Beginning Reading Design

By Shelby Pickett

Rationale: This lesson teaches children about the long vowel correspondence i_e= /I/. In order to be able to read, children must learn to recognize that map word pronunciations. In this lesson children will learn to recognize, spell, and read words containing the spelling i_e. They will learn a meaningful representation (the rhyme twice the spice), they will spell and read words containing this spelling in a Letterbox lesson, and read a decodable book that focuses on the correspondence i_e= /I/.

Materials:

Graphic image that says, “Too much spice?”

Cover up critter

Whiteboard or smartboard

Elkonin boxes for modeling

Individual Elkonin boxes for students

Letter manipulatives for each child

Magnetic or smartboard letters for the teacher: b, c, d, e, i, k, n, o, p, r, s, t, w, z

List of spelling words on a post to read: ice, bike, size, iron, bride, and strike

Decodable text: Di and the Mice

Assessment worksheet

Procedures:

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 i, like, lip, and today we are going to learn about long I and the silent e signal that is used to make I say its name, /I/. When I say /I/ I think of a funny chef in his kitchen saying, “Twice the Spice is Nice!” (show picture) 

Say: Before we learn about the spelling of /I/, we need to listen for it in some words. When I listen for /I/ in words, I hear i say its name /I/ and the tip of my tongue touches above the top of my teeth and stays there. (make vocal gesture for /I/). I’ll show you first: live. I heard i say its name and I felt my tongue touch above the top of my teeth and stay there. (point to my tongue touching the top of my teeth). There is a long I in live. Now I’m going to see it’s in dip. Mmm, I don’t hear i say its name and my tongue didn’t touch my teeth. Now it’s your turn. If you hear /I/ say, “Twice the spice is nice!” If you don’t hear /I/ say, “That’s not it!” Is it in bike, lips, cup, strike, mice, spoon? (Have children make a circle motion around their lips when they feel /I/ say its name).

Say: Now let’s look at the spelling of /I/ that we are learning today. One way to spell /I/ is with the letter i and a signal e at the end of the word to tell me that I says its name. (Write i_e on the board). The blank line here means there is a consonant after i, and at the end of the words there is a little silent e signal. What if I want to spell the word strike? “The baseball player only had one strike left before he was out of the game.” Strike refers to the baseball player only having one more chance to bate in the sentence. To spell strike in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes are in the word so I stretch it out and count: /s//t//r//I//k/. I need 5 boxes. I heard that /I/ just before the /k/ so I’m going to put an i in the 4th box and the silent e signal outside the last box/ The word starts with /s/, that’ is easy; I need an s/ Now it gets a little confusing so I’m going to say it slowly, /s//t//r//I//k/. I think I heard /t/ so I’ll put the t right after the s. One more before the /I/, mmmm… /s//t//r//I//k/, I think I heard growling /r/ so I need an r. I have one empty box left. (Point to letters in boxes when stretching out the word: /s//t//r//I//k/). The missing one is /k/= k.

Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You’ll start out easy with two boxes for ice. “I love to have ice cold water!” What should go in the box first? (Respond to the children’s answers). What goes in the second box? What about the silent e, 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 /I/ and don’t forget to put the signal silent e at the end, outside the boxes. Here’s the word: bike, What color is your new bike; bike. (Allow children to spell words). Time to check your work. Watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the board: b – i – k – e and see if you’ve spelled it the same way. Try another word with three boxes: size; The size of that tiger is big! (Ask a volunteer to spell it on the front board). Now let’s try a 4 phoneme word: bride; She was a beautiful bride. One more then we’re done with spelling, and this time you need five boxes: strike; I always strike out in the game. Remember to stretch it out to get the tough word out.

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 strike 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 i. It must say /I/. 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//t/ = /st/ + /r/= /str/. Now I’m going to blend with /I/= /strI/. Now all I need is the end, /k/ = /strIk/. Strike; 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).

Say: You’ve done a great job and reading words with our new spelling for /I/: i_e. Now we are going to read a book called Di and the Mice. This is a book about a girl named Di. Di enjoys riding her bike. While she is on her bike ride, Di meets some mice. Let’s pair up and take turns reading Di and the Mice to find out what Di does next next. (Children pair up and take turns reading alternate pages each while the teacher observes the classroom progress. After the individual’s pair up, the class will reread Di and the Mice aloud together, and stops between page turns to review the plot).

Say: That was a fun story! Di enjoyed a bike ride, and made friends with the mice. Did Di feed the mice some of her lunch? Yes, she gave them rice, peas, and some pie! Before we finish up with our lesson about one way to spell /I/ = i_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 i_e word its best to sense of the sentences. 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 the worksheets to review students progress.)

Resources:

Assessment worksheet: http://www.education.com/worksheet/article/learning-long-vowels-i-words/

Reference: Murray, Bruce; Beginning Reading Design: Chuga Chuga Choo Choo 

 http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/begin/chauvinbr.html

Class link: http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/connections.html