Eeeehhhh? I Can't Hear You!!

Beginning
Rationale: A strong
understanding of phonemes is a must for children to become skillful
readers. Beck found that "phoneme
awareness is specifically folded into the teaching of letter-sound
correspondences" (Beck, p. 29). Short
vowels and consonants are usually the first two types of letter
sound-correspondences taught to young children who are learning to read. The goal of this lesson is to introduce the
phoneme e = /e/. Students
will learn to identify this short
vowel by being taught a meaningful name and hand gesture.
They will also learn to identify /e/ in
spoken words. Students will read and
spell words with e = /e/ through a
letterbox lesson and independent reading of a new book.
Materials:
-Copy of Red Gets Fed book for each student in the class and the teacher
-Elkonin boxes for each student and the teacher
-Letterboxes letters for each student and teacher: (e, d, n, b, l (2), c, k, p, a, t, v, and s)
-Overhead projector
-Primary writing paper (for students)
-Pencils (for students)
-Dry erase marker
-Dry erase board
-Picture of a
person who is hard of hearing (found at
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/clipart/results.aspx?qu=hearing&sc=20#12)
-Poster with tongue twister: "Everybody saw Eddie and the Eskimo enter the elevator on the elephant."
-worksheet for assessment with pictures and a list of words to choose from that match the pictures that also include the /e/ sound in their name (ex. egg, elephant, bed, and led)
Procedures:
1. "Today we are going to
learn a new sound that will help us read lots of new words." I will introduce the lesson by showing the
class the letter e (uppercase and
lowercase) on the overhead projector. "Can
anybody tell me what letter is on the board?
That's right! It's the letter e.
What sound does the letter e
make? That's right!" Put
the picture of the man who is hard of
hearing on the projector. The e
= /e/ makes the sound like a person
who has trouble hearing. I will then put
my hand behind my ear and stretch out the /e/ sound to act like I am
hard of
hearing. "Now, I want everybody to
pretend that you are hard of hearing with me!"
2. Next, I will show the students
the poster with the tongue twister on it.
"I am going to say our tongue twister first and then I want you
to
repeat it stretching out the /e/ sound in the words.
Eeee-verybody
saw Eeeee-ddie and the Eeeee-skimo eeee-nter the eeee-levator on the eeeee-lephant.
Now, you say it but
don't forget to put your hand behind your ear when you stretch out the
/e/
sound in the words."
3. "Now, I am going
to say some words,
and I want you to listen and see if you hear the /e/ sound in the words. Let's do one together. Eggs or
pan?
E-e-e-g-g-s or p-a-a-a-n? I hear the /e/ sound like a person who is
hard of hearing in eggs, but not in pan.
Okay, you all try some now! 'Red or blue,' 'rest or run,' and 'dress or hat?'"
4. "Okay, now I want everyone to get their letterboxes and letter tiles out. Eyes up on the board while I show you how to use our letterboxes on the overhead. I have placed four letterboxes on the overhead, so I know that my word is going to have four sounds in it. My first word is tent. The first sound in our word is /t/. Do you hear it? So we are going to put a t in our first letterbox. Our second sound is /e/ so we are going to put an e in our second letterbox. Next, I hear the /n/ and lastly the /t/ sound. So I am going to put a n in our third letterbox and a t in our fourth and last letterbox. Okay, now I want you all to try to spell some words on your own the same way I did." I will then read the words individually and with a sentence. I will also tell the students how many letterboxes they need to use so that they know how many sounds are in the word. The following words will be used: (2)- Ed, (3)- den, bell, deck, pack, (4)- tent, vest, last, (5)-spend. I will walk around the room, while the students spell out their words and make sure that every child is correctly spelling the words. If a child has misspelled a word, I will read the word as they have spelled it to see if they will self-correct their spelling. If they cannot self-correct the spelling, I will model the correct spelling for the child.
5. "Great spelling guys! Now
we are
going to read our words, so everybody's pencils need to be down and
your eyes
should be on the board. Our first word
is d-e-n. I am going to
help you read this first
word. Let's start with the /e/ sound and
then add the /d/ sound. Finally we will
add the /n/ sound at the end of the word.
Ddd-eee-nnn. Let's
put it all together now- d-e-n.
Perfect! Now you try to read the
words that I spell on the board." I
will place the words that they have previously spelled on the board and
have
the students read them. I will pay close
attention to make sure that every child is reading the word accurately. If a child seems to have trouble reading a
word, I will use body-coda blending to help the child read the word.
6. Next I will introduce my
decodable new book, Red Gets Fed.
"Red is a pet dog. He is a sweet,
but mischievous dog. He goes and bothers
Meg trying to wake her up
so that she will get him something to eat.
Do you think that Meg will wake up and feed Red?
We'll have to read and see what happens!" I
will have the children break into pairs and
take turns reading a page, while I walk around the room to observe
individual
children reading and take notes on their reading skills.
7.
Finally, we are going to write a message about what we would
have fed
our pet Red. I will allow children to
use inventive spelling to write a sentence or two on their primary
paper. I will remind the children how to
write our
letter e on the overhead before they
begin.
8.
For assessment, I will use the miscues that I have written down
from
children's individual readings to note reading ability progress
throughout the
year. The students will also be given a
worksheet with pictures on it and a list of words to choose from. The children will be instructed to match the
pictures with the written word that has the /e/ sound in it.
References:
Churchwell, Hope. /e/ in
eeeecchhoo!
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/navig/churchwellbr.html.
Landers, Jenna. Ehhh!
What'd ya say? Eeeggs.
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/navig/landersbr.htm.
Murray, Bruce. The
Red Gets Fed.
(1990). Educational Insights:
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