A. Snap or Trap: “he’d,” “I’d,” “you’d,” “o’clock,” “anything,” “would”

• Begin the Snap or Trap instructional practice:

1. Teacher says: “We know some words can be hard to read and spell because they don’t look and sound like they should. We call those words ‘words that don’t play fair.’ Today, we’re going to look at words like this and figure out what makes them hard to read and spell.”

2. Teacher displays a list of Snap or Trap Word Cards (“he’d,” “I’d,” “you’d,” “o’clock,” “anything,” “would”) and a Snap or Trap T-chart.

3. Teacher says: “All of these words are high-frequency words, which means we see them a lot when we read and use them a lot when we spell. Some of them are regularly spelled; they ‘play fair.’ Some of them are irregularly spelled, so they ‘don’t play fair.’ We will figure out which ones should go in the Trap column (words that don’t play fair) and which ones go in the Snap column (words that do play fair).”

4. Teacher reads all words aloud.

5. Teacher reads “o’clock.”

6. Teacher says: “I notice we hear the vowel sound /ō/ in the beginning of the word ‘o’clock’ with an apostrophe after the word. The clock tells time. ‘o’ stands for ‘of the.’ Think of someone asking ‘What “of the” clock?’ instead of ‘What time is it?’ To answer, look at the clock and tell the time, ‘It is 2 of the clock.’ This is a tricky spelling pattern. The word ‘o’clock’ goes in the Trap column.”

7. Teacher puts “o’clock” card in the Trap column.

8. Teacher displays Snap or Trap Word Cards: “he’d,” “I’d,” “you’d.”

9. Teacher says: “Turn to an elbow partner and tell them something you notice about all of these words.” (They all have “d.”)

10. Teacher says: “That’s right! Listen to these sentences: ‘I was afraid you’d ask me that’ and ‘I’d rather have cheese pizza.’”

11. Teacher asks: “‘d’ is replacing the same word in both these sentences. Can anyone think of the word?” (“would”)

12. Teachers says: “Yes! ‘I was afraid you’d ask me that’ is also ‘I was afraid you would ask me that.’ ‘You’d’ is short for ‘you would.’ This is another example of a contraction.”

13. Teacher asks:

“Can anyone see any other trap words? This is a difficult job because we need to use all that we know about letters and sounds to figure out if the word is snap or trap. You might be unsure about the answer. That’s okay! We will help each other as a class think about the words and back up our ideas with evidence.”

14. Student volunteer selects a trap word. (“you’d,” “would”)

15. Teacher asks:

“Why do you think it’s a trap word?” (Answers will vary based on word selected.)

16. Teacher says: “Right! _____ is a trap word because it doesn’t sound like it is spelled. It belongs in the Trap column.”

17. Teacher adds selected trap word to chart.

18. Students and teacher completes steps 8–11 until all trap words are found.

19. Students and teacher chorally read list of trap words together.