BEGINNING READING

AYE AYE CAPTAIN

Rationale:

This lesson teaches children about the long vowel correspondence i_e = /I/. In order to learn 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 (saying “aye aye captain” while saluting), they will spell and read words containing this spelling in a letterbox lesson, and they will read a decodable book that focuses on the correspondence i_e = /I/.

Materials:

GIF of Jack Sparrow saying, “aye aye captain” and saluting
Cover-up critter
Whiteboard or Smartboard
Elkonin boxes for modeling
Individual Elkonin letterboxes for each student
Letter manipulatives for each student (i, c, e, k, t, s, h, n, r, b, d, p, z, l, m)
Magnetic or smartboard letters for teacher
List of spelling words on poster or whiteboard (ice, kite, dime, sick, shine, strike, bride, prize, slice, and mlide)
Decodable text The Grime Stopper
Assessment worksheet
Pencil

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 fish, 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 pirate saying, “aye aye captain” and saluting [show GIF]. 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.
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 lips open long from top to bottom like this [make vocal gesture for /I/]. I’ll show you first: time. I heard i say its name and I felt my lips open long ways. There is a long I in time. Now let’s see if it is in the word chip. I didn’t hear i say /I/ in that word. My lips pulled back to the side instead of going long up and down. How about you try a couple! If you hear /I/ say, “aye aye captain” and give a salute. If you do not hear /I/ then clasp your hands together and shake your head no. Is it in gift, fire, plane, kick, teeth, nine? [Students answer by saying “aye aye captain” and saluting or shaking their head no].
Say: What if I wanted to spell the word slice? “I am eating a slice of pizza.” To spell slice in letterboxes, I need to first know how many phonemes I have in the word, so I am going to stretch it out and count: /s//l//I//c/. I need 4 boxes. I heard that /I/ in the middle of the word so I’m going to put an i in the 3rd box and the silent e signal outside the last box. The word starts with /s/ so I need to grab an s and put it in the first box. The next part can get a little hard, so I am going to say it slowly. s//l//I//c/. I think I heard a /l/ so I’ll put it after the s. I have one more box left to fill. I have s//l//I//c/ [while stretching the word point to the letters in the boxes]. I hear the missing /c/. Now I want to show you how to read a tough word [display poster with the word white and model the word]. I am going to to start with the i_e; I know that part says /I/. Now I’m going to add the beginning letters to it: wh-i_e, /whI/. I need to put that chunk together with the last sound, /whI-t/. Its white like “The clouds are fluffy and white.”
Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. Let’s start out easy with two boxes for ice. “I like to add ice in my sweet tea”. What about silent e, did you remember to put it outside the boxes? I’ll check your spelling while I walk around the room [check students’ progress and assist if needed]. You need to add another letterbox for your next word. Now you will have three letterboxes. Listen for the beginning sound to put in the first box, then listen for /I/, and finally don’t forget the signal silent e at the end to put outside the boxes. The next word is kite “If there is wind outside, then I can fly my kite”. Repeat the steps above with the rest of the words and give a sentence for each word [dime, sick, shine, bride, and strike].
Say: Now I want you to read the words you have spelled [display the words ice, kite, dime, sick, shine, strike, bride, two extra words (prize and slide), and a pseudoword (mlide) [Students will read words together as a class]. Allow every student to have a turn by calling on each individual one by one and having him or her say a word from the list until everyone has had a turn.
Say: You all have done a fabulous job of readings words with our new spelling for /I/: i_e. Now we are going to read a book called The Grime Stopper. In this story, Mike keeps the whole city clean. They call him the grime stopper because he rides around looking for grime to stop and things to clean. He gets on his bike and is ready to head towards the city. Let’s pair up and take turns reading The Grime Stopper to find out if Mike will be able to clean all the dirt in the city. [Students will get in pairs and alternate reading each page while the teacher walks around monitoring progress. After reading the story in pairs, the class will reread The Grime Stopper together. The teacher will pause between each page turn to discuss the story].
Before we finish up our lesson about one way to spell i_e = /I/, I want to see if you can pair a few words to their matching pictures. On this worksheet, we have a list of words and a couple of pictures. Your job is to match each word to the correct picture. Make sure to double check your answers before turning your worksheet in. [monitor student progress as they complete the worksheet and then collect them at the end to evaluate individual progress].

References:

Solve a case with your mate

Emma Talbot

Resources: