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Everybody Say "Ayy" We're Gonna' Learn Today

Beginning Reading Design

By: Destiny Knight

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 (pointing to a friend and saying “AYY”), 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 pointing man

  • Cover-up critter

  • Whiteboard or smartboard

  • Elkonin boxes for teacher

  • Elkonin boxes for each student

  • Letter manipulatives for each child

  • Magnetic or smartboard letters for teacher

  • List of spelling words on poster or whiteboard to read (in order from smallest to largest number of phonemes): game, shake, bake, skate, grape, flame, blaze, brave, cape, flat, pet, list, pond, fun

  • Decodable text: Jane and Babe

  • 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=/a/, like map, 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 the pointing guy meme saying “AYY” to his friends [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 slightly to make a rectangular shape while the sides of my tongue stick between my top and bottom teeth like this [make vocal gesture for /A/]. I’ll show you first: game. I heard a say its name and I felt my mouth make a rectangle and the sides of tongue press between my teeth. There is a long a in game. Now I’m going to see if it’s in mat. Hmm, I didn’t hear a say its name and my lips didn’t make a rectangle and my tongue didn’t go in between my teeth. Now you try. If you hear /A/ point to your neighbor and say “AYY.” If you don’t hear /A/, cross your arms and shake your head no. Is it in grade, school, coat, flame, height, wave?

  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 shake? “I shake my Yoohoo to mix it up.” Shake means to quickly and forcefully move an object up and down or side to side. To spell shake in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word so I stretch it out and count: /sh/A/ /k/. I need 3 boxes. I heard that /A/ just before the /k/ so I’m going to put an a in the 2nd box and the silent e signal outside the last box. The word starts with /sh/ which is the sound made when s and h are put together, like when you are asking someone to be quiet. Since the s and h make one sound, /sh/, they both go in the first box. Now, I only have one empty box. [Point to letters in boxes when stretching out the word: /sh/ /A/ /k/.] The missing one is k=/k/.

  4. Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You’ll start out easy with three boxes for bake as in “I’m going to bake some cookies.” 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.] Next word. Listen to see if this word has /A/ in it before you spell it: flat, as in “I laid it down flat.” Did you need a silent e? Why not? Right, because we don’t hear a say its name. We spell it with our short a. [volunteer spells it on the front board.] You’ll need four 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: skate, as in “I like to skate on my skateboard.” [Allow children to spell words.] Time to check your work. Watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the board: s-k-a-t-e and see if you’ve spelled it the same way.  Let’s try another with four boxes: grape, as in “I picked a grape from the vine.” [Have volunteer spell it in the letterbox on the front board for children to check their work. Repeat this step for each new 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 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 Jane and Babe. This is a story about a girl named Jane and a lion named babe. Babe is napping and Jane tries to wake him. She tries and tries to wake babe and finally it work, but what did Jane want to wake Babe for? Let’s pair up and take turns reading to find out what Jane and Babe do 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 Jane and Babe aloud together, and stops between page turns to discuss the plot.]

  7. Say: That was a fun story. What did Jane and Babe end up doing? Right, Jane cleans the cage while Babe fixes his mane and then they play. 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 missing. Your job is to look in the box of word choices, and decide which a_e word fits best to make sense of this short story. First try reading all the words in the box, then choose the word that fits best in the space. Reread your answers to see if they make sense. [Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress.]

 

Resources:

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