Oh No, Who Would've Known!
Beginning Reading Lesson
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Rationale: This lesson teaches children about the long vowel correspondence oa = /O/. 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 ow. They will learn a meaningful representation (confused man 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 confused man; 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: c, l, d, o, a, k, t, t, s, f, g, r, n; list of spelling words on poster or whiteboard to read: oak, coat, load, cloak, toast, float, groan; decodable text: I Can Roar, 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 o, like top, and today we are going to learn about long O and the silent e signal that is used to make O say its name, /O/. When I say /O/ I think of a funny little confused man saying “Oh, I didn’t know! [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: boat. I heard o say its name and I felt my lips make a little o [make a circle motion around pursed lip]. There is a long O in boat. Now I’m going to see if it’s in stool. 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 didn’t know.” If you don’t hear /O/ say, “That’s not it.” Is it in cake, rain, school, coat, nose, bear? [Have child 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 to tell me to say O’s name. [Write oa on the board.] What if I want to spell the word toast? “I had toast for breakfast.” Toast means cooked bread in this sentence. To spell toast in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word, so I stretch it out and count: /t//O//s//t/. I need 4 boxes. I heard that /O/ just before the /s/ so I’m going to put an o in the 2nd 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//s//t/.. I think I heard /s/ so I’ll put a s right after the /O/. I have one empty box now. [Point to letters in boxes when stretching out the word: /t//O//s//t/..] The missing one is /t/ = t.
4. Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You’ll start out easy with two boxes for oak. An oak is a kind of tree, “Our teacher showed us a big oak tree on the playground.” 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/ and don’t forget to put the signal silent e at the end, outside the boxes. Here’s the word: boat, I have a boat on the lake; boat. [Allow children to spell words.] Time to check your work. Watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the board: b– o – a – t and see if you’ve spelled it the same way. Try another with three boxes: load; I have a load of work to do. [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 hear the long O sound oa in rock? No? 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: float; the float popped in the pool. One more then we’re done with spelling, and this time you need four boxes: groan; Mom let out a groan when she stubbed her toe. 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 groan on the top and model reading the word.] First, I see there’s oa; 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.] /g//r/ = /gr/ + /O/ = /groa/. Now all I need is the end, /n/ = /grOn/. Groan; 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.] g r o a n
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 I Can Roar! This is a story of Rick the cub who wants to roam but isn’t allowed to. Let’s pair up and take turns reading I Can Roar! to find out when Rick finds out he can roar. [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 I Can Roar! aloud together, and stops between page turns to discuss the plot.]
7. Say: That was a fun story. When did Rick he could roar? Right! When his mom told him, that big lions didn’t have to roam because they can roar! So, what did Rick do? Right! He stayed with the pride and roared! Before we finish up with our lesson about one way to spell /O/ = oa, I want to see how you can solve a reading problem. On this worksheet, we have some words and pictures. Your job is to match each of the words with the right picture! First try reading all the words on the paper, then choose the picture that fits best! Check over your work to make sure you correctly matched the words and pictures! [Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress.]
Resources:
Geri Murray, Oh, I didn’t know! https://murraba.wixsite.com/readinglessons/beginning-reading
B. Marker, I Can Roar https://readingelephant.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/ICanRoarSingle.pdf
Miss Giraffe, I Can Read! oa https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/OA-OW-Worksheets-and-Activities-NO-PREP-Long-O-Vowel-Teams-Worksheets-Pairs-1686516
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