I see now!
Courtney Walker
Beginning Reading Lesson Design
Rationale: This lesson teaches children about the long vowel correspondence i_e = /I/. 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 i_e. They will learn a meaningful representation (a big set of eyes), they will spell and read words containing this spelling in a Letterbox lesson, and read a decodable book that focuses on the correspondence i_e = /I/.
Materials: Graphic image of eyes; 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: d, e, f, h, i, n, p, r, s, t; list of spelling words on poster or whiteboard to read: shine, hide, fire, pit, stripe; decodable text: The Bike Ride, 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 i, like hit, and today we are going to learn about long I and the silent e signal that is used to make I say its name, /I/. When I say /I/ I think of a great big set of eyes! [show graphic image].
2. Say: Before we learn about the spelling of /I/, we need to listen for it in some words. When I listen for /I/ in words, I hear i say its name /I/ and my mouth opens wide like this [Make vocal gesture for /I/.] I’ll show you first: wire. I heard i say its name and I felt my mouth open wide]. There is a long I in wire. Now I’m going to see if it’s in trick. Hmm, I didn’t hear i say its name and my mouth did not open wide. Now you try. If you hear /I/ say, “I see now!” If you don’t hear /I/ say, “That’s not it.” Is it in jump, hat, pipe, hire, this, time, stripe?
3. Say: Now let’s look at the spelling of /I/ that we’ll learn today. One way to spell /I/ is with the letter i and a signal e at the end of the word to tell me to say I’s name. [Write i_e on the board.] This blank line here means there is a consonant after i, and at the end of the word there is a little silent e signal. What if I want to spell the word file? “Jeremy put the file in his desk.” A file is like a folder in this sentence. To spell file in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word so I stretch it out and count: /f//I//l/. I need 3 boxes. I heard that /I/ just before the /l/ so I’m going to put an i in the 2nd box and the silent e signal 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//I//l/.] The missing one is /l/ = l.
4. Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You’ll start out easy with three boxes for shine. When something shines, it appears bright like a star! “We went outside and saw the sun shine on the water.” 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 /I/ and don’t forget to put the signal silent e at the end, outside the boxes. Here’s the word: hide, I like to play hide and seek; hide. [Allow children to spell words.] Time to check your work. Watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the board: h – i – d – e and see if you’ve spelled it the same way. Try another with three boxes: fire; The camp fire will keep us warm. [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 /I/ in it before you spell it: pit; She went to play in the ball pit. Did you need a silent e? Why not? Right, because we don’t hear i say its name. We spell it with our short vowel i. [volunteer spells it on the front board.] One more then we’re done with spelling, and this time you need five boxes: stripe; The zebra has a big white stripe on his nose. 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 stripe 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 i. It must say /I/. 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/ + /r/ = /str/. Now I’m going to blend that with /I/ = /strI/. Now all I need is the end, /p/ = /strIp/. Stripe; 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 /I/: i_e. Now we are going to read a book called The Bike Ride. This is a story of a group of friends named Nate, Tim, and Jan. Tim and Jan are worried about Nate because all he wants to do is sit inside. So, Tim and Jan come up with a plan to get him outside and playing with them. Let’s pair up and take turns reading The Bike Ride to find out what Tim and Jan’s plan is and if it will work. [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 Bike Ride aloud together, and stops between page turns to discuss the plot.]
7. Say: That was a fun story. What was Tim and Jan’s plan? Right, to show Nate how fun it is to ride a bike and fly a kite at the same time. Do you think Nate enjoyed riding his bike and flying the kite? Right, he told his friends he liked it. Before we finish up with our lesson about one way to spell /I/ = i_e, I want to see how you can solve a reading problem. On this worksheet, we have some words and little pictures. Your job is to look at each picture, and decide which i_e word matches each picture. Then put the picture by its matching word. Reread your answers to see if they make sense. [Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress.]
