The Crying Baby Says a
A Beginning Reading Lesson
By Michaela Clemons
Rationale: This lesson teaches children about the short vowel correspondence a=/a/. 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 spelling a=/a/. They will learn a meaningful representation, they will spell and read words containing this spelling in a Letterbox lesson, and read a decodable book that focuses on the correspondence a=/a/.
Materials: Graphic image of a baby crying, cover up critter, whiteboard or smartboard Elkonin boxes for modeling and individual Elkonin boxes for each student; letter manipulatives for each student and magnetic or smartboard letters for teacher: c, a, t, b, s, p, r, h; list of spelling words on poster or whiteboard to read: cat, bat, sat, chat, spat, flag, brag; decodable text: Lad and the Fat Cat, 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. Today we are going to learn about short a and how to say its name /a/. When I say /a/ I think of a baby crying. (Show graphic image.)
2. Say: Before we learn about the spelling of /a/, we need to listen for it in some words. When I listen for /a/ in words, I hear a say its name /a/ and my mouth moves like this. [Make a vocal gesture for /a/.] I’ll show you first: cat. I heard a say its name and I felt my lips open and the back of my tongue go to the top of my mouth. There is a short a in cat. Now I’m going to see if it’s in skate. Hmm, I didn’t hear a say its name and my mouth didn’t make the correct move. Now you try. If you hear /a/ say, “The crying baby says a.” If you don’t hear /a/ say, “That’s not it.” Is it in bat, pain, book, coat, drip?
3. Say: Now let’s look at the spelling of /a/ that we’ll learn today. One way to spell /a/ is with the letter a. [Write a on the board]. What if I want to spell the word flag? “We proudly wave our school flag.” To spell flag in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word so I stretch it out and count: /f/ /l/ /a/ /g/. I need four boxes. The word starts with /f/. that’s easy; I need an f. Now it gets a little tricky so I’m going to say it slowly, /f/ /l/ /a/ /g/. I think I hears /l/ so I’ll put a l right after the f. Next comes our vowel /a/ so I will put an a next. I have one letter left. Let’s listen one more time, /f/ /l/ /a/ /g/. I will put down a g for /g/. Now all of our letter boxes are filled.
4. Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You’ll start out easy with three boxes for bat. What should go in the first box? [Respond to children’s answers]. What goes in the second box? What goes in the third 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 sounds that goes in the first and second box. Then listen for /a/. Here’s the word: spat, The baseball player spat on the ground; spat. Spat means that you spit something out of your mouth. [Allow children to spell words.] Time to check your work. Watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the board. [Have volunteer 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 /a/ in it before you spell it: show; The show last night was really good. Did you need an a? Why not? Right, because we didn’t hear a say its name. Now let’s try 4 phonemes: brag; My little sister likes to brag about her new shoes.
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 stroke on the top and model reading the word.] First I see there’s an a in the word. There’s the vowel a. It must say /a/. 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.] /b//r/ = /b/ + /r/ = /br/. Now I’m going to blend that with /a/ = /bra/. Now all I need is the end, /g/ = /brag/. brag; 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 spelling and reading words with our new spelling for a=/a/. Now we are going to read a book called A Cat Nap. This is a story of a fat cat named Tab. Tab likes to take really long naps. One day he crawls into his owner’s baseball bag. His owner accidentally takes the bag that has Tab in it to the baseball park! What will happen next? Pair up and read the book with your partner to find out what happens to tab. [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 A Cat Nap aloud together, and stops between page turns to discuss the plot.]
7. Say: That was a fun story. What happened to Tab? Right, when his owner went to get his bat out of his bag he found Tab! What did the cat’s owner, Sam, think was in his bag? Right, a baseball bat. Before we finish up with our lesson about one way to spell /a/ =a, I want to see how you can solve a reading problem. On this worksheet, I want you to circle the words that have the same /a/ sound that is in the word ball. Your job is to look at all of the pictures and decide what each object is, then decide if it has the same sound. Reread the words you chose to make sure they all have the same /a/ sound. [Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress.]
Resources:
Assessment Worksheet: https://www.free-phonics-worksheets.com/assets/5-phonics-worksheet-v1-05.pdf
Murray, G. (2004) A Cat Nap. Reading Genie: http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/bookindex.html
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