BEGINNING READING LESSON

Hey! How are you?

Rationale: This lesson will teach students about the long vowel correspondence a_e = /A/. An important factor of reading ability is learning how to recognize the spellings of word maps. This lesson will instruct children to recognize, spell, and read words containing the correspondence a_e. In order to assist in this process, they will be exposed to a memorable picture of a child saying “Hey”. Next, they will participate in a letterbox lesson to spell and read words containing this spelling. And finally, students will read a decodable book centering on the correspondence a_e = /A/.  

Materials: Graphic image of child going down the slide saying “Hey!”; cover-up critter; magnetic or smartboard Elkonin letter boxes and Elkonin letter manipulatives for the teacher, individual letter boxes and letter manipulatives for each student: b, r, a, v, e, p, g, t, c, k, m, l, s, h, f, d, z; List of spelling words displayed in a manner that can be easily read by the class (whiteboard, poster board, or PowerPoint): ape, gate, cake, male, shake, flame, grade, blaze, crate, scrape; decodable text: Jane and Babe, and assessment worksheet (both linked below).  

Procedures:
1. Say: Before we can become amazing readers, we need to learn the code that tells us how to pronounce words. It’s like a map we need to follow for a reading adventure. Together, we have already learned to read short vowel words with a, like cat, which is one step to begin able to read the reading adventure map. Today we are going to learn the next step, it’s going to be about long A and the sneaky, silent e that is used to make A say its name, /A/. When I say /A/ I think of a student going down a slide and saying “Hey!” to his friends [show graphic image]. 

2. Say: First, we need to learn about the spelling of /A/, before we listen for it in some words. When I hear /A/ in words, I know it’s /A/ because I hear a say its name /A/ and my mouth opens up like I’m saying, “Hey”. [Make vocal gesture for /A/.] I’ll show you how I hear A in words, first is: came. I heard A say its name and I felt my mouth open wide to make a[make a circular motion around open mouth]. There is a long A in came. Now I’m going to see if it’s in car. Well, I didn’t hear a say its name and my mouth didn’t open wide to make a. Now it’s your turn. If you hear /A/ say, “Hey!” If you don’t hear /A/ say, “Bye.” (can add in an excited wave for “Hey!” and a sad wave for “Bye”). Is it in: lake, boat, poke, shake, plate?

3. Say: Now we are going to take a look at the spelling of /A/. One way to spell /A/ is with the letter a and a sneaky, silent e at the end of the word to tell me to say A’s name. [Write a_e on the board.] This empty line here means to save a spot because there is a consonant after a, and at the end of the word there is a little silent e signal. I want to spell the word brave, where do I begin? First, I’ll use it in a sentence, so I know what it means, “Normally Ed is scared of snakes, but today he was very brave.” In this sentence, brave means to be strong. To spell brave in my letterboxes, I need to know how many phonemes there are in the word. So, I’ll stretch it out and count: /b//r//A//v/. Sounds like I’ll need 4 boxes. I heard /A/ say its name just before the /v/ so I’m going to put an a in the 3rd letterbox and the sneaky silent e sits outside the last box. I heard /b/ at the beginning so I know I need to put a b in the first box. Next, I think I heard /r/ but I’m not sure so I’m going to say it slowly, /b//r//A//v/. I heard /r/ right so, I’ll put a r right after the b. Now I only have one empty box. [Point to letters in boxes when stretching out the word: /b//r//A//v/.] The missing one is /v/ = v. There we have brave!

4. Say: Now it’s your turn to spell some long A words in your letterboxes. The first word is pretty easy, you only need two boxes for ape. An ape is wild animal like a gorilla, “I went to the zoo today to see an ape.” What letter should go in the first box? [Respond to children’s answers]. What about the second box? What about sneaky, silent e, did you remember to put it outside the boxes? I’m going to come around the room and check your spelling. [Observe progress.] For the next word, you’ll need three letterboxes. Before you start, make sure you listen for the beginning sound for the first box. Then listen for /A/ and don’t forget to put the sneaky silent e at the end, outside the boxes so /A/ can say its name. The word is: gate, make sure you close the gate; gate. [Allow children time to spell words.] Let’s see how you well did. I’ll spell it in my letterboxes on the board: g – a – t – e see if you’ve spelled it the same way. Let’s stick with three boxes and try another: cake; My Birthday cake was yummy. (Pick a volunteer to spell it in the letterbox on the board for students to check their work. Repeat for each new word.) Repeat with words: male, shake, flame, grade, blaze, crate, scrape. Continue to scaffold with the number of letterboxes they will need for each word. 

5. Say: Now, we are going to read the words that we spelled, but first I’ll show you how I would read a tough word. [Show poster/PowerPoint with strafe on the top and model reading the word.] First, I see that sneaky silent e on the end; that’s how I know that the vowel will say its name. There’s the vowel a. And because of the silent e, 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.] /s//t/ = /st/ + /r/ = /str/. Now I’m going to blend that with /A/ = /strA/. Now all I need is the end, /f/ = /strAf/. Strafe; that’s it. Now it’s your turn, everyone let’s read it outloud together. [Have children read words in unison. Then, call on students individually to read one word on the list until everyone has had a turn.] 

6. Say: You’ve done an awesome job reading words with our new spelling for /A/: a_e. Now we are going to read a book called Jane and Babe. This book is about a girl named Jane who has a scary Lion friend named Babe. Jane goes in Babe’s cage; will she be okay? Everyone pair up and take turns reading to find out if she’ll be okay. [Children pair up and take turns reading every other page. During this time, the teacher monitors their progress. After individual paired reading, the class rereads Jane and the Babe aloud together, and stops between page turns ask plot related questions.] 

7. Say: Jane and the Babe was a good story. It’s pretty cool that Babe and Jane can safely be friends. Before we come to the end of our lesson about one way to spell /A/ = a_e, I want to see how you can solve a reading problem. We’re going to do a worksheet where Ann and Abe are looking for something, your job is to find out what it is. You are going to color the long A shapes in blue and the short a words grey. First try reading all the words in the boxes, then color the long A words. Reread your answers to see if they make sense. [Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress.] 

Resources:
Murray, B.: http://wp.auburn.edu/rdggenie/home/lessons/letbox/

Cushman, Shelia. (1990). https://www.amazon.com/dp/0886798647/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_ZR.vEbRMX025S

Assessment worksheet: http://www.free-phonics-worksheets.com/phonics-worksheet-36.html