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 in order to create pronunciations. In this lesson children will learn to recognize, spell, and read words that involve the spelling ee. They will learn both a vocal and hand gesture representing ee = /E/ (flying like a bat and saying eek). They will also spell and read words containing ee through a Letterbox lesson. Finally at the end of the lesson, students will read a decodable book that focuses on the ee = /E/.

 

Materials:

• Image of a bat saying eek

• Cover up critter

• Whiteboard/smartboard Elkonin boxes for modeling

• Individual Elkonin boxes for each student

• Letter manipulatives for each child (s, e, f, r, t, l, p, d, n, b, c, z)

• Magnetic or smart board letters for the teacher (t, r, e, s, c, h)

• List of spelling words on poster (see, free, set, feet, sleep, fed, net, bleed, creep, sneeze)

• Decodable text: The Green Feast

• 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 vowels with e, like bed. Today, we are going to learn long E.  When I think of long E, I think of a bat saying eek eek. [show image of eeking bat] One way to make long E  for an eeking bat is to have two e’s next to each other to make ee = /E/. For example let’s look at the word tree. Do you see how there are two e’s together?                                                                    

2.  Say: However, before we learn the spelling of /E/, we have to listen for it. Let’s listen to when I say sheep. When I say sheep I hear the bat saying eek eek and my mouth makes a smile. Now I’m going to try another example. If I say men I have to figure out if I hear the eek from a bat. I did not hear my bat saying /E/ and my mouth didn’t smile. Now it is your turn to try! When you hear /E/, I want you to go eek eek and fly just like a bat. Ok? Here are your words: creep, bet, seed, deep, pet, vest and squeeze.       

3. Say: Now let’s look at the spelling of /E/ that we will learn. One way to spell /E/ is to write two e’s next to each other (write two e’s on the board). When there are two e’s together, we say /E/ just like a bat. For example, if I want to spell the word street as in Can I cross the street yet? A street is typically a public road in a city or town that has houses or buildings on one or both sides. To spell the word street in letter boxes, I have to first figure out how many phonemes are in the word by stretching it out really slow so I can find ee = /E/ like a bat saying eek. So let’s say street really slow,  /s/ /t/ /r/ /E/ /t/ The two e’s go together because they make the sound /E/ so we will need 5 letter boxes. When I say street, I hear ee = /E/ towards the ending of the word but not the very last letter, so I am going to put the two e’s in the second to last box. Next, I am going to figure out the letters at the beginning of the word. When I say street really slow, I hear /s/ first, so I am going to put an S in the first letter box. The next letter I hear is /t/, so I’m going to put a T in the second letter box. The third letter I hear is /r/ so a R will go in the fourth letter box. We already have the two e’s in the fourth letter box, so now we only have to find the last letter. I hear /t/ and I know that represents the letter T, so I’m going to put a T in the final letter box. Now let’s look at what we spelled and make sure it sounds right. I want you all to repeat after me…sss..ttt…rrrr…EEE..ttt. The two e’s make /E/ like a bat saying eek eek so I know we spelled the word correctly.                                                                                                                                       

4. Say: Now it is your turn to practicing spelling some words using the letter boxes. We will start out with only two letter boxes first. Spell the word see. I see a big dog walking in the park. I will say it really slow ssss…EEE.  What do you think should go in the first box? [respond to students’ answers] What about the second box? Remember that two e’s together make the sound /E/. I want you to try to spell see and I will walk around to check your spelling. For your next word, I want you to have 3 letter boxes. I want you to spell the word free. I don’t have anything to do today so I am free to go to the pool. What letter to you hear first? [respond to students’ answers] At the beginning of the word we hear /f/ so what letter are we going to put there? After /f/ what do we hear? [respond to students’ answers] Great! After we hear /r/ do we hear out eeking bat? Yes! We do hear our bat so what does that mean? Right, we are going to put our two e’s in the last box. When you think you spelled it correctly, raise your hand and I will come check it again. Now we are going to spell the word set [allow students to spell on their own] We don’t hear our eeking bat right? So that means there is only one e in the middle of set. [Allow students to spell the remaining words while providing the correct number of letter boxes and a sentence for each word: feet, sleep, fed, net, bleed, creep, and sneeze.                        

5. Say: Now I’m going to show you how to read the words you have spelled, but first I’ll show you how I would read a tough word. [Write screech on the white board and model how to read it correctly] I see the two e’s in the middle of the word, so I know they will make the /E/ sound like our bat saying eek. I am going to cover up the end of the with my cover up critter and start at the beginning of the word. [Uncover and blend from the beginning of the word then add the vowel] /s/ /k/ =/sk/ + /r/ = /skr/. Now I’m going to blend /E/ with the beginning of the word. /skrE/ + /ch/. Screech! Now it is your turn, everyone read the word together with me. [Have the students read words together; afterwards, have individual students read one word on the list until each student has their own turn.]                                

6. Say: You have done an excellent job reading and spelling words with ee that make the sound /E/ just like our bat saying eek. Now we are going to read a book called The Green Feast. This is a story about Nate sitting down for dinner with his friends Tim and Jan. But at the end of dinner, there is no dessert for Nate. To find out why Nate doesn’t get dessert, we will have to read The Green Feast. I think since everyone has been awesome with learning ee = /E/, we will read this book in groups of four. I want everyone to take turns reading a page of the book at your table. [split the class into groups of four and observe the students reading while walking around the classroom. After the groups are done reading reread The Green Feast as an entire class and take time after each page or two to discuss what is happening in the book.]                                                                                                                             

7.  Say: That was such a good book! Why do you think Nate didn’t get to eat the peaches? Has your mom or dad ever been sneaky to get you to eat your veggies? [respond to students’ answers] Now as we are finishing up our lesson on ee = /E/ just like our bat saying eek, I am going to give you a worksheet to work on in class and finish for homework. [Hand out worksheet] In this worksheet, you are going to color each water droplet from the elephant that has /E/ in it. Let’s do one together…find the word dean. It is spelled d e a n. When I say ddd…EEE…n do you hear our bat saying eek? Yes! So we are going to color that one in. Ok? Any questions? [The next day, collect the worksheets to evaluate each child’s progress]

 

Resources:

• Assessment worksheet

• Decodable book: The Green Feast in Fun and Games with Lad and Slim by Bruce and Geri Murray, 2019

• Price, Sarah. Beginning Reading Design: “Eeek, it’s big E!”

• Other lesson designs/materials for reading: Reading Genie

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