Eddie
the Elephant
Beginning
Reading
By
Amber Clark
Rationale:
In order for beginning readers
to become
successful in reading and writing, they must first understand and
recognize
that each letter in the alphabet represents a different sound. By
learning
about phonemes and letter correspondences, beginning readers can become
fluent
readers. Short vowels are often difficult for students to identify and
therefore, this lesson will focus on the vowel correspondences e= /e/.
The students will learn the /e/ correspondence through a meaningful
representation. In addition, they will learn to spell and read words
with the
/e/ sound through a letterbox lesson and through a decodable book.
Materials:
-Chart with tongue twister,
Eddie the
elephant eats an egg.
-Elkonin boxes for students (up
to 6 boxes)
-Plastic letters for each
student (m,e,s,p,l,l,w,n,t,d,c,r,d,b,g,h)
-Laminated big letters and pouch
to
demonstrate with
-Copy of Red Gets Fed for each student
-Pseudoword sheet with gef, tem, lep, det, wep
Procedures:
1. Begin by explaining to
students
that they are going to learn the letter e and the sound it
makes. "This
is the letter e and we hear the /e/ sound in many words!
Today we
are going to learn to recognize this sound and also learn to read and
write
words with it."
2. Relate the sound to
students. Ask, "Have you ever been asked something and you scream
ehhh?
Well that's what sound the e
makes in some words. We open our
mouths and our tongue stays on the bottom of it. Now I want you to
practice. Pretend you are trying to hear something put your hand
on your
ear and and say eeeeeeeehh!
3. Give students a tongue
twister to
help them remember the sound. "Say the tongue twister with me
when I
point to the words. Eddie the Elephant eats an egg!.
Great!
This time when we say it, stretch out the /e/ sound when you hear it,
and put
your hands on your ear like can't hear! Eeeeeeeddie the
EEEeeelephant
eeeats an eeeeeeeeeggg! Good job!"
4. Give students practice
with
phoneme awareness. "Now let's see if we hear the /e/ sound in
spoken
words. Do you hear /e/ in pet or mat? Net or goal?
bed or
couch? nest of house? "
5. Do a group letterbox
lesson using
the /e/ sound. "Now I want you to spread out all of your letters
for
our lesson and make sure you can see all of them. We are going to
try to
spell some words. Remember, put each sound in its own box!
I'll
show you how to spell one first. I want to spell snack.
S-m-eeee-ll
The first sound /s/ goes in the first box, the second /m/, goes in the
second
box, the third /e/ goes in the third box, and the last sound /l/ goes
together
in the last box. Some boxes may have two letters in it if they
make one
sound. Now it is your turn to spell some words." Tell
students
to use their letterboxes to spell the following words: {2-me; 4- spell, went, lend, cent, nest; 5-trend,
spent, blest,; 6- strength} Make sure to tell students how many boxes
to use
before they try to spell each word. After they are finished
spelling the
words in the letterboxes, I will have the students read the words
outside the
boxes.
6. Tell the students to
put away
their letters after they are finished. Spell the words used in
the lesson
for the students and have them read them. If the students are
having
trouble, isolate the vowel sound using a cover-up and then blend
body-coda.
7. Give children practice
reading the
/e/ sound. "Now we are going to read a book called Red Gets
Fed.
This is about a dog named Red. He is hungry and trying to figure
out how
to get some food. . You all have to read Red Gets Fed to see what happens to Red!" Ask
children to read the book silently, then I will read the book to the
class. When finished, ask what words contained the /e/ sound and
make a
chart.
Assessment: Give students
a pseudo
word test to see if they can decode the /a/ sound. Ask them to
read ref,
len, nem, det, bep. "These aren't real words, but I want you to
see
if you can read these silly words to me."
Checklist for teacher to use:
-Can the student identify which
words have
the /e/ sound in spoken words?
-Can the student put each sound
in its own
letterbox when doing the letterbox lesson?
-Can the student identify which
words make the
/e/ sound after reading Red Gets Fed and make a chart?
-Can the student decode the /e/
sounds when
given a pseudo word test?
Reference:
Murray, B.A & Lesniak, T.
(1990).
"The Letterbox Lesson: A hands-on approach for Teaching
decoding." The
Cushman, S (1990). Red Gets
Fed.
Holzapfel, Kim
"Allie The Alligator!"
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/persp/holzapfelbr.html
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