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Beginning Reading Lesson: Jake Take the Cake

Lolly Zimmerman

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, take the 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: Graphic image of a cake; cover-up critter; whiteboard or smartboard Elkonin boxes for modeling and individual Elkonin boxes for each student; letter manipulatives for each child and magnetic or smartboard letters for teacher: a, t, e, k, p, s, c, r; list of spelling words on poster or whiteboard to read: ate, take, tape, space, rest, scrape; decodable text: Jane and Babe,and an 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, such as hat, wag, and flag. So 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 beautiful cake and telling my friend Jake, to take it. [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 makes a shape like this. [Make vocal gesture for /A/.] My tongue stays behind my bottom teeth and I let out a long /A/ sounds. I’ll show you first: Jake. I heard a say its name and I felt my mouth move to make the a. That means that there is a long a in cake. Now I’m going to see it is in star. Hmm, I didn’t hear a say its name and my mouth didn’t make that movement. Now you can try. If you hear /A/ say “Jake, Take the Cake” and if you don’t hear /A/ say “No not here”. OK, so now you tell me if it is in ape, cat, name, snake, wag, bite?

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 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 gate? “If I walk through the gate I will be in the garden.” Gate means a walkway in the sentence. To spell gate in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word so I stretch it out and count: /g//A//t?. I need 3 boxes. I heard that /A/ just before the /t/ 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 /g/, that’s easy; I need a g. I have one empty box now. [Point to letters in boxes when stretching out the word: /g//A//t/.] The missing one is /t/ =t.    

                      | g | a | t | e

4. Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You’ll start out easy with two boxes for ate. Ate is the past tense for eating, “I ate my lunch at noon.” What should go in the first box? [Respond to children’s answers]. What goes in the second box? What about silente, did you remember to put it outside the boxes? 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 /A/ and don’t forget to put the signal silent e at the end, outside the boxes. Here’s the word: take, I take my coffee hot; take. [Allow children to spell words.] Time to check your work. Watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the board: t – a – k – e and see if you’ve spelled it the same way. Try another with three boxes: tape; I need tape to hang up my pictures. [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: scrap; when I’m done cutting paper I put it in my scrap pile. 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.] Now let’s try 4 phonemes: space; I want to fly to space. One more then we’re done with spelling, and this time you need five boxes: scrape; when I scrape my knee, it bleeds. Remember to stretch it out to get the tough words.

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 scrape 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 critter 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 /A/ = /scrA/. Now all I need is the end, /p/ = /scrAp/. Scrape; 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 /A/: a_e. Now we are going to read a book called Jane and Babe. The book is about a lion named Babe and his pal, the zookeeper, Jane. Babe is asleep and Jane tries to figure out how to wake the sleeping lion. Let’s pair up and take turns reading the book to find out why Jane wants to wake Babe and how she will do it. [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. How did Jane wake babe? Right, she yelled his name and it finally woke him up. Who won the race to the pail? Right, Babe won because he is a lion and can run faster. 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, there will be words that you have to write yourself and circle which picture matches the word Then there is a fun crossword, so you have to find all the words with the /A/ sound. [Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress.]


Resources:

Dr. Bruce Murray: http://wp.auburn.edu/rdggenie/
Geri Murray: https://sites.google.com/site/readingwritingconnection/beggingreadingdesign
Book: Jane and Babe, Decodable Book
Ingenuities: https://madisonwwilson.weebly.com/beginning-reading.html

Beginning Reading (BR): Welcome
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