Beginning Reading Design

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Rationale: This lesson teaches children about the long vowel correspondence a_e = /A/. 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 (Let’s Bake a Cake) 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 a girl baking a cake; cover-up critter; whiteboard or smartboard Elkonin boxes for modeling and individual Elkonin boxes for each student; letter manipulatives for each child and magnetic or smartboard letters for teacher: s, t, a, n, m, k, e, p, l, r, c, b, v, f; list of spelling words on poster or whiteboard to read: ate, rake, tape, sack, frame, brave; decodable text: Jane and Babe and assessment worksheet.

 

 

Procedures:

1. Say: 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 sat, 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 baking a cake! [show graphic image].

 

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 my mouth opens like I am about to eat something. I’ll show you first: make. I heard a say its name and I felt my mouth open slightly. There is a long A in make. Now I’m going to see if it’s in sack. Hmm, I didn’t hear a say its name. Now you try. If you hear /A/ say, “Let’s Bake a Cake!” If you don’t hear /A/ say, “That’s not it.” Is it in snake, rack, lake, fact, last, shake?

 

3. Say: 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. What if I want to spell the word plane? “I flew in a plane yesterday.” To spell plane in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word, so I stretch it out and count: /p//l//A//n/. I need 4 boxes. I heard that /A/ just before the /n/ so I’m going to put an a in the 3rd box and the silent e signal outside the last box. The word starts with /p/, that’s easy; I need an p. Now it gets a little tricky so I’m going to say it slowly, /p//l//A//n/. I think I heard /l/ so I’ll put a l right after the p. I have one empty box now. [Point to letters in boxes when stretching out the word: /p//l//A//n/.] The missing one is /n/ = n

 

4. Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You’ll start out easy with two boxes for ate. “My mom made spaghetti and I ate it all!” What should go in the first box? [Respond to children’s answers]. What goes in the second box? What about 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: rake, a rake is a tool to clean up leaves in a yard. I need to rake the yard; rake. [Allow children to spell words.] Time to check your work. Watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the board: r – a – k – e and see if you’ve spelled it the same way. Try another with three boxes: tape; I need tape to put a picture on the wall. [Have volunteer 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 /A/ in it before you spell it: sack; Santa uses a sack to carry all the presents. Did you need a silent e? Why not? Right, because we don’t hear a say its name. 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 4 phonemes: frame; the picture did not fit the frame. One more then we’re done with spelling, and this time you need five boxes: brave; If I am brave, I can go down the slide. 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 I would read a tough word. [Display poster with brave on the top and model reading the word.] First, I see there’s a silent e on the end; that’s my signal that the vowel will say its name. There’s the vowel a. It must say /A/. 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.] /b//r/ = /b/ + /r/ = /br/. Now I’m going to blend that with /A/ = /brA/. Now all I need is the end, /v/ = /brAv/. Brave; that’s it. Now it’s your turn, everyone, together. [Have children read words in unison. Afterward, 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 Jane and Babe. This is a story of a big lion named Babe. Babe lives in a cage with a gate to keep him inside. A lady named Jane takes care of Babe. One day, Jane goes into Babe’s cage to feed him, and Babe will not wake up! What will Jane do next? How will she wake up Babe? [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 Jane and Babe aloud together and stops between page turns to discuss the plot.]

 

7. Say: That was a fun story. How did Jane wake Babe? Right, she tapped him with her cane and yelled his name. Before we finish up with our lesson about one way to spell /A/ = a_e, we will do a worksheet. On this worksheet, there are some pictures of things that have a_e in their name. Your job is to look at each picture, say what the picture is out loud, listen for a_e and determine if it is in the name of the picture. If hear a_e in the word, color the picture and then write the word the picture describes to the left. [Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress.]

 

 

References:

 

Decodable Book, Jane and Babe: https://auburn.instructure.com/courses/1396676/pages/Educational%20Insights%20decodable%20books

 

Murray, G. Oh, I didn’t know: file:///Users/francesogwynn/Documents/OneDrive%20-%20Auburn%20University/junior%20year%20second%20semester/ctrd%203000-%20murray/BeginningReadingSample.pdf

 

Assessment worksheet: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/211317407491641832/