Beginning Reading
Hey, Are You Okay?
Beginning Reading Lesson
Rationale: This lesson teaches children about the long vowel correspondence a_e= /A/. Children must learn to recognize the spellings of words that map the pronunciation in order to become good readers. In this lesson, children will learn to recognize, spell, and read words containing a_e. They will learn a meaningful representation (group of friends checking on another friend saying you okay?), 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/.
Materials:
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Image of cartoon group of friends checking on a friend asking if they are okay
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Cover-up critter
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Whiteboard
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Letterboxes for each student
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Letter tiles for students and magnetic letters for teacher: a, b, e, c, t, k, p, s, r, i, n
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Poster board with the words for the children to spell: ate, bet, bake, tick, snake, scrape
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Decodable text: A Race for Cake
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Assessment worksheet
Procedures:
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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 bat, 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 cartoon Hey, Arnold! Where his friends gather around and ask him “hey, are you okay?” [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 mouth opens wide like I am about to take a bite out of an apple. [Make vocal gesture for /A/.] I’ll show you first: cake. I heard a say its name and my mouth opened wide like I am taking a bite out of an apple [open your mouth like you are taking a bite out of an apple]. There is a long A in cake. Now I’m going to see if it’s in rat. Hmm, I didn’t hear a say its name and my mouth did not open wide like taking a bite out of an apple. Now you try. If you hear /A/ say, “Hey, are you okay?” If you don’t hear /A/ say, “No I am not,” Is it in red, bot, save, soon, skin? [Have children mimic taking a bite out of an apple 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 is a little silent e signal. What if I spell the word snake? “The snake crawls on its belly all day long.” Snake means animal in this sentence. To spell snake in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word, so I stretch it out and count: /s//n//A//k/. I need 4 boxes. I heard that /A/ just before the /k/ so I’m going to put an a in the 3rdbox 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//n//A//k/. I think I heard /n/ so I’ll put a n right after the s. Then, I think I heard the /A/, I will put a next. Hmm, I have one empty box left now. [Point to letters in boxes when stretching out the word: /s//n//A//k/.] The missing one is /k/ = k.
[s][n][a][k]e
4. Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You’ll start out easy with two boxes for ate. Ate is the past tense form of eat, “I ate a double cheeseburger last night for dinner.” 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 list for /A/ and don’t forget to put the silent e at the end, outside the boxes. Here’s the word: bake, “I like to bake cookies;” bake. [Allow children to spell words]. Time to check your work. Watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the board: b-a-k-e and see if you spelled it the same way. Try another with three boxes: bet; “I bet you can not run faster than a cheetah. [Have a 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:tick; “I can hear every tick of the clock.” Did you need a silent e? Why not? Right, because we don’t hearasay its name. Did you remember to spell /k/ with a ck? Now let’s try 4 phonemes: snake; “The snake ate the rat.” One more then we’re done with spelling, and this time you need five boxes: scrape; “Be careful not to scrape your knee on the hard ground.” Remember to stretch it out to get this tough word.
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 scrape 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 the vowel]. /s//c/=/sc/+/r/=/scr/. Now I’m going to blend that with /A/=/scrA/. Now all I need is the end, /p/=/scrAp/. Scrape; 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 A Race for Cake.This is a story of a boy and his sister with their pet named Lad. Their mom bakes a cake, let’s see who gets to the cake first. Let’s pair up and take turns reading A Race for Cake to find out who wins the race. [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 A Race for Cakealoud together, and stops between page turns to discuss the plot.]
7. Say: That was a fun story. Who won the race? Right, Jess did because Ben was tackled by Lad. Before we finish up with our lesson about one way to spell /A/=a_e, I want to see if you can tell the difference between short a words and long a words. On this worksheet, we have some short a words and long a words and for each word type you have to color a different color in order to find what Ann and Abe were looking for. [Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress].
Resources:
Durand, Parker Van, Yay, I Made Long A!: https://parkervandurand.wixsite.com/mysite/beginning-reading
Murray, B. (2004) A Race for Cake.Reading Genie: http://wp.auburn.edu/rdggenie/
Assessment worksheet: http://www.free-phonics-worksheets.com/phonics-worksheet-36.html