Eeehhh?
What was that?
Beginning Reading
Katie DeFoor

Rationale:
Students have to become familiar with the phoneme and shape of each
letter to
be able to become a fluent reader. It is
important to begin teaching short vowels before teaching long vowels. During this lesson I will teach the e=/e/
correspondence. I will teach this lesson
by using a letterbox lesson. I will use
a tongue twister, letterboxes, and a decodable book.
Materials:
Crayons
Pencils
Picture cards that have words beside the picture and
has /e/
in them
Letterboxes (one set for each student)
Letter tiles (w, a, g, d, e, n, f, p, c, k, s, t, l,
b)
Red Gets Fed.
Educational Insights, c. 1990
Picture of hand gesture
Tongue twister: "Elmer Elwood led elderly
elephants"
Words: wag, den, fed, peck, sent, flag, bend, west
Primary writing paper
Procedures:
- Today we are going to learn about the
sound the letter e sounds. It
makes the /e/ sound. Say it with me. Good job. Do you
know a word that has the /e/ sound in it? Bed
has the /e/ sound in it.
- Now we are going to practice writing e. Everyone needs to get
their writing paper and a pencil out for this. Now
to make the letter e you need to get in the center of
the space below the fence, go toward the door (right), up to touch the
fence, then around and up like you are making a little c.
- Now we are going to work on
recognizing e when we see it and know what sound it
makes. Do you sometimes get confused and
ask, "Eeehh? What was that?"
When you do that do you put your hand around your ear? That's what we're going to do now whenever we
hear or see /e/. Can you do it with me?
- This time I am going to say a sentence
and when you hear /e/ I want you to cup your hand around your ear and
say /e/ like when you’re confused. "Elmer
Elwood led elderly elephants." Good job. Now I want you to stretch out the /e/ in the
words. "Eeeelmer Eeeelwood leeeed eeeelderly eeeelephants." That was so good! Now
let’s break off the /e/. "/e/ lmer
/e/lwood l/e/d /e/lderly /e/lephants."
- Now I am going to say some words and I
want you to tell me which word you hear /e/ in. Pet or dog? Paper or pencil? Bed or house? Great
job. Now let's look at some words and I
want you to tell me if they have /e/ in them. Red or brown? Fed or ate? Hen or
animal? Thank you for
working so hard! Everyone is doing great!
- Now everyone needs to get their
letterboxes and tiles out. Our first word
is going to be sent. It
will need four boxes. I am going to show
you how to do this one. The first sound I
hear is /s/ so I am going to put s in the first box. Can everyone see that? (Walk
around and show the children your letterbox and check theirs). The second sound I hear is /e/ so what letter
do you think we should put there? That’s
right! We put e in the
second box. Now I hear the /n/ sound so I
will put n in the third box. Can
everyone see? And lastly, I hear /d/ so I
am going to put d in the last box.
Now I want everyone to practice doing what I just did. I will tell you how many letterboxes you will
need for each word. I will walk around
helping you. (The students will spell wag,
den, fed, peck, sent, flag, west). I will
model and help as needed. After they have
spelled the words I will give each student a list with those same words
on them. I will have them read these words
as a group.
- Everyone did such a great job on the
letterboxes. Now I am going to give
everyone a copy of Red Gets Fed. You
are going to get in partners and read this book. Red
is a dog that is hungry. He is really
hungry and wants to be fed. Red wakes up
Meg and her dad. Will Red get fed?
Assessment:
I will assess by giving the students picture cards. The card will have one picture on it and four
different words. One of the words will
represent the picture and will have the /e/ sound in it.
The student will write the correct word for
the picture and then can color the picture.
If they get the word right then I will know that they have
mastered
e=/e/.
Reference:
Sarah Jane Brock "Eeeehhh, What Did You Say?"
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/voyages/brockbr.html
Red Gets Fed.
Educational Insights, c. 1990
Reading Genie Site
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie
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