“What Did You Say?”

Beginning Reading Design

Rationale: This lesson teaches children about long vowel correspondence a_e=/A/. In order to be able to read, children must learn to recognize the spelling 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 (What Did You Say?), 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 confused man; cover up critter; whiteboard for modeling and individual Elkonin letterboxes for each student; letter manipulative for each child and magnetic letters for teacher: r, a, t, e, c, k, f, s, d, p, v, m; list of spelling words on poster or white board to read: scrate, cake, rack, fast, drape, cave, made; decodable text Snake and Ape by Robert Charles and assessment worksheet.

Procedure:

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 with a, like tap, 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 a funny confused man saying, “What did you say?” (show graphic image). 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.

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 lips slightly open up, pushing the air out like this. (Make vocal gesture for /A/.) I’ll show you first: cake. I heard a say its name and I felt my lips opening up (make a circle motion around lips). There is a long A in cake. Now I’m going to see if it’s in rack. I did not hear a say its name and my lips did not open as much as the long A vowel. Now you try. If you hear /A/ say, “What did you say.” If you don’t hear /A/ say, “That’s not it.” Is it in rate, cake, rack, fast, drape, cave, made (Have children make a circle motion around their lips when they feel /A/ say its name.)

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 silent 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 drape? “I am going to drape this sweatshirt on the chair.” Drape means to arrange a cloth or piece of clothing loosely. To spell drape in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word so I stretch it out and count /d/ /r/ /A/ /p/. I need 4 boxes. I heard that /A/ just before the /p/ 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 /d/, that’s easy, I need a d. I think I heard a /r/ so Ill put a r right after the d. I have one empty box now. (Point to letter in boxes when stretching out the word: /d/ /r/ /A/ /p/. The missing one is /p/=p.

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 large primate that lacks a tail. “We went to the zoo to see the apes.” What should go in the first box? (Respond to children’s answers.) What goes in the second box? What about the 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: cake, I have a birthday cake for you today; cake. (Allow children to spell words). Time to check your work: Watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the board: c – a – k – e and see if you’ve spelled it the same way. Try another with three boxes: made, I made lemonade to sell to my neighbors. (Have volunteer spell it in the letterbox on the front board for children to check their word. Repeat this step for each new word). Next word, Listen to see if this word has /A/ in it before you spell it: rack, be careful when you get cereal from the rack. Did you need a silent e? (Volunteer spells it on the front board). Did you remember to spell /k/ with ck? Now let’s try 4 phonemes; crave, I crave ice cream sometimes throughout the week. One more then we’re done with spelling, and this time you need five boxes: scrape, I got a scrape on my knee when I fell off my skateboard. 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 for scrape on the top and model reading the word). Frist 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). /s/ /c/= /sc/ + /r/= /scr/. Now I’m going to blend that with /A/ = /scrA/. Now all I need is the end, /p/ = /scrAp/. Scrape; 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 Snake and Ape. This story is about a snake and an ape. Jake, the snake, and Kate, the ape, both liked living in the jungle. But all of a sudden, they saw lumberjacks cutting down large trees. So Jake and Kate decided they need to do something to save the jungle. You will have to read the rest of the book to find out if Jake and Kate are able to save the jungle! (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 Snake and Ape along together, and stops between page turns to discuss the plot.)

7. Say: That was a fun story. How did Jake and Kate save the jungle? Right, they went to the king ape for help and the king of apes stopped the loggers. Now, Jake and Kate are able to sit by the lake and enjoy their friendship in the sun. Where did Jake like to eat frogs? Right, the lake. Before we finish up with out lesson about one way to spell /A/=a_e, I want to see how you can solve a reading problem. On this worksheet, we a few sentences describing a word that is listed on the right. Read the sentences then decide which a_e word fits best to make sense of this short passage. First try reading all the words towards the right of the passage then choose the word that fits best. Reread your answers to see if they make sense. (Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress.

Resources:

Charles, Robert. Reading A-Z. http://www.readinga-z.com/book.php?id=352

Chambers, Maria, A and I are Team Players,

http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/guides/chambersbr.html

Assessment Worksheet: http://www.funfonix.com/book3/read_600.gif

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