Eee, There’s a Spider!
A Beginning Reading Lesson
By: Trisha Daniel
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 (man scared of spider saying Eee!), 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/.
Graphic image of man scared of spider
Cover-up critter
Whiteboard or Smartboard
Elkonin boxes for modeling and individual Elkonin boxes for each student
Letter manipulatives for each student and magnetic or smartboard letters for
teacher:
b, c, d, e, e, h, k, l, p, r, s, t, w
List of spelling words on poster or whiteboard to read:
eel, bee, let, weed, tree, week, steep, creep
Decodable text Lee and the
Team
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 with
e, like bet, and today we
are going to learn about long E and the double
e
signal that is used to make E say its name, /E/. When I say /E/ I think of a
scared man saying “Eeee, there’s a spider!” [Show
graphic image]. Now let’s look at the spelling of /E/ that we’ll learn today.
One way to spell /E/ is with two of the letter
e
next to each other to tell me to say E’s name. [Write
ee on the board.
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 mouth stretches open wide like I’m smiling, like this.
[Make vocal gesture for /E/.] I’ll show you first:
cheese.
I heard e
say its name and I felt my mouth stretch open like a smile [demonstrate the wide
mouth opening]. There is a long E in
cheese.
Now I’m going to see if it’s in help. Hmmm, I didn’t hear
e
say its name and my mouth didn’t stretch open like a smile. Now you try. If you
hear /E/ say, “Eee, there’s a spider!.” If you don’t hear /E/ say, “That’s not
it.” Is it in heel, blame, lift, greed, shot, fill? [Have children emphasize
their mouth opening wide when they feel /E/ say its name].
3.What is I want to spell the word
creep?
“If I creep around the corner, no one will hear me coming.”
Creep
means to move slowly in this sentence. To spell
creep
in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word so I
stretch it out and count: /c/ /r/ /E/ /p/. I need 4 boxes. I heard that /E/ just
before the /r/ so I’m going to put two e’s in the
third box. The word starts with /c/, that’s easy; I need a
c.
Now I just need the ending sound so I’m going to sound out the word again, /c/
/r/ /E/ /p/ [point to letters in boxes when stretching out the word /c/ /r/ /E/
/p/]. Hmm, I hear a
p, so I’ll put that in the
last box to finish my word. Now I’ll show you how I would read a tough word.
[Display poster with
spleen on the top and model
reading the word.] I’m going to start with the ee;
that part says /E/. Now I’m going to put the beginning letters with it: s-p-l-ee_,
/splE/. Now I’ll put the ending on it, /spleen/. Oh,
spleen, like the organ in my body
4. Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in
letterboxes. You’ll start out easy with two boxes for
eel.
An eel is an animal that lives in the ocean, “The eel swam past the coral reef.”
What should go in the first box? [Respond to children’s answers.] Did you
remember to use two e’s? What goes in the second box? I’ll check your spelling
while I walk around the room. [Observe progress.] You’ll still only need two
letterboxes for the next word. Listen for the beginning sound to spell in the
first box. Then listen for /E/ and don’t forget to use two. Here’s the word:
bee,
There is a bee in the house;
bee. [Allow children to
spell remaining words:
weed,
tree,
week,
sheep,
and creep.]
5. Say: Now I am going to let you read the words you’ve spelled. [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 reading words with our new
spelling for /E/: ee. Now we are going to read a
book called
Lee and the Team. This is a story of a boy named
Lee who is on a baseball team. The day that they have a game the team is late;
they are suppose to run to make it on time but they do not want to. Will Lee and
his team make it to the baseball game on time? We’ll have to read to find out!
Let’s pair up and take turns reading
Lee and the Team
to find out if the team will make it to the game. [Children pair up and take
turns reading alternate pages to each other while teacher walks around the room
monitoring progress. After individual paired reading, the class rereads
Lee and the Team
aloud together, and stops between page turns to discuss the plot.]
7. Say: Before we finish up with our lesson about one way
to spell /E/ = ee, I want to see if you can identify the /E/ sound. On this
worksheet, you will need to circle the words that make the same long vowel sound
you hear in the word
tree. You will need to find
the words that have the spelling we learned today that make
e
say it’s name, /E/. [Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress.]
Assessment:
Have children individually read part of
Lee and the Team
to you to mark their miscues and accurately assess their understanding of the
new correspondence.
“Shrieking E’s” by Elisabeth Owen
Cushman, Sheila, Rona Kornblum, and Bob Brugger.
Lee and the Team. Carson, CA: Educational
Insights, 1990. Print.