Rationale:

This lesson teaches children about the long vowel correspondence ee=/E/. In order to be able to be a great reader, 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=/E/. They will learn a meaningful representation (saying chEEse when you are smiling for a picture), 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 a person smiling for the camera

- 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 teaching: ee, f, d, r, n, s, t, b, m, e, c, k, h, c

- List of spelling words on poster or whiteboard to read: seed, bee, meet, tree, fed, screen, creek, screech

- Copies of the decodable text: Long Vowel e Dee

- 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, red, and get, and today we are going to learn about long E and the silent e signal that is used to make E say its name, /E/. When I say /E/ I think of saying chEEse when you are smiling for a picture and your mouth widens. [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 e say its name /E/ and my mouth makes a smile like this. [Make mouth gesture for /E/.] I’ll show you first: feed. When I said the word feed, I felt my mouth widen to make a smile. There is a long /E/ in feed. Now I’m going to see if it’s in test. That’s weird! I didn’t hear the /E/ sound and my mouth didn’t widen to make a smile. Now, I’m going to say a word and you say if after me. G-r-ee-n. Did you feel your mouth widen forming a smile when you said green? Now try saying street. S-t-r-ee-t. Is the /E/ sound in list, steel, cost, creek? [Have children widen their mouth and make a smile when they make the /E/ sound.] 

 

3. Say: Now let’s look at the spelling of /E/ that we’ll learn today. One way to spell /E/ is by writing two of the letters e side by side each other. [Write ee on the board.] The ee makes the long /E/ sound instead of a short e sound. What if I want to spell the word seed? Before I begin to spell the word, I need to figure out how many phonemes are in the word, so I stretch it out and count: /s//ee//d/. There are 3 phonemes in the word, so I am going to use 3 boxes. The word starts with /s/, that’s simple; so, I need an s to go in my first box. Next thing we hear is our long /E/ sound, so we put our /ee/ in our second box. The last sound we hear is our /d/ so d goes in our last box. Now we have the word seed.  

 

4. Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. We will start out easy with two boxes for bee. A [bee] is an insect that is known for producing honey. What should go in the first box? [Respond to children’s answers]. What goes in the second box? Did you remember to put the ee in one box together? I’ll walk around the room to make sure your spelling is correct. [Observe progress.] Our next word is going to need three letterboxes. Listen for the beginning sound that goes in the first box. Then listen for the /E/ and don’t forget to put the ee in one box. Here’s the word: meet, I must meet with my teacher today; 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 with three boxes: tree; I want to plant a tree in my backyard. [Have a student come up to the board and spell the word in the letterbox so students can check their work. Repeat this step for each new word.] Here’s the next word. Listen to see if this word has /E/ in it before you spell it: fed; I fed the dog. Did you hear the long e? Why not? That’s right, because there is only one e, we don’t hear the long e sound. We spelled it with short vowel e. [Volunteer spells it out on the board.] Now let’s try 4 phonemes: creek; they were splashing around in the creek. One more then we’ll be done with spelling for the day! This time you need five boxes: screen; we played the movie on the big screen. 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 screech on the top and model reading the word.] First, I see there’s a ch at the end, so I know that will go in one box together. Then we have our long /E/ which will be ee inside of one box. I’m going to use a cover-up critter to get the first part. [Uncover and blend sequentially before the vowel, then blend with the vowel.] /s//c//r/=/sc/ + /r/ = /scr/. Now I’m going to blend that with /E/ = /scrEE/. Now all I need is the end, /ch/ = /scrEEch/. Screech; that’s it, great job! Now it’s your turn, class. [Have children read words together. Afterwards, call on individual students to read one word on the list until everyone has had a turn to read a word.] 

 

6. Say: You’ve done a great job reading words with our new spelling for /E/: ee. Now we are going to read a book called Long Vowel e Dee. This is a story about a man named Dee, a dog named Zeke, and a little boy named Lee. Dee and Zeke are trying to seek Lee. Will Dee and Zeke be able to seek Lee? Let’s pair up and take turns reading Long Vowel e Dee to find out if Dee and Zeke can seek Lee. [Children pair up and take turns reading alternate pages each while teacher walks around the room monitoring the progress. After individual paired reading, the class rereads Long Vowel e Dee aloud together and stops between page turns to discuss the plot.] 

 

7. Say: That was a great story. Did Dee and Zeke seek Lee? Yes, they did! How did they find him? Zeke did meet Lee. Zeke leads Dee to Lee. Zeke and Lee greet Dee. Before we finish up the lesson about one way to spell /E/ = ee, I want to see if you can match our long e words to the pictures shown. First, read each word carefully and list for your ee=/E/. Then, decide which word matches which picture. Reread your answers to see if they make sense. [Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress.] 
 

Resources: 

Assessment worksheet: https://www.liveworksheets.com/na1363869dl 

Mylet, T. Long Vowel e Dee. Free Phonetic Readers: https://www.freephoneticreaders.com/long-vowel-books/long-e/long-vowel-e-with-dee 

Graphic image of a person smiling for the camera: https://digital-photography.wonderhowto.com/how-to/stop-saying-cheese-heres-you-smile-more-naturally-for-photos-0143040/ 

Elizabeth Welch, "Shhh! The Baby is Sleeping!" https://elizabethkatewelch.wixsite.com/my-site-2/beginning-reading-design.

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