Ms. Vavala's
Lesson Designs
Rain, Rain Go Away!
A Beginning Reading Lesson Design
Rationale: This lesson teaches children about the long vowel correspondence a_e= /A/. 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 a_e. They will learn a meaningful representation (child singing “Rain, rain, go away”), they will spell and read words containing this spelling in a Letterbox lesson, and read a decodable book that focuses on the correspondence a_e= /A/.
Materials: Graphic image of child in the rain; 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: _________________; list of spelling words on poster or whiteboard to read: ace, cake, made, bath, pale, spade, scrape; decodable text: “Snake and Ape” by Robert Charles, and assessment worksheet.
Procedures:
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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 vowels words a, like cat, and today we are going to learn about long A and the silent e signal that is used to make A say it’s name, /A/. When I say /A/ I think of a little kid walking in the rain singing “Rain, rain, go away!” (show graphic image).
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Say: Before we learn about the spelling of /A/, we need to listen for it in some words. When I listen for /A/ in words, I hear a say its name /A/ and mouth opens and stretches wide to let out the a. (Make vocal gesture for /A/.) I’ll show you first: cake. I heard a say its name and I felt my mouth open and stretch to let out the a (point out how my mouth is stretched out wider than normal). There is a long A in cake. Now I’m going to see if it’s in ball. Hmm, I didn’t hear a say its name and my mouth didn’t stretch out wide enough to let the long a out. Now you try. If you hear /A/ say, “Rain, rain, go away!”. If you don’t hear /A/ say, “That’s not it.” Is it in wave, beach, mate, lake, sun, tale? (Have children point to their mouth when it is stretched out wide and feel the long /A/ being let out.)
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Say: Now let’s look at the spelling of /A/ that we’ll learn today. One way to spell /A/ is with the letter a and a signal e at the end of the word to tell me to say A’s name. (Write a_e on the board.) This blank line here means there is a consonant after a, and at the end of the word there is little silent e signal. What if I want to spell the word brake? “If I step on the brake pedal, the car will stop.” Brake means stop in this sentence. To spell brake in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word so I stretch it out and count: /b//r//A//k/. I need 4 boxes. I heard that /A/ just before the /k/so I’m going to put an a in the 3rd box an the silent e signal outside the last box. The word starts with /b/, that’s easy; I need a b. Now it gets a little tricky so I’m going to say it slowly, /b//r//A//k/. I think I heard a growling /r/ so I’ll put a r right after the b. I have one empty box now. (Point to letters in boxes when stretching out the word: /b//r//A//k/.) The missing one is /k/= k.
b
r
a
e
k
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Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You’ll start out easy with two boxes for ace. An ace is the highest card in a deck of playing cards, “When I played go fish, I asked my friend if she had an ace.” 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 /A/ and don’t forget to put the signal silent e at the end, outside the boxes. Here’s the word: cake, I had chocolate cake at my birthday party; cake. (Allow children to spell words.) Time to check your work. Watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the board: c—a—k—e and see if you’ve spelled it the same way. Try another with three boxes: made; I made my bed this morning. (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 /A/ in it before you spell it: bath; After dinner, my mom told me I need to take a bath. Did you need a silent e? Why not? Right, because we don’t hear a say its name. We spell it with our short vowel a. (Volunteer spells it on the front board.) Did you remember to spell bath with /th/? Now let’s try 4 phonemes: spade; the barber had to shave his customer’s beard. One more then we’re done with spelling, and this time you need five boxes: scrape; If I scrape knee, I am going to need a Band-Aid. Remember to stretch it out to get this tough word.
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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 brake 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 a. It must say /A/. I’m going to use a cover-up to get the first pat. (Uncover and blend sequentially before the vowel, then blend with the vowel.) /b//r/= /br/. 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.)
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Say: You’ve don a great job reading words with out new spelling /A/: a_e. Now we are going to read a book called Snake and Ape. This is a story about a snake named Jake and an ape named Kate who both live in the jungle. One day, they see people cutting down trees in their very home in the jungle! Where would they live if this happened? Will Jake and Kate be able to stop them from cutting down the trees? We’ll have to read on to find out! Let’s pair up and take turns reading Snake and Ape to find out what happens. (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 Snake and Ape aloud together, and stops between page turns to discuss the plot.)
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Say: That was a fun story. How did Jake and Kate save the jungle? Right, they got help from the king ape who stopped the people from cutting down the trees! Now Jake and Kate are able to keep their home and enjoy living in the peace and sunshine. Where did Jake like to eat frogs? Right, by the lake. Before we finish up with our lesson about one way to spell /A/= a_e, I want to see how you can solve a reading problem. On this worksheet, there are a few sentences describing a word that is listed on the right. Read the sentences then decide which a_e word on the right, fits best to make sense of this short passage. First try reading all the words towards the right of the passage then choose the word that fits best. Make sure you reread your answers to see if they make sense. (Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress.
Resources:
1. Bergamini, Karlie. “What Did You Say?”. Beginning Reading Design.
http://karliembergamini.wix.com/bergamini-lessons#!what-did-you-say/c1rbz
2. Charles, Robert. Reading A-Z. http://www.readinga-z.com/book.php?id=352
3. Assessment Worksheet: http://www.funfonix.com/book3/read_600.gif