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Beginning Reading Design

Eeeehhhh, what’d you say?

Rationale: This lesson teaches children about the short vowel correspondence e=/e/. In order to be able to read, children must learn to recognize the spellings that map word pronunciations. In this lesson children will learn to recognize, spell, and read words containing the spelling e. They will learn a meaningful representation (picture of Grandpa saying “ehhhh?”, cupping hand behind ear), they will spell and read words containing this spelling in a Letterbox lesson and read a decodable book that focuses on the correspondence e=/e/.

Materials: Graphic image of old man cupping hand behind ear; cover-up critter; letterbox/cardstock squares; letter manipulatives: a, c, e, f, g, k, l, m, n, p, s, t, v, w; list of spelling words on poster or whiteboard to read: pet, well, neck, sack, went, fast, vest, spent; decodable text: Pen Pals; and an assessment worksheet.
Procedures:

1.  Say: In order to become expert readers, we need to learn the code that tells us how to pronounce words. We have already learned to read short vowel words with /a/, like rat, and today we are going to learn about short e. When I say /e/ I think of my grandpa who is hard of hearing. Say:  /e-e-e-e-e-eh/? [show graphic image].

2. Say: Before we learn about the spelling of /e/, we need to listen for it in some words. When I listen for /e/ in words, I hear e say its name /e/ and my lips pull back and the sound comes from the bottom of my mouth. I’ll show you with the word went. Wwww-eee-nnn-ttt. I heard the /e/ and I felt my lips pull back. There is a short /e/ (e = /e/) in “w/e/n/t”. Now I’m going to see if it’s in “what”. Hmm, I didn’t hear /e/ and my lips didn’t get pulled back. Now you try. If you hear /e/, cup your hand behind your ear. If you don’t hear /e/ say “No” and shake your head from side to side. Is /e/ in sat, met, jam, pen, nap, or wed?

3. Say: Now let’s look at the spelling of /e/ that we’ll learn today. The way to spell /e/ is with the letter at the beginning of the word or in the middle surrounded by consonants. [Write e on the board.]  What if I want to spell the word went? “I went to the store to buy food.” Went means to go somewhere. To spell the word in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word, so I stretch it out and count: /w/e/n/t. I need 4 boxes. I heard that /e/ just before the /n/ so I’m going to put an e in the 2nd box. The word starts with /w/, that’s easy; I need a w and that goes in the first box. Now I’m going to say it slowly, /w/e/n/t/. I think I heard /t/ so I’ll put a t right after the n. [Point to letters in boxes when stretching out the word: /w/e/n/t/.]

4.Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in your letterboxes. You’ll start out slow with three letterboxes for men. “Men are a group of adults like your dads and uncles.” What should go in the first box? [Respond to children’s answers]. What goes in the second box? I’ll be over to check your spelling. [Observe progress.] You’ll need four letterboxes for the next word. Listen for the beginning sound that goes in the first box. Then listen for /e/ and picture Grandpa cupping his ear saying /e-e-eh/. Here’s the word: west; The sun sets in the west; west. [Allow children time to spell words.] Let’s check your work. Now, watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the board: w-e-s-t; Look and see if you’ve spelled it the same way. Try another with four boxes: bend; Don’t bend your straw or it will break; bend. [Have it spelled in the letterbox on the front board for children to check their work. Repeat this step for each new word.] Next word. Now let’s try 5 phonemes: Listen to see if this word has /e/ in it before you spell it: slept; I slept soundly last night. Did you need a /e/? [Pick a volunteer to spell it on the front board.]

5. Say: Now I am going to let you read the words you’ve spelled, but first I’ll show you how I would read a tough word. [Display poster with trend on the top and model reading the word.]  First, I see the /e-e-eh/. There’s the vowel e. It must say /e/. I’m going to use my cover-up critter to get the first part. [Uncover and blend sequentially before the vowel, then blend with the vowel.] /t//r/ = /tr/. Now I’m going to blend that with /e/ = /tre/. Now all I need is the end, /n//d/ = /nd/ Now put it all together: /tre/ + /nd/ = /trend/. Trend; that’s it. Now it’s your turn, everyone together. [Have children read words in unison. Afterwards, call on individuals to read one word on the list until everyone has had a turn.]

6. Say: You’ve all done a wonderful job reading words with our new spelling for /e/. Now we are going to read a book called Pen Pals. This is a story of a baby boy named Ben. He has a pet named Ted. They’re so close. Since Ben is a baby, he stays in his playpen. But what about his pet Ted? Is Ted allowed in the playpen with Ben? Let’s pair up and take turns reading Pen Pals to find out what happens with Ben and Ted. [Children pair up and take turns reading alternate pages each while the teacher walks around the room monitoring progress. After individual paired reading, the students will reread Pen Pals aloud together, and pause between page turns to discuss the story.]

7. Say: That was a sweet story. What did Ben do when Ted could not get in the playpen? He yelled and yelled! What do you think of Ben’s Dad? Was he nice? What was Ben’s pet’s name?  Right, Ted!  Before we finish up with our lesson about one way to spell with /e/, I want to see how you can find /e/. On this worksheet, we have some pictures with the sound /e/. Your job is to color in the pictures that have the /e/ sound, then circle the words with /e/ in them. Finally, write three words that you learned with /e/. Think of the story we just read or the words that we spelled today. [Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress.]

References:

Assessment worksheet - https://www.myteachingstation.com/

Phonics Readers: Pen Pals Book 4 - http://wp.auburn.edu/rdggenie/   

Graphic image of Grandpa cupping ear for /e/ - http://wp.auburn.edu/rdggenie/home/materials/phonlet/

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