Lane to A’s
Beginning Reading Lesson Design
By Jieun Lee
Rationale: In order for children to become fluent readers, they must learn to decode words. The goal of this lesson is to introduce the correspondence a_e = /A/. When we see a_e in a word the “a” will make its long vowel sound. Students will be able to examine the differences between the /a/ and the /A/ sounds in words. We will review short “a” and learn long “a” giving the students instructions and using worksheets, decodable books, and pseudo-words.
Materials:
Board for whole class to see
Letterboxes and letter tiles for each student (b, a, t, e, k, p, f, c, d, s, h, r, n, g)
List of words: at, ate, tape, fat, cake, date, safe, shake, spade, crate, band, grade, and scrape
Jane and Babe by Phonics Readers
The 3 worksheets enough for each student
One set of note cards with pseudowords written on them (pape, shabe, trame, cate, and zake)
Procedures:
References:
Phonics Readers. Jane and Babe. Carson, CA. Educational Insights.1990.
Grimes, Jeanine. AAAAAches and PAAAAins.
Beginning Reading Lesson Design
By Jieun Lee
Rationale: In order for children to become fluent readers, they must learn to decode words. The goal of this lesson is to introduce the correspondence a_e = /A/. When we see a_e in a word the “a” will make its long vowel sound. Students will be able to examine the differences between the /a/ and the /A/ sounds in words. We will review short “a” and learn long “a” giving the students instructions and using worksheets, decodable books, and pseudo-words.
Materials:
Board for whole class to see
Letterboxes and letter tiles for each student (b, a, t, e, k, p, f, c, d, s, h, r, n, g)
List of words: at, ate, tape, fat, cake, date, safe, shake, spade, crate, band, grade, and scrape
Jane and Babe by Phonics Readers
The 3 worksheets enough for each student
One set of note cards with pseudowords written on them (pape, shabe, trame, cate, and zake)
Procedures:
- We begin by reviewing a = /a/. Show a picture of a mat. “Raise your hand. Who can tell me what this is?” “That’s right a mat.” Write mat on the board. “In the word mat, what should does the “a” make?” “that’s right, /a/. Repeat after me. /a/.” “Now, how many of you have ever had a competition or played with someone?” “This competition can be in a form of a board, you play outside or inside, it could be made up or commonly known. Some examples would be Monopoly, Hide and Seek, pretend play, or tag. The word I’m looking for rhymes with fame?” Allow answers until one says “game”. Have a short discussion about games the students like to play and the rules.
- Let’s take out our letterboxes and letter tiles and try to spell “game.” Give the students some time to try. An example would be “game”. Tell students how to spell the word by writing the letters that represent the sounds heard. “I hear /g/. I hear /A/. I hear/m/. (On the board write “gam” and read what’s written on the board “gam”) Gam is not a word, but game is a word we all like to play. We use silent “e” at the end of a word to remind us that this time, “a” is not going to say /a/, but instead, /A/.” Write “game” on the board. A way for us to know when long vowels, in this example we are using the vowel “a”, is by saying the word and finding by hearing what vowel sound you hear. Let’s say the word game out loud. “GAAMMMEE”. What vowel do you hear? “/A/”. You guys are right. Do you notice that we say /A/ not /a/? It’s because of the help from the “a_e’s silent “e”!” From there, we start from the beginning. What sound do we hear in game? “/g/” Yes, and after the long a we have….. “m, /m/”. So when we put all the letters together and sound out the letters we just now finished pronouncing, we have “gggaammmee. Game.”
- Let’s practice reading and spelling words with /A/ sound. Instruct student to use their letterboxes and letters, and try to spell the word “take”. The teacher will have her/his letterboxes on the board, modeling for the students. “If I want to spell the word “ttaaakkkeee”, the first letter I notice is that I hear the “a” saying its name, /A/. So, I am going to put an “a” in the middle box but I can’t leave it alone because if it’s alone, it sounds like /a/. We have to add the silent “e” at the end to remind us that this “a” says /A/. Now the first letter I hear when I say take is /t/.” Write the letter “t” in front of the “a”. Point to the next letter and “say /A/. Last, /k/.” “/t/ /A/ /k/.” “Take.”
- “Now, practice spelling some words on your letterboxes on your own.” Tell them when to add a box. “Some words will have the /a/ sound, and some words will have the /A/ sound.” After saying the word, give the students enough time to work on it, and then show the spelling of the word. 2—[at, ate], 3—[tape, fat, cake, date, safe, shake], 4—[spade, crate, band, grade], and 5—[scrape]. Read the words out loud as a class.
- Partnering struggling readers with more advanced readers, they will read together the book Jane and Babe. “Jane and Babe is about a girl named Jane spending her day with a lion named Babe! Jane goes into Babe’s cage to wake the sleeping lion. Let’s find out how she wake Babe up and see what they’re up to! Please read Jane and Babe to each other.”
- Students can choose at least one of the 3 worksheets provided from them. One worksheet will help reinforce the concept of silent “e”. Another will be a bingo game with a_e words. The third, there is a packet of short “a” and a_e practice worksheets. For the final activity of the lesson, individual students will come to the teacher’s desk and read pseudo-words: pape, shabe, trame, cate, and zake.
References:
Phonics Readers. Jane and Babe. Carson, CA. Educational Insights.1990.
Grimes, Jeanine. AAAAAches and PAAAAins.