Beginning Reading Design

Evie says, “EEEE”!

A Beginning Reading Lesson

By: Madison Wilhite

Rationale:This lesson teaches children about the long vowel correspondence ee= /E/. 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 ee. They will learn a meaningful representation (excited girl saying, “Eeee”!), they will spell and read words containing this spelling in a Letterbox lesson and read a decodable book that focuses on the correspondence ee= /E/.

Materials:Graphic image of excited girl; cover-up critter; whiteboard for Elkonin boxes for modeling and individual Elkonin boxes for each student; letter manipulatives for each child and magnetic or smartboard letters for teacher: b, c, d, e, h, k, n, p, s, t, w ; list of spelling words on poster or whiteboard to read: see, keep, knee, check, dee, sweet, street; decodable text: The Bee and the Flea, 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 words withe, like leg, and today we are going to learn about long E and the double esignal that is used to make e say its name, /E/. When I say /E/ I think of a cute little excited girl saying “EEEEEE”! [show graphic image].

2. Say: Before we learn about the spelling of /E/, we need to listen for it in some words. When I listen for /E/ in words, I hear e say its name /E/ and my lips make a flat line like this. [Make vocal gesture for /E/.] I’ll show you first: sheep. I heard e say its name and I felt my lips make a flat line[make a flat line motion above and below your lips]. There is a long E in sheep. Now I’m going to see if it’s in hen. Hmm, I didn’t hear e say its name and my lips didn’t make a flat line. Now you try. If you hear /E/ say, “Eeeeee”! If you don’t hear /E/ say, “That’s not it”. Is it in need, bell, pain, greet, nose, tree? [Have children make a flat line motion around their lips when they feel /E/ say its name.]

3. Say: Now let’s look at the spelling of /E/ that we’ll learn today. One way to spell /E/ is with the letter efollowed by another eright next to it. This tells me to say E’s name. [Write eeon the board.] This e directly after the other esignals us to say /E/. What if I want to spell the word three? “I know how to count: one, two, three”. In this sentence, three is obviously referring to the number. To spell three in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word so I stretch it out and count: /th//r//E/. I need 3 boxes. I heard that /E/ just after the /r/ so I’m going to put both e’s in the third box. The word starts with /th/, the t and the h work together to make the sound /th/. After the /th/, I think I heard growling /r/ so I need an r. Now I’m going to say it slowly, /th//r//E/. Our last letters areeebecause we can hear the /E/ at the very end of the word. [Point to letters in boxes when stretching out the word: /th//r//E/.]

4. Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You’ll start out easy with two boxes for the word see.To see is to have a visual of something, “I love it when I get to see the stars at night”! What should go in the first box? [Respond to children’s answers]. What goes in the second box? 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 /E/ and don’t forget to put another e right next to the first e. It’s almost like they are friends and we do not want to separate them. Here’s the word: keep, I want to keep my backpack on; keep. [Allow children to spell words.] Time to check your work. Watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the board: k – e – e – p and see if you’ve spelled it the same way. Try another with three boxes: knee; Ow! I bumped my knee on the playground. [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 /E/ in it before you spell it: check; you always want to double check your work. Did you need a double e? Why not? Right, because we don’t hear esay its name. We spell it with our short vowel e. [volunteer spells it on the front board.] Did you remember to spell /k/ with a ck? Now let’s try 4 phonemes: sweet; the birthday cake was so sweet. One more then we’re done with spelling, and this time you need five boxes: street; my mother told me to never run across the street. 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 street on the top and model reading the word.] If I see there’s a double e, that’s my signal that the vowel will say its name. 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.] /s//t/ = /st/ + /r/ = /str/. Now I’m going to blend that with /E/ = /strE/. Now all I need is the end, /t/ = /strEt/. Street; 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.]

s

t

r

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6. Say: You’ve done a great job and reading words with our new spelling for /E/: ee. Now we are going to read a book called The Bee and the Flea.This is a story of a bee names Bea who lived near a flea named Lee. Lee liked to eat sweet nectar unlike all the other fleas, so Bea noticed him. Bea then decides to ask the queen bee if Lee can come live with her and all the other bees in the hive. Let’s pair up and take turns reading The Bee and the Fleato find out if Lee gets to live with the bees. [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 The Bee and the Fleaaloud together and stops between page turns to discuss the plot.]

7. Say: That was a fun story. Did Lee get to live with all the bees? Right, the queen let him live in the hive. What did the queen say Lee had to do to live in the hive? Right, he had to keep it clean. Before we finish up with our lesson about one way to spell /E/ = ee, I want to see how you can solve a reading problem. On this worksheet, we have some letters missing from words with ee in them. Your job is to look at the picture and decide which letter you need to write in to finish the word. Reread your answers to see if they make sense. [Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress.]

Resources:

Geri Murray, Oh, I didn’t know!:http://wp.auburn.edu/rdggenie/

Ryan, Cheryl. The Bee and the Flea.Reading a-z: The Bee and the Flea

Assessment worksheet: assessment worksheet

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