A Beginning Reading Lesson
Painting the "A"
By: Cassidy Stephens
Rationale: This lesson teaches children about the long vowel correspondence ai = /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 ai. They will learn a meaningful representation (paint pallette), they will spell and read words containing this spelling in a Letterbox lesson and read a decodable book that focuses on the correspondence ai = /A/.
Materials: Graphic image of paint pallette; 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: a, d, h, i, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, w; list of spelling words on poster or whiteboard to read: aim, rain, tail, pain, maid, sail, wait, crack, train, strain; decodable text: The Train Ride 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 short vowel words with a, like hat, and today we are going to learn about long A and the silent i signal that helps letter A say its name, /A/. When I say /A/ I think of a paint palette that’s used to paint a picture. [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 opens in a small smile to make the sound. [Make vocal gesture for /A/.] I’ll show you first: aim. I heard a say its name and I felt my mouth make a small smile [open mouth and make a small smile]. There is a long A in aim. Now I’m going to see if it’s in apple. Hmm, I didn’t hear a say its name and my mouth didn’t make a small smile. Now you try. If you hear /A/ say, “Painting the ‘A’”. If you don’t hear /A/ say, “That’s not it.” Is it in pail, boat, rain, joke, sip, train, sock, brain? [Have children point to their small smile when they hear /A/ say its name.]
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 and a signal i that is right beside it to tell me to say A’s name. [Write ai on the board.] The i is silent, but it gives “a” the confidence it needs to say its name. What if I want to spell the word pain? “Bailey fell off of his bike and was in a lot of pain.” To spell pain in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word so I stretch it out and count: /p/ /A/ /n/. I need 3 boxes. I heard that /A/ just before the /n/ so I’m going to put an a and an i in the middle box. The word starts with /p/ so I know I need a p at the beginning.
4.Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You’ll start out easy with two boxes for aim.“Before shooting the arrow at the target, Lilly had to work on her aim.” 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 for the beginning sound that goes in the first box. Then listen for /A/ and don’t forget to put the helper i with the letter a. Here’s the word: fail. ‘If I don’t study, I might fail the test’ ; fail. [Allow children to spell words]. Time to check your work. Watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the board: f-a-i-l and see if you’ve spelled it the same way. Try another with three boxes: maid; I wish I had a maid to do my chores for me. [Have volunteers spell it in a 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: hat; Don’t forget to put on your hat. Did you need the helper i? Why not? Right, because we don’t hear A say its name. We spell it with our short vowel a. [Volunteer spells it on the front board.] Now let’s try 4 phonemes: train; the train was so loud I could barely hear my mom talk. One more then we’re done with spelling, and this time you need five boxes: strain; Picking up the heavy box makes my muscles strain. 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 strain on the top and model reading the word.] First I see there’s a helper i with the letter a; that’s my signal that the /A/ will say its name. 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/ + /r/ = /str/. Now I’m going to blend that with /A/ = /strA/. Now all I need is the end, /n/ = /strAn/. Strain; 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 /A/: ai. Now we are going to read a book called The Train Ride. This is a story about a person on a train who saw tracks on the side of the railroad tracks. The person looks and looks at the tracks to decide what animal made them. What animal do you think it could have been? Let’s pair up and take turns reading The Train Ride to find out what animal made the tracks. [Children pair up and take turns reading alternate pages while the teacher walks around the room monitoring progress. After individual paired reading, the class rereads The Train Ride aloud together, and stops between page turns to discuss the plot.]
7. Say: That was a fun story. What animal made the tracks? Right, a big wild cat. Before we finish up with our lesson about one way to spell /A/ = ai, I want to see how you can read words with letter a and its helper i. On this worksheet, there are pictures and words. Your job is to read the words first and then match the word with the correct picture. [Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress.]
Resources:
Kowal, Sarah’s “Aaaaa Goes the Crying Baby. https://sak0032.wixsite.com/website-2/br-design
Marker, G. The Train Ride. The Train Ride
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