Rationale:

In order to read, it is important children understand the difference between short and long vowel sounds/phonemes. This lesson will allow students to read, spell and recognize words spelled with the long vowel A. The students will be given a meaningful representation (Dave Baked a Cake), then will spell and read words with the correspondence a_e=/A/ in a letterbox lesson then will read a decodable book along with a worksheet.

 

Materials:

Graphic image of a cake, cover-up critter, Elkonin letterboxes, letter manipulatives (c,a,v,e,b,b,s,k,t,r), index cards with spelling words to read (cave, babe, skate, rat), Decodable text: Jane and Babe, and assessment worksheet.

 

Procedures:

1. Since we have already learned how to read the short vowel A, we can now work on learning the long vowel A. But, before let’s practice what we already know about the short vowel A. A meaningful representation we learned is “Ahhhhh”. Like if someone asks you to open your mouth, you would say “ahhhh”. Now let’s see if you can still remember how to hear short a in words. Do you hear /a/ in tap or date? In cat or tear?

2. Now, let’s work on the correspondence a_e=/A/. This is the long A, and a meaningful representation for long A is “Dave Baked a Cake”. First, I am going to say “dave baked a cake” really slowly, and make sure you watch my mouth to see my lips spread wide to make a smile. [Say Dave Baked a Cake slowly] Did you see my mouth move to make a smile? Now that we know the movement our mouth makes when we say long a, we can look for the sound long a makes when it is said aloud. Long a says its own name when said out loud. An example of this is when you see your friends out and you say “Ayyy whats up!”.

3. Next, let’s see if you can hear long a in some words that I am going to read out to you. Do you hear /A/ in bake or fast? In Ape or going? In See or Dare?

4. We are now going to look at the spelling of /A/. To spell the sound /A/ with the letters a_e. Now, let’s work on spelling some words in letterboxes. First, let’s work on some easy words that only include 3 phonemes, which means we will only use 3 boxes. The first word is cave. “The bear is in the cave”. What should we put in the first box? The second box? What about the third box? Now, where does the silent e go? [That’s correct, outside the last box!] [Check spelling]. Let’s try one more word with three boxes, what about we spell babe. [Check spelling and check where the silent e is]. For the next word, we are going to use 4 boxes, so how many phonemes are in this word? [correct, 4 phonemes!]. Remember to listen carefully for the long a, and make sure to remember the spelling a_e. The word is skate. She just learned how to skate. Let’s check your work, I am going to spell it with some letter manipulatives and letterboxes and let’s see if we both spelled it the same way. [spell out word s-k-a-t-e, then check students spelling]. For our last word, let’s spell rat. How many boxes will we need? [right, three, because there are three phonemes in the word rat]. [Allow student to spell rat]. Why didn’t we use a silent e? That is right, because we spell it with a short vowel a, not the long vowel a.

5. Now that we have learned how to spell with /A/, let’s practice reading the words we just spelled. But, first I will show you how to read a tough word with the correspondence a_e. [Show index card with the word scrape and model how to read the word.] First, I see the silent e on the end of the word, therefore I know the vowel will say its name. Then, I am going to use my cover-up critter to say the first part of the word, s-c-r,scr. Now, I will blend the /A/ in, and use my cover-up critter for the ending of the word, -p. Now I read it all together, Scrape. Now, you can give it a try! [Show student index cards with the words from step 4 printed on them.]

6. We now know how to read words with /A/=a_e, so we can try something new and read a book with this same correspondence! The book we are going to read is Jane and Babe. First, I will tell you a little about the book, then we can jump right in and read it. Babe is a lion at the zoo, one day his trainer comes to wake him up, but he can’t! Let’s keep reading to see if the trainer ever awakes babe so that he can play. Now, allow the student to read the book aloud, while discussing what is happening after each page to ensure they are engaging in what they are reading.

7. Say: I am so glad that Babe finally decides to wake up! I have a fun worksheet for you to work on so that I can make sure you know how to solve a reading problem that involves /A/=a_e. This worksheet involves words that include the silent e, just like the words we worked on in the letterbox lesson. I want you to say these words out loud to me, then trace them. Once you have traced them, I want you to write them on all by yourself, without any tracing.

 

 

 

 

Resources:

 

Wendy Counts, A is for Ape. http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/awakenings/countsbr.htm

 

Decodable Book: Jane and Babe

 

Assessment worksheet: http://www.sightwordsgame.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/A_E-worksheet-3.pdf

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Contact me: Mzj0027@auburn.edu