I Came from Space!
Taylor Striblin
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 (alien came from space), 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 aliens from Toy Story; cover-up critter; whiteboard Elkonin boxes for modeling and individual Elkonin letterboxes for each student; dry erase marker for teacher; letter tiles for each child and magnetic letters for teacher: m, a, k, e, t, c, b, r, p, l, v, g, n; list of spelling words on poster ace, tack, make, plate, brave, plane; decodable text Jane and Babe, and assessment worksheet.
Procedures:
1. Say: In order to become expert readers, we need to learn the special code that helps us to pronounce words. We have already learned to read short vowel words with a, like mat, 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 cute little alien who came from space [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 makes the same shape when it’s making the short a sound but instead I say /A/ like this. [Make vocal gesture for /A/.] I’ll show you first: pace. I heard a say its name and I felt my mouth make the same shape as when it makes the short a sound except my jaw goes down then back up. There is a long A in pace. Now I’m going to see if it’s in hat. Hmm, I didn’t hear a say its name and my jaw didn’t go down and come back up. Now you try. If you hear /A/ say, “I came from space!” If you don’t hear /A/ say, “There’s no /A/.” Is it in snake, rack, gate, book, mane, lost?
3. Say: 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 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 trade? “I will trade you my gummies for your lollipop.” Trade means to swap something with a friend in this sentence. To spell trade in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word, so I stretch it out and count: /t//r//A//d/. I need 4 boxes. I heard that /A/ just before the /d/ 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 /t/, that’s easy; I need an t. Now it gets a little tricky so I’m going to say it slowly, /t/r//A//d/. I think I heard /r/ so I’ll put a r right after the t. I have one empty box now. [Point to letters in boxes when stretching out the word: /t//r//A//d/.] The missing one is /d/. That’s another easy one; it’s d!
4. Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You’ll start out easy with two boxes for ace. An ace is a type of playing card like in go-fish, “I have two aces! That’s a match.” What goes in the first box? The second box? [Respond to children’s answers.] 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.] You’ll need three letterboxes for the next word. Listen for the beginning sound to put 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: make, I make breakfast every morning; make. [Allow children to spell remaining words.] Time to check your work. Watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the board: m-a-k-e and see if you’ve spelled it the same way. I’ll try another, this time with four boxes: brave; He was brave when he tamed the lion. [Have a volunteer spell it in the letterboxes on the front board for children to check their work. Repeat this step for each new word.] Our next word is tack; I use a tack on my bulletin board. Listen for the /A/ in the word before you spell it. Did you need a silent e? Why? That’s right, because we don’t hear a say its name. We spell it with our short vowel a. [Have volunteer spell it on the front board.] Now let’s try another word with 4 phonemes: plate; I eat my dinner on a plate. One more word and then we’re done with spelling. The last word is plane; I flew my plane yesterday. Good job spelling all those tough words!
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. [Show poster with scrape 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 a will say its name. There’s the vowel a. It must say /A/. I’m going to use my cover-up critter to sound out the first part. [Uncover and blend sequentially before the vowel, then blend with the vowel.] /s//c/ = /sc/ + /r/ = /scr/. Now I’m going to blend that with /A/: /scrA/. Now all I need is the last sound, /p/. /scrAp/. Scrape; 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. Babe is a lion and Jane is his friend who takes care of him. Jane goes to visit Babe in his cage, but Jane can’t wake Babe up! Let’s pair up and take turns reading Jane and Babe to find out if Jane can wake Babe. [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 chorally, stopping between page turns to discuss the story.]
7. Say: That was a good story! Was Jane able to wake Babe? You’re right, Jane woke Babe and they played together all day before Jane had to go home. 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 lots of words and pictures with the short a and long a sound. Your job is to cut out the pictures, then read each word and decide if it has a short a sound or a long a sound. Put all the pictures with short the a sound into one group, and all the pictures with the long a sound in another. Reread your answers to see if they make sense. [Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress.]
Resources:
Murray, Geri: “Oh, I didn’t know!” https://auburn.instructure.com/courses/1103232/files/123190727/download?wrap=1
Goins, Hillary: “Let’s Bake A Cake!”
https://sites.google.com/site/ctrdhillarygoins/beginning-reading-lesson-design
Assessment Worksheet:
https://www.superteacherworksheets.com/phonics-vowels/printables/sort-longa-shorta.pdf?up=1466611200
Jane and Babe: https://auburn.instructure.com/courses/1103232/files/123190714/download?wrap=1
