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The Reading Rollercoaster!!

Beginning Reading Lesson Design

By Augusta Yearout

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Rationale: This lesson teaches children about the long vowel correspondence ee= /E/. In order to be able to read, children must learn to recognize the spellings that map out word pronunciations. In this lesson children will learn to recognize, spell, and read words containing the spelling ee. They will learn a meaningful representation (children ridings a rollercoaster, saying “WEEE!”) they will spell and read words containing this spelling in a Letterbox lesson, and read a decodable book that focuses on the correspondence ee= /E/.

 

Materials: Graphic image of confused man; cover-up critters for both teacher and student; whiteboard for modeling and individual Elkonin boxes for each student; letter manipulatives for each child and magnetic or smartboard letters for teacher: b, c, d, e, k, l, n, p, r, s, t; list of spelling words whiteboard to read: bee, reel, deed, week, screen, breed, sleet; interactive decodable text: Pete's Sheep and assessment worksheet.

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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 e, like pet, and today we are going to learn about long e, /E/. When I say /E/ I think of riding a roller coaster with my hands up screaming “WEEE!” [show graphic image].

  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 ee say /E/ and my lips (and teeth) are not touching, making a sort of soft smile. [Make vocal gesture for /E/.] I’ll show you first: feel. I heard ee say /E/ and I felt my lips make a soft smile [motion towards lips]. There is a long E in feel. Now I’m going to see if it’s in touch. Hmm, I didn’t hear ee say /E/ and my lips didn’t make that soft smile. Now you try. If you hear /E/ say, “WEEE!.” If you don’t hear /E/ say, “That’s not it.” Is it in day, night, week, rain, snow, sleet? [Have children make a circle motion around their mouth shape when they feel ee say /E/.]

  3. Say: Now let’s look at the spelling of /E/ that we’ll learn today. One way to spell /E/ is with the letters ee. [Write ee on the board.] What if I want to spell the word week? “I had the best week at school!” To spell week in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word, so I stretch it out and count: /w//E//k/. I need 3 boxes. I heard that /E/ just before the /k/ so I’m going to put ee in the 2nd box. The word starts with /w/, that’s easy; I need a w. Now I’m going to say it slowly, /w//E//k/. I heard /k/ so I’ll put a k right after the ee. There we go! We spelled the word week.

  4. Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You’ll start out easy with two boxes for bee. “I saw a bee flying around the playground”. What should go in the first box? [Respond to children’s answers]. What goes in the second box? 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 /E/. Here’s the word:reel, I went to reel the fish in on the rod; reel. [Allow children to spell words.] Time to check your work. Watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the board: r – e – e – l and see if you’ve spelled it the same way. Try another with three boxes deed; I did a good deed today. [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 /E/ in it before you spell it:step; watch your step when going down the stairs. Did you hear the long e sound, /E/? Do you need a ee? Why not? Right, because we don’t hear /E/ like riding a rollercoaster, WEEE! Our lips to not form a soft smile. We spell step with our short vowel e. [volunteer spells it on the front board.] Now let’s try 4 phonemes: breed; Her puppy belongs to the poodle breed. One more then we’re done with spelling, and this time you need five boxes: screen; We watched the movie on the big screen. 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 screen on the top and model reading the word.] First I see there’s ee in the middle; that’s my signal that the vowel will say /E/, the long e sound. There are two e’s together, ee. It must say /E/. 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//c/ = /sc/ + /r/ = /scr/. Now I’m going to blend that with /E/ = /scrE/. Now all I need is the end, /n/ = /scrEn/.Screen; 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.]​​

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6. Say: You’ve done a great job and reading words with our new spelling for /E/= ee. Now we are going to read an interactive book called Pete's Sheep. This is a story about a boy named Pete who is having a lot of trouble falling asleep. Pete's mom tells him to think about sheep! How would thinking about sheep help you fall asleep?! Let’s pair up and take turns reading Pete's Sheep to see if the sheep can save the day. [Children pair up and take turns reading alternate pages on iPad or device while teacher walks around the room monitoring progress. After individual paired reading, the class rereads Pete's Sheep aloud together, and stops between page turns to discuss the plot.]  

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7.Say: That was a fun story. How did the bee save the day? Right, It made the team jump up and chased them to the field. Why was the team sitting in the weeds? Right, to get shade from the heat. Before we finish up with our lesson about one way to spell /E/ = ee, I want to see how you can solve a reading problem. On this worksheet, you have a set of words that you will cut out. You will read these words and glue them under the picture they match. First, try to read the words, then look on the page for a picture of each word. Reread your answers and make sure they make sense! [Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress.]

 

Resources:

Katy Moore, Eeeee! That’s Scary!: https://sites.google.com/site/katymooreresearchbasedreading/beginning-reading-lesson-1

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Starfall's Learn To Read with Phonics interactive decodable text: Pete's Sheep

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Assessment Worksheet: https://www.superteacherworksheets.com/phonics-long-short-e/long-e- words-cutglue_IUFZX.pdf

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