AU is Awesome!
Beginning Reading
By Ellen Haynes
Rational:
After this lesson, students will be able to read and understand words with the
a_e = /A/ correspondence. They will also be able to spell certain a_e words
using Elkonin boxes or Letterboxes. They will be able to connect this /A/ sound
with the saying “Aaayy” (like Fonzie from
Happy Days.) Knowing this correspondence is very important in that the rules
learned from this lesson can be related to other correspondences such as o_e =
/O/ and i_e = /I/.
Materials:
primary paper, pencil, letter boxes as well as the letters: [f, r, a, m, e, t,
c, n, k, B, b, l, d, s, h] for each student involved in the lesson, spelling
words written on cards [cane, race, ate, take, Babe, blade, and stake],
and the book Jane and Babe for all
students.
Procedures:
1.
Say: To be a good reader, we must first learn the rules of pronunciation and the
way to spell/sound out words. One of these rules is the vowel-consonant- e rule.
Today, I am going to teach you about this rule using a_e (write this down so the
students can see it). As you can see, I wrote a “_” between a and e. That just
means that I would write a consonant there. When we have a_e words, we do not
sound out the “e” at the end. It is just a signal that tells us to pronounce the
“a” long (making the “a” say its
name.) I like to remember this /A/ by saying “Aaayy” like Fonzie from Happy Days
(play clip).
2.
Say: Now we are going to see if we hear this long A sound in some words. When I
say the long A sound, my lips are spread out, the back of my tongue is touching
the roof of my mouth and the tip of my tongue is touching the back of my bottom
teeth. Also make sure that you keep your mouth open and your teeth aren’t
touching! (Demonstrate and have students do it with you). Very good!! Now, I
will do the first one for you: date.
I heard A say it’s name and I felt my mouth make the correct position for the
long A sound. There is a long A in date.
What if I had the word glass. My
mouth isn’t making the right positions and I don’t hear the “A” sound in it.
There is not a long A in glass. Now I
want you to try. If you hear the long A sound, I want you to say “Aaayy” like
Fonzie but if you don’t hear the long A sound, I want you to say “I’ don’t hear
it.” Ready? (Ask the words: ate, dog, bat, cake, Jane, cook)
3.
Now we are going to spell a few a_e words in our letter boxes. The first word we
will spell is chase. To spell
chase in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the
word so I stretch it out and count: /ch//A//s/. I will need 3 boxes. I first
hear the digraph /ch/. /ch/ is made up of the two letters c and h so they both
will go in the first box. Then I heard the /A/ sound so I will put that in the
second box followed by the “s” in the third box. I will put the silent
e on the outside of the last box
because you don’t hear it pronounced in the word. Great! Now this is how I would
read a word written with the a_e code. (Write
frame on the board.) Okay, I know
that the a_e =/A/ and the first sound I hear is /f/. (demonstrate sounding the
word out.) Next I hear /r/ and then the long A sound, so far I have frA. Then,
the last sound I hear is /m/ making the word (frAm) like a picture frame.
4.
Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. We will start
out easy with two boxes for ate
as in “I ate breakfast this morning.”
What should go in the first box? [Respond to children’s answers]. What
goes in the second box? What about silent e, where did we say it went?
I’ll check your spelling while I walk around the room. [Observe progress.] Great
job everyone! Next, we will need three letterboxes for the next word. Make sure
to listen closely to the sound that the beginning of the word makes. Then listen
for /A/ and don’t forget to put the silent e at the end, outside the
boxes. Here’s the word: race, Jimmy
won the race yesterday; race. [Allow
children to spell remaining words: cane, take, Babe, blade, and stake.]
5.
Say: now I want you to read the words I have already written. (Have the students
read them in unison. After that, call on individuals to read a single word by
themselves until everyone has had a chance to go.
6.
Say: Y’all are doing amazing! Now we are going to read a book called Jane and
Babe. Babe is a big lion. He
lives in a zoo. Jane is the one that takes care of Babe. What do you think they
will do together? You’ll have to read to find out! I want you to whisper read
this book aloud. That means that when I walk by your desk, I will be able to
hear you read but your neighbor should not hear you read. (Teacher walks around
the room monitoring progress. After everyone has finished reading, have the
class reread the story aloud in unison. Stop between page turns to discuss the
plot.]
7.
Say: Before The last thing I want you to do is this fun worksheet. You first
look at the picture, and then you connect the phonemes to make the word that
represents the picture. Finally, you write the word in the space on the side.
[Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress.]
Resources:
→Example of the /A/ sound (Fonzie and Happy Days)
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/gestures.html
→A_e
Worksheet
http://www.funfonix.com/book3/build_600.gif
→As a guideline: “Oh, I Didn’t
Know” A Beginning Reading Lesson by Geri Murray
