Rationale: 

This lesson teaches children about the short vowel correspondence o=/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 o. They will learn a meaningful representation (The Dog Likes To Jog), 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:

• Graphic image of dog jogging 

• cover-up critter

• whiteboard or smartboard

• Elkonin boxes for modeling and individual Elkonin boxes for each student 

• letter manipulatives for each child and magnetic/smartboard letters for teacher: o, n, m, p, s, t, c, l, k, r, n, g, h, f

• list of spelling words on poster or whiteboard to read: on, mop, stop, clock, strong, prompt, hot, frog

• Decodable text: The Tot and the Pot, 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 some short vowel words with a, like mat, and e, like pet, and today we are going to learn about short o, and say its name, /o/. When I say /o/ I think of someone drinking a tall glass of water and saying “ahhhhh” [Show image – attached.] 

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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 “ahhh” like drinking a tall glass of water in the summertime, and my lips make a large o shape.[Make vocal gesture for /o/.] I’ll show you first: pot. I heard o say its name and I felt my lips make a large o shape [make a circular motion around your open mouth]. There is a short o in pot. Now I’m going to see if its in get. Hmmm, 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, “The Dog Likes To Jog.” If you don’t hear /o/ say, “That’s not it.” Is it in mat, spot, pat, top? [Have children make a circular motion around their mouth when they feel /o/ say its name.] 

3. Say: Now let’s look at the spelling of /o/ that we’ll learn today. We spell /o/ with the letter “o”. What if I want to spell the word stop? “We had to stop our talking, so we could listen to the teacher!” To spell stop in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word, so I stretch it out and count: /s/ /t/ /o/ /p/. I need four boxes. I heard that /o/ just before the /p/ so I’m going to put an o in the third letterbox. The word starts with /s/, that’s easy; I need an s. The s goes in the first letterbox. Now it gets a little tricky, so I am going to say it slowly. /s//t//o//p/. I think I heard /t/ so I’ll put a t right after the s. Now we must finish the word with the last letterbox. I’m now going to show you how to read a tough word on the poster board (grabs poster board with the word prompt on it and tapes it to the whiteboard). I need to put the beginning letters with it: p-r-o, /pro/. Now I’ll put the chunk together with the very last sounds /pro-mpt/. I like to be on time, or a prompt, to school. 

4. Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You’ll start out easy with two boxes for on. “Did the dog go on a jog? 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: hot, “I like when it is hot outside.” [Allow children to spell words.] Time to check your work! Watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the board: h-o-t and see if you’ve spelling it the same way. Try another with three boxes: mop; “My dad likes to mop.” [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; “I found a small rock outside.” Did you hear the short o? 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: clock; “The clock was on the wall.” One more then we’re done with spelling, and this time you need five boxes: strong; “Bob likes to workout, so he is 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 strong on the top and model reading the word.] First, I see there’s a 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.] /s//t//r/=/str/. Now I’m going to blend that with /o/=/stro/. No all I need is the end, /ng/=/strong/. Strong; 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 The Tot and the Pot. This is a story about Tom who is sitting outside with his mom. Tom sees a pot he wants to play with. Will Tom be able to reach the pot? If so, what will he do with the pot? Let’s pair up and take turns reading The Tot and the Pot to find out if Tom can reach the pot. (Students will pair up and take turns reading alternate pages each while teacher walks around the room monitoring the progress. After individual paired reading, the class rereads The Tot and the Pot aloud together, and stops between page turns to discuss what is happening in the story.) 

7. Say: That was a fun story. Before we finish up with our lesson about spelling o=/o/, I want to see how you can solve a reading problem. On this worksheet, we have some letters that are mixed around. Your job is to unscramble the letters to form an /o/=o word. The pictures should help figure out the words. Reread all the words to see if they make sense. [Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress.]

 

Resources: 

• Hannah Lee, “Aaah, an Ant!”

https://hml0015.wixsite.com/mysite-2/beginning-reading  

• Book: The Tot and the Pot by Lili Henderson

https://www.readinga-z.com/book.php?id=1109

• Worksheet:

https://www.lessonplanet.com/teachers/short-vowel-o-english-language-arts-1st-2nd

• Pictures: 

https://www.shutterstock.com/search/jogging+dogs?image_type=vector

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