No Pain, No Brain!
Rationale: This lesson is designed to help children recognize that ai = /A/. Children will learn to recognize the /A/ sound in spoken words that have the öai spelling. They will also spell words with the ai digraph using Elkonin boxes.
Materials: Primary paper and pencils; chart with ãThe maid with the braid will aid in painting the sail.ä; The Long Long Tail (book by Educational Insights); Elkonin letterboxes, large set of laminated letters for each child ö ai, d, p, l, g, n, b, t, r; worksheet with pictures on one side and word on the other that children would be asked to match ö ex. Picture of brain to match with the written word brain
Procedures: 1. Introduce lesson by explaining that sometimes our language has different ways of spelling the same sound ö as in when the vowel digraph ai = /A/. ãEveryone make the /A/ sound. When we say the /A/ sound air comes out of our mouth as our tongue touches the top of our mouths. Everyone say br-ai-n and feel the air coming out of your mouths by putting your hand in front of your mouth like this.ä (model)
2. ãLetâs listen to and read our tongue twister sentence. The maid with the braid will aid in painting the sail.ä (Emphasize the /A/ sound) ãHow many times did we hear the /A/ sound? Thatâs right ö 5 times, and notice how /A/ is spelled with the ai. Even though we donât hear the little i, that is how we spell these words.ä
3. ãNow that we know that the /A/ sound is sometimes spelled ai, letâs spell some words!ä (Iâll pass out envelopes with all of the needed letters and explain why I have taped ai together. I will also pass out Elkonin letterboxes.) ãLetâs start with two letterboxes and spell the word aid.ä (Give praise when it is mastered) Now letâs use 3 letterboxes to spell pail, gain, and bait. (Allow time in between) 4 ö braid, paint, brain. ãVery good! You have spelled many ai words.ä
4. Now I will read The Long Long Tail. See if you can hear the ai words and we will list them on the board when we finish reading. List words that have ai spelling that = /A/.
5. Now Iâd like all of you to copy our tongue twister onto your paper. Circle the words that say /A/ that we just talked about.
6. Now I will give you a sheet with pictures that have the /A/ sound. Write the name of the picture below it on the line. (pictures will be obvious ai words that the children will be familiar with ö brain, paint, pail, maid, braid, etc.
7. The assessment would be the in the spelling of the /A/ in the worksheet activity (see #6). I could also see that they understand the letterbox lesson and have them read back the words that they spelled.
Reference: Murray, B.A. & Lesniak, T. (1999). ãThe Letterbox Lesson: a hands-on approach to teaching decoding.ä The Reading Teacher, 43, 282-295.
Educational Insights: The Long Long Tail.
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