The Sock Hop!
Rationale: Being able to decode is one step to learning to read easily and quickly. The connection between graphemes and phonemes must be made in order to do this. Short vowels are some of the important phonemes that must be learned. This lesson will focus on o=/o/. The children will practice /o/ in spoken and written words as well as make the connection between the grapheme and phoneme.
Materials: Primary paper, pencil, Doc in the Fog (Educational Insights), chart with ãTodâs sock hop blocked Bobâs jogä, picture page (drawn by teacher) with: frog, pot, blond, stop, flock, and clock.
1. Writing is a secret code in which we have to learn what letters stand for. We have to learn what mouth moves we make when we say words. Today we are going to work on the mouth move /o/. At first this may seem hidden but once you get to know it you will recognize it in many words.
2. Ask Students: Have you ever had to open your mouth wide for the doctor and say /o/? Well, the /o/ mouth move is the one we are looking for in words. Letâs try it. Pretend you are at the doctor. Open wide /o/, wider /o/.
3. Letâs try a tongue twister on a chart: ãTodâs sock hop blocked Bobâs jogä. Now, letâs say it together. This time letâs stretch out the /o/ sound. ãTooodâs sooock hoop blooocked Booobâs jooogä.
4. Now letâs take out our primary paper and pencil. We can write the letter o for the sound /o/. Take your pencil and start a little under the fence, curve down to the sidewalk, curve over and back up to the fence.(this will be modeled) Now I want you to make five more just like it. O is the signal for you to say /o/.
5.Call on students to tell what they knew and how they answered: Do you hear /o/ in fog or code? Frog or tumble?
Float or clock? Flock or lip? Letâs practice the /o/ sound. Say /o/ if you hear the /o/ sound and no if you do not for these words. Todâs sock hop blocked Bobâs jog.
6. Read: Doc in the Fog and discuss the story. Read the book a second and this time having the students raise their hand when they hear the /o/ sound. Then write the words they hear on the board. The students will draw picture of the words and write about it using invented spelling.
7. For assessment: Give the students a picture page and have them name the pictures. Then they will circle the pictures whose names have /o/.
References: Eldredge, J. Lloyd. Developing Phonemic
Awareness. Teaching Decoding in Holistic Classrooms.
New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1995: p.17-19.
Click here to return to