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Oh, I Got It!
By: Sydney Chapman

happy-excited-amused-pretty-little-girl-in-dress-vector-32079137_edited.jpg

Rationale: This lesson teaches children about the long vowel correspondence oa = /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 oa. They will learn a meaningful representation (excited girl saying oh), they will spell and read words containing this spelling in a Letterbox lesson and read a decodable book that focuses on the correspondence oa = /O/.

 

Materials: Graphic image of an excited girl; 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: o, a, r, s, k, g, l, f, m, t, h, c; list of spelling words on poster or whiteboard to read: oar, soak, goal, rock, foam, coach, throat, float; decodable text: The Smoke Scare, 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 o, like top, and today we are going to learn about long O and the accompanying “a” that is used to make O say its name, /O/. When I say /O/ I think of an excited little girl saying “Oh, I got it!” [show graphic image].

  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 its name /O/ and my lips make a little o shape like this. [Make vocal gesture for /O/.] I’ll show you first: coal. I heard o say its name and I felt my lips make a little o [make a circle motion around pursed lips]. There is a long O in coal. Now I’m going to see if it’s in school. Hmm, I didn’t hear o say its name and my lips didn’t make that round little o. Now you try. If you hear /O/ say, “Oh, I see.” If you don’t hear /O/ say, “That’s not it.” Is it in snow, rain, pants, coat, nose, lips? [Have children make a circle motion around their pursed lips when they feel /O/ say its name.]

  3. Say: Now let’s look at the spelling of /O/ that we’ll learn today. One way to spell /O/ is with the letter o and a signal a right after the o to tell me to say O’s name. [Write oa on the board.] What if I want to spell the word moat? “I went to the castle and there was a moat surrounding it.” Moat means a deep ditch filled with water in this sentence. To spell moat in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word so I stretch it out and count: /m/ /oa/ /t/. I need 3 boxes. I heard that /O/ just before the /t/ so I’m going to put an oa in the 2nd box. The word starts with /m/, that’s easy; I need an m. Now it gets a little tricky so I’m going to say it slowly, /m/ /oa/ /t. I think I heard /t/ so I’ll put a t right after the oa.  

  4.  Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You’ll start out easy with two boxes for oar. An oar is a tool used to row a boat, “We used an oar to help us steer the boat.” 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 /O/. Here’s the word: soak, I had a soak in the bath; soak. [Allow children to spell words.] Time to check your work. Watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the board: s- o- a- k and see if you’ve spelled it the same way. Try another with three boxes: goal; I scored a goal in the football game. [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 /O/ in it before you spell it: rock; be careful when you climb on the rock. Did you need an a after the o? Why not? Right, because we don’t hear o say its name. 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: throat; “my throat hurt so bad”. One more then we’re done. The word is: float; The balloon was starting to float. 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 coach on the top and model reading the word.] First I see there’s an a after the o, that’s my signal that the vowel will say its name. There’s the 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.] Start with /c/ now I’m going to blend that with /O/ = /cO/. Now all I need is the end, /ch/ = /cOch/. Coach; 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 /O/: oa. Now we are going to read a book called The Smoke Scare. This is a story of a boy named Ben who does not feel very good. When Ben goes to look for his coat he falls asleep in the boat. Let’s pair up and take turns reading The Smoke Scare to find out if he gets out of the boat. [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 The Smoke Scare aloud together, and stops between page turns to discuss the plot.]

  7.  Say: That was a fun story. Did Ben make it off the boat? Right, he did when it started raining. What did Ben think when he smelled smoke? Right, he was scared. Before we finish up with our lesson about one way to spell /O/ = oa, I want to see if you can identify the long O sound in certain words. On this worksheet, we have lots of words displayed. Your job is to look at the words given, and decide which words have the long O sound and color the portion of the word that causes the sound. First try reading all the words in the workbook, then color the correct sounds. Reread your answers to see if they make sense. [Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress.]

 

References:

Murray, G. (2004) The Smoke Scare. Reading Genie: http://wp.auburn.edu/rdggenie/

Worksheet: https://thisreadingmama.com/vowel-team-phonics-worksheets-color-chunk/

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