Caaakkkeee!!

Beginning Reading Lesson

Leigh Ann Gilbert 

 

 

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 (child screaming for cake), 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 kid screaming cake; cover-up critter; whiteboard or smartboard Elkonin boxes for modeling and individual Elkonin boxes for each student; letter manipulatives for each child and magnetic or smartboard letters for teacher: c, a, p, e, t, k, l, r, s, t, n; list of spelling words on poster or whiteboard to read: ate, cape, take, pale, sack, state, scrape; decodable text: The Race for Cake 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 short vowel words with a, like tap, 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 funny birthday party with kids screaming, “Caaakkkeee!!” [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 come close together making a little rectangular shaped gap and my tongue presses against the bottom of my top teeth, like this. [Make vocal gesture for /A/.] I’ll show you first: cake. I heard a say its name and I felt my lips make a little rectangle and my tongue hit the bottom of my top teeth [make rectangular shape with mouth and show tongue hitting teeth]. There is a long A in cake. Now I am going to see if it is in tool. Hmm, I didn’t hear a say its name and my lips didn’t make that rectangular shape and my tongue didn’t hit the bottom of my top teeth. Now you try. If you hear /A/ say, “Cake!” if you don’t hear /A/ say, “That’s not it.” Is it in rain, slay, feet, snow, late, eyes? [Have children make rectangular shape with their mouth 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. [Write a_e on the board.] 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 snake? “The snake slithered across the green grass.” Snake is the slithering reptile that looks like a really big worm in this sentence. To spell snake in the letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word so I stretch it out and count: /s//n//A//k/. I need 4 boxes. I heard that /A/ just before the /k/ so im going to put an a in the 3rd box and the silent e outside the last box. The word starts with /s/, that’s easy; I need an s. now it gets a little tricky so I am going to say it slowly, /s//n//A//k/. Hmmm… I think I heard the neighing /n/ so I’ll put an n right after the s. I have one empty box now. [Point to letters in boxes when stretching out the word: /s//n//A//k/.] The missing one is /k/= k.

 

s    n    a    k

e

 

 

4.    Say: Now I am going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You’ll start out easy with two boxes for ate. “The child ate the yummy apple for a snack.” 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? Ill 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 is the word, cape. “Superman flies high in the sky with his cape blowing in the wind, cape.” [Allow children to spell words]. Time to check your work. Watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the board: c – a – p – e and see if you have spelled it the same way. Try another with three boxes: take; I need to remember to take my pencils to school. [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: sack; Make sure to fill the sack up with the seeds. Did you need a silent e? Why not? Right, because we do not hear a say its name. We spell it with our short vowel a. [volunteer spells it on the front board]. Did you remember to spell /k/ with ck? Now let’s try 4 phonemes: state; Hawaii was the fiftieth state welcomed into the United States. One more and then we are done with spelling, and this time you still need four boxes: scrape; The student misbehaved so he had to scrape gum off of the bottom of the desks. 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 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 /A/ = /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 The Race for Cake. This is a story of a boy named Ben and his sister Jess who had a long day swimming at the lake! They are very tired and want a snack! Jess thinks mom baked a cake! They race to the house and follow the smell, but will there be cake waiting for them? Let’s pair up and take turns reading The Race for Cake to find out if Ben and Jess get to eat some yummy cake! [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 The Race for Cake aloud together, and stops between page turns to discuss the plot.] 

 

7.    Say: That was a fun story. So, did Ben and Jess get to eat cake? Right, they didn’t because it fell on the ground! Who did get to eat the cake? Right, Lad their dog! 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 some words waiting to be put in their place. Your job is to look in the box of word choices, and decide which words go in the box holding the words with short a, and then the other ones we have learned in the box holding the words with long a. [Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress.] 

 

 

Resources:

 

Murray, G. (2013) The Race for Cake. Reading Genie: http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/bookindex.html

 

Assessment Worksheet: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/457959855842371094/