Mr. McCoy's Designs
Aye, Aye, Captain!
Beginning Reading
Garrett McCoy
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 the spellings 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 (aye, aye captain with salute), 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 of sailor saluting, cover-up critter; whiteboard or SMART board Elkonin boxes for modeling and individual Elkonin boxes for each student; letter manipulatives for each child and magnetic or SMART board letters for teacher: V, I, C, E, L, T, N, P, R, G, D, S, M, K; list of spelling words on poster or whiteboard to read: rice, bride, brine, strike, lips, time; and decodable text: The Bike Ride.
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 i, like tip, 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 sailor saying “Aye, aye captain! [show graphic image].
2. 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 my mouth opens up to take a bite like this, with my tongue against the roof of my mouth, then my teeth come together. [Make vocal gesture for /I/.] I’ll show you first: time. I heard i say its name and I felt my mouth open up to bite an apple There is a long I in time. Now I’m going to see if it’s in tick. Hmm, I didn’t hear i say its name and my mouth didn’t open to take a bite. Now you try. If you hear /I/ say, “Aye, aye captain.” If you don’t hear /I/ say, “That’s not it.” Is it in rice, bride, brine, lips, time? [Have children make a biting motion when they hear i say its name.]
3. Say: Now let’s look at the spelling of /I/ that we’ll learn today. One way to spell /I/ is with the letter i and a signal e at the end of the word to tell me to say I’s name. [Write i_e on the board.] This blank line here means there is a consonant after i, and at the end of the word there is a little silent e signal. What if I want to spell the word strike? “If I strike out in baseball, I missed three fair pitches.” Strike means miss in this sentence. To spell strike in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have 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’s easy; I need an s. Now it gets a little tricky so I’m going to say it slowly, /s//t//r//I//k/. I think I heard /t/ so I’ll put a t right after the s. One more before the /I/, hmm . . . /s//t//r//I//k/, I think I heard growling /r/ so I need an r. I have one empty box now. [Point to letters in boxes when stretching out the word: /s//t//r//I//k/.] The missing one is /k/ = k.
4. Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You’ll start out easy with two boxes for ice.” What should go in the first box? [Respond to children’s answers]. What goes in the second box? What about 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: vice, ‘The vice president elected at the same time as the president.’ [Allow children to spell words.] Time to check your work. Watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the board: v – i – c – e and see if you’ve spelled it the same way. Try another with three boxes: lime; I put lime in my water. [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 /I/ in it before you spell it: tick; ‘do you hear the clock tick?’ Did you need a silent e? Why not? Right, because we don’t hear i say its name. We spell it with our short vowel i. [volunteer spells it on the front board.] Did you remember to spell /k/ with a ck? Now let’s try 4 phonemes: chime; ‘does the clock chime the hour?’ One more then we’re done with spelling, and this time you need five boxes: splice; ‘I have to splice the two pieces of rope together.’ Remember to stretch it out to get this tough word.
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 splice 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//p/ = /sp/ + /l/ = /spl/. Now I’m going to blend that with /I/ = /splI/. Now all I need is the end, /c/ = /splIc/. Splice; 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 /I/: i_e. Now we are going to read a book called The Bike Ride. This is a story of a boy named Nate who does not want to do anything. His friends want to play, but Nate has no interest in anything but TV and sleep. Do you know how Nate’s friends get him to play? You’ll just have to read the book to find out. [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 Bike Ride aloud together, and stops between page turns to discuss the plot.]
7. Say: That was a fun story. How did Nate’s friends get him to play? Right, they tricked him with a surprise. What was the surprise? Great, flying a kite from a bike. Before we finish up with our lesson about one way to spell /O/ = o_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 fits best to answer the questions. First try reading all the words in the box, and then choose the word that answers the all the questions. Reread your answers to see if they make sense. [Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress.]
Resources:
Oh, I Didn’t Know! Murray, G. https://sites.google.com/site/readingwritingconnection/beggingreadingdesign
(2004) The Bike Ride. Reading Genie: http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/bookindex.html
Assessment worksheet