Lesson Designs
Beginning Reading Design
Yawn Like a Dog!
Rationale. This lesson is to teach children about the short vowel correspondence o = /o/. To read, children must learn to recognize the spellings and map word pronunciations. In this specific lesson, children will learn to recognize, read, and spell words with the short vowel o. Students will learn the meaningful representation of someone yawning, or a dog in this case, and they will spell and read words with the short vowel o in a letterbox lesson. The students will also read a decodable book that focuses on the correspondence o = /o/. Along with this, they will complete a worksheet to evaluate what they have learned.
Materials.
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Image of yawning dog
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Cover-up critter
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Letter boxes
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Plastic letter tiles
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Chart with words listed (spot, fast, lot, top, cot, rot, bag, stop, test, flop, rent, bond, clock, skip, plot, drop, stomp, plant, frost, glot)
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The decodable book, The Tot and the Pot, by Lili Henderson
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Short o worksheet (attached below)
Procedures.
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Say: To become skilled readers, we must learn the code that shows us how to pronounce words. Today, we are going to learn about the short o and how it makes the /o/ sound. The short o sound is silly because it sounds like you are yawning! So, when you say the /o/ sound, I want you to pretend that you are yawning (mimic yawning action and show gif of dog yawning).
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Before we practice reading and writing words with the short o, let’s start by seeing how our mouth moves to make the /o/ sound. When I say a word with /o/ in it, my mouth opens up and my jaw drops (demonstrate dropping your draw and making the /o/ sound and mouth movement).
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Now let’s practice saying some words with the short o sound. Let’s try the word spot as in “I have a spot on my shirt”. S-p-o-t. I heard the /o/ sound in spot! My mouth opened and my jaw dropped. The short o was in the word spot. Let’s try another word, like fast as in “the car was really fast”. F-a-s-t. Hmm, I didn’t hear the yawning sound in fast, did you? My jaw did not drop.
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Now I am going to read you a list of words that may or may not have the yawning short o sound in them. If you hear the /o/ sound in any of the words I say, I want you to act like you are yawning, and if you don’t hear the /o/ sound, I want you to say no. Ready? Here are the words: cot, bag, stop, test, flop, bond. (Speak slowly and listen carefully to ensure students are responding correctly to each word).
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Say: Now, what if I want to try to spell a word using the short o? Let’s try top as in “I climbed to the top of the mountain”. First, we need to see how many phonemes are in the word top. Let’s stretch out our word and say it slowly, t-o-p. I heard 3 phonemes, so that means I need 3 letterboxes. I heard the /o/ sound in top, so I am going to put our yawning short o in the second letterbox. I also heard the /t/ sound, like a ticking clock, at the beginning of the word, so I’m going to put the letter t in the first letterbox. Now we have a t and an o, so we have /t//o/. At the end of the word, I heard the /p/ sound like a popping balloon, so p must be the last letter! I’ll put p in my third letterbox. There we go, top!
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Now that we got to practice with top, let’s try a little bit harder word, like clock. Let’s say it slow to figure out how many phonemes it has. C-l-o-ck. I heard 4 phonemes, so that must mean I need 4 letterboxes! Now let’s break down the word even more. I definitely heard the yawning /o/ in the middle, so let’s place that in the third letterbox. At the beginning of the word, I heard a /c/ sound which is the letter c and an /l/ sound which is the letter l. If I put both of those together with the yawning /o/ sound, I get c-l-o, or /c//l//o/. The end of the word, clock, it sounds kind of like a stick breaking /k/, so when I put together /clo/ with /k/, I get /clok/. Clock! That’s our word, as in “the clock struck midnight”! Great job everyone!
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Now it’s your turn to try spelling some words in letterboxes! For the first word, you will need 3 letterboxes. The word is rot as in “the old fruit has rot”. I’ll walk around the room and check on your spellings. (Observe all students’ work). *Give students more words to spell with their letterboxes including previously learned words and provide sentences with each word as an example. Words: lot, rent, skip, plot, drop, stomp.*
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Now I want you to read the words you just used in your letterboxes. (Show chart of previous words used listed and add two extra words plant and frost. Also include the pseudoword glot. *Have all students read the list together and then choose students to read a word individually until each student gets to read a word on their own.*
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Great work everyone! Now we are going to read a fun story called, The tot and the Ppot, which goes over a lot of words with our yawning /o/ sound that we talked about today.
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(Give book talk): This book is about a little boy named Tom who loves to play. He sits on his mat and sees a pot. Tom has a great idea! Will Tom get the pot? What will he do with the pot? We will have to read to find out! *Split students into groups of 2 or 3 and have them take turns reading a page in the book. Monitor their work and when everyone is done, read the book together as a class while using the Talk Before You Turn method.*
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Say: Class, you did awesome today learning about our yawning /o/ sound! Lastly, I want you to do a fun worksheet to show what you know about the short o. On the worksheet, there are four different pictures. I want you to say the name of each picture and color the image that has a short o. Then you will see a list of words. I want you to circle the words that have the short o sound. Lastly, you get to write three words of your choice that have the yawning /o/ sound in them. Once you are done, turn it in to me and get a sticker! *Monitor students’ work and ensure all worksheets have been turned in.*
References.
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Assessment.
Assessment worksheet: Math Worksheets 4 Kids, "Short O Worksheets" https://www.mathworksheets4kids.com/short-o.php
Decodable Book:
Lili Henderson, The Tot and the Pot, Reading A-Z, 2005.
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Abby Kaye Jones, “Oh, I Sure Am Tired!”