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Beginning Reading Design

“Harry the Hound Dog”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Harry the hot hound dog has to have his water, or he will not be happy."

 

Rationale: In this lesson, I will teach the consonant correspondence h = /h/. For children to be able to read, they must learn to recognize spellings that map word pronunciations. This lesson will teach students how to recognize, spell, and read words containing h. They will learn a meaningful representation (a hot and tired dog panting) to help them associate the letter with the phoneme. Students will read and spell words in a letter box lesson. In addition, they will read a decodable book with an emphasis on the correspondence h = /h/.

 

Materials: Graphic image of a tired dog panting; cover-up critter; projector and screen; white board; Elkonin boxes for modeling and Elkonin boxes for each individual student; letter manipulatives for each student and for the teacher: h, u, r, r, y, o, t, a, m, e, s, u, g, s, l; list of spelling words on flashcards for each student to read: hurry, hamster, hot, hat, heart, hurt, harm, horns; decodable book: A House for Hermit Crab by Eric Carle; assessment worksheets for each student.

 

Procedure: (1) Say— To become a reading expert, we need to learn how to read the “code” which tells us how to pronounce words. We have already learned to read words with vowels, such as a, e, i, o, and u. When I say /h/, I think of a dog panting. Show—image of cartoon dog panting. (2) Say— Here is a funny tongue tickler to help you remember /h/: “Harry the hot hound dog has to have his water, or he will not be happy.” Repeat the tongue tickler with me: “Harry the hot hound dog has to have his water, or he will not be happy.” (3) Say—Now, before we learn the spelling of /h/, we need to listen for it in spoken words. When I say /h/, my mouth stays open and air comes out, like a panting dog. Show—image of cartoon dog panting and make the vocal gestures of /h/. Say—I will show you how to identify /h/: Hamburger has /h/ in it. When I start to say hamburger very slowly, my mouth is open and air is coming out, and it sounds like a dog panting. Now let’s see if /h/ is in balloon. When I say balloon, I don’t hear a hot dog panting. I did not feel my mouth open and air come out. Let’s practice. When I say a word, listen closely and if you hear /h/, say hot dog, but if you do not hear /h/, don’t say anything. Read the following words to the students and have them identify whether or not they hear /h/: muffin, hair, plant, window, harness, dog, history, nest, harmful. (4)  Say—Now, let’s look at the spelling of /h/. Show—demonstrate writing h on the white board. Say—I want to spell the word hamster. I want a pet hamster. To spell hamster in letter boxes, I need to count how many phonemes are in the word, so I will stretch it out and count. Show—count the number of phonemes in hamster on fingers: /h/ /a/ /m/ /s/ /t/ /e/ /r/. Say—I need 7 boxes. When I say it slowly, I hear hot dog /h/ at the very beginning of hamster, so I am going to put h in the first box. Next, I hear the crying baby /a/, so I am going to put a in the second box. Then, I hear hummingbird /m/, so I am going to put m in the third box. After that, I hear slithering snake /s/ so I will put s in the fourth box. In the fifth, I will put t because I hear ticking time telling /t/. In the sixth, I will put e for creaky rocking chair /e/. Finally, in the seventh box, I will put r where I hear a chainsaw /r/. We have spelled hamster!

 

 

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(5) Say—Now I am going to have you all spell some words with letter boxes. We are going to start off simple with a word that only needs 3 letterboxes: hot. I love to drink hot chocolate during winter. Try spelling hot on your own as I walk around and see how you all are doing. Now spell hat, like a hat you might wear on your head to keep the sun out of your eyes (observe students’ progress again). This time add another box because the next word has 4 phonemes. The next word is harm. It is important to wear sunscreen so that the sun’s rays do not harm your skin. (allow time for students to spell word on their own). Alright, let’s check our work now. Watch me spell harm with my letterboxes and see if you spelled it the same way: h-a-r-m. Let’s try another word with 4 boxes: heart. I have a heart for animals. Who wants to help me spell heart (have a volunteer student spell the word for the whole class on the projector and allow students to check their work. Repeat this step after each new word)? The next word is urge. After dinner, I get a strong urge to eat dessert. Did you hear hot dog /h/ in urge? No. I hear caveman /u/, chainsaw /r/, and jump rope /j/, but no hot dog /h/. Finally, let’s try a 5- phoneme word. Spell horns. The ram has two spiral horns (observe student progress). (6) Say—Now we are going to read all of the words we just spelled, but first, I am going to show you how to read a tough word. Show—display the word hassle on the projector. Say—I see that there is an h, and that is my signal that this consonant says hot dog /h/. There is the consonant h, so it must say /h/! I am going to use a cover-up critter to decode the first part. Show—uncover and blend sequentially before the vowel, then blend with the vowel. Say-- /h/ = h, /a/= a, /ss/ = ss, /l/ = l, and the e is silent. Hassle! (Have students read the word together and then call on students to read the rest of the words from the cards until everyone has had a turn). (6) Say—You all have done a wonderful job reading and spelling words with h=/h/. Now we are going to read a book called A House for Hermit Crab by Eric Carle. This book is about a hermit crab who outgrows his old shell and must move into a new one, facing new challenges and meeting new creatures along the way. Do you think the hermit crab will like his new home? Let’s read on to find out what happens! (Students will partner up to take turns reading the book one page at a time while the teacher walks around and monitors, and afterwards, the class will discuss the book). (7) Say—What a fun story! Now, we are going to complete a worksheet that has to do with /h/=h. Circle all the pictures that start with the letter h.

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