Eeeek! It's a Creepy E!
Beginning Reading Lesson Design
Rationale:
This lesson is designed to teach students about the long vowel correspondence ee = /E/. For effective reading, students must be able to map out spellings from word pronunciations, and this particular lesson will attempt to teach them to find, spell, and read words with the correspondence ee = /E/. A memorable representation for this grapheme is a person screaming the sound “Eeeek!” Upon learning this correspondence, the students will spell and read words that contain this spelling through a letterbox lesson. After the lesson, I will provide a decodable book that allows them to particularly put into practice the correspondence ee = /E/.
Materials:
Image of a person screaming at something scary (attached at the end)
Cover-up critter
Letter tiles (b, c, d, e, e, f, g, h, i, l, n, o, p, r, s, t)
Letterboxes
List of words (2 [see], 3 [need, beef, pet, hot], 4 [steer, greet, list, creep], 5 [screen])
Assessment worksheet: ee = /E/ worksheet- http://www.funfonix.com/worksheets/book4_page4.php
Lee and the Team- Book 4, Long E by Sheila Cushman, 1990
Procedures:
Say: “To become the best readers we can be, we need to know all the letters that help us pronounce words. We already know the letter e, and we know that the sound it makes as a short vowel, such as in the words ‘pet’ and ‘dress.’ Today, we are going to learn what the letter e says as a long vowel. Long /E/ sounds like “eeeee.” Whenever I say /E/, it helps us to think about somebody screaming or shrieking when they see something scary! (Show the image of a screaming person). Today we are going to look at one of the ways to spell /E/, using two e’s. Some words like “green” use two e’s to make that sound (illustrate using letter tiles).
Say: Before we learn how to spell /E/, we need to make sure we can hear it in words. The trick with /E/ is that it says its own name. Let’s practice, and I’ll show you first. Listen to the word “meet.” I hear the letter /E/ say its own name! Do you hear it? What about the word test. /E/ doesn’t say its name there, does it? Now your turn! Let out a shriek like we talked about earlier if you hear /E/ in the words I say: pet, reef, deed, flee, head, cheer, queen.
Say: Now that we can hear /E/, we can practice spelling it more! The way we are learning to spell /E/ today, we use two e’s (show letter tiles again). Those two e’s say /E/ together. So let’s practice! What if I want to spell the word “feed?” As in, “Be sure to feed the dog.” Let’s spell “feed” in our letterboxes. First, we need to count the phonemes in the word. We do this by stretching out the word to say /f/ /E/ /d/. We know that our /E/ sound needs those two e’s to go together, so we can figure out that we need three boxes. Do you hear /E/ in the middle of the word? Me too, so we can put our e’s in the middle box. I hear /f/ at the beginning and a /d/ sound at the end, so I’ll put an f at the start and a d at the end.
Say: Now it’s your turn to put some words into the letterboxes. We’ll start with a simple one, with only two boxes. Spell the word “see.” “I will go see a movie with my friend.” What do you think should go in the first box? (Let them answer, and respond). What should go in the second box? Great job, especially remembering to use two e’s to make our /E/ sound! For the next word I want you to spell, you’ll need three boxes. Spell the word “need.” “I need to get bread and milk from the grocery store.” What sound do you hear at the beginning of the word? (Respond to answer). What about after /n/? What do you hear? That’s right, our shrieking /E/! So what do you need to put in the second box if you hear our shrieking /E/? (Respond). Ok great! What do you need at the end of the word? (Allow them to finish). Now spell the word “pet.” Do you hear that shrieking /E/? No, neither do I. So what is going to go in the middle? That’s right, just one e. (Have children spell the rest of the words, and be sure to provide sentences for each: beef, hot, steer, greet, list, creep, screen).
Say: Now we’re going to practice reading the words we have already spelled. First, I’ll show you how. (Spell the word cheer with the letter tiles). I see those two e’s in the middle, so I know I’m going to read that /E/ sound. Now I’ll cover up the word and read it from the beginning. (Uncover and blend before, then with the vowel). /ch/ is the first sound I hear, and I’ll blend that with our shrieking /E/. Then I hear /r/ at the end. /ch/ + /E/ + /r/. Cheer is the word! Now you practice! (Have the students read their list of words).
Say: Great job reading those words! Now we will practice some more with a book called Lee and the Team. In this story, we meet Lee, the captain of a very lazy baseball team. Lee knows his team needs to practice, but no one wants to! Let’s read to find out if he can get them to play and what he’ll do to to get there! (Have students alternate pages while you walk around and make sure everyone is on the right track. Stop to ask plot questions to ensure that students are comprehending).
As a class, discuss the plot of the book, and ask students to retell the events of the story. Say: Now I have a worksheet for everyone to do to get some more practice finding /E/ words. (Pass out worksheet and explain directions. Perhaps model the first question so students know exactly what to do).
Resources:
Assessment worksheet- http://www.funfonix.com/worksheets/book4_page4.php
Cushman, Sheila. Lee and the Team. 1990.
Example Lesson Design- Sarah Price, Eeek, It’s Big E!- Long /E/- http://sarahpricelessondesigns.weebly.com/beginning-reading.html
