Creepy, Creaky E!
A Beginning Reading Lesson
By: Kendall McKone
Rationale: This lesson teaches children about the short vowel correspondence e = /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 short vowel e. They will learn a meaningful representation (saying /e/, such as “ehhhh I’m not sure.”), they will spell and read words containing short vowel e in a Letterbox lesson, and read a decodable book focused on the short vowel e = /e/.
Materials:
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Image of a door.
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Cover-up critter.
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Whiteboard or Smartboard Elkonin boxes for modeling and individual Elkonin boxes for each student.
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Letter manipulatives for each student and magnetic letters for teacher: b, e, d, l, g, w, n, t, r, s, m, c, k,
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List of spelling words on poster: bed, leg, went, meet, rest, wreck, bled.
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Decodable Text: Get the Pets
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Assessment Worksheet
Procedure:
1. Say: In order to become expert readers, we need to learn the code that tells us how to pronounce words. Today we are going to learn about short vowel e! When I say /e/, think about a creaky door and how it makes the sound /e-e-e-ehhh/. [Show image of creepy creaky door.]
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 “ehhhh” like the creaky door! When I say /e/, my lips are slightly apart, and my tongue is at the bottom of my mouth! Let’s see if I can find e=/e/: bet. I heard creaky e!! There is a short e in bet. Now let’s see if I can find it in band. Hmm I didn’t hear the creaky door. Now you try! If you hear /e/, pretend like you are opening a door! Do you hear it in pet or dog? met or mat? nat or net?
3. Say: Now let’s look at the spelling of /e/! We spell /e/ with the letter e! [Write the letter e on the board.] What if I want to spell the word bed? To spell bed in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes there are in the word. Let’s stretch out the word and count: /b//e//d/. I need 3 boxes. I heard creaky e just before the d so I will put e in the 2nd box and d in the 3rd box. The word starts with /b/ so I will put the letter b in the 1st box. Let’s read the word in the boxes. /b/ /e/ /d/. Bed!
4. Say: Now I am going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. Let’s start out easy with 3 boxes for the word leg. What should go in the first box? [Students respond]. What about the second box? [Students respond]. How about the third? [Students respond]. I will check your spellings as I walk around the room. [Observe student progress]. You will need 4 letterboxes for the next word. Listen for the beginning sound, that goes in the first box then listen for /e/. The word is rest, like “Ted needs rest after the big game.” [Allow children to spell the word.] Time to check your work! Watch how I spell it in my boxes on the board: r-e-s-t. See if you spelled it the same way! Let’s try another one with 4 boxes: went. “Mom went to the store.” [have a student volunteer to spell the word in letterboxes on the 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. meet; don’t be mad at your neighbor. Did you hear /e/? No, we heard e say its name! Let’s spell it with long vowel ee = /E/. [Volunteer spells it on the board]. Let’s try another word: wreck. I don’t want to wreck my scooter. One more and then we will be done with spelling. This time we will need 4 boxes: bled. My arm bled for a little while after I fell. Remember to stretch out the sounds!
5. Say: Now I am going to let you read the words you have spelled, but first I’ll show you how I would read a tough word. [Display poster with bled on the top and model reading the word.] 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.] /b//l/ = /bl/ + /e/ = /ble/. Now all I need is the end, /d/ = /bled/. Bled; 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/: e. Now we are going to read a book called Get the Pets. This is a story about a brother and a sister. Their names are Tam and Tom. Tam and Tom love animals! One day Tom goes out to feed the chickens and they all get loose from their cage! How will he get the chickens back into their cage? Let’s pair up and read with a partner to find out! [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 Get the Pets aloud together, and stops between page turns to discuss the plot.]
7. Say: That was a fun story. Were you able to figure out how Tom got all the chickens back? Before we finish up with our lesson about one way to spell /e/ = e, I want to see how you can solve a reading problem. On this worksheet, we have some pictures. Color each picture that has the /e/ sound. Then, circle the words in the box that contain the sound /e/. Lastly in part 3, write 3 words with the /e/ sound. Try to make them different from the ones we covered in class! [Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress.]
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Laura Sims “Creaky Door E”
https://lauravlsims.wixsite.com/mssimsreadinglessons/beginning-reading
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Assessment
https://www.myteachingstation.com/short-e-sound-worksheet
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Get the Pets
http://englishworldschool.synthasite.com/resources/raz_d10_pets.pdf
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