Ms. Carly's
Designs in Learning to Read
Beginning Reading
Ehh Goes the Creaky Door
Beginning Reading
Rationale: This lesson teaches children about the long vowel correspondence e=/e/. In order to be able to read, children must learn to recognize spellings that map word pronunciations. In this lesson children will learn to recognize, spell, and read words with e. They will learn a meaningful representation (a creaky door opening making the noise ehh), they will spell and read words containing this spelling in a Letterbox lesson, and read a decodable book that focuses on the correspondence e=/e/.
Materials: Graphic image of a door opening; cover-up critter; smartboard Elkonin boxes for modeling and individual Elknoin boxes for each student; letter manipulatives for each child and smartboard letters for teacher: r, e, d, g, t, a, p, s, s, l, f, p, n; list of spelling words on poster or whiteboard to read: red, get, tap, dress, left, spend; decodable text: Elf in the Tent and 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 earlier short vowel words with a, like cap, and today we are going to learn about the short e and its sound /e/. When I say /e/ I think of a creaky door opening and making the sound ehh [show graphic image].
2. Say: Before we learn about the spelling of /e/, we need to listen for it in some words. When I listen for /e/ in words, I hear ehh and my mouth stays opens while my tongue stays at my bottom teeth like this. [Make vocal gesture for /e/.] I’ll show you first: bed. I heard e say its sound and I felt my mouth open a little bit but my tongue stay down [make an open mouth like saying the /e/ sound]. There is a short e in bed. Now I’m going to see if it’s in bead. Hmm, I didn’t hear /e/ and my tongue didn’t stay at my bottom teeth. Now you try. If you hear /e/ say, “Ehh” and make the motion of opening a creaky door. If you don’t hear /e/ say, “No way.” Is it in egg, toast, press, pull, left, right? [Have children make the motion of opening the creaky door when they feel the /e/ sound.]
3. Say: Now let’s look at the spelling of /e/ that we’ll learn today. To spell the /e/ sound we need the letter e. [Write e on the board.] What if I want to spell the word pest? “The pest wouldn’t leave me alone.” Pest means something that is bothering you. To spell pest in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word so I stretch it out and count: /p//e//s//t/. I need 4 boxes. I heard the /e/ just before the /s/ so I’m going to put an e in the 2nd box. The word starts with /p/, that’s easy; I need a p. Now it gets a little tricky so I’m going to say it slowly, /p//e//s//t/. I think I heard /s/ so I’ll put a s right after the e. One more empty box [Point to letters in boxes when stretching out the word: /p//e//s//t/], hmm…/p//e//s//t/, I think I heard /t/ so I need a t.
4. Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You’ll start out with easy three boxes for red. Red is a color, “The boy was wearing a red shirt.” What should go in the first box? [Respond to children’s answers]. What goes in the second box? I’ll check your spelling while I walk around the room. [Observe progress]. Our next word will still only need three letterboxes. Listen for the beginning sound that goes in the first box. Then listen for /e/. Here’s the word: get; I like to get presents on my birthday; get. [Allow children to spell the word.] Time to check your work. Watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the board: g—e—t and see if you’ve spelled it the same way. Try another with three boxes. Listen to see if this word has /e/ in it before you spell it: tap; I like to tap my foot to the beat. Did you use an e? Why not? Right, because we don’t hear the sound /e/. We spell it with our short vowel a. [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 let’s try 4 phonemes: dress; I wore a beautiful blue dress. [Volunteer spells it on the front board.] Did you remember to spell /s/ with two s’s? Next word: left; I ate two cookies and had one left. One more then we’re done with spelling, and this time you need five boxes: spend; I like to spend money on food. 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 poster with spend on the top and model reading the word.] First I see there is an e in it with no other vowels; that’s my signal that the e will probably say /e/. 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//p/ = /sp/ Now I’m going to blend that with /e/ = /spe/. Now all I need is the end, /n//d/ = /spend/. Spend; 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 spelling and reading words with our new spelling for /e/: e. Now we are going to read a book called Elf in the Tent. This is a story about a girl named Jan and her camping trip with her dad and a cat named Elf. Jan packs up the car with everything she needs and drives into the woods for a camping adventure. Let’s pair up and take turns reading Elf in the Tent to find out what happens on their camping trip. [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 Elf in the Tent aloud together, and stops between page turns to discuss the plot.]
7. Say: That was a fun story. What did Elf do at the campout? Right, he gets wet and then gets in the tent. What was the first thing Jan put in the car? Right, a tent. Before we finish up with our lesson about /e/, I want to see how you can solve a reading problem. On this worksheet, there is a box of words. You need to circle the ones that you hear /e/ in, and then you will write the words on the lines below in ABC order. Try saying the words in the box out loud if you can’t figure out if it makes the /e/ sound. [Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress.]
Resources:
Geri Murray, Oh, I didn’t know!: https://sites.google.com/site/readingwritingconnection/beggingreadingdesign
Murray, G. (2004) Elf in the Tent. Reading Genie: http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/bookindex.html
Assessment worksheet: https://www.superteacherworksheets.com/phonics/short-e-abc_EEEEE.pdf
P E S T