R-Controlled Vowels: A Lesson on ‘ar’ and ‘or’

DAngela Huggins: So we're going to get ready to do our OG lesson for today. So let's ...

Narrator: Teacher DAngela Huggins is working on the r-controlled vowel sounds /ar/ and /or/ with a small group of first graders. She starts with a review of short vowel sounds.

DAngela Huggins: So let's drill our vowels. So we're going to do only our short vowel sounds. You guys ready? Eyes on me and let's go. We have ...

Students: 'a', apple, /ă/ ...

DAngela Huggins: Very good ...

Students: 'u', up, /ŭ/ ...

DAngela Huggins: All right ...

Students: 'i', itch, /ĭ/ ...

DAngela Huggins: Very good. And we have ...

Students: 'o', octopus, /ŏ/ ...

DAngela Huggins: Very nice. And we have ...

Students: 'e', Ed, /ĕ/ ...

DAngela Huggins: Very good. And those are all of our short vowels. And then I brought in our consonant. What consonant is this?

Students: 'r' ...

DAngela Huggins: What's our sound?

Narrator: Now Ms. Huggins will introduce the new spelling pattern, r-controlled vowels. This spelling pattern has many names, including bossy 'r' and vowel-r.

DAngela Huggins: And these are our bossy 'r' cards. So we're only going to focus on the sound of 'or' and 'ar'. So listen to me and then I want you to repeat, okay?

Students: Okay.

DAngela Huggins: All right. We have 'or', horn, /or/ ... your turn ...

Students: 'or', horn, /or/ ...

DAngela Huggins: Very good. One more time.

Narrator: Ms. Huggins models saying the letters, keyword, and sound. And then she asked the students to repeat what she says.

DAngela Huggins: 'ar', car, /ar/ ... your turn ...

Students: 'ar', car, /ar/ ...

DAngela Huggins: One more time ...

Students: 'ar', car, /ar/ ...

DAngela Huggins: Very good. So we're going to be learning about 'r', not just 'r', the bossy 'r'. And show me your bossy stance. Again. The bossy 'r' ... So we're going to do some words today, we're going to do some dictation.

Narrator: Dictation or spelling is an essential component of a phonics lesson. It helps students solidify the sound/letter correspondence they're learning, in this case with the sound /or/ is spelled with 'or' ...

DAngela Huggins: ... our bossy 'r' sound and then we're going to do a sentence. All right, so our first sound, it's a new sound that we learned today. And that first sound is /or/ repeat ...

Students: /or/ ...

DAngela Huggins: Yeah, 'o' and 'r' work together to say /or/, right? So everyone write 'or', /or/. Now let's trace it. We are going to say the letters together. Let's go ...

Ms. Huggins and students: 'or', /or/ ... Let's trace it one more time for us. Charlie.

Narrator: First, students trace over the letters as they say the new sound ...

Ms. Huggins and students: /or/ ...

DAngela Huggins: And then one more time, we have ...

Ms. Huggins and students: 'or', /or/ ...

DAngela Huggins: Good job. All right, so that leads us to our next sound, which is going to be /ar/ ... what is it?

Ms. Huggins and students: /ar/ ...

DAngela Huggins: /ar/ ... /ar/ ... Blakely. How would we spell /ar/ ...

Blakely: 'ar' ...

DAngela Huggins: Very good ... 'ar'. So everyone, let's write 'ar' .... 'ar'. All right. And we're going to say it. Let's trace it ... 'ar' ... sound again ...

Ms. Huggins and students: 'ar', /ar/ ...

DAngela Huggins: 'ar', /ar/ ... and then one more time. We have ...

Ms. Huggins and students: 'ar', /ar/ ...

DAngela Huggins: Very good. Are you ready for some words? All right. We're going to tap our words first. Tap out the sounds and then we're going to write them. So our first word, get your tappers ready, get your tappers ready, is farm. What's the word?

Students: farm ...

DAngela Huggins: "farm" ... let's tap farm ...

Ms. Huggins and students: /f/, /ar/, /m/, farm ...

DAngela Huggins: Let's write "farm." So, can 'r' make the sound all by itself?

Students: Nope.

DAngela Huggins: All right. What does it need help from, Lorelei?

