Eeee! This Excites Me!

Beginning Reading Lesson Design by Mallie Stone

Rationale:

This lesson teaches children about the long vowel correspondence ee = /E/. In order to be able to read, students need to learn to recognize the spellings that map word pronunciations. With this lesson, students will learn to recognize, spell, and read words with the spelling ee. They will learn a meaningful representation (excited child saying Eeee!), spell and read words containing this spelling in a Letterbox Lesson, and read a decodable book that focuses on the correspondence ee = /E/.

Materials:

Digital or printed image of excited child
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: s, e, f, t, b, p, k, d, g, r, n, l
List of spelling words on poster or whiteboard to read: see, feet, beep, peek, seeds, greed, needle
Decodable text: The Mean Geese
Assessment worksheet

Procedures:

In order for us to become experts at reading, we need to learn the code that tells us how to pronounce words. We already know how to read short vowel words with e, like set, and today we are going to learn about long E when it's paired with its twin. When I say /E/, I think about a kid opening presents on his or her birthday saying, "Eeee, this excites me!" [show graphic image]. Now let's look at the spelling of /E/ that we're learning today. One way to spell /E/ is with two letter e's right beside each other [write ee on the board].
Before we learn about the spelling of /E/, let’s listen for it in some words. Whenever I’m listening for /E/ in a word, I hear e say its name /E/, and my mouth goes into a miniature smile like this. [Make vocal gesture for /E/.] I'll show you first: sheet. I heard e say its name, and I felt my mouth make a miniature smile [make a miniature smile for e]. There is a long E in sheet. Now I'm going to see if it's in let. Llllleeeet. I didn't hear e say its name, and my mouth didn't make a miniature smile for e. Now it’s your turn. If you hear /E/ say, "Eeee, this excites me!" If you don't hear /E/ say, "Not this time." Is it in need, stay, hair, ear, scene, road? [Have children smile big when they feel /E/.]
What if I want to spell the word screen? “The movie was played on a screen.” In this sentence, screen means the area where the projector showed the movie. To spell screen in letterboxes, first I need to figure out how many phonemes I have in the word, so I stretch it out and count them: /s//c//r//E//n/. I need 5 boxes. I heard the /E/ just before the /n/, so I am going to put an e in the 4th box and an n in the last box. The word starts with /s/, so I just need an s. Now listen as I say it slowly, and let’s see what phoneme we’re missing: /s//c//r//E//n/. Oh, I heard /c/, so I’m going to put a c after the s. I also heard /r/, so I'm going to put an r in the empty box between s and c.
Now I'm going to show you how I would read a tough word. [Display poster with sheer on the top and model reading the word.] I'm going to start with the ee - that part says /E/. This word has an unusual beginning – sh. These letters together in this word say /sh/. Now, I'm going to blend all of the beginning sounds with /E/: sh-ee, /shE/. Last, I'll blend the chunk together with the last sound, /shE-r/. Sheer, like "The outer layer of her wedding dress was sheer."
Now you get to spell words in letterboxes! You’ll start out with two boxes for see, like "See what I can do." What should go in the first box? [Respond to children's answers]. What goes in the second box? I'll check your spelling as I walk around the room. [Observe progress.] You'll need three letterboxes for the next word. Listen for the beginning sound to spell in the first box. Then listen for /E/. Here's the word: feet, “The shoes don’t fit my feet.” – feet. [Allow children to spell remaining words: peek, seeds, greed.]
Now I am going to let you read the words you've spelled. [Have children read words in unison. Afterwards, call on individuals to read one word on the list until everyone has had a turn.]
You've done a great job reading words with our new spelling for /E/ = ee. Now we are going to read a book called The Mean Geese. This is the story of an encounter between dogs and angry geese when both are trying to protect their territory! The protective dogs get dirty while trying to scare off the geese, so let’s see how the owners respond when their dogs come home all muddy! [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 The Mean Geese aloud together, and stops between page turns to discuss the plot.]
Before we finish with the lesson about one way to spell /E/ = ee, 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 ee word fits best to make sense of this very short story. First, try to read all of the words in the box, then choose the word that fits best in the space. Reread your answers to see if they make sense. [While children begin working on filling in the cloze passage and reading it to see if their choices make sense, call each child forward individually to read a section of the text. Assess for accuracy, note miscues, and check for comprehension of text. (i.e. Why do you think Mom, Ben, and Jess were so upset that Lad came home dirty?) Collect worksheets to evaluate comprehension progress. It is important that the worksheet assesses reading a passage rather than merely reading individual words.]

Reference:

Eek! by Jillian Induni:

http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/awakenings/indunibr.htm

Assessment worksheet: http://www.schoolexpress.com/fws/worksheet.php?id=53581

The Mean Geese. Murray, Geri. Genie Collection, 2006. http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/bookindex.html.

Click here to return to the Edifications index.