Rationale:

 

This lesson is focused on teaching children about the long vowel correspondence ea = /E/.  Children must learn to recognize spellings that map out word pronunciations to learn to read. This lesson will be focused on ea spelling and teaching the children how to recognize, spell and read words containing this spelling. A helpful representation of this will be how a seal says “eee!” The students will spell and read words containing this spelling in a Letterbox lesson, and read a decodable book that features the correspondence ea = /E/.

 

Materials:

 

Graphic image of a seal saying “EEE!”; a cover-up critter, a row of six phoneme boxes (Letterboxes), letter tiles for the Letterbox lesson {b, e, a, d, c, l, n, f, s, t, r, m}; word cards with BEAD, CLEAN, FEAST, DREAM, STREAM; decodable text: What Will the Seal Eat?; and an assessment worksheet.

 

Procedures:

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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 vowels with e, like red, and today we are going to learn about the long E sound. When I say /E/ I think of a seal saying “EEE!”  [show graphic image]. Now let’s look at the spelling of /E/ that we will learn today. One way to spell /E/ is ea.

2. Say: Before we learn about the spelling of /E/, we need to listen for it in a few words. When I listen for /E/ in words, I hear e say its name /E/ and the corners of my mouth come up like I’m smiling. I’ll show you first: treat. I heard e say its name and I felt the corners of my mouth come up. There is a long E in treat. Now I’m going to see if it’s in nest. Hmm, I didn’t hear e say its name and my mouth didn’t smile. Now you try. If you hear /E/ then go “EEE!” like a seal. If you don’t hear /E/ say, “That’s not it.” Do you hear the /E/ sound in: SEAT, HEAT, DRESS, LEAP, TEST, WEB, HEAR?

3. Say: Now let’s look at the spelling of /E/ that we’ll learn today. One way to spell /E/ is with the letters ea. What if I want to spell scream? “I always scream when I watch a scary movie.” Scream means to yell loudly when we are afraid in this sentence. To spell scream in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word so I will stretch it out and count: /s/ /c/ /r/ /E/ /m/. I need five boxes. I heard the /E/ right before the /m/ so I’m going to put the ea in the 4th box. The word starts with /s/, so I will put an s in the 1st box. I’m going to say it again slowly, /s/ /c/ /r/ /E/ /m/. I think I hear /c/ so I’ll put a c right after the s. One more box before /E/, hmm…/s/ /c/ /r/ /ea/ /m/, I think I hear /r/ so I will put an r in my 3rd box. [Point to letters in boxes when stretching out the word: /s/ /c/ /r/ /ea/ /m/.] The missing one is /m/ = m.

4. Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. We will start using three boxes to spell bead. “My necklace had a blue bead on it.” What goes in our first box? Can you hear the /E/ sound? I’ll walk around to check your spelling. Now let’s use four letterboxes to spell clean. “My mom told me to clean my room.” What should go in the first box? [Respond to children’s answers]. What goes in the second and third boxes? Are you using your ea spelling? I’ll check your spelling as I walk around the room. [Observe progress.] We will use four letterboxes again for the next word. Listen for that beginning sound and for the /E/ sound. The next word is feast. “My mother cooked a feast for thanksgiving.” [Give children time to spell words.] Time to check your work. I will spell it in my letterboxes on the board: f-ea-s-t, is yours spelled the same way? Try another with four boxes: dream. “I had a wonderful dream last night.” Do you hear that /E/ sound? Is your mouth smiling? Now for our last word we are going to use five letterboxes to spell stream. “There was a stream of water flowing through the forest.” Make sure you stretch out the word slowly to figure out what goes in each box.

5. Say: Now I am going to let you read the words you’ve spelled, but first I will show you how I would read a tough word. [Write scream on the board and model reading the word.] I see that ea next to each other so I will say /E/. I’ll use my cover-up critter to get the first part. /s/ /c/ = /sc/ + /r/ =/scr/. Now I’m going to blend that with /E/ = /scrE/. Now all I need is the end, /m/ = /scrEm/. Scream; that’s it. Now it’s your turn, everyone read the words together, after we read them together I will call on each of you to read a word yourself.

6. Say: You’ve done a great job reading words with our new spelling for /E/: ea. Now we are going to read a book called What Will the Seal Eat? This is a story about a hungry seal who comes out of the ocean looking for something to eat. He visits the first shop but doesn’t like the food, what does the seal like to eat? Will he find something good to eat? Let’s pair up and take turns reading What Will the Seal Eat? And find out what seals like to eat! I will walk around to see how you’re doing!

7. Say: That was a good story. Where did the seal go to get his food? That’s right his food was in the sea. What did he eat? Right, he likes to eat fish. Before we finish up our lesson about one way to spell /E/ = ea, I want to do a worksheet. There will be a word bow at the top and several pictures at the bottom. First try to read each of the words in the box and then match them with the pictures below. I will collect the worksheets when you finish!

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References:

Geri Murray, Oh I didn't know: https://sites.google.com/site/readingwritingconnection/beggingreadingdesign 

Elisabeth Owen, Shrieking E's: http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/doorways/owenebr.htm

Assessment Worksheet: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/571042427726798749/

Murray, G. (2004) What Will the Seal Eat?. Reading Genie.

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