References:
Pickett, Shelby, Twice the Spice is Nice, http://slp0024.wixsite.com/shelbylynnepickett/beginning-reading-design
Murray, G. (2004) The Bike Ride. Reading Genie: http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/bookindex.html
Assessment Worksheet: http://www.tlsbooks.com/longisound3.html
Materials: Graphic image of eyes; 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: d, e, f, h, i, n, p, r, s, t; list of spelling words on poster or whiteboard to read: shine, hide, fire, pit, stripe; decodable text: The Bike Ride, 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 i, like hit, and today we are going to learn about long I and the silent e signal that is used to make I say its name, /I/. When I say /I/ I think of a great big set of eyes! [show graphic image].
2. Say: Before we learn about the spelling of /I/, we need to listen for it in some words. When I listen for /I/ in words, I hear i say its name /I/ and my mouth opens wide like this [Make vocal gesture for /I/.] I’ll show you first: wire. I heard i say its name and I felt my mouth open wide]. There is a long I in wire. Now I’m going to see if it’s in trick. Hmm, I didn’t hear i say its name and my mouth did not open wide. Now you try. If you hear /I/ say, “I see now!” If you don’t hear /I/ say, “That’s not it.” Is it in jump, hat, pipe, hire, this, time, stripe?
3. Say: Now let’s look at the spelling of /I/ that we’ll learn today. One way to spell /I/ is with the letter i and a signal e at the end of the word to tell me to say I’s name. [Write i_e on the board.] This blank line here means there is a consonant after i, and at the end of the word there is a little silent e signal. What if I want to spell the word file? “Jeremy put the file in his desk.” A file is like a folder in this sentence. To spell file in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word so I stretch it out and count: /f//I//l/. I need 3 boxes. I heard that /I/ just before the /l/ so I’m going to put an i in the 2nd box and the silent e signal 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//I//l/.] The missing one is /l/ = l.
4. Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You’ll start out easy with three boxes for shine. When something shines, it appears bright like a star! “We went outside and saw the sun shine on the water.” 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 /I/ and don’t forget to put the signal silent e at the end, outside the boxes. Here’s the word: hide, I like to play hide and seek; hide. [Allow children to spell words.] Time to check your work. Watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the board: h – i – d – e and see if you’ve spelled it the same way. Try another with three boxes: fire; The camp fire will keep us warm. [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 /I/ in it before you spell it: pit; She went to play in the ball pit. Did you need a silent e? Why not? Right, because we don’t hear i say its name. We spell it with our short vowel i. [volunteer spells it on the front board.] One more then we’re done with spelling, and this time you need five boxes: stripe; The zebra has a big white stripe on his nose. 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 stripe 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 i. It must say /I/. 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/ + /r/ = /str/. Now I’m going to blend that with /I/ = /strI/. Now all I need is the end, /p/ = /strIp/. Stripe; 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 /I/: i_e. Now we are going to read a book called The Bike Ride. This is a story of a group of friends named Nate, Tim, and Jan. Tim and Jan are worried about Nate because all he wants to do is sit inside. So, Tim and Jan come up with a plan to get him outside and playing with them. Let’s pair up and take turns reading The Bike Ride to find out what Tim and Jan’s plan is and if it will work. [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 Bike Ride aloud together, and stops between page turns to discuss the plot.]
7. Say: That was a fun story. What was Tim and Jan’s plan? Right, to show Nate how fun it is to ride a bike and fly a kite at the same time. Do you think Nate enjoyed riding his bike and flying the kite? Right, he told his friends he liked it. Before we finish up with our lesson about one way to spell /I/ = i_e, I want to see how you can solve a reading problem. On this worksheet, we have some words and little pictures. Your job is to look at each picture, and decide which i_e word matches each picture. Then put the picture by its matching word. Reread your answers to see if they make sense. [Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress.]
References:
Pickett, Shelby, Twice the Spice is Nice, http://slp0024.wixsite.com/shelbylynnepickett/beginning-reading-design
Murray, G. (2004) The Bike Ride. Reading Genie: http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/bookindex.html
Assessment Worksheet: http://www.tlsbooks.com/longisound3.html
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