Hey! Let’s Shake!
By Jessie Floyd
Rational: This lesson teaches children about the long vowel correspondence a__e= /A/. To be a successful reader, children must learn to recognize the spellings that map word pronunciations. In this lesson, students will not only learn to recognize words with a_e, but they will also learn to spell and read words that contain this grapheme. The students will learn a meaningful representation by saying “hey” every time that they see a_e. They will learn this correspondence through a series of activities including a letterbox lesson and reading a decodable book with the a_e correspondence.
Materials:
A graphic of a woman waving so that they know that a_e is the same sound as the vowel in hey;
letter boxes and plastic letters including the letters: a, e, t, c, k, r, b, s, n, f, l;
Notecards with the spelling words on them that say:
ate, cake, rake, back, , snake, flame
Decodable text: Geri Murray, Race for Cake
Practice worksheet: http://www.galacticphonics.com/longvowels/a-e/resources/aesplitpictures.pdf
Procedures:
1. Say: Do you want to be a great reader? (YES!) Well in order to be an expert, you have to learn the code that tells you how to pronounce words. We have already learned a lot about short vowels that are by themselves in words. We learned to read with a, when we learned that a stands for a-a-apple and today we are going to learn about long A and the silent e that makes it change from /a/ to /A/. When I say /A/ I think of a girl trying to get my attention and saying HEY but with out the H so she is saying /A/ and waving to me (show graphic). So lets try a few words. When I say the word, wave like you are saying Hey every time you hear the sound /A/. Here we go: Cake, cat, make, jog, ate, flame. Great job! Wee hear the sound /A/ in cake, make, ate, and flame. Now like try this tongue tickler: Jane made the same cake for Dane and Cain. Now you say it! Lets say it all together and wave each time that we say /A/. (J /A/ n, m /A/ d, the s /A/m, c /A/k, got D/A/n, and C /A/ n. )
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 I pull back the corners of my mouth to make a small smile as I say /A/. (Make vocal gesture for /A/.) I’ll show you first: shake. I heard a say its name and I felt the corner of my lips move backwards to form a small smile. Now I am going to see if it’s in shack. Hmm I didn’t here a say its name an my lips didn’t make a small smile. Now you try. If you here /A/ say “Hey! Let’s Shake” and shake your hand like you are waving to me. “ If you don’t hear /A/ say “No /A/ here.” Is it in back, cake, cup, joke, grade, shirt, game, flame, cap? (Have children put their pointer fingers on the corners of their mouth so that they can feel /A/ say it’s 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 then 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 tat the end of the word there is a little silent e signal. What if I spell the word bake. “I always bake a cake for a birthday party.” Bake means make in this sentnace. TO spell bake in letterboxes, fiest I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word so I stretch it out and count: /b/ /A/ /k/. I need 4 boxes. I head /A/ just before the /k/ so I’, going to put an a in the 3rd box and the silent e outside the last box. The word starts with /b/, that’s easy; I need a b. Now it gets a little trick so I am going to say it slowly /b/ /A/ /k/. I think I heard a /k/ after the /A/ so lets try that all together. /b/ /A/ /k/ Oh, Bake!
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 verb you use to talk about a food you have eaten. “I ate an apple for lunch.” What should go in the first box? (Respond to the student’s answer). What does in the second box? What about the silent e that makes it /A/ not /a/? Did you remember to but the silent e outside of 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 e at the end, outside the boxes. Here’s the word: cake, I am making a cake for my sister. [Allow children to spell words.] Time to check your work. Watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the board: c-a-k-e and see if you’ve spelled it the same way. Try another with three boxes: rake; I need to rake the leaves in the yard. [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: back, Please go to the back of the line. 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: snake; the snake slithered down by the creek. One more then we’re done with spelling, and this time you need four boxes: flame; The fire started as just one flame. 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 notecard with flame 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.] /f//l/ = /fl/. Now I’m going to blend that with /A/ = /flA/. Now all I need is the end, /m/ = /flAm/. Flame; 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 for Cake. Have you ever smelled your mom making cake but when you came downstairs it was already eaten? Well, in this stoary Ben and Jess smell the cake and they don think there is enough for both of the. They have to race to see who will get it/ WHo do you think will get the cake? we ill have to read this book to find out! Let’s pair up and take turns reading Race for Cake to find out who gets 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 Race for Cake aloud together, and stops between page turns to discuss the plot.]
7. Say: That was a fun story. Who got to eat the cake in the end? Right, nobody got to eat it because it fell on the ground because Lad jumped on Jess and it all fell on the ground. What fell on the ground? The cake. Right the cake. Before we finish up with our lesson about one way to spell /A/ = a_e, I want to see how you can solve a spelling problem. Now remember that we are talking about a_e words so all of these words with have that in their spelling. Each picture is of something that has an a_e in it so as you see the picture try to spell the words. Use the blacnks to help you figure out how many letters are in each word. Remember to sound out the words and try to take it one sound at a time. On the bottom half of the worksheet fill in a and e in all of the blanks and then you will read the words to see if you know what they say. Reread your answers to see if they make sense. [Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress.]
Resources:
Murry, G. Oh, I didn’t know! : http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/doorways/murraybr.htm
Murray, G. (2006) Race for Cake. Reading Genie: http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/bookindex.html
Assessment Worksheet: http://www.galacticphonics.com/longvowels/a-e/resources/aesplitpictures.pdf
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