Smile for the camera, say cheese!

A Beginning Reading Lesson

By Allissa Stanley

 

Rationale: This lesson teaches children about the short vowel correspondence ee  = /E/. 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 ee. They will learn a meaningful representation (saying cheese to smile for the camera), they will spell and read words containing this spelling in a Letterbox lesson, and read a decodable book that focuses on the correspondence ee = /E/.

 

Materials: Graphic image of a pirate; 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, h, e, k, s, w, t, f, l, d, p, t, e; list of spelling words on poster or whiteboard to read: cheek, sweet, tweet, feet, steel, deep; decodable text: Lee and the Team, and assessment worksheet (page 13 of 33 on pdf)

 

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 learning to read short vowel words with e, like ten, and today we are going to learn about long E and about the rule that says two e’s together make E says its name, /E/. When I say /E/ I think of what I do when I am smiling for the camera. I say “Cheese!” [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 e say its name /E/ and my mouth makes a smiling face with my teath showing like this. [make vocal gesture for /E/]. I’ll show you first: meet. I heard e say its name and I felt my mouth make a smiling face with my teeth showing [point to mouth back and forth across mouth line]. There is a long E in meet. Now I’m going to see if it’s in boat. Hmm, I didn’t hear e say its name and my mouth didn’t make that smiling shape with my teeth showing. Now you try. If you hear /E/ say, “Say cheese!.” If you don’t hear /E/ say, “That’s not it.” Is it in make, sleet, rain, sleep, coat, bear? [have children point to mouth back and forth across their mouth line when they feel /E/ say its name.].”

3. Say: “Now let’s look at the spelling of /E/ that we’ll learn today. One way to spell /E/ is with two letter e’s together to tell me to say E’s name. [Write ee on the board.] What if I want to spell the word sleep? “I want to go to sleep when I am tired.” To spell sleep in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word so I stretch it out and count: /s//l//ee//p/. I need 4 boxes. I heard that /E/ just before the /p/ so I’m going to put two e’s in the 3rd box.. The word starts with /s/, that’s easy; I need an s. Now it gets a little tricky so I’m going to say it slowly, /s//l//ee//p/. I think I heard /l/ so I’ll put an l right after the s. I have one empty box now. [Point to letters in boxes when stretching out the word: /s//l//ee//p/.] The missing one is /p/= p.”

4. Say: “Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You’ll start out easy with three boxes for deep, “I dug a really deep hole at the beach.” What should go in the first box? [Respond to children’s answers]. What goes in the second box? What about the third box? I’ll check your spelling while I walk around the room. [Observe progress.] You’ll need four letterboxes for the next word. Listen for the beginning sound that goes in the first box. Then listen for /E/ and don’t forget to put the signal silent eat the end, outside the boxes.  Here’s the word: tweet, the birds say tweet, tweet; tweet. [Allow children to spell words.]  Time to check your work. Watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the board: t –w –ee –t and see if you’ve spelled it the same way. Try another with four boxes: sweet; This candy sure is sweet! [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 /E/ in it before you spell it: met; I met a friend for lunch. Did you need two ee’s? Why not? Right, because we don’t hear e say its name. We spell it with our short vowel e.  [volunteer spells it on the front board.] Now let’s try 5 phonemes: screen; the screen on my phone cracked. One more then we’re done with spelling, and this time you need six boxes: between; I stand between the wall and the table. 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 tweet on the top and model reading the word.]  First, I see there are two e’s in the middle of the word; that’s my signal that the vowel will say its name. There’s the vowel e. It must 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.] /t//w/ = /tw/. Now I’m going to blend that with /E/ = /twE/. Now all I need is the end, /t/ = /twEt/.  Tweet; 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 /E/: ee. Now we are going to read a book called Lee and the Team. This is a story of a boy named Lee and the team he leads. Lee wants to play ball, but the rest of his team sits in the heat. Let’s pair up and take turns reading Lee and the Team to find out how he gets his team up off the weeds. [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 Lee and the Team aloud together, and stops between page turns to discuss the plot.]”

7. Say: That was a fun story. How did Lee get his team up off the weeds? Right, he runs away from the bee with the rest of the team. What did Lee think of this bee? Right, he was scared of it. Before we finish up with our lesson about one way to spell /E/ = ee, I want to see how you can solve a reading problem. On this worksheet, we have some words missing. Your job is to look in the box of word choices and decide which ee word fits best to make sense of this very short story. First try reading all the words in the box, then choose the word that fits best in the space. Reread your answers to see if they make sense. [Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress]

 

Resources:

Maggie Glidewell, Eek! A Mouse: https://maggieg221.wixsite.com/my-site-1/copy-of-home

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Reading Genie Awakenings Index 

https://wp.auburn.edu/rdggenie/home/classroom/awakenings/

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Assessment Worksheet: http://www.carlscorner.us.com/Wonders%202/Toons%20ee.pdf

 

Books:

Book 4, Long e, Lee and the Tea. Phonics Readers, Long vowels: https://www.amazon.com/Lee-Team-Phonics-Vowels-Readers/dp/0886798663