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Beginning Reading Design 

                The Pirate Says -AR 
 

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                            The Pirate Says -AR

 

Rationale : This lesson will teach students to understand that ar = /ar/. In order to be able to read, children must learn to recognize the spellings that word map pronunciations. In this lesson children will learn to recognize, spell, and read words containing the spelling ar. They will learn a meaningful representation (pirate saying ar), they will spell and read words containing this spelling in a Letterbox lesson, and read a decodable book that focuses on the correspondence ar = /ar/

 

Materials : Image of a pirate saying -ar, cover-up critter, letterboxes, letter tiles, and smartboard  letters for the teacher: c, t, s, l, b, k, o, e, a, r, m, h, d, and s. List of spelling words on poster to read: car, park, jar, card, shark, star; decodable text: “The Mare and the Hare”, and the assessment worksheet (at bottom of the page)

https://www.tri-valley.k12.oh.us/UserFiles/824/mareandhare_clr.pdf 

→ (link to pdf of The Mare and the Hare)


 

Procedures : 1). Say:  In order to become expert readers we need to learn the code that tells us how to pronounce words. We have already learned to read short vowel words with a in, like cat, and today we are going to learn about the long vowel a in ar that is used to make /ar/. When I say /ar/ I think of the goofy pirate shouting “ar” .         

 

 

 

                                     

 

2). 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 /ar/ and my mouth starts by opening wide and then closing together, but not fully shut. [Make a vocal gesture for /ar/]. I’ll show you first: car. I heard ar and I felt my mouth open wide and then close almost all the way. [Make a hook on your finger and mimic ar like a pirate] There is a long vowel /ar/ in car. Now I’m going to see if it’s in cat. Hmm, I didn’t hear the ar sound and my mouth did not close almost all the way after opening wide. Now you try. If you hear /ar/ hook your finger like a pirate and say “ar!”. If you do not hear /ar/ say, “that’s not it”. Is it in star, lab, bark, lot, late? [Have children hook their finger when they hear the /ar/ sound in each word]. 

 

3). Say: Now let's look at the spelling of /ar/ that we’ll learn today. The way to spell this sound is ar. It can be at the beginning of a word, like in art, the middle of a word, like shark, or at the end of a word, like car. To spell words with ar in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes are in our word so I can stretch the word out. The word we will use is cart. A cart is something we use to help us carry heavy objects, an example is a shopping cart we use in grocery stores. When we stretch it out and count it is : /c/ /ar/ /t/. I need 3 boxes. The word starts with /c/, that’s easy, I need a c. I heard that /ar/ just before the /t/ so I am going to put the ar in the box before the last one. Now, I know the last empty box will contain the t. When I sound out all the sounds /c/ /ar/ /t/, I hear the word cart/! 

 

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4).  Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You’ll start out easy with two boxes for tar. Tar is a dark sticky liquid that comes from coal. “The new road still had some tar on it”. What should go in the first box? [Respond to children’s answers]. What goes in the second box? I’ll check your spelling while I walk around the room. [Observe student’s progress]. You’ll need three letterboxes for the next word. Listen for the beginning sound that goes in the first box. Then listen for /ar/. Here is the word: dart, Jake plays a game of darts with his brother. [Allow children to spell words.] Time to check your work. Watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the board: d - a - r - t and see if you spelled it the same way. Try another with three boxes: shark, the shark swims in the ocean. [Have volunteers 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 /ar/ in it before you spell it: chat; Vivian likes to chat with her friend Mallory. Do you hear the /ar/? Why not? Right because we don’t hear our pirate shouting ar. We spell this word with a short a. [volunteer spells it on the front board.] Now let’s try 4 phonemes: solar, our solar system has 8 planets. One more then we’re done with spelling, and this time you need five boxes: market, we buy groceries from our local market. Remember to stretch it out to get this tough word.

 

5). Say: Now I am going to let you read the words you’ve spelled, but first I’ll show you how to read a tough word. [Display poster with market on the top and model reading the word.] First I see there’s an ar in the middle; that’s my signal that the vowel will say the /ar/ sound like the pirate. I’m going to use a cover-up to get the first part. [Uncover and blend sequentially before the vowel, then blend with the vowel.] /m/ +  /ar/ = /mar/. Now I’m going to blend the next consonants. /k/ = /marK/. Now I need to add the short vowel e = /e/ to the last consonant t = /t/. So, /mark/ + /et/ = market. Market; 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.]

 

6). Say: You’ve done a great job reading words with our new spelling for /ar/.  Now we are going to read a book called The Mare and the Hare. This is a story about a friendship between a hare and a mare. They are the bestest of friends, but are aware that other people think it is odd that a mare is friends with a hare. Let’s pair up and take turns reading The Mare and the Hare to see what happens to the two of them. [Children pair up and take turns reading alternate pages each while the teacher walks around the room monitoring progress. After individual paired reading, the class rereads The Mare and the Hare aloud together, and stops between page turns to discuss the plot.] 

 

7. Say: That was a fun story. The Mare and the Hare even make friends with a bear! Before we finish up with our lesson about one way to spell ar = /ar/, I want to see how you can solve a reading problem. On this worksheet, we have some empty squares. First try reading all the words above the squares, then choose the picture that fits best with the word. Reread your answers to see if they make sense. [Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress.]



 

Resources : 

Brian Roberts, The Mare and the Hare: https://www.tri-valley.k12.oh.us/UserFiles/824/mareandhare_clr.pdf

Assessment worksheet 

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/AR-Worksheets-Activities-NO-PREP-Bossy-R-Controlled-Vowels-1748325

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