Rationale: This lesson teaches children about the short vowel correspondence o = /o/. In order to be able to read, students must learn to recognize words from their spellings. In this lesson, children will learn to recognize, spell, and read words containing the short vowel o. They will learn a meaningful representation (saying /o/ when you open wide at the doctor), they will spell and read words containing this spelling in a Letterbox Lesson, and read a decodable book that focuses on the correspondence o = /o/.

 

Materials: Picture of doctor checking child’s throat, SmartBoard or whiteboard, Elkonin boxes for modeling and individual Elkonin boxes for each student, letter manipulatives for each child and magnetic or SmartBoard letters for teacher: p, o, d, c, k, s, t, m, h, i, a, r; list of spelling words on poster or whiteboard to read: pop, tap (review), drop, stop, frog, moth, pick (review), log; Decodable text In the Big Top, and assessment worksheet.

 

Procedure: 

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 how to recognize, spell, and read words with the short vowels /a/, /e/, and /i/. Today, we are going to take a close look at the short vowel o that says /o/. When I say /o/ I think of visiting the doctor when they ask to open wide and say /o/.

2. Say: Before we try to spell /o/ let’s listen for it in some words. When I listen for /o/ words, I think “Did I hear a sound of when I open wide?” [Make vocal gesture for /o/.] I’ll show you how to find it in the word pop. [Make an opening wide gesture like at the doctor]. I heard the “open wide” sound in that word because there is a short o sound in pop. Now I’m going to see if it’s in tap. Hmm, I didn’t hear the /o/ open wide sound in tap, did you? Now you try. If you heard /o/, open really wide like you’re at the doctor. If you don’t hear the /o/ say “No open wide!” Is it in not, boat, sock, trot? [Have students open their mouth wide.]

3. Say: Let’s practice more with a tickler tale. My friend Oliver felt really sick last week. He had to go to the hospital and get the doctor to look at him. When the doctor asked Oliver to open wide, Oliver said /o/ and the doctor saw something funny in his throat. The doctor decided Oliver needed his tonsils out. When he finished his operation, his brother Oscar gave him a stuffed octopus to make him feel better. Here’s our tongue tickler: Oliver had an operation in October, and Oscar gave him an octopus. Can you repeat that with me? [Students repeat tongue tickler together.]

4. Say: One way to spell /o/ is with the letter o. [Write o on the board.] What if I wanted to spell the word drop? “I would like a cough drop.” To spell drop in letterboxes, I need to know how many phonemes, or sounds, it has. To do this, I need to stretch the word out and count what I hear. I hear: /d/ /r/ /o/ /p/. How many sounds did you hear? That’s right! I heard four sounds so we need four boxes. [Project letterboxes on the board.] I heard /o/ before the /p/ so I’m going to put o in the third box. The word starts with /d/, so I need to put d in the first box. The next sounds I hear is /r/ so I need to put r in the second letterbox. The last sound I heard is /p/ so I will put p in the last box. Now let’s sound out each letter in the boxes and blend them together to see if we spelled drop correctly: /d/ /r/ /o/ /p/, drop! [Point to each letter in boxes when stretching out and blending the word.]

5. Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You’ll start easy with three boxes for log, the squirrel jumped over the log. What should go in the first box? [Respond to students’ answers. What goes in the second box? I’m coming around to check your spelling. [Check progress.] You’ll need four letter boxes for the next word. Listen for the beginning sound that goes in the first box. Then listen for /o/. The word is frog. I saw a frog by my front door. [Give time for students to spell word.] Time to check. Watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the board: f-r-o-g and see if your word matches mine. Let’s try another with four boxes: Stop, You must stop at the stop sign. [Have v volunteer spell stop in the letterboxes on the board and other students check their work. Repeat for each new word.] Watch how I spell dock in my letterboxes: d-o-ck. Be careful with this word; it ends with ck because we use ck to make one sound after a short vowel. Next word: listen to see if this word has /o/ in it before you spell it: pick. Pick up your brother from school. Did you hear the sound telling you to “open wide”? [Volunteer spells pick on the board.] This next word is moth; “A moth flew into my lightbulb” moth. This word is tricky, but give it a try. [Allow time to spell words.] Now let’s check our work.

6. 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 word. [Display poster with dock on the top and model reading the word.] First, I see there is a single o in the middle; that’s my signal that the vowel will open wide and say /o/. I’m going to use a coverup to read the first part. [Uncover and blend sequentially before the vowel, the blend with the vowel.] d = /d/. Now I’m going to blend that with /o/ = /do/. Now all I need is the end, /ck/ = /dok/. Dock; that’s it. Now it’s your turn, everyone together. [Have students read words in unison. Afterwards, call on individuals to read one word on the list until everyone has had a turn.]

7. Say: You’ve done a great job reading words with our new spelling /o/: o. Now we’re going to read a book called In the Big Top. This is a story of a family with a unique job. The family is on their way to work, but has to pile everyone into the car. Let’s get into pairs and see who gets into the car and where they will go. [Children pair up and take turns reading alternating pages while teacher walks around to monitor progress. After individual paired reading, the class rereads In the Big Top aloud together, and stops between pages and turns and talks about the plot.]

8. Say: That was a fun story. What kind of job did the family have? Did you predict that from the title? Before we finish with our lesson about spelling /o/ = o, I want to see how you can solve a reading problem. On this worksheet, we have some pictures with a letter and boxes with ending sounds. Your job is to identify the picture, and then match the pictures beginning sound with the ending sound. Once you have an idea, cut out the pictures, glue them where they match. If you need to, say the words aloud and stretch out the sounds. [Collect worksheets to evaluate each student’s progress.]

 

Resources:

Aaaa, An Alligator!  https://morgananderson0011.wixsite.com/mysite-1/beginning-reading

by Morgan Anderson

 

Cushman, S. In the Big Top. Educational Insights, Carson, CA (USA). 1990.

 

Assessment worksheet: (Short Vowel Sounds “o”)

https://www.education.com/download/worksheet/67459/meet-word-family-short-o.pdf

 

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