Lets Bake a Cake
Beginning Reading Design
Rationale:
This lesson teaches students 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 sounds and pronunciations. In this lesson children will learn to recognize, spell, and read words containing the spelling a_e. They will learn a meaningful representation (lets bake a cake), 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:
Picture of cake baking in an oven, Cover-up critter; whiteboard with large letter box for modeling, individual letter boxes for each student; letter manipulatives for each child and large letters for teacher: a, b, c, d, e, h, k, l, m, p, r, s, t, v, z; list of spelling words on poster or whiteboard to read: ate, lake, daze, shade, sale, shame, plate, brave, scrape; decodable text: Jane and Babe and assessment worksheet.
Procedures:
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Say: In order to become expert readers we need to learn a code that tells us how to pronounce words. We have already learned to read short vowel a that makes the /a/ sound. An example of a=/a/ is seen in the word mat. Today we are going to learn how the long A and the silent e signal work together to make A say its own name. Long A’s name is /A/. I say /A/ think of a picture of a cake baking in an oven! [Show picture of cake in oven].
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Say: First, we need to hear the /A/ sound in some words, then we will learn how to spell the long A sound. When I listen for /A/ in words, I hear “a” say its own name /A/. When I make the long /A/ sound my lips make a big shape like this. [Make vocal gesture for /A/.] Here I’ll show you with the word: fame. I felt my mouth open wide as I heard a make the /A/ sound. Now I’m going to listen for the long a sound of /A/ in last. Hmmm, I didn’t hear the /A/ sound in last. My lips didn’t make a wide shape either. Now it’s your turn! If you hear /A/ say, “Mhmm” If you don’t hear /A/ say, “Yuck.”. Is it in map, fake, fair, save, plot, babe?
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Say: Now let’s look at a spelling that makes the /A/ sound. We are going to look at the long /A/ sound made by an a_e. The word that makes the /A/ sound has the letter a and ends in a silent e. The silent e at the end of the word lets me know that the letter “a” in the word makes the /A/ sound. [Write a_e = /A/ on the board.] The blank line between the “a” and “e” means there is a consonant after “a” and before the silent “e”. So, what if I want to spell the word made? “I made a cake out of flour, eggs and water.” In this sentence the word “made” means to put things together to create something new. If we want to spell the word “made” in our letterbox we have to first count the number of phonemes in “made”. Lets stretch out the word “made” to hear each sound and count them. Made stretched out is /m//A//d/. I hear 3 phonemes so I need 3 letterboxes. I hear the long /A/ sound before the /d/. Therefore, I am going to put the letter a in the second box. The word starts with the /m/ sound, so I will put the “m” in the first box. Now, lets say the word slowly again /m//A//d/. The /d/ sound comes after the /A/ so I will put the letter “d” in the third box. Because the “a” makes the /A/ sound we have to put the silent “e” outside the last letterbox.
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Say: Now it’s your turn to spell words using the letterboxes! We’ll begin with an easy word that requires only two letterboxes: ate. “I ate an apple for snack.” What letter should you put in the first box? [Listen to the children’s answers and respond accordingly]. Now what letter should we put in the second box? And where do we put the silent “e”? Did you remember to put it outside of the second box? Check children’s spelling of “ate” in their letterboxes as you walk around the room and note their progress. For the next word you will need a third letterbox. Lets listen for the sound at the beginning of the word and put the letter that goes with this sound 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: lake. “I like to swim in the lake.” [Give children time to spell out the word.] Now lets check your work! Watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the board: l-a-k-e and see if you’ve spelled it the same way. Now try these words with three boxes: daze, shade, sale, shame. [Put each word in a sentence and have one student spell word in letterbox on whiteboard]. Next we’ll try words with 4 phonemes. This means we’ll need 4 letterboxes. Let’s try the word plate and brave. Remember to stretch out the word to hear all the sounds. [Have a student to spell each word on whiteboard]. Lastly, we are going to spell a word with 5 phonemes so you’ll need five letterboxes. Lets spell the word: scrape. [Have student display how to spell “scrape” in whiteboard letterbox].
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Say: Next we are going to read the words that we spelled. First lets talk about how to read a hard word. [Hold up poster with scrape written on it and model how to read the word.] Because there is a silent e at the end of the word I know that the vowel will say its own name. The vowel in the word scrape is “a”, so the a=/A/. Let’s cover-up the second part of the word and just look at 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 /A/ = /scrA/. Now lets add the ending of the word, /p/ = /scrAp/. Scrape; that’s it. Now it’s your turn, everyone together. [Hold up posters with the words: ate, lake, daze, shade, sale, shame, plate, and brave on each of them for students to read].
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Say: Next we are going to read a book called Jane and Babe! This book is about Babe who is a lion. Babe the lion is asleep, and Jane is in charge of him. She has to figure out how to wake up Babe! Let’s find a partner and take turns reading the book: Jane and Babe to find out how she wakes him up! [After students finish the book reread the book again as a class and observe their progress][After ask students what woke up Babe: Jane said Babe’s name]
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Say: Lastly, I want to finish up the a_e=/A/ lesson with a worksheet. Color the pictures on the worksheet that have a long /A/ sound in them. For example, if you see the word plate then color the picture of the plate, but if you see the word bat do not color the picture of the bat because bat does not make the long /A/ sound. [Collect worksheet and look at students progress].
Resource:
Worksheet: http://www.schoolexpress.com/fws/ws/phonics/vowels/Long_Vowel_Aa_Book_1.4.pdf
Reference: Pickett, Shelby :Twice the Spice is Nice http://slp0024.wixsite.com/shelbylynnepickett/beginning-reading-design
Book: Jane and Babe