Beginning Reading

Ay, nice dance moves!

Beginning Reading

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 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: Smartboard or overhead, letterboxes for teacher, letterboxes for student, letter tiles for both teacher and student (letters- a,e,b,s,f,c,p,l,r,n), list of reading words on poster to display to the class: Abe, safe, cape, clap, plane, scrape; class set of Snake and Ape and a larger copy of Snake and Abe for read aloud, class set of understanding worksheet.

Procedures:

1. Say: If we want to become super readers, we have to learn the special code that tells how to pronounce words, so that then we can read them! We have learned our short vowels, now we are going to learn about a new kind of vowel called long vowels. Long vowels say their names, like the one we are learning today: /A/. Today we will learn about words that have an a in them and an e at the end, and the e at the end of the word makes the a say its name! I like to think of the long A sound by thinking of a dance move that you love and say “ayyy.” (show graphic)

2. Say: The first thing we need to do is be able to recognize the /A/ sound in words. When I listen for /A/ in words, I hear a say its name and I feel my mouth open up into a tiny smile like this. I’ll show you: bake. I heard a say its name and my mouth curved up a little. The word bake does have a long A. Let’s see if there’s a long A in math. Well, I did not hear a say its name and my mouth was a little bigger that time. Now you try! If you hear /A/, perform your favorite dance move. If you don’t hear /A/, keep very still. Do you hear /A/ in tail, toe, lake, pond, rain, sun?

3. Say: Now we will look at the spelling of words with a_e = /A/. Today we will only look at words that have the e at the end to make the a say its name, even though that’s not the only way to know that words have /A/ in them. [Write a_e on the board.] The blank line here means that there is at least one consonant in between the a and the e. The e in these words tell the a to say its name, and does not say anything for itself. What if I want to spell the word crate? “I had to put my puppy in his crate.” To spell crate in letterboxes, I have to first stretch out the word to figure out how many phonemes are in it. Stretch out the word and count with me: /c/ /r/ /A/ /t/. I need four boxes. I hear the a say its name right before the /t/ so I know to put the t in the last box and the a right before that. Crate starts with /c/, so c goes in the first box, and what comes after c? [Sound out crate again]. I heard the /r/ after /c/, so I know I need an r. And last but not least, that silent e goes right outside of our last box. It goes outside of the boxes because it doesn’t make any sounds.

4. Say: Now, you get to spell some words in letter boxes! You’ll start with an easy one: Abe, which is a name. President Abraham Lincoln’s nickname was Abe. What goes in the first box? (Listen for students’ answers) How about the second box? And where does our silent e go? I will check your spelling. For the next word, you’ll need three letterboxes. Listen for the beginning sound which will go in the first box, then for the /A/ and the ending sound. The next word is safe. The baseball player was declared safe when he crossed home plate. (Give time for students to spell.) Let’s check your work. Watch how I spell safe in my letterboxes: s – a – f – e and see if you spelled it like I did. Let’s try another: cape; Superman’s suit has a cape on the back. Next word. Listen to see if it has /A/ in it before you try to spell: clap; We clap when the singer is done performing. Did you need a silent e? Right, because we don’t hear the a say its name. We spell clap with our short a vowel. Plane, I rode a plane to Disneyworld! One last word, and this one needs five boxes: scrape. I tripped on the playground and got a scrape on my knee. This word is harder than the others, so be sure to stretch it out so you hear all of the phonemes.

5. Say: Now, you get to read all of the words that you just spelled. First, we will start with a harder word and I know right away that there is a silent e on the end, which means that the a has to say its name. I will use a cover-up to get the first part of the word. (This will work on students blending.) /p//l/ = /pl/. Now I’ll blend /pl/ with that /A/. /pl/ + /A/ = /plA/, then add the end. /plA/ = /t/ = /plAt/. Plate, that’s it! Now it’s your turn to read all of the words we have spelled. First, everyone read together and then everyone will have a chance to read a word by themselves. I will call on every student to read a word after we have all read one together.

6. Say; Great job on reading the words, class! You have almost mastered a_e words that say /A/. Now we are going to read a book called Snake and Ape. This book is about a Snake named Jake and an ape named Kate who both live in the by a lake. They see loggers cutting down trees, which is where Kate and their families live. Will Kate and Jake do anything to save the Ape’s home? To find out, I need everyone to pair up and take turns reading pages of Snake and Ape. (Children pair up and read alternate pages of the book. Teacher walks around the room monitoring progress. After the individual reading, the class will come back together, and discuss the events and plot of the story. As well as, pointing out other a_e words that were present.)

7. Say: What a fun story! What would you do if someone was harming your home? (Allow children to share) Before we finish up our lesson on a_e = /A/, I want to see how all of you do working by yourselves with these words. (Hand out worksheets to class) First, read the big word in each row and circle the picture that the word represents. Then, write the word for yourself! Reread what you write to make sure what you read makes sense. If the students finish reading and writing the words, they may color the image they have circled. (When everyone is finished, collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress)

Resources:

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Sophie Taylor's Lesson Design

Beginning Reading