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Rationale: This lesson teaches children about the long vowel correspondence a_e = /A/. 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 a_e. They will learn a meaningful representation (give a thumbs up and say, “It’s a great day!”), they will spell and read words containing this spelling in a letterbox lesson, and read a decodable book that focuses on the correspondence a_e = /A/.

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Materials: Graphic image of a girl waving; cover-up critter; whiteboard or smartboard Elkonin boxes for modeling and individual Elkonin letterboxes for each student; letter manipulatives for each child and magnetic or smartboard letters for teacher: a, b, c, d, e, k, l, m, r, t; list of spelling words on poster or whiteboard to read: came, trade, blame, brace, brake, grace, crab, and yane; decodable text The Race for Cake, and assessment worksheet.

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1. Say: Don’t you want to get to read a book and understand the story all by yourself? We’ll get to do this if we learn the code that tells us how to say the words that we read! We already know how to read short vowel words with a, like map, and today we are going to learn about long A and the silent e signal that is used to make A say its name, /A/. When I say /A/ I think of a girl saying, “It’s a great day!” [show graphic image]. Now let’s look at the spelling of /A/ that we’ll learn today. One way to spell /A/ is with the letter a and a signal e at the end of the word to tell me to say A’s name. [Write a_e on the board.]  This blank line here means there is a consonant after a. and at the end of the word there is a little silent e signal.

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2. Say: Before we learn about the spelling of /A/, we need to listen for it in some words. When I listen for /A/ in words, I hear a say its name /A/ and my lips make a little a shape like this. [Make vocal gesture for /A/.] I’ll show you first: wave. I heard a say its name and I felt my lips make a little a  [make an oval motion around parted lips]. There is a long A in wave. Now I’m going to see if it’s in cat. Hmm, I didn’t hear a say its name and my mouth was wide, not round. Now you try. If you hear /A/ say, “Have a good day!” If you don’t hear /A/ say, “That’s not it.” Is it in fake, real, make, shop, dog, snake? [Have children make a circle motion around their open lips when they feel /A/ say its name.]

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3. What if I want to spell the word space? “I need space to run around and play.” Space means room in this sentence. To spell space in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word so I stretch it out and count: /s//p//A//c//e/. I need 4 boxes. I heard that /A/ just before the /p/ so I’m going to put an a in the 3rd box and the silent e signal outside the last box. The word starts with /s/, that’s easy; I need an s. Now it gets a little tricky so I’m going to say it slowly, /s//p//A//c//e/. I think I heard /c/ so I’ll put a c right after the A. I have one empty box now. [Point to letters in boxes when stretching out the word: /s//p//A//c//e/.] The missing one is /p/.

Now I’ll show you how I would read a tough word. [Display poster with blame on the top and model reading the word.]  I’m going to start with the a_e; that part says /A/. Now I’m going to put the beginning letters with it: b-l-a_e, /blA/. Now I’ll put that chunk together with the last sound, /blA-m/. Oh, blame, like “I blame my sister for my messy room.”

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4. Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You’ll start out easy with three boxes for face. Point to your face; “My face looks happy when I’m having a good day!” What about silent e, did you remember to put it outside the boxes? I’ll check your spelling while I walk around the room. [Observe progress.] You’ll need four letterboxes for the next word. Listen for the beginning sound to spell in the first box. Then listen for /A/ and don’t forget to put the signal silent e at the end, outside the boxes.  Here’s the word: blade, I want to go roller blade; blade. [Allow children to spell remaining words, giving sentences for each word: came, trade, blame, brace, and brake.]

 

5. Say: Now I am going to let you read the words you’ve spelled. [Show the words came, trade, blame, brace, brake, and the extra words grace and crab, and the pseudoword yane. Have children read words in unison. Afterwards, call on individuals to read one word on the list until everyone has had a turn.]

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6. Say: You’ve done a great job and reading words with our new spelling for /A/: a_e. Now we are going to read a book called The Race for Cake. This is a story of Ben and Jess, who decide to race to the cake that their mom made! Their dog starts to race them and then Ben falls down. Oh no! Who’s going to get the cake?! Let’s pair up and take turns reading The Race for Cake to find out who gets to eat the cake. [Children pair up and take turns reading alternate pages each while teacher walks around the room monitoring progress. After individual paired reading, the class rereads The race for Cake chorally, stopping between page turns to discuss the story.]

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7. Say: Before we finish up with our lesson about one way to spell /A/ = a_e, I want to see how you can solve a reading problem. On this worksheet are words with short a and long a. Color the words with long A blue and those with short A gray! Checkover your answers to make sure that you colored the words the colors that you meant to. [Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress.]

Rationale: This lesson teaches children about the long vowel correspondence a_e = /A/. 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 a_e. They will learn a meaningful representation (give a thumbs up and say, “It’s a great day!”), they will spell and read words containing this spelling in a letterbox lesson, and read a decodable book that focuses on the correspondence a_e = /A/.

 

Reference

Claire Koenig: What’d Ya Say, A?

http://csk0009.wixsite.com/eportfolio/beginning-reading

Murray, G. (2006) The Race for Cake. Reading Genie: http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/bookindex.html

Assessment worksheet: http://www.free-phonics-worksheets.com/phonics-worksheet-36.html