​

Rationale: This lesson teaches children about the long vowel correspondence ee = /E/. 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 ee. They will learn a meaningful representation (a girl screaming eeh), they will spell and read words containing this spelling in a Letterbox lesson, and read a decodable book that focuses on the correspondence ee = /E/.

 

Materials: Image of a scared girl; 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: e, f, g, h, l, n, r, s, t; list of spelling words on poster or whiteboard to read: sheet, see, three, tree, breed, street; decodable text: MeanGeese and assessment worksheet

 

​

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 e, like pet, and today we are going to learn about long E, /E/. When I say /E/ I think of a girl girl scared of a bee saying “Eeh, a bee! [show graphic image].

​

2) Say: Before we learn about the spelling of /E/, we need to listen for it in some words. When I listen for /E/ in words, I hear e say its name /E/ and my mouth looks like I’m smiling. [Make vocal gesture for /E/.] I’ll show you first: tree. I heard e say its name and I felt make face make a smile [pointing at mouth and teeth]. There is a long E in tree. Now I’m going to see if it’s in wet. Hmm, I didn’t hear e say its name and my lips didn’t make a smile. Now you try. If you hear /E/ say, “Eeh, a bee.” If you don’t hear /E/ say, “That’s not it.” Is it in cheek, nose, cheap, breeze, wet? [Have children make a smile when they feel /E/ say its name.]

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

  

​

3) Say: Now let’s look at the spelling of /E/ that we’ll learn today. One way to spell /E/ is with the letter ee in a word to tell me to say E’s name. [Write ee on the board.] What if I want to spell the word green? “My favorite color is green, like the grass.” Green is a color. To spell green in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word so I stretch it out and count: /g//r//ee//n/. I need 4 boxes. I heard that /E/ just before the /n/ so I’m going to put ee in the 3rd box. The word starts with /g/, that’s easy; I need a g. Now it gets a little tricky so I’m going to say it slowly, /g//r//EE//n/. I think I heard /r/ so I’ll put a t right after the g. I have one empty box now. [Point to letters in boxes when stretching out the word: /g//r//ee//n/.] The missing one is /n/ = n.

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

4)Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You’ll start out easy with two boxes for see. To see is to notice or become aware of something using your eyes, “You can see the stars in the sky at night.” What should go in the first box? [Respond to children’s answers]. What goes in the second box? 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 /E/ and don’t forget to put the two e’s together. Here’s the word: sheet, The teacher gave us a sheet to color on; sheet. [Allow children to spell words.] Time to check your work. Watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the board: sh – ee – t and see if you’ve spelled it the same way. Try another with three boxes: three; There are three bases in baseball. [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 /E/ in it before you spell it: check; check to see if it is raining outside. Did you need an ee? Why not? Right, because we don’t hear e say its name. We spell it with our short vowel e. [volunteer spells it on the front board.] Did you remember to spell /k/ with a ck? Now let’s try 4 phonemes: breed; what breed of dog do you have? One more then we’re done with spelling, and this time you need five boxes: street; I like to watch the cars drive on my street. 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 green on the top and model reading the word.] First I see there are two e’s, that’s my signal that the vowel will say its name. There are the vowels ee. It must say /E/. 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.] /g/+/r/ = /gr/. Now I’m going to blend that with /E/ = /grEE/. Now all I need is the end, /n/ = /grEEn/. Green; 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 /E/: ee. Now we are going to read a book called Mean Geese. This is a story of a cat named Scat and her kittens that went to the creek and a dog named Lad. There were geese near the stream and the honked at Scat and Lad. Scat hissed to scare them away while Lad helped the kittens flee from the mean geese. Let’s pair up and take turns reading Mean Geese to find out how Scat and Lad get the geese to go away. [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 Mean Geese aloud together, and stops between page turns to discuss the plot.]

​

7) Say: That was a fun story. How did Scat and Lad get the geese to go away? Right, Lad jumped in the creek. What happened when Lad jumped in the creek? Right, he got mud on his feet. Before we finish up with our 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 and a picture. Your job is to circle the words that have the same long vowel sound you hear in tree and circle the picture for each word you circled. [Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress.]

 

 

Resources:

​

Sarah Price, Eeeek, It’s Big E!

http://sarahpricelessondesigns.weebly.com/beginning-reading.html

​

Murray, G. (2004) Mean Geese. Reading Genie: http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/bookindex.html

​

Assessment worksheet:  https://www.free-phonics-worksheets.com/assets/43-phonics-worksheet-v2-03.jpg

​

http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/cultivations.html