Allison King's

• Rationale: This lesson is designed for students to learn and understand the long vowel correspondence a_e=/A/. To become skilled readers, children must learn these correspondences through recognition, spelling, and reading words that consist of a_e. The lesson will include an image of Chip the chipmunk with his thumbs up to serve as a representation of the phoneme /A/. Additionally, students will engage in a Letterbox Lesson to learn the spelling, and read a decodable book tailored to focus on a_e.

• Materials: Class set of mini white boards, smartboard letterboxes, smartboard letters, magnetic letters for each child (letters:), list of words on poster displayed (words), image of Chip the chipmunk with thumbs up, decodable: Jane and Babe, class set of assessment sheets (see bottom page for link and image of screenshot).

• Procedures:

  1. Explanation: “Today, boys and girls, we are going to talk about long /A/ and how we know when to say /A/, instead of its short friend /a/. We have already learned short a with words like cat and lap, but we are going to talk about a different kind of a sound called /A/, or long a. The secret to know when to say /A/ is when we see silent e after a. Something that I think of when I say /A/ is someone who is excited and holding their thumbs up saying ‘aaayyeee’ like our friend Chip over here (point to picture of chipmunk). Everyone look at your neighbor, give them a thumbs up, and say ‘aaayyeee’.”

  2. Review: “Let’s listen for /A/ in some words before we get into spelling it. When I am listening for /A/ in words, a says its name /A/ and my mouth makes a shape that feels like a smile (model smile for /A/). I am going to show you the word rake. I hear /A/ in it and I felt my  mouth make a smile so I know long a is in rake. Now let’s try the word flat. I didn’t hear /A/ sound and my mouth didn’t make a smile so /A/ is not in flat. Now you tell me if you hear “thumbs up” /A/ in these words: plane, desk, case, apple, sign, grape. If you do not hear /A/ give me a thumbs down, but if you do give me a big smile when you say “thumbs up” /A/ in the word.”

  3. Explanation of how: (this will be done on the white board) “I am going to show you the spelling of /A/. The way we are going to spell /A/ today has the letter a with a magic, silent e at the end that gives a the powers to be pronounced as /A/ (write a_e on the board). The blank between a and e means that a consonant goes after a and magic, silent e at the end of the word. I want to spell gate. I need to open the gate to get out of the driveway. I am going to need to know the number of sounds I hear in the word gate so I can stretch it out and put each sound in a box: /g//A//t/. I hear three sounds, so I need three boxes. I also hear /A/ right before the /t/ so I am going to put an a in the second box and magic e outside the last box. Next, I hear /g/ first so a g is going to go in the first box. I have one empty box left, so I am going to sound out the word one more time to look for the letter I am missing: /g//A//t/. I heard /t/ and that’s t the ticky timer, so I am going to put a t in the last box!”

  4. Model: “You guys are going to spell some words now. We’ll start with some easy words with only two boxes, so draw two boxes on your board (individual whiteboards) and I am going to walk around and check everyone’s spellings. The first word is ate, I ate a sandwich for dinner. Think about which letters go in the first and second boxes. Don’t forget about magic, silent e (respond to answers and observe answers). For the next word, make three boxes on your board. You need to listen for the first sound that goes in the first box and /A/ and its magic, silent e at the end of the word outside the box. Your word is base: When I am playing tag, I run to touch the base. (walk around to observe answers, then go to the board) Let’s watch how I spell base to check your work (model how to spell base in smartboard letter boxes). Let’s spell another three box word, spell the word late, I was late to my dentist appointment after school (check work and have student volunteer to demonstrate spelling on smartboard). For this word you will need four boxes. Your word is flat, my paper needs to be flat so my writing will not be messy. What happened to magic, silent e? You didn’t need it, right! Why didn’t you need it though? Good, it is because we do not hear a’s long name /A/ but instead, the short name, /a/. The next word is crate, before I leave, I have to put my puppy in her crate. Stretch out all the sounds, listen for /A/ and remember magic, silent e at the end to give a the power to say its name (walk around to observe answers, have another volunteer model on smartboard).We are going to do one last word and it is skate, when I go home I like to skate down the driveway. Stretch out all the sounds and remember to put magic, silent e outside the boxes.

  5. Provide simple practice:

     • Activity: “Now, boys and girls, you all are going to read the words you just spelled. Before you try it, I am going to show you how to read a tricky word (show list of words on smartboard with model word [brace] at the top). Oh! I see magic, silent e at the end so I know that will make a=/A/. I want to use a critter cover up so I can look at just the first part (because this is enlarged on a smartboard, use the class puppet as the smartboard cover up critter). Bbbb-rrrr, hmm that’s /br/, now I need to add /A/, so that’s /bra/, and I know in this word c=/s/ so it says /brAs/, brace! It’s your turn now (have students do this all together, have volunteers come up and demonstrate blending with each word).”

  6. Extend practice to whole texts: “Boys and girls you all have done so well learning this way to spell a=/A/ words. We are going to read a story now called Jane and Babe. This book is about a lion named Babe who lives at the zoo. Babe lives in a cage and no one can go in. One day, Jane goes in the cage with some food for Babe. Let’s read to find out what Jane and Babe do in the cage! You and your neighbor are going to take turns reading pages of the book to each other.”

  7. Assess: (Assessment will occur informally throughout the whole lesson via observation.) “Now that we have done some spelling and reading, we are going to do a worksheet. On the sheet, you need to label the pictures with their name and then pick four of the words to put in a sentence at the bottom of the page.”

 

• Resources

Assessment worksheet: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/magic-e-a-e-words-worksheet-6139762

 

Murray, G. Oh, I didn’t know! https://auburn.instructure.com/courses/1172076/files?preview=142439538

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Link back to Advancements: http://wp.auburn.edu/rdggenie/home/classroom/advancements/