Made You Mad
Beginning Reading
Katherine McCartha
Rationale: The silent "e"
letter makes a distinct difference in the
phoneme that each vowel makes. Children need to learn the phoneme for
the
vowel-consonant-silent e grapheme. The knowledge of the pronunciation
difference
is vital for a child's word recognition. Children must recognize that
the
silent "e" at the end enables the other vowel to be of the long vowel
sound. This lesson will help children recognize the long vowel sound
due to the
"vowel-consonant-silent-e" pattern. They will recognize the
difference in the vowels phoneme with CVC words verses the vowels
phoneme with
the CVCe pattern. They will then practice using the spoken words
(phoneme
sounds). (Teaching Decoding in Holistic Classrooms, J. Lloyd Eldridge).
The
correspondence we will focus on is a_e=/a/.
Materials: Primary paper and
pencil, pocket chart with sentence strips using vowels
with the CVCe pattern; a_e=/A/.
a_e=A: Brave Lane
scared the snake. Also needed, a list of words to be called out to the
students to listen to and decide if the silent e is needed at the end
or not. The
word list will be written on cards: made, mad, cat, ate, fat, fate. The
cards
will be placed in the pocket chart. Letter squares (capital for long
vowel
sound and lower case for short vowel sound) in addition, the letters:
m,d,t
(Adaptations of: Letterbox Lessons)
Procedure:
1. Introduce the lesson by explaining that in out language, we record
what we
say by sometimes using the same letter to make a different sound. Many
times we
use the letter e at the end of a word to make the other vowel in the
word. It
makes the long vowel sound. Go through each vowel.
2. "Make the sound a_e=/A/ sound. Now make the a=/a/ sound." Use the
letter squares to demonstrate the rest of the vowel phonemes (Upper
case vocal
gesture first then lower case). Place these letters in the pocket
chart.
3. "Spell the word "mad" with the letter squares.
"Pronounce this word." Then add the silent e to the end. "Is
this word pronounced differently? Now pronounce 'at'. What happens to
the a=/a/
sound when we add the silent e to the end?" Remove the letter e and
have
the students pronounce the word. Then place the e at the end of the
word as the
new word is being pronounced so theta the auditory change will e visual
as
well.
4. Let’s try a tongue twister. [On chart] "Brave Lane scared the snake." Everybody say it
together three times. With a blank card, cover up the silent e in every
word.
Have the students pronounce the new pseudo word with the short
vowel
sound. This way, its will be clear that the silent e makes a distinct
difference
the vowel’s phoneme.
5. Read "Jane and Babe" and
talk about the story. Read it again, and
have the students raise their hands when they hear words with the long
vowel
sound.
6. Have students take out
primary paper and pencil. The students are to write
only the words where a silent e is necessary. The class will discuss
which
words are to be written. Place the words from the word list in the
pocket
chart. The students will copy the words once the correct ones have been
identified. Display their work.
Click here to return to Guidelines.
References:
Adam, Marilyn, J. (1990).
Beginning to Read: Thinking and Learning
about Print. A summary prepared by Steven A Stahl, Jean Osborn, Fran
Lehr
Eldridge, Lloyd J. (1995).
Teaching Decoding in Holistic Classrooms.