Taylor Humphrey

 

 

 

Aye, Aye, Captain

A Beginning Reading Lesson

By Taylor Humphrey

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rationale: 

This lesson teaches children about the long vowel correspondence i_e = /I/. To be a successful reader, children must learn to recognize the spellings that map word pronunciations. During this lesson, students will learn to recognize, spell, and read words containing the spelling i_e. They will learn a meaningful representation (sailor saluting and saying “Aye, aye, Captain”), then there will be a Letterbox lesson where they will spell and read words containing this spelling. Lastly, they will read a decodable book that focuses on the correspondence i_e = /I/. 

Materials: 

 

Procedures:


• Graphic image of sailor saluting

• Cover-up critter

• Whiteboard or smartboard Elkonin boxes for modeling 

• Individual Elkonin boxes for each student

• Magnetic or smartboard letters for teacher

• Letter manipulatives for each student 

• letters needed i, e, c, b, k, t, m, r, h, d, v, s, k

•  List of spelling words on poster or whiteboard to read

• words needed ice, bike, time, rich, drive, strike

• Decodable text: "Nate’s Bike Ride," from Fun Games with Lad and Slim

• Assessment worksheet: Long Vowel I (URL linked below)

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 hit, 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 sailor saying “Aye, aye, Captain.” (show graphic image 

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 wide and my tongue goes to the bottom of my mouth like this. (Model vocal gesture for /I/ then have students make vocal gesture for /I/.) Let’s see if you can hear the sailor say I in this tongue tickler. “Ike’s ivy island is icy.” Now let’s slow things down and every time you hear the /I/ sound I want you to put your hand on your forehead like a sailor (perform motion) and salute the Captain. “I-I-k-e- ‘s I-I-I-v-y I-I-I-s-l-a-n-d is I-I-I-c-y.”

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. The e at the end of the word tells me to say I’s name. (Write i_e on the board.) This blank line here means there is a consonant after i (point to blank line), and at the end of the word, there is a silent e signal. I’m going to show you how to spell the word strike. “The workers went on a strike.” Strike means refusing to work in this sentence. To spell strike in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word so I stretch it out and count: /s//t//r//I//k/. I need 5 boxes. I heard /I/ just before the /k/ so I’m going to put an i in the 4th box and k in the fifth box. In the word strike I hear i say its name, so I know to put the silent signal e outside the last box. The word starts with /s/, so I’m going to put s in the 1st box. I heard /t/ after /s/, so I’ll put t in the second box. Now I have one empty box (point to box), so I’m going to say the word one more time slowly, to see what letter goes in this box /s//t//r//I//k/. Oh! I heard growling /r/, so I need to put r in the third box. 

4. Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. Let’s start out with two boxes for ice. “The figure skater did a trick on the ice.” What should go in the first box? (Respond to children’s answers after each question.) 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 /I/ and don’t forget to put the signal silent e at the end, outside the boxes. Here’s the word: bike, “I rode my bike down the big hill.”; bike. (Allow children to spell words.) Now check your work. Watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the board: b – i – k– e and see if you spelled it the same way I did. Try another with three boxes: time “I took my time painting the picture.”; time. (Have a volunteer spell it in the letterbox on the front board for students to check their work. Repeat this step for each new word.) Listen closely to see if you hear /I/ in the next word before you spell it: rich “The man was very rich.” Did you need a silent e? (let students respond) Why not? (let students respond). Right, because we don’t hear i say its name. We spell it with the short vowel i. Did you remember to put c and h in one letter box? Now let’s try 4 phonemes: drive; “My mom will drive me to the party.”; drive. Okay now it’s time to spell our last word, you will need five boxes for this one: strike; “The workers went on a strike.” Remember to stretch the word out to hear all the phonemes. 

5. Say: Now I am going to show you how to read one of the words you spelled, then it’s your turn to read the words you’ve spelled. The word I will spell is drive strike (display poster with drive 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. Here’s the vowel i (point to i) which says /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.) /d//r/ = /dr/, now I’m going to blend that with /I/ = /drI/. Now all I need is the end, /v/ = /driv/. Drive. Now it’s time for everyone to read the words together (have children read words in unison; pointing to each word). Have each student take turns reading one word from the list.

6. Say: Everyone did a great job and reading words with our new spelling for /I/: i_e. Now we are going to read a story called "Nate’s Bike Ride," from the book Fun and Games with Lad and Slim. This is a story about a boy named Nate and his two friends named Tim and Jan. Lately, Nate hasn’t been that much fun, and he's distracted by the TV. Can Tim and Jan come up with a plan to get Nate away from the television? Everyone get with a partner and take turns reading to see if they ever come up with a plan that works. (Students get in pairs and take turns reading alternate pages while the teacher walks around the room to assess progress.) After paired reading, the class rereads the book aloud together, and stops between page turns to discuss the plot. 

7. Say: That was a great story. How did Nate’s friends get him to stop watching TV? Yes! They took him for a bike ride! What did Nate carry on his bike? Great listening! He did carry a kite on his bike. 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, there are different pictures and the word of what it is next to them. You are going to look at the pictures and read the words to decide which word has the i_e spelling in it. First try reading all the words underneath the picture, then circle the picture that has i_e in the word. Reread your answers to see if they make sense. (Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress.)

 

References

Murray, G. Oh, I didn’t know! https://murraba.wixsite.com/readinglessons/beginning-reading

 

Murray, G. (2004) Jakes Joke. From Fun and Games with Lad and Slim. http://wp.auburn.edu/rdggenie/home/geniebooks/

 

Assessment Worksheet https://www.allkidsnetwork.com/phonics/long-vowels/long-vowel-i-sounds-worksheet.asp

 

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