Beginning Reading

 

 

 

 

 

Rational: This lesson teaches children about the long vowel correspondence ee = /E/. In order to be able to read children must learn the spellings that map word punctuations. In this lesson children will learn to recognize, spell, and read words that contain ee= /E/. They will learn meaningful representation (a door opening sounds like ee), they will read, and spell words containing this spelling in a Letterbox Lesson and read a decodable book that goes along with the correspondenceee= /E/.    

 

Materials: Graphic image of a door opening; cover-up critter; whiteboard or smartboard; Elkonin boxes for each student; letter manipulatives for each student; and magnetic or smartboard letters for teacher: p, e, e, d, k, l, n, s ; list of spelling words on poster or whiteboard to read: pee, see, deep, keep, sleep, green, seen, decodable text: Lee and Team; Assessment worksheet:  https://www.greatschools.org/library/cms/74/23174.pdf

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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 vowels with e, like step, and today we are going to learn about long E and the double e that makes the E say its name, /E/. When I say /E/ I think of a door slowly opening saying “eeeeeeeek” as its creeks open. (Show Graphic). 

 

1. Say: Before we learn the spelling of /E/, we need to listen for it in some words. When I listen for /E/ in words, I hear e say its name /E/ and my lips make a horizon like this. (Make vocal gesture for /E/.) I’ll show you first: sleep. I heard e say its name and my lips made a horizon to make the sound e (do a horizontal line across lips which is one of the fingers of the letter E). There is a long E in sleep. How I’m going to see if it is in leg. Hmm, I didn’t hear e say its name and my lips didn’t make that line that is part of an E. Now you try. If you hear /E/ say “eeeeeeek.” If you don’t hear /E/ say, that is not it. Is it in: leg, train, pain, peg, keep, tap? (Have children make an E straight line when they feel their lips do that).

 

 

1. Say: Now let’s look at the spelling of /E/ that we’ll learn today. One way to spell /E/ is with the letter ee and this will have the /E/ say its name. (Write ee on the board.) The e’s are always together, stuck like glue. What if we want to spell the word speed? “If I speed past a cop in my car, I will get pulled over.” Speed means to go fast in this sentence. To spell speed in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word, so I stretch it out and count: /s//p//E//d/. I need 4 boxes. I heard that /E/ just before the /p/ so I am going to put the ee in the 3rd box. The word starts with /s/, that’s easy I need an s. Now it gets a little tricky, so I am going to say it slowly, /s//p//E//d/. I think I heard popping /p/ so I need an p. I have one empty box now (point to letters in boxes when stretching out the word /s//p//E//d/). The missing one is /d/ = d. 

 

1. Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You’ll start out easy with two boxes for see. The word see is a term for catching someone’s eye. “I was walking in a room, and I see my dog from afar.” What should go in the first box? (Respond to children’s answers). What goes in the second box? Make sure to put in the double e. 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 /E/ and don’t forget to put the double e in the word. Here’s the word seen, I have seen the tooth fairy; seen. (Allow children to spell out words.) Time to check your work. Watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the board: s-e-e-n and see if you’ve spelled it the same way. Try another three boxes: keen; I have a keen eye on this cute boy. (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 /E/ in it before you spell it: slept; I hope you slept well last night. Did you hear the double e? Why not? Right, because we don’t hear e say its name. We spell it with our short vowel e. (volunteer spells it on the front board.) Now let’s try a 4 phonemes word: sleep; I did not get enough sleep. One more than we’re done with spelling, and this time you need five boxes: street; You should walk by my street. Remember stretch it out to get it, it is a tough word. 

 

1. 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. (Show poster with street on the top and model reading the word.) First, I see there’s a double e in the middle of the word; that’s my signal that the vowel will say its name. There is the vowel e. It must say /E/. I am going to use a cover-up critter to get the first part. (Uncover and blend sequentially before the vowel, then blend with the vowel.) /s//t/ = /st/ + /r/ = /str/. Now I am going to blend that with /E/= /strE/. Now all I need is the end, /t/ = /strEt/. Street; that’s it. Now it is your turn, everyone does it together. (Have children read words together. Afterwards, call on individual students to rad one word on the list until each student has had a turn.) 

 

 

1. Say: You’ve done a great job with reading words with our new spelling for /E/: ee. Now we are going to read a book called: Lee and Team. This is a story about a boy named Lee who leads his baseball team, and they seem not to listen to him. Let’s pair up and take turns reading Lee and Team to see if Lee’s team finally listens. (Children pair up and take turns reading each page- switching off page by page- while teacher walks around the room and monitors the progress. After every student finish, the whole class will read the story together and stops after every page to discuss the plot.)

 

1. Say: that was a fun story. What did Lee’s team end up doing? Right, they ended up making it to the game. What animal was mentioned in the story? Right, a bee. Before we finish up our lesson about one way to spell /E/= ee, I want to see how you can solve a reading problem. On this worksheet, you will have to write the pictures that you see, and copy sentences I want to see you guys challenge yourselves and do this worksheet as well and as fast as you can. Make sure to reread your answers to see if they make sense. (Collect worksheets to evaluate the child’s spelling and progress.) 

 

 

Resources:

 

Door Opening Picture: https://www.dreamstime.com/open-close-door-cartoon-colorful-vector-illustration-valley-summer-sun-landscape-road-trees-house-apartment-image136775115

 

Murray G. (2004) Lee and Team. Canvas Decodable Books Page: https://auburn.instructure.com/courses/1396676/pages/Educational%20Insights%20decodable%20books

 

Assessment: https://www.greatschools.org/library/cms/74/23174.pdf