough word. [Display poster with stomp on the top and model reading the word.] First I see there’s a vowel o. It must 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, /mp/ = /stomp/. Stomp; that’s it. Now it’s your turn, everyone, together. [Have children read words in unison. Afterward, 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 the story of a man named Doc who is a wizard. He magically touches a bunch of different things like a dog, a doll, and a top, and they all turn into something extra magical. Then one day, Doc touches the fog! ZOT! You’ll have to read the rest of the story to find out what happens to Doc! Let’s pair up and take turns reading Doc in the Fog to find out what happens to Doc. [Children pair up and take turns reading alternate pages each while the teacher walks around the room monitoring progress. After individual paired reading, the class rereads the book aloud together and stops between page turns to discuss the plot.]

7. Say: That was a fun story. What happened to Doc? The fog got him! 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 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.]

Reference:

Book: Doc in the Fog

https://auburn.instructure.com/courses/1198004/pages/Educational%20Insights%20decodable%20books

Worksheet:

https://www.lessonplanet.com/teachers/short-vowel-o-english-language-arts-1st-2nd

Pictures:

https://www.shutterstock.com/search/wearing+different+socks?image_type=vector

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