"Aaaaa" Goes the Crying Baby
Beginning Reading
Sarah Kowal
Rationale: In order for students to learn to read, they must first learn vowel correspondences. Short vowels are the hardest correspondences to identify so we will only work on one. This lesson will teach students about the short vowel correspondence “a=/a/”. To become good readers, children must learn to recognize words and their spelling maps. In this lesson, students will learn to recognize, spell, and read words that have the a=/a/ correspondence. Students will learn the meaningful representation baby that is crying, spell and read words that contain this correspondence in a letterbox
lesson, and read a decodable book that focuses on the correspondence a=/a/.
Materials:
Graphic of a baby crying
Cover-up critter
Whiteboard
Letter boxes for each student
Letter tiles for each student and magnetic letters for teacher: c,a,t,d,d,h,b,n,p,g,r,m,s,k
List of spelling words on poster to read: 3 phoneme-cat, dad, hat, nap, bat; 4 phoneme-grab, mask, hand
Decodable text: A Cat Nap
Assessment worksheet
Procedure:
Say: “Today we are going to learn the short a sound. When I say /a/ I want you to think of a baby crying (show graphic). Now let’s look at which letter makes the /a/ sound.” Have the student find the letter a.”
Say: “Before we learn about the spelling of /a/, we are going to listen for the sound in some words. When I say /a/, my jaw drops and my tongue is down. (make vocal gesture for /a/). When I say “pan” I heard the /a/ sound and felt my jaw drop and my tongue down. There is a short-a in pan. Now let’s see if it’s in school. I didn’t hear the /a/ sound and I didn’t feel my jaw drop and tongue down. Now it is your turn to try. When you hear the /a/ sound in a word pretend to cry like a baby. Is it in: cat, door, pat, splash?”
Say: “Now let’s look at the words we are going to spell today. What If I want to spell the word mask? “The prince and princess both wore a mask to the ball.” Mask is what they wore in this sentence. To spell mask in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes are in the word so I stretch it out and count: /m//a//s//k/. I need 4 letterboxes. I heard /a/ just before the /s/ and /k/ so I’m going to put an a letter tile in the 2nd box. The word starts with /m/, I need the m letter tile in the first box. There are 2 more boxes after the a. Hmmmm, /m//a//s//k/, the letter tile s goes in the 3rd box. There is one box left, /m//a//s//k. K is the only letter mussing so I put the letter tile k in the last box. Now I will show you how I would read the tough word. (Display poster with grab on the top and model reading the word). I’m going to start with the a letter tile; that part says /a/. Now I’m going to put the beginning letters with it: g-r-a, /gra/. Now I’ll put that chunk together with the last sound, /gra-b/. Oh, grab like” I grab the ball.”
Say: “Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You’ll start out easy with 3 boxes. The word is cat, like “I have a pet cat.” What letter should go in the first box? (Respond to children’s answers). What goes in the second and third box? I’ll check your spelling while I walk around the room. (Observe progress). Make sure you listen for /a/ in the word.” (Allow children to spell remaining words: dad, hat, nap, bat, grab, mask, hand).
Say: “Now I am going to let you read the words you spelled, but first I’ll show you how I would read a difficult word. (Display poster with mask at the top and model the reading word). First I see there is an m in the beginning. That lets me know I put that letter in one box because it makes one sound. Then there is my vowel a. It must say a=/a/. I’m going to use a cover-up critter to get the last part of the word. (Uncover and blend sequentially after the vowel, then blend with the vowel). /s//k/=/sk/. Now I’m going to blend that with /a/=/ask/. Now I will put everything together; /mask/. Mask; that’s correct! (Have children read words in unison. Afterwards, call on individuals to read one word on the list until everyone has had a turn).
Say: “You have done a great job reading words with our new spelling for /a/=a. Now we are going to read a book called “A Cat Nap”. Booktalk: Tab is a fat cat who is in a bag. He naps and naps. Sam is a man who has a bag and a bat. Sam ran to his friends and is at bat. His bat is in his bag. What does Sam find in his bag? Let’s pair up and take turns reading “A Cat Nap” to find out what happens.” (Children pair up and take turns reading alternate pages while the teacher walks around the room monitoring progress. After the class rereads “A Cat Nap” aloud together, and stops between pages to discuss the plot).
Assessment: Say: “That was a great story.” (I will then call up students one at a time to my desk and have them read about 2 pages of “A Cat Nap”. I will listen and make notes of miscues while they are reading. While I am assessing, the other students will be working on a worksheet individually practicing identifying words with the a=/a/ correspondence).
References:
Ansley Christensen: “The Crying Baby Goes, Aaaaaaaa”
http://ansleychristensen.wixsite.com/lesson-designs/beginning-reading-design
Sami Moccia: “A Crying Baby Says Aaaaa!!!!” http://samimoccia.wixsite.com/samimoccia/beginning-reading
Canvas page: Educational insight decodable books
https://auburn.instructure.com/courses/1071716/pages/educational-insight-decodable-books
(Assessment) https://www.education.com/worksheet/article/short-a-sounds/