Beginning Reading

Raise both hands and say ‘aye’!

Beginning Reading Lesson

Hannah Lingerfelt

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 (kid president raising hands saying ‘aye’), they will spell and read words containing this spelling in an LBL, and read a decodable book that focuses on the correspondence a_e = /A/.

Materials: Gif of kid president raising hands; cover-up critter; dry erase board or smartboard LBL boxes for modeling and individual LBL boxes for each student; letter manipulatives for each child and magnetic or smartboard letters for teacher: a,p,e,t,c,v,f,d,g,r,b,l,h,s; list of spelling words on smartboard to read: ape, ate, cave, fade, grave, blade, chases; decodable text: Jane and Babe, and 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 sounds in words, so today we are going to learn about long A, the first long vowel sound we will be learning. The silent e that is attached at the end of the word is a signal that is used to make A say its name, /A/, just like you would say the letter A. When I say /A/ I think of Kid President raising his hands and shouting “Aye!” [show gif].

2. Say: Before we learn about the spelling of /A/, we need to listen for it in words. When I listen for /A/ in words, I hear A say its name /A/ and my lips make a wide, narrow shape like this. [Make vocal gesture for /A/.] I’ll show you first: made. I heard A say its name and I felt my lips form a wide, narrow slot [make a straight line motion across lips]. There is a long A in ‘made’. Now let’s see if it’s in ‘shock’. Hmm, I didn’t hear A say its letter name and my lips didn’t make the wide, narrow slot. Now you try! If you hear /A/ shout, “Aye!” and raise the roof like Kid President does in the gif. If you don’t hear /A/ say, “Nope!” and shake your head no. Is it in take, rod, pool, kale, maze, eye, dip? [Have children make a straight line motion around their widened, narrowed lips when they feel /A/ say its name.]

3. Say: Now let’s look at the spelling of /A/ that we are learning 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, before the silent e signal. What if I want to spell the word ‘bake’? “If I bake the cake at 450 degrees for 20 minutes, it will turn out perfect!” ‘Bake’ means 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 of the last box. The word starts with /b/, that’s easy; I need a B which goes in the first box. 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 sound is after the /A/, hmm . . . /b//A//k/, I think I heard the clicking /k/ sound. I have one empty box now. [Point to letters in boxes when stretching out the word: /b//A//k/.] The missing one is /k/ = k.

4. Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You’ll start out easy with two boxes for ‘ape’. An ape is a primate like a gorilla or monkey. “We saw an ape at the zoo.” 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: fade; like when the sun sets and light fades in the sky [Allow children to spell words.] Time to check your work. Watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the board: f – a – d – e and see if you’ve spelled it the same way. Try another with three boxes: pale; I got a tan this weekend, I am not pale anymore. [Have volunteer spell it in the letterbox on the front of classroom on smartboard 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: rack, I cannot reach the cereal box on the top rack. 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. [a volunteer spells it on the smartboard.] Did you remember to spell /k/ with a ck? Now let’s try 4 phonemes: blade, do not touch the knife it has a sharp blade. One more then we’re done with spelling, and this time you need five boxes: strape, this is a made up word called a pseudoword but we can still spell it based on our knowledge and phonemic awareness. 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 strape 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 critter to get the first part with /s/. [Uncover and blend sequentially before the vowel, then blend with the vowel.] /s//t/=/st/+/r/=/str/. Now I’m going to blend that with /A/ = /strA/. Now I need the p=/p/. Strape; that’s it. 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 “Jane and Babe”. This is a story of a zookeeper and a lion who end up getting in the cage together, could this end badly? We will see! Let’s pair up and take turns reading “Jane and Babe”. [Children pair up and take turns reading while teacher monitors progress. After, the class rereads “Jane and Babe” aloud together, and stops between page turns to discuss the plot with teacher. Use this opportunity to ask open-ended questions about the story for assessing comprehension.]

7. Say: That was an interesting story. What happened with Jane? Right, she ends up waking him from his nap and they play together. Before we finish up with our lesson about one way to spell /A/ = a_e, I want to see how you can solve a reading problem. On this worksheet, we have some letters missing. Your job is to look at the pictures, and decide which a_e word fits best to match the picture. After you do that, sound out the word the way you spelled it to make sure it is correct. Reread your answers to see if they make sense. [Collect worksheets to evaluate and assess each child’s progress.]

Reference: Geri Murray, “Oh, I didn’t know!” http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/doorways/murraybr.htm

Decodable Book: “Jane and Babe” file:///C:/Users/Larry/AppData/Local/Temp/Jane%20and%20Babe.pdf

Assessment worksheet: http://www.eslprintables.com.es/previewprintables/2008/oct/thumb810311303577173.jpg

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