Reading Lessons by Ruth Lee

 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 (Ms. A and a spade); 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: 

1. Graphic image of a card with an A spade (above)

2. Cover-up critter

3. Whiteboard or smartboard Elkonin boxes for modeling and individual Elkonin letterboxes for each student

4. Letter manipulatives for each child and magnetic or smart-board letters for teacher: a, b, d, e, f, g, h, l, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, v, w.

5. list of spelling words on poster or whiteboard to read: trade, wave, ate, name, top, spade, make, flash, brave, grace, prake.

6. Decodable text The Race for Cake retrieved from Fun and Games with Lad and Slim (Murray, 2019, p.1-13).

7. Assessment worksheet

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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 gap. Do you remember the crying baby with his mouth wide opened, saying /a/? That’s the short a sound. /a/. Today we are going to learn about long A and the silent e signal that is used to make A say its name, /A/. Short a /a/, and long a /A/. Do you hear the difference? /A/ and /a/. When I say /A/ I think of a Queen in the spade card named Ms. A! [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. Silent e does many jobs. It tells vowels like a, e, i, o, u to say their names that is the lo~ng sound and makes c to have a soft sound, like /s/. We’ll talk more about it later.  

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1. 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 stretches out sideward as it’s followed by a relaxed long E sound. [Make vocal gesture for /A/.] I’ll show you first: cake. I heard a say its name and I felt my lips stretches out and comes back quickly at its relaxed position. [make a stretching out motion with index finger and thumb]. There is a long A in cake. Now I’m going to see if it’s in tap. Hmm, I didn’t hear a say its name and feel my lips stretching out. Now you try. If you hear /A/ say, “Miss A and a spade.” If you don’t hear /A/ say, “That’s not it.” Is it in bag, troops, plane, coat, nose, game? [Have children make stretch-out motion around their stretched lips when they feel /A/ say its name.]

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3. Say: What if I want to spell the word trade? “Johnny decided to trade his toy car with Jimmy’s dinosaur.” To spell trade in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word, so I stretch it out and count: /t//r//A//d/. I need 4 boxes. I heard that /A/ just before the /d/ 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 /t/, that’s easy; I need a t. Now it gets a little tricky so I’m going to say it slowly, /t//r//A//d/. I think I heard growling /r/. In English, when you put /t/ and /r/ together, it makes you to purse your lips even before you say /r/. /tr/ /tr/.  I have one empty box now. [Point to letters in boxes when stretching out the word: /t//r//A//d/.] The missing one is /d/.

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5. Now I’ll show you how I would read a tough word. [Display poster with wave 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: w-a_e, /wA/. Now I’ll put that chunk together with the last sound, /wA-v/. Oh, wave, like “A mountain of a wave comes after me.”

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7. Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You’ll start out easy with two boxes for ate. Like in this sentence: “I ate four pieces of apple this morning.” 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 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: name, My name is Miss A. Remember that picture? [Allow children to spell remaining words, giving sentences for each word: top, spade, make, and flash.

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9. Say: Now I am going to let you read the words you’ve spelled. [Show the words trade, wave, ate, name, top, spade, make, flash, the extra words brave and grace, and the pseudo-word prake. 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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11. 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 a sibling named Jess and Ben who raced down to their home. Their pet dog Lad catches them running toward their house and jumps right into the way of Ben. Let’s pair up and take turns reading The Race for Cake to find out what happens next. [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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13. Say: Before we finish up with our lesson about one way to spell /A/ = a_e, I like to see how you can spot the words out that has a_e spelling in. On this worksheet, we have some pictures and words. Your job is to circle the word that best explains the picture. Now, as you look for an answer, I would like you to try your best to read each word in the box. Those are the words you all should be able to read. After looking at the picture and reading all the answer choices, choose the one that best describes the picture you see. [Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress.] 

 

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References:

Related Design: Gery Murray, Oh, I didn’t know!

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

 

Decodable Text: Murray, B., & Murray, G. (2019). Fun and Games with Lad and Slim. Auburn, AL: Geniebooks. 

https://murraba.wixsite.com/geniebooks

 

Assessment worksheet: Ruth Lee, Long A Sound 

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