Eeeek, You Scared Me!
Beginning Reading
Rationale:
This lesson teaches children about the long vowel correspondence
ee= /E/. In order to read, children
must be able to associate the letters and sounds that correspond with one
another. In this lesson, students will learn to recognize the
ee sound in words. They will learn
meaningful representations (screaming person saying "Eeeeek, you scared me!"),
learn to spell and read using a letterbox lesson, and read a decodable book that
focuses on the correspondence ee=
/E/.
Materials:
-Graphic image of Eek the Cat
-Poster with ee=/E/
-6 box letterboxes (1 per student)
-6 box magnetic letterbox on whiteboard
-Set of magnetic letters to model on whiteboard (s, w, e, e, t, t, p, c, c, h,
l, f, r, m, b, d, n, a, k, v)
-Set of letters for each student (s, w, E, t, t, p, c, c, h, l, f, r, m, b, d,
n, a, k, e, v, A)
-Decodable text Lee and the Team (1 per student and myself)
-Pencils (1 per student)
-Assessment worksheets (1 per student)
Procedure:
1.
Say,
"Today, we are going to learn how to pronounce words with the sound /E/ in it.
Everybody say it with me, E-E-E-E-E. Good! This is the long E. When I think of
/E/, I think of when I'm scared and I squeal. Kind of like, 'EEK!! You scared
me!' When I say /E/ watch my mouth, my lips kind of curl up like I'm smiling."
2. Demonstrate saying /E/ and dragging it out so that students can see your lips
curl. Call on students to drag out the /E/ sound so that they can feel their
lips curl, and so that the other students can see them modeling it. Have the
class do it together.
3. Say, "Now let's look at the spelling of /E/. There's different ways to spell
the /E/ sound, but today we are going to look at words with
ee in them." Write 'SLEEP on the
board.
4. Say, "Do you hear /E/ in sleep? Good! Let's say it together: ssslleeeeeeeepp.
Do you feel your lips curling into a smile when you say sleep?"
5. Say, "Before we learn how to spell words with /E/, I want you to listen to
these words and tell me when you hear the sound /E/. Do you hear /E/ in feet?
Good! I can feel my lips curling into a smile when I say feet, and I hear the
long /E/ sound. When I say the
words, if you hear the sound /E/ everyone say 'EEEK!' if you don't, shake your
head no. Do you hear /E/ in seed? Bed? Steep? Lake? Heed?"
6. Say, "Now what if I want to spell the word steep? The mountain we climbed was
very steep. Steep means straight up in this sentence. To spell steep in
letterboxes, I first have to know how many phonemes it has, so I stretch it out
and count it like /s//t//E//p/. I need 4 boxes. (Demonstrate on the whiteboard
with the magnetic letterboxes and letters) The word is steep, and I know that S
makes the /s/ sound, so I'm going to put that in the first box. Now I have to
drag it out, sss-ttt-eeee-p. It sounds like t comes next, so I'll put that in
the box after our s. Now here comes
the tricky part. Say steep with me slowly, 'steeeeeep.' Do you hear the /E/ in
steep? Well, in the word steep, our /E/ is spelled with two E's like ee (pojnt
to ee poster on board). We are going to put both of our e's in the same box,
because it makes the same sound /E/. Now we have one empty box. What sound it
missing? Let's say it one more time, 'steeeeeeep.' I think I hear that p. We'll
put a p in the last box."
7. Say, "Now I'm going to model how to read a tough word. Write the word street
on the board. I see our ee, and I
know that ee says /E/,so I'll start
there. Now I'm going to put the beginning letters with it.. s-t- and I think I
hear the growling r in there. S-t-r-ee,
/stree/, now I'll put that chunk together with the last sound /stree-t/, 'Oh,
street, like my best friend lives on the same
street as me.'"
8. Say, "Now I'm going to have you spell some words in your own letterboxes.
You'll start out easy with two boxes for
bee, like a bumble bee that lives in a hive. What should go in the first
box? Good! The b will go in our first
box. Now, what about the second box? Good! Make sure we put both of those
ee's in the box together. You'll need
4 boxes for the next word, sweet.
Make sure you listen for the /E/ and put them in the same box together. I'll
walk around and make sure you're all doing it correctly." Have students spell
the remaining words: sleep, feel, tweet, screen, speech.
9. Say, "You've all done such a great job spelling your words. Now we are going
to read a book called, Lee and the Team.
This story is about a boy named Lee who leads his team. Lee and the team are
late for their game, and he's trying to get everyone to run, but it's so hot and
they're so tired! Will Lee and his team make it to the game in time?? We'll have
to read to find out!" Have the students' pair up and alternate reading, while
you walk around the room and observe. After individual paired reading, read the
book as a class together. Stop between pages and talk about what you've read.)
10. Say, "Before we finish up today, we are going to do a worksheet with our
long /E/. On this worksheet, you have some
sentences with words missing. Read the sentence, and decide which long
/E/ word is missing from the word box. Choose the correct word, and write it in.
Then go back and reread your sentences to make sure they make sense." Take up
these worksheets for evaluation.
Resources:
Stephanie Pollak, Say Cheese With /E/:
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/adventures/pollakbr.htm
Cushman, Sheila. (1990). Lee and the Team. Carson, CA:
Educational Insights.
Assessment Worksheet:
http://www.education.com/worksheet/article/finish-sentence-long-e-second/