Aaaaa! Apes Eat Apples!
Rationale: This lesson teaches children about the short vowel correspondence a = /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. They will learn a meaningful representation (apple being eaten by monkey Ah!), they will spell and read words containing this spelling in a letterbox lesson and read a decodable book that focuses on the correspondence a = /a/.
Materials: Graphic image of ape eating apple; 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: a, b, c, p, s, t; list of spelling words on poster or whiteboard to read: ate, bake, face, state; decodable text: Jane and Babe 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 o, like top, and today we are going to learn about short a. When I say /a/ I think of a funny little angry apple being eaten saying “Ah! Apes eat apples!” [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 make a little “ah” shape like this. [Make vocal gesture for /a/.] I’ll show you first: bat. I heard a say its name and I felt my lips make a little “ah” [make a circle motion around wide-open mouth]. There is a short a in bat. Now I’m going to see if it’s in sheet. Hmm, I didn’t hear a say its name and my lips didn’t make that wide open “ah”. Now you try. If you hear /a/ say, “Ah! Apes eat apples.” If you don’t hear /a/ say, “That’s not it.” Is it in cat, shoe, log, sap, door, or pig? [Have children make a circle motion around their wide open 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 a signal. What if I want to spell the word bake? “If I bake a cake, it’ll be sweet.” Bake means to cook in this sentence. To spell bake in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word, so I stretch it out and count: /b//A//k//e/. I need 4 boxes. I heard that /A/ just before the /k/ so I’m going to put an a in the 2nd box and the silent e signal outside the last box. The word starts with /b/, that’s easy; I need a b. Now it gets a little tricky so I’m going to say it slowly, /b//A//k//e/. I think I heard /a/ so I’ll put an a right after the b. I have one empty box now. [Point to letters in boxes when stretching out the word: /b//A//k//e/] The missing one is /k/= k.
4. Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You’ll start out easy with two boxes for ate. Ate means the past tense of eat, “My sister ate my cookie.” 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? I’ll 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 the end, outside the boxes. Here’s the word: face, the ball hit me in the face; face. [Allow children to spell words.] Time to check your work. Watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the board: f –a –c –e and see if you’ve spelled it the same way. Try another with three boxes: tape; I need tape for my project. [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: late; don’t be late. 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.] Now let’s try 4 phonemes: state; Montgomery is the capital of our state.
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 state 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//t/ = /st/. Now I’m going to blend that with /A/ = /stA/. Now all I need is the end, /t/ = /stAt/. State; 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 Jane and Babe. This is a story of a girl named Jane who has a pet lion named Babe. Babe is a big lion who lets Jane come into his cage, how scary is that! Let’s pair up and take turns reading Jane and Babe to find out why Babe lets Jane come in. [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 Jane and Babe aloud together, and stops between page turns to discuss the plot.]
7. Say: That was a great story. Why would Babe let Jane in? Right, he was tame. What did Jane do to wake Babe up? Right, she tapped him with a cane. 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 missing. Your job is to look in the box of word choices, and decide which a_e 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:
Murray, G. (2004) Jane and Babe. Reading Genie: http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/bookindex.html
