Aye, Aye Captain!

 

A Beginning Reading Lesson 

By Lillie Brooks

 

                                                 

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”), 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 a captain; 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: a, d, r, i, l, l, f, o, p, c, k, e, b, v, s, t; list of spelling words on poster or whiteboard to read: cat, drill, flop, price, bride, drive, splice, ;decodable text: Lad and Friends

 

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 sit, and today we are going to learn about long I and the silent e signal that is used to make “Aye” say its name, /I/. When I say /I/ I think of a man on a boat shouting “Aye, Aye Captain [show graphic image]. 

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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, and my tongue is slightly down... [Make vocal gesture for /I/.] I’ll show you first: bite. I heard i say its name, and I felt my mouth open and my tongue slightly lower [put to voice box]. There is a long I in bite. Now I’m going to see if it’s in school. Hmm, I didn’t hear i say its name and my mouth did not open and my tongue was lowered. 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 snow, thrive, shrine, coat, smile, lips? [Have children point to throat while saying i_e.] 

 

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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 thrive? “Ben is going to thrive at the spelling bee.” Thrive means do well in this sentence. To spell thrive in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word, so I stretch it out and count: /th////r//I//v/. I need 4 boxes. I heard that /I/ just before the /v/ 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 /th/, that’s easy; I need a th. Now it gets a little tricky, so I’m going to say it slowly, /th//r//I//v//. I think I heard a growling /r/ so I’ll put a r right after the th. I think I hear the /I/ (“aye, aye captain”) hmm ...  /th//r//I//v//e/. Next, I think I heard a vacuum /v/ so I need a v.  [Point to letters in boxes when stretching out the word: /th//r//I//v///.]   

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4. Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You’ll start out easy with three boxes for cat. “Does anyone have a cat as a pet? I have a cat named Oliver.” What should go in the first box? [Respond to children’s answers]. What goes in the second box? What goes in the third? I’ll check your spelling while I walk around the room. [Observe progress.] For the next word, you will need four letterboxes. And don’t forget to put the signal silent e at the end, outside the boxes. Here’s the word: price, “the price of the toy is $20 [Allow children to spell words.]  Time to check your work. Watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the board: p – r – I – c  – e and see if you’ve spelled it the same way. Try another with four boxes: bride; My sister is getting married and will be a bride. [Have a 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: slick; be careful when you climb on the rock, it is slick. 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?  You will need four boxes for the next word: drive. One more then we’re done with spelling, and this you need five boxes:  scribe; My student has a great scribe when writing his name… 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 bride 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.] /b//r/ = /br/ Now I’m going to blend that with /I/ = /brI/. Now all I need is the end, /d/ = /brid/.  Bride; 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 from Fun and Games with Lad and Slim called Nate’s Bike Ride. “Nate is not much fun. Can Tim and Jan get their friend away from the television?” Let’s pair up and take turns reading Nate’s Bike Ride to find out if Nate does something fun. [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 Nate’s Bike Ride aloud together, and stops between page turns to discuss the plot.] 

 

7. Say: That was a fun story. What did Nate and his friends do? Right, he rode a bike with his friends. What did Nate have attached to him? Yes, a kite.  Before we finish up with our lesson about one way to spell /I/ = i_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 make sense of each sentence. First try reading all the words in the box, then choose the word that fits best in the space. Reread your answers to see if they make sense. [Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress.]

 

 

 

Resources: 

http://wp.auburn.edu/rdggenie/   

Murray, G. (2004) Nate’s Bike Ride. Reading Genie: http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/bookindex.html 

Assessment worksheet: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/111041947035910163/

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