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Arrrr Me Mateys!

pirate.jpg

A Beginning Reading Lesson 

 Rebecca Friday 

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Rationale: This lesson teaches children about the long vowel correspondence ar=/R/. 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 ar.  They will learn a meaningful representation, they will spell and read words containing this spelling in a Letterbox lesson and read a decodable book that focuses on the correspondence ar=/R/. 

 

Materials: Graphic image of a pirate, cover-up critter, whiteboard for modeling and individual whiteboards for each student, letter manipulatives for each child and magnetic letters for teacher: h, a, r, d, y, f, m, b, k, s, p, list of spelling words on poster or whiteboard to read: hard, yard, farm, bark, harm, sharp, decodable text: Where is the shark and assessment worksheet. 

 

Procedure: 

  1. Say: in order to become expect readers we need to learn the code that tells us how to pronounce words. We have already learned to read short words with a, like bat, and today we are going to learn about the long R and the letters that help make it, /ar/. When I say /ar/ I think of the friendly pirate saying “ARRR me Matey” [show graphic image]. 

 

  1. Say: Before we learn about the spelling of /ar/, we need to listen for it in some words. When I listen for /ar/ in words, I hear R say its name /R/ and my lips make a box shape like this. [Make vocal gesture for /R/.] I’ll show you first: farm. I heard r say its name and I felt my lip make a little box [make a square motion around pursed lip]. There is a long R in farm. Now I’m going to see if it’s in chair. I didn’t hear r say its name and my lips didn’t make the square shape. Now everyone try it. If you hear it say “Arrr Me Matey.” If you don’t hear /R/ say “Goodbye my friend.” Is it in hard, yard, bark, and sharp? [Have children make a square motion around their pursed lips when they feel /R/ say its name.]

  2. Say: Now let’s look at the spelling of /R/ that we’ll learn today. One way to spell /R/ is with the letter a and the signal r at the end of the word to tell me to say R’s name. [Write ar on the board.] When the two letters are next to each other we know it makes the long R sound. What if we want to spell the word starch? ‘If I put starch in my laundry, it will make it better.” Starch is a liquid that you add to your laundry to help you get the wrinkles out. To spell starch in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word, so I stretch it out and count: /s/ /t/ /AR/ /ch/. I just need 4 boxes. I heard that /R/ just before the/ch/ so I am going to put an ar in the 3rd box. The word starts with /s/, so I am going to need an s. Now we are going to say it slowly, /s/ /t/ /AR/ /ch/. We heard a /t/ so I am going to put a t right after the s. Now we have two boxes left. Let’s say it again /s/ /t/ /AR/ /ch/, we can place the ar in the next box. We finish our letterbox words with adding ch in the very last letterbox. 

 

  1. Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxed. You’ll start out easy with two boxes for car. “I bought a brand-new var.” What should go in the first box? [Respond to children’s answers]. What goes in the second box? I am going to check your spelling as 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 the /R/. The next word is: Card, I have a birthday card for you; card. [Allow children to spell word.] Time to check your work. Watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the board: c-a-r-d and see if you spell it the same way. Try another with three boxes: Star; I am going to give you a gold star. [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 /R/ in it before you spell it; shark; I swam with the sharks today. [volunteer spells it on the front board.] One more then we’re done with spelling, and this time you need four letterboxes: alarm; If I open the door, the alarm will go off. Remember to stretch it out to get all of the letters. 

 

  1. 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 shark on the top and model reading the word.] There is the vowel a with the r following it. It must say /R/. I’m going to use the cover-up critter to get the first part. [Uncover and blend sequentially before the vowel, then blend the vowel.] /s//h/ = /s/ + /h/ = /sh/. Now I’m going to blend that with /AR/= /shAR/. Shark; 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.] 

 

  1. Say: you’ve done a great job and reading words with our new spelling for /R/: ar. Now we are going to read a book called Where is the Shark. This is a story about trying to find where the shark is. Is it in the jar? In the yarn? Did they ever find the shark? Let’s pair up and take turns reading Where is the Sharkto find out where he is. [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 Where is the Shark aloud together, and stops between page turns to discuss the plot.]  

 

  1. Say: that was a fun story. Where was the shark? He was in the ocean all along! Before we finish up with our lesson about one way to spell /R/= ar, I want to see how you can solve a reading problem. On this worksheet, we have some parts of the word that are missing. Your job is to look at the picture and fill in the rest of the word. Reread your answer to see if they make sense with the picture. [Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress.] 

 

Resources: 

 

Ar worksheet: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/-AR-Sound-Differentiation-Worksheet-4374448

 

Where is the Shark book: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Browse/Search:shark%20emergent%20reader

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