“Ayyy What’s Up, Man!"

Beginning Reading Lesson Design

Maggie Murchison

 

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 man greeting another man), 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 smiling man greeting another man; cover-up critter; poster board; Elkonin boxes for modeling and individual Elkonin boxes for each student; letter tiles for each child and teacher: a, t, e, c, p, v, k, b, d, f, r, m, s, h; list of spelling words on flashcards to read: ate, cave, date, take, frame, scrape; decodable text: Jane and Babe and assessment worksheet.

 

Procedures:

1. Say: 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 back, 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 nice man greeting another man saying, “Ayyy what’s up, man!” [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 lips stretch out like I’m grinning. [Make vocal gesture for /A/]. I’ll show you first: shape. I heard a say its name and I felt my lips stretch out to grin [point fingers to either sides of the mouth]. There is a long A in shape. Now I’m going to see if it’s in pack. Hmm, I didn’t hear a say its name and my lips didn’t stretch out in a grin. Now you try. If you hear /A/ say, “Ayyy what’s up, man!” If you don’t hear /A/ say, “That’s not it.” Is it in lake, read, skate, ball, boat, babe? [Have children point to the ends of their lips to see if their mouth stretched out when they feel /A/ say its name].

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. [Show a_e with the letter tiles.] 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 take? “If I take my little sister’s toy, she will be mad at me.” Take means to grab something for yourself in this sentence. To spell take in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word, so I stretch it out and count: /t//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 /t/, that’s easy; I need a t. Now it gets a little harder so I’m going to say it slowly, /t//a//k/. I think I heard /A/ so I’ll put an a right after the t. I have one empty box now. [point to letters in boxes when stretching out the word: /t//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 two boxes for ate, like “I ate cereal for breakfast today.” 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.] 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: cave, I saw a bear in a cave when I went to the mountains; cave. [Allow children to spell words.] Time to check your work. Watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the board: c – a – v – e and see if you’ve spelled it the same way. Try another with three boxes: date; today’s date is October 15, 2018. [Have volunteer spell it in the letterbox on the front board for children to check their work. Repeat this step for each new word.] Next word. Listen to see if this word has /A/ in it before you spell it: mask; I wear a sleeping mask when I go to bed. Did you need a silent e? Why not? Right, because we don’t hear a say its name. We spell it with our short vowel a. [volunteer spells it on the front board.] Now let’s try 4 phonemes: frame; the frame on the bed was made of wood. One more then we’re done with spelling, and this time you need five boxes: scrape; If I scrape my knee, my mom gives me a band aid. Remember to stretch it out to get this tough 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 a 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 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//c/ = /sc/ + /r/ = /scr/. Now I’m going to blend that with /O/ = /scrA/. Now all I need is the end, /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. This is a book about Babe, a lion, who lives in a cage. Jane takes care of Babe. When Babe sleeps, Jane wakes him up from his nap when she yells his name. Jane pets, plays, and runs with Babe. Let’s pair up and take turns reading Jane and Babe to find out what Jane and Babe do next together. [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. Jane took great care of Babe at the zoo, didn’t she? Before we finish up with our lesson about one way to spell /A/ = a_e, I want to see if you can write the words that match the pictures above. On this worksheet, we have pictures of words that have the /A/ sound with a word search above it. Your job is to look at the pictures and find the words that have a_e in the word bank. First try reading all the words in the word bank and then match those words with the pictures that they represent. You can check your spelling with the word bank. [Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress.

 

 

Resources:

Avery Greer, Yay for /A/!: https://asg0025.wixsite.com/readinglessondesigns/beginning-reading

Assessment worksheet: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Phonics-Printables-Long-Vowel-a_e-Freebie-977739 (fourth page in the pack)

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

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