Babe ate the grape in space!
A
Beginning Reading Lesson
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 (Fonzie’s greeting AAA), 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
thumbs up Fonzie saying ‘A’; cover-up critter; Elkonin boxes for modeling and
individual Elkonin boxes for each student; letter manipulatives for each child
and teacher: Letters: p,l,a,c,e,s,n,k,t; list of spelling words on whiteboard to
read: ape, place, space, snake, plane, skate ; decodable text:
Jane and Babe
and
assessment worksheet.
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
hat, 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 Fonzie from Happy Days saying AAAA
and lift up his hands [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 make a little
A shape like this. [Make vocal
gesture for /A/.] I’ll show you first:
make. I heard a say its name and
I felt my mouth open and my tongue against my bottom teeth, make a little
a. There is a long /A/ in
make. Now I’m going to see if it’s in
mat. Hmm, I didn’t hear a say its
name and. Now you try. If you hear /A/ say, AAAA and lift your hands up like
Fonzie. If you don’t hear /A/ say, “That’s not it.” Is it in grace, place,
pants, love, and space? [Have children make a Fonzie hand gesture when they feel
/A/ say its name.] Let’s also try this tongue twister to help us remember. (Babe
ate the grape in space) Have children say it with you. Repeat. Did you hear
A in the words?
3. What if I want to
spell the word stage?
“I will play my guitar on stage.”
Stage means a place to perform in the sentence. To spell
stage in letterboxes, first I need to
know how many phonemes I have in the word so I stretch it out and count:
/s//t//A//g//e/. I need 4 boxes. I heard that /A/ just before the /g/ 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 /s/, that’s easy; I need an
s. Now it gets a little tricky so I’m
going to say it slowly, /s//t//A//g//e/. I think I heard /t/ so I’ll put a
t right after the
s. Then the vowel
A. I have one empty box now. [Point
to letters in boxes when stretching out the word: /s//t//A//g/ .] The missing
one is /g/.
Now I’ll show you
how I would read a tough word. [Display poster with
grade on the top and model reading
the word.] I’m going to start with
the a_e; that part says /A/. Now I’m going to put the beginning letters with it:
g-r-a_e, /grA/. Now I’ll put that chunk together with the last sound, /grA-d/.
Oh, grade, like “My teacher gave me a grade in school.”
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 kind of monkey,
“I saw the ape in the zoo.” What should go in the first box? [Respond to
children’s answers]. What goes in the second box? What about 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 four letterboxes for the next word. Listen for the
beginning sound to spell 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: place, “I have a place to live”; place. [Allow children to spell remaining
words: space, snake, plane, skate.]
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 and reading words with our new spelling for /A/: a_e. Now we are
going to read a book called Jane and Babe. This is a story of a girl named Jane
and a lion named babe. Babe is a tame lion in a cage. Jane tries to wake Babe.
Jane plays with Babe. Let’s pair up and take turns reading
Jane and Babe to find out what about
them. [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 Jane and Babe
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 /A/ = a_e, I want to see how
you can solve a reading problem. On this worksheet, we have some pictures. Your
job is to circle the pictures that show the a_e word. First try deciding what
the picture is, then think about how that word sounds. Sound it out and see if
you hear the Fonzie AAA. Reread your answers to see if they make sense. [Collect
worksheets to evaluate individual child progress.]
Resources:
Locklier, Amy, Mike likes Kites. :
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/begin/locklierbr.html
Cushman, Shiela.
Jane and Babe. CA,
Educational Insights (1990). 8 pp.
Assessment worksheet:
http://www.phonicsworld.com/longvowela-e2.html