Rationale
Recognition of phonemes in a word is an important step on beginning to learn to read.  The phonemes in spoken words are represented by graphemes (letters) in written words.  This can be hard to understand and remember.  When most students begin to read, they want to make all the vowels read with a=/A/ because it is easy to hear and identify.  Teaching a=/a/ can be tricky.  Teaching a_e=/A/ will make it easier to distinguish between the long and short and long a sounds.  Practicing reading and writing a_e=/A/ will help make the difference more apparent.

Materials
primary paper, pencil, chart with rhyme, flash cards (class set, one side says a_e, the other side has a slash /), book-Jake's Tale, "Whale of a Sound!" sheet for assessment

Procedure
1. Introduce the lesson by explaining that reading and writing are part of a magic code.  Learning the different combinations will help us break the code.  One of the trickiest combinations is that of sounding out vowels.  Sometimes they say their names, but sometimes they do not.  Today, we will be learning a combination to make the sound /A/.  It is easy to hear, but you have to look out!  This combination breaks the code every time!

2. Have you ever baked a cake and then ate what you made?  How did it taste?  First rate?  Today, we are going to spot the long a sound (/A/).  This is when we hear /A/.  We will locate this sound in many.  /A/.  Let's all say it together-/A/.  Stretch it out-/A/.  Listen to it in a word.  Cake.  C-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-ke.  C-a-a-a-a-a-a.  /A/.  Try it with me.  C-a-a-a-a-a-a-ke.  Good!

3. Let's try a rhyme together (on a chart): "What a fun game,
                                                                                  Trying to name
                                                                                  Things that I ate,
                                                                                  Off of Momma's nice plate.
                                                                                  I had ice cream and cake
                                                                                 And a coconut flake!"
Good job!  Let's say it together again, only this time, let's stretch out the /A/.
Great!  Let's try it one more time.  This last time, separate the /A/ like this-"What a fun g-a-a-a-me."  Good work!

4. Teacher and students will take out primary paper and pencil.  The teacher will model every step of the letter making process as it comes.  We can make the /A/ sound using the combination a_e.  Let's look at the words from our rhyme that have this combination.  game, name, ate, plate, cake, flake  All of these words make the sound /A/.  They also have the ending combination a_e.  Let's practice writing this.  To make an a we will start at the fence, circle around down to the sidewalk, and back up to the fence.  Then we will make a straight line from the fence down to the sidewalk.  Teacher will look at all As.  Great!
To make an e we will start between the fence and the sidewalk and make a straight horizontal line.  Then we will curve upward toward the fence, touching the fence, and then back down to the sidewalk.  We will finish our e by coming back up and almost touching our line again.  Let me see your As and Es.  Good work!  Let's practice writing the words with the /A/ sound from our rhyme.  game, name, ate, plate, cake, flake

5. Let's see if we can pick out the /A/ sound.  Do you hear /A/ in mate or friend?  cap or cape?  mane or hair?  brake or stop?  Great!  Teacher will pass out flash cards to class.  Let's listen for the /A/ sound in words.  If you hear it, show me the a_e side.  If you don't, show me the "/" side.  The teacher will show the correct spellings once the words have been identified with the vowel sound. fun, game, thing, ate, nice, plate, ice, cream, cake, coconut, flake

6. We will read the story Jake's Tale and talk about the story.  We will read it again, stretching /A/ words.  When the reading is completed, the students will be handed a sheet with a whale on it.  This will be a "Whale of a Sound!" sheet where they will write all of the a_e correspondence words that were in the story and/or the rhyme for the lesson.

7. For assessment, the teacher will help the students identify the names of images on a picture sheet.  The students will circle the pictures with the /A/ sound and then combine invented spelling with the a_e combination learned today to label these pictures.

References
http://www.starfall.com/n/long-a/la/load.htm?f

http://www.starfall.com/n/long-a/ds_la/load.htm?f

www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/openings/minkbr.html

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