Wet your kinders' chops on the sound "op"!

Students will explore the sound “Op” with a reading of Charlie Parker Played Be-Bop by Chris Raschka and a showing of the PBS Between the Lions episode #130 “Be Bop,” which also features the Charlie Parker book and explores the “op” sound.

A lesson plan for grade K English Language Arts

By Dirk Robertson

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Related topics

• Learn more about decoding, language arts, nouns, parts of speech, phonemic awareness, reading, and verbs.

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Learning outcomes

The students will learn to:

• interact with books that feature the “op” sound
• predict and determine “op” words in literature
• to distinguish between “name ops” and “action ops” in literature
• to develop spelling and writing “op” words

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

2 days

Materials/resources

• Charlie Parker Played Be-Bop by Christopher Raschka
• Episode #130 of “Between The Lions” entitled “Be Bop”
• Op Words attachment
• books that emphasize the “op” sounds

Technology resources

• TV/VCR for the video presentation
• presenter/SmartBoard/SmartTV if you choose to do some “op” web-questing!
• DVD player for the TV if you choose to borrow and show the Ken Burns’ Jazz series which includes “Charlie Parker” (this is also available on VHS Tape, but the DVD is a better resource!)

Pre-activities

The students need to know nothing other than to have their phonic and writing skills to the point that they can handle sounding and writing “op” words.

Activities

The instructor may choose to do many steps in one day or spread the exposure over several days as the instructor sees fits.

1. Go over the Op Words attachment these words with the students to get them thinking about words that will appear in the story.
2. Have students guess “op” words that may appear in the story. Have them tell you the list of words in the attachment!
3. Read the story to them (NOTE: This is a great repetitive story. In other words, read one line and then stick your hand out to indicate they should repeat what you say. A few will be confused for the first line of the story, but they quickly catch on.)
4. View the “Be Bop” episode #130 from the “Between the Lions” series and pause during examples of “op” words to emphasize the meaning.
5. Have a brief lesson discussing the “op” words that are nouns “naming words” and the “op” words that are verbs “action words”.
6. Offer group center time during the day for students to find “op” pictures and possibly words (if they have the reading skills) in books selected by the teacher.
7. Have the kinders write the op words they have learned to add to their “word club” or whatever writing incentive is used in the classroom.

Assessment

• Go to “Op” Lesson Rubric to print a rubric for the students’ evaluation of the lesson
• Interview each student individually to evaluate comprehension:
  • ask what instrument Charlie Parker played
  • ask what kind of music he played
  • ask them to write as many “op” words as possible and evaluate their growth as compared to other words they have learned to write during the year
  • ask them to point to a “naming op” word and to an “action op” word

Supplemental information

This lesson simply extends the phonic skills of the kinder teacher and offers an exciting way to bring literature and music together to provide a unique insight into phonics studies

Comments

• Bonus! Purchase or borrow a Charlie Parker CD and let the children hear Charlie Parker during the lesson and later party times!
• Bonus! Arrange a local talented high school jazz saxophonist to learn a Charlie Parker solo and come play it for the class!
• Bonus! Borrow the Ken Burns’ DVD Series “Jazz” from the local public library and play the Charlie Parker segments so the students can see what he looks like while playing the saxophone to bring more meaning to African-American History Month.