He Ate a Big Bite! 

A Beginning Reading Lesson  

By: Elizabeth Manning  

Rationale: This lesson teaches children about the long vowel correspondence a_e = /A/. In order to be able to read, children will 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 = / A /. They will learn a meaningful representation (someone eating an apple), 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 boy eating an apple; cover-up critter; Whiteboard or smart board Elkonin boxes for modeling and individual boxes for each student; letter manipulatives for each child and magnetic or smart board letters for teacher: a, g, e, l, b, c, k, r, t, d, s, and p; list of spelling words on poster or with board to read: age, lace, bake, race, trade, 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 cat, and today we are going to learn about long A and the silent esignal that is used to make A say its name, /A/. When I say /A/ I think of a boy eating an apple. [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 it’s name /A/ and my lips open wide like this. [make vocal gesture for /A/.]  I’ll show you first: snake. I heard a say its name an I felt my lips open up wide [make a motion around your open lips]. There is a long A in snake. Now I’m going to see if its in nest. Hmm, I didn’t hear a say it’s name and my lips did not open wide. Now you try. If you hear /A/ say, “Boy ate an apple.” If you don’t hear /A/ say, “That’s not it.” Is it in boat, mace, trace, snow, bite, cade. [Have children make a motion around their open lips with they feel /A/ say its name. 

f

a

d

3.  Say: Now lets look at the spelling of /A/ that we’ll learn today. One way to spell /A/ is with the letter a and a signal eat 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 aand at the end of the word there is a little silent e signal. What if I want to spell the word fade. “If I wash a t-shirt many times, it will eventually fade.” Fade means ‘decrease in color’ in this sentence. To spell fade in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word so I stretch it out and count: /f/ /A/ /d/. I need 3 boxes. I heard that /A/ just before the /d/ so I’m going to put an a in the second letter box and the signal e outside the last box. The word starts with /f/, that’s easy; I need an f. I 

have one empty box now. [point to letters in boxes when stretching out the word: /f/ / A/ /d/.] The missing one is /d/ = d. e

4.  Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You’ll start out easy with two boxes for age. Age is how old you are at that time. “My grandmother asked me my age.” What should go in the first box? [respond to children’s answer]. 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 e at the end, outside the boxes. Here’s the word: lace, I have a shoe lace on my shoe; lace. [Allow children to spell words.] Time to check your work. Watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the board: l-a-c-e and see if you’ve spelled it the same way. Try another with three boxes: bake, I have to bake a cake for my mom’s birthday: bake. 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: black; the sky is black at night. 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.] Did you remember to spell /k/ with a ck?  Now let’s try 4 phonemes: trade; The siblings made a trade to get their belongings back from the other. One more then we’re done with spelling, and this time you need five boxes: scrape; When I was running, I fell down and got a scrape on my leg. 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 scrapeon the top and model reading the word.]  First I see there’s a silent eon 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 coverup 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. The story is about a brother and sister who just got done swimming. Their mother calls them inside because she had made a cake. They race to the cake, while facing many silly obstacles. Let’s pair up and take turns reading The Race for Cake, to find out what the obstacles were and who won. [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. Did the brother or the sister get to the cake first? Right, because the brother got stopped by the dog. Did the sister and mother nicely bring the brother some cake? Right, she did.  Before we finish up with our lesson about one way to spell /A/ = a_e, I want to see if you can find the word and place it with it’s correct object and then find the words in a word search. It is your job to match the word to the object and then write the word next to it. First try reading all the words in the box, then choose the word that goes with the correct object. Reread your answers to see if they make sense. [Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress.]

Resources: 

Spellzone, https://www.spellzone.com/unit07/page2.cfm

Murry, B and G, (2019) The Race for Cake

Assessment Worksheet:https://teachables.scholastic.com/teachables/books/cvcewords-a-e-write-n-seek-practice-page-9781338180213_006.html

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resources 

Caroline Harris, Sam Wears Socks

https://ceh0108.wixsite.com/carolineharris/beginning-reading
 

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