O,
O,
O at the Doctor
A Beginning Reading Lesson
Rationale:
This lesson is designed to teach young students children about the short vowel
o = /o/. To be a successful reader, 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 of short o. They will
learn a meaningful representation (patient making an o sound with the doctor),
they will spell and read words containing this spelling in a Letterbox lesson,
and read a decodable book that focuses on the short o sound, o = /o/.
Materials:
Graphic image of doctor and patient; cover-up critter; construction paper
Elkonin boxes for modeling and individual Elkonin boxes for each student; letter
tile manipulatives for each child: o, d(x2), c, l, k, s, n, g, f, p, h, m, u, a,
b, e, r, t; list of spelling words on paper to read: odd, cod, lock, song, flop,
clog, chomp, slug, made, snob, frost; decodable text:
In the Big Top, 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 tap, and
today we are going to learn about short o, which says /o/. When I say /o/ I
think of a doctor looking down his patient's throat and asking him to make a /o/
noise. [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 /o/ and my mouth
opens up wide in an o shape. [Make vocal gesture for /o/.] I'll show you first:
hop. I heard o say /o/ and I felt my mouth make a big wide o
[make a circle motion around mouth]. There is a short o in hop. 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 wide o. Now you try. If you hear /o/ say, "ooooooo,"
like you're at the doctor. If you don't hear /o/ say, "That's not it." Is it in
snot, rain, pants, jog, bod, lips? [Have children make a circle motion around
their wide mouths when they feel the /o/ sound.]
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. [Write o on the board.] What if I want to spell the word frost?
"During winter, frost covers the ground." Frost is like snow in this
sentence. To spell frost in letterboxes, first I need to know how many
phonemes I have in the word so I stretch it out and count: /f//r//o//s//t/. I
need 5 boxes. I heard that /o/ just before the /s/ so I'm going to put an o
in the 3rd box. 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//r//o//s//t/. I think I heard /r/ so I'll put a r right after the
f. OI think I hear two more after the /o/, hmm . . . /f//r//o//s//t/, I
think I heard hissing /s/ so I need an s. I have one empty box now.
[Point to letters in boxes when stretching out the word: /f//r//o//s//t/.] The
missing one is /t/ = t.
|
f |
r |
o |
s |
t |
4. Say: Now I'm going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You'll start
out easy with two boxes for odd.
Odd is a descriptive word, "I
think it is odd to eat ketchup on grapes." What should go in the first box?
[Respond to children's answers]. What goes in the second box? Do two letters go
in the box together? 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.
Listen for /o/. Here's the word: cod, I ate cod for dinner
last night; cod. [Allow children to spell words.] Time to check your
work. Watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the board: c – o – d and see if
you've spelled it the same way. Try another with three boxes: lock;
I need a lock to keep my sister out of my room. [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, let's try 4 phonemes. Listen to see if this word
has /o/ in it before you spell it: slug; I saw a slug in the
garden. Did you need a short o? Why not? Right, because we don't hear o
say its name. We spell it with our short vowel u. [volunteer spells it on
the front board.] Now let's try another 4 phonemes: chomp; the dog
had to chomp on his bone to make it small enough to eat. One more word, then
we're done with spelling, and this time you need five boxes: strong;
If I lift weights, I will become very strong. 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 frost on the
top and model reading the word.] 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.] /f//r/ = /fr/ + /o/ =
/fro/. Now I'm going to blend that with /o/ = /fro/. Now all I need is the end,
/s/+/t = /st/=/frost/. Frost; 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 = /o/. Now we are going to
read a book called In the Big Top.
This is a story of Pop and his family. Pop tells Tod to get in the car! Then he
tells Roz to get in the car! I wonder if the entire family can fit in the car?!
Where could they be going?! Let's pair up and take turns reading In the Big
Top to find out where they are going. [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 In the Big Top
aloud together, and stops between page turns to discuss the plot.]
7. Say: That was a fun story.
Did the whole family get in the car? Right, they all piled in. Where did the
family go? Correct, they were circus performers! Before we finish up with our
lesson about one way to spell /o/ = o, I want to see how you can solve a reading
problem. On this worksheet, we have some words. Your job is to look through all
the words and circle the words with the short o vowel sound in them. After that,
you must write each of your new words in ABC order. First try reading all the
words in the box, then choose the words that have our sound. Reread your answers
to see if they make sense. [Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child
progress.]
Resources:
Assessment Worksheet:
http://www.superteacherworksheets.com/letter-short-o.html
Phonics Readers – Short Vowels – Short o –
In the Big Top