Lorelei: 'a' ...

DAngela Huggins: It needs 'a'. So together, 'ar' says what sound?

Ms. Huggins and students: /ar/ ...

DAngela Huggins: Very good. Now, how did you spell farm?

Students: 'f', 'a', 'r', 'm' ...

DAngela Huggins: 'f', 'a', 'r', 'm' ... farm ... And what was our bossy 'r', r-controlled vowel?

Students: In the middle of farm ...

DAngela Huggins: Okay. And what is it in the middle of farm?

Charlie: 'ar' ...

DAngela Huggins: 'ar' ... so, let's underline that 'ar' so we remember that 'ar' is what sound?

Students: /ar/ ...

DAngela Huggins: It's /ar/, right? Ready for our next word? Our next word is going to be short.

Students: short ...

DAngela Huggins: What's the word?

Students: short ...

DAngela Huggins: The word is ...

Ms. Huggins and students: short ...

DAngela Huggins: Let's get our tappers ready. Let's tap it.

Ms. Huggins and students: /sh/, /or/, /t/ ... short ...

DAngela Huggins: Everyone have short? All right, so I want us together ... let's spell short. Let's go ...

Ms. Huggins and students: 's', 'h', 'o', 'r', 't' ...

DAngela Huggins: Very good ... 's', 'h', 'o', 'r', 't' ... short. And up in the middle again, we have our r-controlled 'or' ... so it's under ... and what sound is it?

Ms. Huggins and students: /or/ ...

DAngela Huggins: /or/ ... Very good, it's /or/ .... So, who's ready to do a sentence?

Students: Me, me, me!

DAngela Huggins: Alright, so our sentence is "They will park the car ..."

Students: "They will park the car" ...

DAngela Huggins: "... in the carport."

Students: "... in the carport."

DAngela Huggins: "They will park the car" ...

Students: "They will park the car" ...

DAngela Huggins: "... in the carport."

Students: "... in the carport."

Narrator: Ms. Huggins gives just enough time for her students to write the sentence on their own before reviewing as a group.

DAngela Huggins: Good job. All right, so let's get ready to help me spell this. And is the first one was a trick word, one of our heart words. They ... spell they for me ...

Students: 't', 'h', 'e', 'y' ...

DAngela Huggins: What was the hard part of they? The part we have to know by heart. Felix?

Felix: The 'y' ...

DAngela Huggins: Oh, is it just the 'y'? There's something else with the 'y' ...

Blakely: The 'e' ...

DAngela Huggins: The 'e' and the 'y' together. Charlie, what is 'e' and 'y'? What do they say together?

Charlie: /a/ ...

DAngela Huggins: Very good, and that's why we call it the heart word because that's the part we had to know by heart. All right, so they "will" ... go ahead ...

Students: 'w', 'i', 'l', 'l' ...

DAngela Huggins: "They will park together" ... Let's make sure I hear all voices. I love all of us talking together when we're spelling back. All right, park ...

Students: 'p', 'a', 'r', 'k' ...

DAngela Huggins: "the" ...

Students: 't', 'h', 'e' ...

DAngela Huggins: "the car" ...

Students: c', 'a', 'r' ...

DAngela Huggins: And then I'll ... all right, carport. Let's see, did we get it? Spell it for me, Charlie.

Charlie: 'c', 'a', 'r', 'p', 'o', 'r', 't' ...

DAngela Huggins: ... 'p', 'o', 'r', 't' ... very good. We learned two bossy 'r's today. We learned ...

Ms. Huggins and students: 'or', /or/ ...

DAngela Huggins: ... and we learned the one that made 'r' really happy ...

Ms. Huggins and students: 'ar', /ar/ ...

DAngela Huggins: Very good. Nice job.

Narrator: Reading Universe is made possible by generous support from Jim & Donna Barksdale, the Hastings/Quillen Fund, an advised fund of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, the AFT, The Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation, and anonymous donors. Special thanks to Burgess-Peterson Academy and Atlanta Public Schools. If you enjoyed this video, please subscribe to our YouTube channel a@RUTeaching. Reading Universe is a service of WETA, Washington, D.C., the Barksdale Reading Institute, and First Book.

DAngela Huggins: This is Reading Universe.