Abby Cook 

Jake Takes the Cake

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Beginning Reading Lesson

November 3, 2015

Abby Cook

 

 

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 (“Jake takes the cake” with grabbing hands), 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: Graphic image of a cake; cover-up critter; whiteboards or smartboard Elkonin boxes for modeling and individual Elkonin boxes for each student; letter manipulatives for each child and magnetic or smartboard letters for teachers: a, p, e, b, l, d, f, r, m, g, n, t; list of spelling words on poster to read: ape, ate, blade, frame, grape, plane; 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  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 Jake taking the cake [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 opens and my teeth separate like this. [Make vocal gesture for /A/.] I’ll show you first: cake. I heard a say its name and I felt my mouth open and my teeth separate. There is a long A in cake. Now I’m going to see if it’s in cat. Hmm, I didn’t hear a say its name and my mouth did not open the same way. Now you try. If you hear /A/ show me your “grabbing” hands like Jake taking the cake. If you don’t hear /A/ say, “That’s not it.” Is it in shake, pat, late, rot, sheet, bake? [Have students using their “grabbing hands” when they hear /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 silent 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 e signal. What if I want to spell the word lake? “I am going to the lake for my vacation.” To spell lake in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word so I stretch it out and count: /l//a//k/. I need three boxes. I heard that /A/ just before the /k/ so I’m going to put an a in the second box and the silent e signal outside the last box. The word starts with /l/, that’s easy; I need an l. now it gets a little tricky so I’m going to say it slowly, /l//A//k/. I think I heard that long /A/ so ill put that right after the l. I have one empty box now. [then point to letters in boxes when stretching out the word: /l//A//k/.] 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 ape. “I saw a big ape at the zoo.” 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 classroom. [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 /A/ and don’t forget to put the signal silent e at the end, outside the boxes. Here’s the word: blade, There is a knife blade on the counter; blade. [Allow children to spell words.] Time to check your work. Watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the board: b-l-a-d-e and see if you’ve spelled it the same way. Try another with four boxes: frame; I have a picture frame in my room. [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: rack; I am going to hang my clothes on the rack. 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.] Did you remember to spell /k/ with a ck? Let’s try 4 phonemes: grape; My mom says I should eat some grapes with my lunch. 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 lake 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.] /l/=l+/A/=/lA/. Now all I need is the end, /k/= /lAk/. Lake; 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 reading words with our new spelling for /A/: a_e. Now we are going to read a book called Jane and Babe. This story is about a zookeeper named Jane. She is in charge of taking care of the lion, Babe. The two of them have lots of fun when Jane takes care of Babe. Let’s pair up and take turns reading Jane and Babe to find out what all the two friends get to do. [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 fun story. What was one fun thing Jane and Babe got to do while they were together? That’s right, they raked and played. 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 sentence. 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:

Geri Murray, Oh, I Didn’t Know!: www.auburn.edu/~als0032/sykesbr.htm

Cushman, S. & Kornblum, R. (1990) Jane and Babe

Assessment worksheet: http://www.kidzone.ws/phonics/ate1.htm