Eek, a Bee!

Beginning Reading Design

Carson Williams

 

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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 (scared face yelling Eeeek! to a bee), 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:

Graphic image of scared face and bee; 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, e, s, m, t, d, r, c, p, n; list of spelling words on poster or whiteboard to read: see, meet, deem, red, creep, screen; decodable text: The Bee and the Flea 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 and the double e signal that is used to make E say its name, /E/. When I say /E/, I think of a funny face saying, “Eeeek!” because he is scared of 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 esay its name /E/ and I show my teeth like this. [Make vocal gesture for /E/.] I’ll show you first: need. I heard esay its name and I felt my mouth open to show my teeth [point to teeth]. There is a long E in need. Now, I’m going to see if it’s in red. Hmm, I didn’t hear e say its name and my mouth didn’t open wide to show all my teeth. Now, you try. If you hear /E/ say, “Eek, a bee!” If you don’t hear /E/ say, “I’m not scared.” Is it in dog, sheep, cat, bear, eel, heat? [Have children point to their exposed teeth 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 two letter e’s right next to each other. [Write ee on the board.] There might be one or more consonants before and after the two e’s when we look at different words. What if I want to spell the word screen? “Pay attention to the screen so you will know what is happening in the movie.” Screen in this sentence is referring to the big display that we watch in a movie theater. To spell screen in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word, so I stretch it out and count: /s/ /c/ /r/ /E/ /n/. I need 5 boxes. I heard that /E/ just before the /n/, so I’m going to put our eein the fourth box and the n in the last box. The word starts with /s/, that’s easy; I need an s. Now it gets a little tricky, so I’m going to say it slowly, /s/ /c/ /r/ /E/ /n/. I think I heard /c/ so I’ll put a c right after the s in the second box. I hear one more before the /E/, hmmm…/s/ /c/ /r/ /E/ /n/, I think I heard growling /r/ so I’ll put an r in the third box. Let’s look at our finished letterboxes [point to letters in boxes when stretching out the word one last time: /s/ /c/ /r/ /E/ /n/]. We’re all done!

4. Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You’ll start out easy with two boxes for see. We know that word; see is what our eyes do for us, “I see a garden outside the window.” What should go in the first box? [Respond to children’s answers]. What goes in the second box? Did you remember to put the double e in the same box? I’ll check your spelling as I walk around the room. [Observe progress]. You’ll need three letterboxes for our next word. Listen for the beginning sound that goes in the first box. Then listen for /E/ and don’t forget to put both e’s in the same box. Here’s the word: meet. You can always meet with your teacher after class; meet. [Allow children to spell words]. Time to check your work. Watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the board: m-e-e-t and see if you’ve spelled it the same way. Try another word with three boxes: deem; I deem your education very important. [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: red; Clifford is a big, red dog. Did you need the double e? Why not? Right, because we don’t hear e say its name. We spell it with our short vowel einstead. [Let volunteer spell it on the front board]. Very nice job. Now let’s try four phonemes: creep; I creep out of the room so I do not wake the baby. One more then we’re done with spelling for the day. This time you need five boxes: screen; Pay attention to the screen so you know what is happening in the movie. 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 screen at the top and model reading the word]. First, I see our double e in the middle; that’s my signal that the vowel will say its name. 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]. /s/ /c/ = /sc/ + /r/ = /scr/. Now I will blend that with /E/ = /scrE/. Now all I need is the end, /n/ = /scrEn/. Screen; that’s it. It’s your turn! Everyone read 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 an excellent job reading words with our new spelling for /E/: ee. Now we will read a book called The Bee and the Flea. This is a story about a bee and a flea who are friends. The flea does things that bees normally do, like eat nectar out of flowers. The bee decides to ask his queen bee if his friend can join their hive. Will the queen allow this? Let’s pair up and find out. [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 The Bee and the Flea aloud together and stops between page turns to discuss the plot].

7. Say: That was a fun story. Did the flea end up joining the hive? Right, the queen agreed to let him join as long as he kept the hive clean. How did the flea keep it clean? Right, he swept the floor three times a day. 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 beginning letters missing. Your job is to look at each picture, then fill in the beginning letter of the word that fits best in the space. Reread your answers to make sure they make sense. [Collect worksheets to evaluate individual progress].

 

Resources:

Reading Genie: http://wp.auburn.edu/rdggenie/

Assessment worksheet: https://www.education.com/worksheet/article/my-rhyming-book-3/

Cheryl Ryan, The Bee and the Flea: https://www.readinga-z.com/book.php?id=364

Hannah Lee, "Aaaaa, an ant!": https://hml0015.wixsite.com/mysite-2/beginning-reading