Eh Edna, What Did You Say?

Rationale: Children need lots of explicit and systematic phonics instruction in order to learn to read. Beginning readers need to know that words are made up of sounds and know which letters make each sound. Because all words have vowels in them, it is best to begin teaching vowels and short vowels should be taught first. This lesson will focus on e = /e/. Students will review the e = /e/ sound and practice spelling and reading words with the /e/ sound.

Materials: Set of letter manipulatives (a, b, c, d, e, g, l, m, n, p, r, s, t) for each student, letter boxes for each student, overhead Elkonin boxes, set of overhead letter manipulatives (a, b, c, d, e, g, l m, n p, r, s, t), overhead projector, class set of Red Gets Fed. Educational Insights. Cushman, Sheila. 1990., sentence strip with tongue twister on it: “Edna cooks eggplant everyday," fluency checklists (see below) and a worksheet (see below) with the following illustrations on it: pen, tent, egg, apple, cat, elephant.

"Class, today we are going to learn about the short vowel E and the sound that it makes. We have got to be detectives and see if we can detect this sound in words. The sound that we are trying to find today is /e/. We can find /e/ at the beginning and the middle of words and I am sure you'll be able to find it!"

"Every time you see /e/ in a word, I want us to make the sound of someone that can not hear very well, eh. OK. Now I want everyone to act like they can't hear and make the eh sound.......ready, eeehhh. Good! This sound is a sound that we hear all of the time in our language.

Hold up the sentence strip. “OK now let’s say this tongue twister together: “Edna cooks eggplant everyday. Now let’s say it again. This time let’s try stretching out the /e/ in each word. “/e/e/e/d/n/a/ cooks /e/e/e/gplant /e/e/e/veryday.”

Using the overhead and the letter manipulative, ask the students to name the words that have the /e/ sound in them and model the way to sound out the sounds in the words to the class. “Who can give me a word that has the /e/ sound? Good, bed. Now if I were going to spell that word, I would listen to the sounds, /b/, /e/ (there’s our sound), and /d/.” Practice more words using the Elkonin boxes.

“Now I want everyone to get out your boxes and letters and we are going to practice a few words. Have the students leave their letters on their boards and then check the spelling. Start with two phoneme words, and then move to four and five phonemes.

2 – ed 3 – get, red, meg, cat(review word), pen 4 – send, tent, sand(review word), bled 5 – spend

“Now I am going to spell a few words back to you. If you know what word I am spelling, raise your hand and you can answer.” Without using the boxes, spell out the words to make sure they can read them. “Let me show you. If I were to place the letters e and d on the board like this, you would tell me that it says ed. Now let’s try with the rest of the words. Remember to raise your hand if you know what the word is.”

“OK. Now we are going to get into small groups and read a book. This book is about a dog. This dog is very hungry, but his owner is asleep. Will she get up and feed him? Let’s get into groups and read the book to find out! As you are reading, your partner will complete a checklist to let you know how you are reading.” (They can assess each other by grading each other on reading speed, expression, and knowing more words using the fluency checklists).

Pass out the sheet of illustrations. Go over with the children what each picture is. “Now I want you to circle the pictures that have the /e/ sound in them.”

Fluency Checklist

I noticed that my partner.....

After 2^nd After 3^rd

□ □ Remembered more words

□ □ Read faster

□ □ Read smoother

□ □ Read with expression drama