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Beginning Reading Design

“We Say Ai Instead of Hey”

Emma Webb

 

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 (Canadian greeting “Ai”) 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 Canadian Flag; cover-up critter; whiteboard or smartboard Elkonin boxes for modeling and individual Elkonin boxes for each student; letter manipulatives for each child and magnetic or smartboard letters for teacher :e, c, d, k, n, o, p, r, s, t; list of spelling words on poster or whiteboard to read: ace, cave, rake, pack, flake, space; decodable text: Race With Ace, and 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 tap, 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 the Canadian Flag because Canadians greet each other by saying “Ai”. [show graphic image].”

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 smile shape like this. [Make vocal gesture for/A/.] I’ll show you first: base. I heard a say its name and I felt my lips make a little smile [make a circle motion around mouth]. There is a long A in base. Now I’m going to see if it’s in rack. Hmm, I didn’t hear a say its name and my lips didn’t make a smile. Now you try. If you hear /A/ say, “Aye!” and wave. If you don’t hear /A/ say, “Ack!” and signal a thumbs down. Is it in snow, rain, pants, cake, nose, lips, pace? [Have children wave when they feel /A/ say its name.]

3. Say: “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. What if I want to spell the word space? “If I shoot a rocket into space, the astronauts could see Earth.” Space means out of earth 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/. I need 4 boxes. I heard that /A/ just before the /s/ 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//s/. I think I heard /p/ so I’ll put a p right after the s. I have one empty box now. [Point to letters in boxes when stretching out the word: /s//p//A//s/] The missing one is /s/= c.”

4.Say: “Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You’ll start out easy with two boxes for ace. An ace is a when you get a good grade on a test, “I know you can ace this test because you have studied so hard!” What should go in the first box? [Respond to children’s answers]. What goes in the second box? 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 three letterboxes for the next word. Listen for the beginning sound that goes in the first box. Then listen for /A/ and don’t forget to put the signal silent eat the end, outside the boxes.  Here’s the word: cave, A big bear lives in a cave; cave. [Allow children to spell words.]  Time to check your work. Watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the board: c –a –v –e and see if you’ve spelled it the same way. Try another with three boxes: rake; I need a rake to clean up all these leaves. [Have volunteer spell it in the letterbox on the front board for children to check their work. Repeat this step for each new word.] Next word. Listen to see if this word has /A/ in it before you spell it: pack; I pack my bags for a trip. Did you need a silent e? Why not? Right, because we don’t hear a say its name. We spell it with our short vowel a.  [volunteer spells it on the front board.] Did you remember to spell /k/ with a ck?  Now let’s try 4 phonemes: flake; My favorite part of a biscuit is the flake.

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 space on the top and model reading the word.]  First, I see there’s a silent e on the end; that’s my signal that the vowel will say its name. There’s the vowel a. It must say /A/. I’m going to use a cover-up to get the first part. [Uncover and blend sequentially before the vowel, then blend with the vowel.] /s//p/ = /sp/. Now I’m going to blend that with /A/ = /spA/. Now all I need is the end, /s/ = /spac/.  Stroke; 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 done a great job and reading words with our new spelling for /A/: a_e. Now we are going to read a book called Race with Ace. This is a story of a bunny named Ace who decides to join a race. Ace finds many friends along the way and has a great adventure. Let’s pair up and take turns reading Race with Ace to find out where Ace goes, and who he finds along the way. [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 Race with Ace aloud together, and stops between page turns to discuss the plot.]”

7. Say: “That was a fun story. Who did Ace race? Right, he met a whale named Grace and they raced together! 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, we have some words missing. Your job is to look in the box of word choices and decide which a_e word fits best to make sense of this very short story. First try reading all the words in the box, then choose the word that fits best in the space. Reread your answers to see if they make sense. [Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress.]

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Resources:

Race with Ace by Emma Webb (PP 2020) 

Worksheet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxoORa3TsCocWkFWTzN0cFZHNzg/view

Canadian Flag Graphic: https://r.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=AwrJ6wqZC11e7I0A6SyjzbkF;_ylu=X3oDMTBtdXBkbHJyBHNlYwNmcC1hdHRyaWIEc2xrA3J1cmw-/RV=2/RE=1583184921/RO=11/RU=http%3a%2f%2frandomthoughtsbyleauphaun.blogspot.com%2f2011%2f07%2fcanada-day.html/RK=2/RS=BMH3AqWc2f.6bs_IMAQeJPUOCOE-

Oh, I Didn’t Know by Geri Murray:

https://murraba.wixsite.com/readinglessons/beginning-reading

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Auburn University Development

http://wp.auburn.edu/rdggenie/home/classroom/developments/

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