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A Beginning Reading Lesson

 Ellie Mulvaney

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Rationale: This lesson teaches children about the long vowel correspondence a_e = /A/.  In order to be able to read, children must learn to recognize the spellings that map word pronunciations. In this lesson children will learn to recognize, spell, and read words containing the spelling a_e. They will learn a meaningful representation (cheering ‘yay’ with the sound /A/) they will spell and read words containing this spelling in a letterbox lesson, and read a decodable book that focuses on the correspondence a_e = /A/.

 

Materials:

• Graphic image of an minion or person saying “YAY!”

• Cover-up critter

• Whiteboard or smartboard

• Elkonin boxes for modeling

• Individual Elkoin Boxes for each student

• Letter manipulatives for each child

• Magnetic or smartboard letters for teacher: a, c, b, k, t, e, p, l, t, r, w, and s

• List of spelling words on a poster to read: bake, ate, pale, lake, pack, trace, waste, scrape

• Decodable text: Jake Stays Awake

• Assessment worksheet

 

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, like at, and today we are going to learn about long A and the silent e signal that is used to make A say its name, /A/. When I say /A/ I think of cheering for my favorite team saying “yAy” [show graphic image]. Now let’s look at the spelling of /A/ that we’ll learn today. One way to spell /A/ is with the letter a and a signal e at the end of the word to tell me to say A’s name. [Write a_e on the board.]  This blank line here means there is a consonant after a, and at the end of the word there is a little silent e signal.

2. Say: Before we learn about the spelling of /A/, we need to listen for it in some words. When I listen for /A/ in words, I hear a say its name /A/ and I myself cheering yaaaaaay. [Make jazz hands motions while saying /A/.] I’ll show you first: take. I heard a say its name and I heard myself cheering yAAAAy [jazz hands]. There is a long A in take. Now I’m going to see if it’s in trip. Hmm, I didn’t hear a say its name. Now you try. If you hear /A/ say, “yAAAAy.” If you don’t hear /A/ say, “That’s not it.” Is it in save, rat, rake, coat, sap, sake? [Have children make jazz hands when they hear /A/ say its name.]

3. What if I want to spell the word bake? “If I bake a cake, I can eat it.” Bake means to cook in this sentence. To spell bake in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word so I stretch it out and count: /b//a//k/. I need 3 boxes. I heard that /A/ just before the /k/ so I’m going to put an a in the 2nd box and the silent e signal outside the last box. The word starts with /b/, that’s easy; I need an b. Now it gets a little tricky so I’m going to say it slowly, /b//a//k//. I think I heard /a/ so I’ll put an a right after the b. One more after the /A/, hmm . . .  /b//a//k//, I think I heard a /k/.  I have one empty box now. [Point to letters in boxes when stretching out the word: /b//a//k//.]. The missing letter is /k/.

4. Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You’ll start out easy with two boxes for ate. “I ate some yummy cookies!” What should go in the box first? (Respond to the children’s answers). What goes in the second box? What about the silent e, did you remember to put it outside the boxes? I’ll check your spelling while I walk around the room. (Observe progress). You’ll need three letterboxes for the next word. Listen for the beginning sound that goes in the first box. Then listen for /A/ and don’t forget to put the signal silent e at the end, outside the boxes. Here’s the word: pale. My pale is full of water; pale. (Allow child to spell word). Time to check your work. Watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the board: p – a – l – e and see if you’ve spelled it the same way. Try another word with three boxes: lake; I like to swim in the lake. (Ask a volunteer to spell it on the front board. Repeat this step for each new word). Next word. Listen to see if this word has /A/ in it before you spell it: pack; you need to pack for a trip to the beach. Did you need a silent e? Why not? Right, because we don’t hear a say its ‘yAAAy. We spell it with our short vowel a. [volunteer spells it on the front board.] Did you remember to spell /k/ with a ck? Now let’s try a 4-phoneme word: trace; Trace the pictures with a black marker. One more then we’re done with spelling, and this time you need four boxes: waste; Throwing away good food is a waste. Remember to stretch it out to get the tough word out.”

5. Say: Now I am going to let you read the words you have spelled. But before that I will show you how I would read a tough word (display poster with scrape at the top and model reading the word) I am going to start with a_e; that part says /A/.  I see that there’s a silent e on the end that’s my signal that the vowel will say its name. There’s the vowel A. I am going to use a cover-up critter to get the first part. (Uncover and blend sequentially before the vowel, then blend the vowel.) I am going to put the beginning letters with it s – c – r- a_e /scrA/. Now I’ll put the chunk together with the last sound, /scra-p/. Oh, scrape, like “There is a scape on my knee!” 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 and reading words with our new spelling for /A/: a_e. Now we are going to read a book called Jake Stays Awake. Jake can’t sleep. He climbs into bed with his mom and dad. Now Jake’s parents can’t sleep. Even the dog is awake. Let’s pair up and take turns reading Jake Stays Awake to see where the family ends up sleeping. [Children pair up and take turns reading alternate pages each while teacher walks around the room monitoring progress. After individual paired reading, the class rereads Jake Stays Awake aloud together, and stops between page turns to discuss the plot.]

7. That was a fun story. Before we finish up with our lesson about on ways to spell /A/ = a_e, I want you to try some spelling and reading. This worksheet, we have three words under a picture.  Each picture has blanks underneath it for you to spell out what it is. Each words has the /A/ sound. At the bottom of the worksheet, fill in the blanks with a_e and read the finished word.

 

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Example Lesson Design- Sarah Price, Eeek, It’s Big E!- Long /E/- http://sarahpricelessondesigns.weebly.com/beginning-reading.html

​Book: Jake Stays Awake