Coach Sam says, "B-aaa-tter up!"

Emily Atherton

Rationale: This lesson teaches children about the short vowel correspondence a= /a/. In order to be able to read, the 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 a. They will learn a meaningful representation: saying /a/ such as, b-aaa-tter up! (like the coach says when it’s your turn to bat!) They will spell and read words containing this spelling in a Letterbox lesson, and read a decodable book that focus on this correspondence, a=/a/.

Materials:

Picture of a coach saying, “batter up!”
White Board
Expo Markers
Elkonin boxes for modeling and individual Elkonin boxes for each student
Letter manipulatives for each child and magnetic letters for the teacher

a, c, t, m, n, d, s, h, l, k

List of spelling words on a white board to read: Cat, Man, Dad, Sam, Ham, Chat, Last, Mask, Dat, Lan.
Decodable Text: Cat Nap
Assessment Worksheet

Procedure:

Say: In order to become expert readers, we need to learn the code that tells us how to pronounce words. Today we are going to focus on the short vowel a that says /a/. When I say /a/ I think of a Coach saying “B-aaa-tter up!”
Say:Before we try to spell /a/ let’s listen for it in some words. When I listen for /a/ words, I think “Does it sound like the coach is telling me to b-aaa-tter up?” [make vocal gesture for /a/.] I’ll show you how to find it in the word cat. Let’s stretch out the word: c c c a a a t t t. I heard the coach say b-aaa-tter up” in that one! Now I am going to see if it is in bed. b b b e e e d d d. Hmm, I didn’t hear it in that one. Now you try. If you heard /a/, think of a coach telling you do b-aaa-tter up! If you don’t hear the /a/ just say no. Is it in bat, beg, home, sat?
Say: Let’s practice with a tickler tale. It all started when Ralph went to Coach Sam for help with baseball! The Coach said “b-aaa-tter up” and helped Ralph make the team! Coach Sam said batter up Ralph!
Say: One way to spell /a/ is with the letter a (write a on the board.) What if I wanted to spell the word Ham? “I ate Ham for Thanksgiving.” To spell ham 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: /h/ /a/ /m/. How many sounds did you hear? That’s right! I heard three sounds so we need three boxes. (project letters on the board). I heard /a/ before the /m/ so I am going to put the a in the second box. The word starts with /h/, so I need to put h in the first box. The next sound I hear is /m/ so I need to put this in the third/last box. Now let’s sound out each letter in the boxes and blend them together to see if we spelled it correctly: /h/ /a/ /m/, Ham! (point to each letter in boxes when stretching out and blending the word.)
Say: Now I am going to have you spell words in letterboxes. You’ll start with three boxes for man, “The man was wearing red shoes.” What should go in the first box? (respond to students’ answers.) What goes in the second box? I am going around to check your spelling (check progress.) You’ll need four boxes for the next word. Listen for the beginning sound that goes in the first letterbox. Then listen for /a/. The word is last. “I ate dinner last.” (give time for students to spell words). Time to check. What how I spell it in letterboxes on the board. L-a-s-t: see if your word matches mine. Watch how I spell chat in my letterboxes: ch-a-t. Be careful with the word; it begins in ch because we use ch to make one sound before or after a short vowel. Next word: listen to see if this word has /a/ in it before you spell it: lunch. I eat sandwiches for lunch. Did you hear the coach say b-aaa-tter up? (Pick a student to spell lunch on the board). (Put another letter box out. The next word is mask. “I wore a mask for Halloween.” Mask. This word is tricky, but give it a try. (give time). Now let’s check our work.
Say: Now I am going to let you read the words you’ve spelled but first I want to show you how I would read a word. (Display poster with chat on the top and model reading the word.) First, I see there is a single a in the middle; that is my signal that the vowel is harder to hear and say /a/. I am going to use a cover up to read the first part. (uncover and blend sequentially before vowel, then blend with bowel.) ch=/ch/. Now I am going to blend that with a=/cha/ Now all I need is the end /t/= /chat/. Chat. That’s it! Now it’s your turn, everyone together. (Have students read in unison. After, call on students to read one word on the list to everyone has had a turn)
Say: you have done a great job learning words with your new spelling a=/a/. Now we are going to read a book called Cat Nap. This is a book about a cat named Tab and a man named Sam. Tab the fat cat always takes naps… long naps. One day Tab took a nap in Sam’s baseball bag. Sam took his baseball bag to practice but did not know Tab was in there. What will happen? Will Tab be ok? Will Sam find him in his bag? We will have to read to find out! (children take turns reading with a partner and teacher goes around to monitor progress. Then the class rereads the story together and stops between each page and talks about the plot!
Say: That was such a silly story! Did you predict the ending? Before we finish with our lesson about the spelling a=/a/, I want to see how you can solve the reading problem, on the worksheet we will color pictures that when said aloud have a short a sound! Then, then we will circle the words with the sound and lastly you will write the words with the short a sound. For assessment, I will give the students a list of short a pseudo-words to pronounce (provided below).

Short a Pseudo-word list:

Chad
Wad
Chab
Pap
Sav

Resources:

Caroline Shea. /o/ Open Wide! https://chs0025.wixsite.com/lessondesigns/beginning-reading

Cushman, Sheila, et al. Phonics Readers: Short Vowels. Educational Insights, 1990

Worksheet: Short A activity

https://www.myteachingstation.com/short-a-sound-worksheet

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