Beginning Reading
Lyndsey Ford
Busy as a Bee
Beginning
Reading
Lyndsey Ford
Rationale: In order to become
fluent readers, children must learn to break the alphabetic code. After
they learn individual phonemes, they are ready to learn digraphs. This
lesson will help children learn to recognize ee=/E/ by spelling
and reading words containing ee. This lesson will give children
the opportunity to practice reading and spelling words with a double ee
in them.
Materials: Elkonin letterboxes and
a set of lower case alphabet letters for each child, list of ee=/E/
words for teacher, list of necessary letters on the chalkboard-
Letterbox words: bee, see, feet, deep,
need, sweep, bleed, sleep.
Necessary letters: b,d,s,f,t,p,n,w,l,e,e, (e's taped together)
The
Foot Book by Dr. Seuss, Published in 1968.
Procedure:
1. Introduce the lesson by explaining that when two vowels are side by
side in a word, they make a single mouth move. Although this is a rule
the children should understand that this is only 45% reliable. "Today
we are going to learn the sound that two e's make when they are
side by side, so that we can recognize that sound in words. We will
practice by spelling and reading words with ee in them."
2. When two e's are together, they say /E/. Repeat after me: ee
says /E/. Do you hear /E/ in meet or night? Say
or feed? When you go down a slide, you say "WEEEE!" ee
makes that /E/ sound.
3. I'm going to read you a few sentences. When you hear a word with ee
in the middle, clap your hands twice. If you don't hear a word with ee,
just stay silent. What does ee say? /E/!
Sample sentences:
a. I see my friend.
b. Are you going to school?
c. Jim is a baseball player.
d. I sleep under the sheets.
4. Now we are going
to use our letterboxes to spell words with ee. Since the two e's
make only one sound when put together, they will both go in the same
box. Spell
bee with me. You spell it out loud as I spell it on the board.
(Teacher draws a letterbox with two squares on the board. The first box
contains b and the second square contains ee.) Now take
out your letterboxes and only the letters I have written on the board.
5. Fold your letterbox so that you have two letterboxes showing for two
sounds. Now spell bee. Now try see. (Give them time to
finish before writing it on the board.) Now fold your box where 3
squares are showing. (Have students spell feet, red,
deep, and need.) Now change to 4
squares. (Have students spell sweep, bleed, and
sleep.)
6. Put away your letters and letterboxes. Now read the words as I point
to them. (Students read word list teacher has written on the board.
"7. 'Now we are going to read The Foot Book. Before we start,
what does
ee say? /E/! Great!" Each child reads a page and the teacher
finishes the book. Children will be assessed by teacher taking miscue
notes as each child reads.
References: Murray, B.A., and
Lesniak, T. 1999. The letterbox lesson: A hands-on approach for
teaching decoding. The Reading Teacher, 52, 644-650.
The Reading Genie:
Rachel Williams, Busy as A Bee-
http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/insights/millsbr.html