Wave with Abe
A Beginning Reading Lesson
By: Natalie Buckles
Wave with Abe
Rationale: This lesson teaches children about the long vowel correspondence a_e = /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_e. They will learn a meaningful representation (a friend w(A)ving) 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: Clipart image of children waving; cover-up critter; letterboxes for each student and teacher; whiteboard and markers; letter manipulatives for the child and magnetic letters for teacher: a, b, c, d, e, k, m, p, s, t, w; list of spelling words on poster or whiteboard to read: ace, made, bake, tape, waste, taste; decodable text: Jane and Babe, and assessment worksheet.
Procedures:
1. Say: To become a great reader, 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 tap, and today we are going to learn about long A and the silent e signal that is used to make A say its name, /A/. When I say /A/ I think of a group of friends waving. [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 mouth is open. [Make vocal gesture for /A/.] I’ll show you first: cake. I heard a say its name and I felt my mouth open [open your mouth like you are saying a]. There is a long A in cake. Now I’m going to see if it’s in treat. Hmm, I didn’t hear a say its name and my mouth did not open. Now you try. If you hear /A/ say, “AAA.” If you don’t hear /A/ say, “That’s not it.” Now listen: Is it in book, bake, pants, rake, pear, wake? [Have children open their mouth when they hear /A/ say its name.] AAA?
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 whiteboard.] This blank line here means there is a consonant after a, and at the end of the word there is a little silent e signal. What if I want to spell the word bake? “I want to bake a cake.” bake means to cook in this sentence. To spell cake in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word, so I stretch it out and count: /c// A/ /k/ /e/. I need 3 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 /k/, that’s easy; I need an c. That is the whole word!
4. Say: “Now, I am going to have you spell some words in letterboxes for practice. Let’s start with an easy one: ‘gate’ like a fence. Observe progress and scaffold if needed. Let’s try some more words.” Allow students to spell remaining words by having one student at a time come up and model spelling the word with letterboxes, providing sentences for each word: chase, cape, crane, race, lane.
5. Say: “Good job! Now we are going to read a book called Jane and Babe. Babe is a big lion. Jane is his trainer! Jane is trying to wake him up from his nap. What do you think will happen next? Put the students in groups. Make sure the students take turns reading alternate pages. Walk around the classroom and watch and monitor each students’ progress as they read to each other.
6. Say: That was such a fun story. Who was Jane? How did she wake up Babe? How did they play together? 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 word lists. Your job is to look in the box of word choices, and decide which works have the long A sound. First try reading all the words in the box, then choose the word that has the long A. Reread your answers to see if they make sense. [Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress.]
Resources:
Ellison Brewster, Sleepy Pooh Yawns Oh: https://ellisonbrewster.wixsite.com/lessondesigns/beginning-reading
Peyton Hayes, Aaaa! Spooky! https://hayespeyton1999.wixsite.com/mysite/beginning-reading
Murray, G. (2004) Jakes joke. Reading Genie: http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/bookindex.html Assessment worksheet: https://s3.amazonaws.com/blonde-ptarmigan-amber/better-plum/index.html?vid=2d89a640-09ad-11eb-866c-d77ed1c1e951&dl=qunwzgrq.funcheetah.icu
