Beginning Reading Design
PLAY THIS WAY!
A Beginning Reading Lesson
Rationale: This lesson teaches children about the long vowel correspondence ay=/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 o. They will learn a meaningful representation (kids playing), they will spell and read words containing this spelling in a letterbox lesson, and read a decodable book that focuses on the correspondence ay=/A/.
Materials: Graphic image of kids playing; coloring in the long A vowel correspondence and not the short a=/a/; dry erase individual letterboxes for each student; letter manipulatives for each child: d, a, y, m, s, t, r, i, n, b, w ; list of spelling words on poster or notebook for teacher: day, mad, say, train, bat, away, stray; The Best Way to Play.
and assessment worksheet: Assessment worksheet
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 cat, and today we are going to learn about long A and the silent y signal that is used to make A say its name, /A/. When I say /A/ I think of a teacher telling her student to “Play this way”! [show graphic image]. 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 y at the end of the word to tell me to say A’s name. [Write ay on the board.] At the end of the word there is a little silent y signal.
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 makes a smile with space between my lips and act like i'm about to bite something. [Make vocal gesture for /A/.] I’ll show you first: stay. I heard s say its name and I felt my mouth make an open smile [make an open smile and move my teeth like i'm biting into something]. There is a long A in stay. Now I’m going to see if it’s in cat. Hmm, I didn’t hear a say its name and my mouth was not open very wide. Now you try. If you hear /A/ say, “Play this way!.” If you don’t hear /A/ say, “That’s not it.” Is it in bake, rain, pants, man, gap, rain? [Have children make a circle motion around their pursed lips when they feel /A/ say its name.]
3. What if I want to spell the word today? “I had a really good day today” Today means present day in this sentence. To spell today in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word so I stretch it out and count: /t//o//d//A/. I need 4 boxes. I heard that /A/ just before the /y/ so I’m going to put an A in the 4th box and the silent y signal outside the last box. The word starts with /t/, that’s easy; I need an t. Now it gets a little tricky so I’m going to say it slowly, /t//o//d//a/. I think I heard /o/ so I’ll put a o right after the t. One more before the /A/, hmm . . . /t//o//d//A/, I think I heard doggy /d/. I have one empty box now. [Point to letters in boxes when stretching out the word: /t//o//d//a/.
Now I’ll show you how I would read a tough word. [Display poster with stage on the top and model reading the word.] I’m going to start with the ay; that part says /A/. Now I’m going to put the beginning letters with it: s-t-a_e, /stA/. Now I’ll put that chunk together with the last sound, /stA-g/. Oh, stage, like “The class performed a dance on stage.”
4. Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You’ll start out easy with two boxes for say. To say something is to form words to convey a message, “Lets all say our favorite animal” What about silent y, did you remember to put it outside the boxes? 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 to spell in the first box. Then listen for /A/ and don’t forget to put the signal silent y at the end, outside the boxes. Here’s the word: stay, I want to stay here; stay. [Allow children to spell remaining words, giving sentences for each word: rope, rock, spoke, stone, and stroke.]
5. Say: Now I am going to let you read the words you’ve spelled. [Show the words day, mad, say, train, bat, away, stray, the extra words flame and back, and the pseudoword gafe. 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 reading words with our new spelling for /A/: ay. Now we are going to read a book called The Best Way to Play. This is a story of a boy named Little Bill. Little Bill and his friends love to watch the tv show Space Explorers. A new Space Explorers video game comes out, but Littles Bill's parents don’t let him buy it. One of his friends buys it instead, but when they begin to play it it’s not as great as they had hoped. Is it more fun to use their imagination than to play a video game?.Let’s pair up and take turns reading The Best Way to Play to find out what is better: imagination or video games.. [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 Best Way to Play chorally, stopping between page turns to discuss the story.]
7. Say: Before we finish up with our lesson about one way to spell /A/ = ay, I want to see how you can tell the short a and long a apart. On this worksheet, we have a list of words. Your job is to look in the box of word choices, and decide which words fits under the apple for short a and which fits under the acorn for long a.. First try reading all the words in the box, then choose where the words should go. Reread your answers to see if they make sense. [Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress.]
Resources:
Name 1—00K at a Picture. Sound Does It Begin with? Circle… https://sounditoutphonics.weebly.com/uploads/8/4/1/2/84129334/u.pdf.
Cosby, Bill. “The Best Way to Play.” Amazon, Braille Institute, 2004, https://www.amazon.com/Best-Way-Play-Beginning-Readers/dp/0590956175.