Anna Cagle's Lesson Designs

​

 

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 (a pirate saying ‘A’ Matey), 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: Graphic image of a pirate; 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: a, b, e, f, h, k, l, m, r, s, t, v; list of spelling words on poster or whiteboard to read: ate, bake, late, shake, flame, brave, ham, cat, net; decodable text: Jane and Babe, 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 nap, 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 pirate saying “A, Matey!” as he shakes his hook (show graphic image).

 

2. Say: Before we learn about the spelling of /A/, we are going to listen for it in a tickler tale! One day, there was a girl named Amy. She loved to eat and eat. Her favorite thing to eat was acorns. Amy ate acorns. Did you hear the tongue tickler? Amy ate acorns. Now, we need to listen for it in some words. When I listen for /A/ in words, I hear a says its name /A/ and my mouth spreads apart like this (make vocal gesture for /A/). I’ll show you first: late. I heard A say its name and my mouth spreads apart in the gesture for /A/ (continue to repeat mouth gesture). There’s a long A in late. Now I am going to see if a long A is in black. Well, I didn’t hear the a say it’s name, and my mouth did not spread wide apart to say the word. Now it’s your turn! If you hear /A/ say, “A, Matey!” If you don’t hear /A/ say, “/A/ is not there!” Is /A/ in bad, plant, date, deck? (Have the child shake their imaginary hook like they are a pirate every time they hear /A/).

 

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 brave? “If I jump out of the airplane, I would be very brave.” Brave means reading to face danger in this sentence. To spell brave in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word so I stretch it out and count: /b//r//A//v/. I need 4 boxes. I heard that /A/ just before the /v/ 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 /b/, that’s simple; I need a b. I have one empty box now. [Point to letters in boxes when stretching out the word: /b//r//A//v/]. I think I heard /r/ so I’ll put a r right after the b. Great!

 

​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 a way of saying you have already eaten, “I ate a hamburger for lunch today.” What should go in the first box? (Respond to children’s answers appropriately). 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 by walking around the classroom). 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: bake, I want to bake a cake; 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’ve spelled it the same way. Try another with three boxes: late; I can’t be late to class. (Have volunteer spell it in the letterbox on the front board for children to check their work. Repeat this step for each new word). Now let’s try 4 phonemes: flame; the candle flame was hot. Remember to stretch it out to get this tough word. Great job!

 

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 shake 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+h = /sh/ Now I’m going to blend that with /A/ = /shA/. Now all I need is the end, /k/ = /shAk/. Shake; that’s it. Now it’s your turn, everyone together. (Have children read words all together. Afterwards, call on individuals to read one word on the list until everyone has had a turn).

 

6. Say: You’ve done a fantastic job with reading words with our new spelling for /A/: a_e. Now we are going to read a book called Jane and Babe. This is a story a woman named Jane who takes care of a lion named Babe. Babe is asleep in his cage, but Jane needs to get in to wake him. She tries many ways to wake Babe up, but he won’t wake. How will she get the lion to wake up? You’ll have to read to find out! (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 Jane and Babe aloud together, and stops between page turns to discuss the plot and what they think will happen next).

 

7. Say: That was an exciting story. How did Jane wake up Babe? She yelled his name! Then they had lots of fun 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 with long a and short a. You will come one at a time to my desk and you must read the words to me and if it has long a then you color those words blue. If it has short a then you color the words gray. If you color it correctly and read the words to me correctly, you will see what Ann and Abe are looking for. (Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress).

 

Resources:

Cushman, S., Kornblum, R., & Hunter, L. (1990). Jane and Babe. Educational Insights, Carson, CA. 

Bridgett Davis, ‘A’, Matey!: https://bpc0009.wixsite.com/readingdesigns/copy-of-emergent-literarcy

Assessment worksheet: https://www.free-phonics-worksheets.com/phonics-worksheet-36.html

​

Click here to return to the Applications index