Wow! I
Rock
at
Beginning Reader
Rationale: Before children can
grasp understanding of the alphabetic principle, they must understand
that
sounds are paired with letters in spoken words.
It is important in the learning process to understand how to
recognize
phonemes. This lesson will help children
notice the phoneme /e/ (short e). They
will learn to recognize /e/, and they will discover the short vowel’s
existence
and separability from other phonemes.
They will learn this by completing a variety of tasks, such as
learning
the meaningful representation and letter symbols, practice spelling
with /e/,
and practice finding /e/ in words.
Materials: Primary paper and
pencil; chart with “Eddy and Elle entered on an elephant and ordered
eggs”;
drawing paper and crayons; Red Gets Fed(Educational Insights); picture
page
with tent, nest, dress, and eggs. Also,
pictures of other short vowels, so the children can depict what is /e/
and what
is not, such as dog, cat, rat, and bug.
Procedures:
1. Introduce
the lesson by explaining to the
children that our written language is a difficult and slow process. There are many sounds and letters in words,
but today we are going to learn about /e/.
This is short e. Notice how your
mouth moves when you say /e/. It will
become more evident as we study it closer.
2. Ask
students: Have you ever heard the /e/
sound when you are sitting in a rocking chair, and it creaks? (Demonstrate the motion and sound). That’s the sound we will be working on
today. Can everyone say it with me? Can you hear /e/ in pet? What
about bed?
3. Now let’s
try a tongue twister [on
chart]. “Eddy and Elle entered on an
elephant and ordered eggs.” Let’s all say that together now. This time, let’s say the /e/ sound
longer. “Eeeedy and eeeelle eeeentered
on an eeeelephant and ordered eeeeggs.”
Try it again, and this time , let’s break the /e/ off of each
word. “/E/ ddy and /E/ lle /e/ ntered on
an /e/
lephant and ordered /e/ ggs.” Great job!
4. Ask
students to take out their primary paper
and pencils. Now we are going to use the
letter e to spell the sound /e/. Let’s begin!
Start at the middle of the sidewalk and walk straight, then
curve up to
the fence. Go back towards the sidewalk
and pass the middle of it, going to the very end. Curve
around the very end of the sidewalk,
and curve back up. It looks like a snake
curling up, doesn’t it? When you are
correct, I will give you a sticker on your paper, and you are to
continue practicing
writing the letter e.
5. Let me
show you how to find /e/ in the word
bed. I’m going to stretch out bed
slowly, and listen for the sound of that punch.
B-e-d. B-b-b-e-e-e. . . There it
is! I do hear that Rocking chair sound
/e/ in bed. Do you? Do
you hear /e/ in smell or bug? West or ball?
Run or fed?
6. Call on
students to answer how they knew: Do
you hear /e/ in dog or red? Sun or
den? Cup or men? Skunk
or bed? [Pass out a card to everyone.]
Say: Let’s see if you can hear the rocking chair /e/ in some words. Rock (push elbows back and forth) if you hear
/e/. Eddy, and, Elle, entered, on, an, elephant, and, ordered, eggs.
7. Say: “Red
Gets Fed. Red is a dog.
During the story, he is very hungry. His
family is busy. Do you think red will get
fed? You will have to read the rest of the
book to
find out. Read Red Gets Fed
and talk about the story. Read it again,
and have the students make a
rocking motion with their elbows when they hear /e/.
List the words on the board. Then,
have the students draw a dog and write
a message using invented spelling.
Display their work.
8. For
assessment, hand out the picture page and
have students name the pictures. Ask the
students to circle the pictures whose names have /e/.
If there is time allowed, also have students
write two sentences containing the /e/ sound.
Model a sentence for them. “The
red bed where Ed slept was a mess.”
Reference:
Beck, Isabel L. Making
Sense of Phonics: The Hows and Whys.
Red Gets Fed. Educational
Insights, 1990.
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