SHAKE 'N BAKE
A Beginning Reading Lesson
Rationale: This lesson teaches children about the long vowel correspondence a_e=/A/. 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 a_e. They will learn a meaningful representation (shake ‘n bake hand gesture), they will spell and read words containing this spelling in a Letterbox lesson, and read a decodable book that focuses on the correspondence a_e=/A/.
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Materials: Graphic image of shake ‘n bake hand gesture; cover-up critter; whiteboard or smartboard letterboxes for modeling and individual letterboxes for each student; letter manipulatives for each child and magnetic or smartboard letters for teacher: a, b, e, f, g, k, l, m, r, t; list of spelling words on poster or whiteboard to read: ate, game,bake, flat, flame, brake; decodable text: Jane and Babe and assessment worksheet.
Procedures:
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 a like mat, and today we are going to learn about long A and the silent e signal that is used to make A say its name, /A/ I think of the saying “Shake ‘n bake” [show graphic image] and hand gesture of bumping fists that go along with it.
Say: Before we learn about the spelling of /A/, we need to listen for it in some words. When I listen for /A/ in words, I hear a say its name /A/ and my mouth makes a slight grin like this. [Make vocal gesture for /A/]. I’ll show you first: take. I heard a say its name and I felt my mouth grin [point to sides of cheeks]. There is a long A in take. Now I’m going to see if its in flat. Hmm, I didn’t hear a say its name and my mouth didn’t make a slight grin. Now you try. If you hear /A/ say “Shake ‘n bake.” If you don’t hear /A/ say, “That’s not it.” Is it in hope, shed, lake, blow, bug, tame? [Have children point to the sides of their cheeks when they feel /A/ say its name.]
Say: Now let’s look at the spelling of /A/ that we’ll learn today. One way to spell /A/ is with the letter a and a signal e at the end of the word to tell me to say A’s name. Write a_e on the board.] This blank line here means there is a consonant after a, and at the end of the word there is a little silent e signal. What if I want to spell the word brake? “Sometimes I have to brake harder in my car when I’m going downhill.” Brake means to stop in this sentence. To spell brake in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word so I stretch it out and count: /b//r//A//k/. I need 4 boxes. I heard that /A/ just before the /k/ so I’m going to put an a in the 3rd box and the silent e signal outside the last box. The word starts with /b/, that’s easy; I need a b. Now it gets a little tricky so I’m going to say it slowly, /b//r//A//k/. I think I heard /r/ so I’ll put an r right after the b. I have one empty box now. [Point to letters in the boxes when stretching out the word: /b//r//A//k/.] The missing one is /k/ =k.
Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You’ll start out easy with two boxes for ate. Like “I ate 12 tacos last night.” What should go in the first box? [Respond to children’s answers.] 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 /A/ and don’t forget to put the signal silent e at the end, outside the boxes. Here’s the word: game, I played a soccer game today; game. [Allow children to spell words.] Time to check your work. Watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the board: g-a-m-e and see if you’ve spelled it the same way. Try another with three boxes: bake; I love to bake cookies. [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 /A/ in it before you spell it: flat; it is easier to ride my bike on flat ground. Did you need a silent e? Why not? Right, because we don’t hear a say its name. We spell it with our short vowel a. [Volunteer spells it on the front board.] Now lets try four phonemes: flame; the flame from the candle lit the room One more then we’re done with spelling. This time we need four boxes again: brake; sometimes I have to brake harder in my car when going downhill.
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 brake 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 a. It must say /A/. I’m going to use 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 /A/=/brA/. Now all I need is the end, /k/=/brAk/. Brake; 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.]
Say: You’ve done a great job at reading words with our new spelling for /A/: a_e. Now we are going to read a book called Jane and Babe. This is a story about a zoo keeper named Jane who is actually friends with a lion! Let’s find out what happens when she wakes the lion up from its nap and whether or not it’s a sweet lion. Let’s pair up and take turns reading Jane and Babe to find out what happens. [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 Jane and Babe aloud together, and stops between page turns to discuss the plot.]
Say: That was a fun story. What was the lion like? Right the lion was a sweet lion. Before we finish up with our lesson about one way to spell /A/=a_e, I want to see how you can solve a reading problem. On this worksheet, we have some missing words. Your job is to look in the box of word choices, and decide which a_e word fits best to make sense of this short story. First try rereading 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:
-Shake ‘n bake graphic, Guerrilla Tees:
https://www.guerrillatees.com/movies-and-tv/talladega-nights/shake-and-bake
-Murray, G. (2004) Jane and Babe. Reading Genie: http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/bookindex.html
-Assessment worksheet: http://www.galacticphonics.com/longvowels/a-e/resources/aesplitpictures.pdf
-Morgan Anderson, “Aaaa, an alligator!”
https://morgananderson0011.wixsite.com/mysite-1/beginning-reading