Listen up!
Rational: To learn to read and spell words children need the alphabetic approaching to know what letters stand for (phonemes) and that spelling them out they can see the phonemes in words. Before they can match the phonemes and letters they need to recognize phonemes in spoken words. Short vowels are the hardest for children to learn most of the time. This lesson will help children identify /e/ (short e). They will learn to recognize /e/ in spoken words by learning a meaningful representation and a letter symbol, and then practice finding the /e/ in words.
1) Primary paper and pencil, chart with “Everyone saw Eddie and the Eskimo enter the
elevator on the elephant”
2) Primary paper and pencils for each child
3) Chart with the tongue twister—"Everyone saw Eddie and the Eskimo
enter the elevator on the elephant"—written on it.
4) Copies of Red Gets Fed for each student (Educational
Insights)
5) Chalk
6) Handout with pictures of the color red, eggs, a web, the number ten,
and a nest (also include pictures of words without the e = /e/
correspondence)
Procedures: 1. Introduce the lesson. Explain to the
students that they are going to learn about the letter e and
its corresponding sound. Write the letter e on the board.
"Good morning boys and girls! Today we are going to learn about the
letter e and the sound it makes; e says /e/. The letter
e is a vowel that we see in many words and that makes it a very
special letter. Does anyone know why the letter e is
so important? We find the letter e in so many
words like red, nest, ten, and smell. Today, we are going
to learn how to spell and read words that have an e that makes
the sound /e/."
2. Show children a
gesture for remembering e = /e/. "Has anyone ever
been trying to talk to someone that is far away, like outside or in
another room? Well, I have too, and sometimes I have a hard time
hearing them that far away. Have you ever had a hard time hearing
someone? What do you do to try to hear them better? Well, I usually cup
my hand behind my ear and say /e/ (model the gesture for the
class). Have you ever done that? Of course you have! I want everyone to
do that together. I am going to say something really low and if you
can’t hear me cup your hand behind your ear and say /e/.
(Pretend to say something really low.) Good! Perfect! Well that just
happens to be the exact sound the letter e makes. So every time you
hear the /e/ sound I want you to cup your hand behind your ear.
Okay. Is everybody ready to start? I am going to read a tongue twister
so you can practice.”
3. Direct the
children’s attention to the tongue-twister chart. First, model it for
them. Read the tongue twister aloud and make the hand gesture every
time you hear /e/. Then have them practice saying it with you a
couple of times. Remember to stretch the /e/. Remind them to
make their hand gesture when they hear /e/.
"Now we are going to practice the /e/ sound by saying a really goofy
tongue twister together. I am going to read it once to you and
then you say it with me. Remember to cup your hand behind your ear
every time you hear /e/. Eeeeveryone saw Eeeeddie and the
Eeeeskimo enter the eeeelevator on the eeeelephant.Perfect! Now
let's say it again, but this time, I want you to really stretch out the
/e/ in each word. Eeeeveryone saw Eeeeddie and the Eeeeskimo
enter the eeeelevator on the eeeelephant. Did everyone hear the /e/
sound? Great!"
4. Have students
take out pencil and primary paper. We can use letter e to
spell /e/. Let’s write it. Get in the center of the space below
the fence, go toward the door [right], up to touch the fence, around
and up. After I put a smile on it, I want you to make 9 more just like
it. When you see letter e all by itself in a word, that’s the
signal to say /e/.
5. Practice
finding /e/ in spoken words. "Before we do our
tongue twister, I want you to practice finding /e/ in spoken
words. Listen carefully to the words I say. Do you hear /e/
in eggs or apple? Eeeeegg or Aaaaapplle..Eegg or
Aapple…oh Egg!!…. In help or hurt? Ten or eleven
? In bet or boy? In best or slow?
Wonderful!"
6. Hand out copies
of Red Gets Fed to each student. Give a brief book talk.
"It is time now for the really fun part! You are actually going to read
a book all on your own! Today we are going to read Red Gets Fed.
Red is Meg’s dog and he gets hungry, but Meg is sleeping. Red goes into
Meg’s room and begs for her to get up and fed him. So finally Meg does
get up and fed Red. Well, there is one problem. Red is still hungry
after eating what Meg fed him so now he goes to dad’s room, but dad is
sound asleep. To find out if Red gets fed again, you’ll have to listen
carefully to me read this book to you.”
8. Pass out the
picture handout and help the students identify them.
"Everyone look at the picture handout. Let's see if we can help
one another identify the pictures." The teacher should walk
around the room and make sure each child identifies the pictures.
9. Have each
student write a message while other students are being called to the
teacher's desk. "I am going to pass out the primary paper and
you will need a pencil. I want you to think about a food that you
really, really like to eat just like Red who loved his dog food. After
you’ve thought about it, write a message about what it is and why you
like it so much.”
Assessment: For assessment, each child should individually
come up to the teacher's desk. Each child should bring the
picture handout and a pencil. According to the teacher’s instructions,
each student should be assessed on the understanding that e = /e/.
The teacher should say, "I want you to circle all of the pictures that
show words containing /e/. Then, I want you to look at
the pictures that you’ve circled and choose one word that you would
like to write. For example, you would write red for this
picture (pointing to the picture of the color red)." Be sure to
provide primary paper. The teacher should grade each child
according to their ability to identify the pictures representing words
with /e/, as well as their ability to recognize and write a
word that includes the letter e.
References: 1. Red Gets Fed. Educational Insights, 1990.
2. Eldredge, J. Lloyd, Teaching Decoding in Holistic Classrooms.
3. Murray, B.A., & Lesniak, T. (1999). The Letterbox Lesson: A
hands-on approach for teaching decoding. The
4. Jennifer Adams, Jack the Fat Cat http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/innov/adamsbr.html
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