Rationale: This lesson teaches children about the long vowel correspondence i_e = /I/. 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 i_e. They will learn a meaningful representation (bride saying, “I do!”), they will spell and read words containing this spelling in a letterbox lesson and read a decodable book that focuses on the correspondence i_e = /I/.

 

Materials:

• Graphic image of bride saying, "I do"

• Whiteboard or SMART Board

• Elkonin boxes for modeling and individual Elkonin letterboxes for each student

• Letter manipulatives for each child and magnetic or SMART Board letters for teacher: c, d, e, f, i, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, v, z

• List of spelling words on poster or whiteboard to read: ice, pine, size, hike, dive, spice, crime, stripe, trife

• Decodable text Kite Day on Pine Lake 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 'i', like tip, 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 beautiful bride getting married and saying, “I do” [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 is open, and my tongue is lowered and relaxed [Make vocal gesture for /I/.] I’ll show you first: mine. I heard 'i' say its name and I felt my mouth open and tongue relaxed [make a circle motion around opened mouth]. There is a long I in mine. Now I’m going to see if it’s in bit. Hmm, I didn’t hear i say its name and my mouth was not open wide like I was yawning. Now you try. If you hear /I/ say, “I do.” If you don’t hear /I/ say, “That’s not it.” Is it in fire, wood, bee, hive, water, hike, walk, pine? [Have children make a circle motion around their open mouth when they feel /I/ say its name.]

 

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 to tell me to say I’s name. [Write i_e on the board.] This blank line here means there is a consonant after i, and at the end of the word there is a little silent e signal. What if I want to spell the word strike? “The batter will strike the ball.” Strike means hit 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 that /I/ just before the /k/ so I’m going to put an i in the 4th box and the silent e signal outside 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//t//r//I//k/. I think I heard /t/ so I’ll put a t right after the s. One more before the /I/, hmm . . . /s//t//r//I//k/, I think I heard growling /r/ so I need an r. I have one empty box now. [Point to letters in boxes when stretching out the word: /s//t//r//I//k/.] The missing one is /k/ = k.

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s t r i k e

 

4. Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You’ll start out easy with two boxes for ice. Ice is something that keeps things cold. “I like ice in my water”. 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 /I/ and don’t forget to put the signal silent e at the end, outside the boxes. Here’s the word: pine, “The little girl climbed a big pine tree.”, pine. [Allow children to spell words.] Time to check your work. Watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the board: p – i – n– e and see if you’ve spelled it the same way. Try another with three boxes: dive; “The boy did a dive into the pool”, dive. [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 /I/ in it before you spell it: sick; “All the students were sick with the flu. “Did you need a silent e? Why not? Right, because we don’t hear i say its name. We spell it with our short vowel 'i'. [volunteer spells it on the front board.] Did you remember to spell /k/ with a ck? Now let’s try 4 phonemes: crime; “I do not commit crimes.”, crime. One more then we’re done with spelling, and this time you need five boxes: stripe; “I love zebras’ black and white stripes.”, stripe. 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 stripe 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 'i'. It must say /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.] /s//t/ = /st/ + /r/ = /str/. Now I’m going to blend that with /I/ = /strI/. Now all I need is the end, /p/ = /strip/. Stripe; 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.]

6. Say: You’ve done such an excellent job reading words with our new spelling for /I/: i_e. Now we are going to read a book called Kite Day on Pine Lake. In this story, it is kite day on Pine Lake. A lot of kids are out having fun flying kites! Jeff is flying a big kite. Fay and Ike’s kites are doing dives. Jan’s kite is pink and orange and oh so nice. Poor Bob has no kite to fly, he feels so sad? What will happen to Bob? Will he even get a chance to fly a kite? Let’s keep reading to 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 Kite Day on Pine Lake aloud together and stops between page turns to discuss the plot.]

 

7. Say: I love that story! What ended up happening to Bob? [Allow time for response] That’s right, all the kids make Bob a kite. Does anyone remember what Bob’s kite looked like? [Allow time for response]. Yes, it was white with red stripes. 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, you will use the word bank to complete the sentence. There are pictures there if you are not sure what a word is. After you complete the worksheet, raise your hand and I will come collect it.

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References:

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

Assessment Worksheet: https://www.education.com/download/worksheet/62868/learning-long-vowels-i-words.pdf

Clark, Kelsey, Fly High, Long I. https://klc0063.wixsite.com/kelseyclark/beginning-reading-1

Phonics Readers- Long Vowel i_e book: Kite Day on Pine Lake

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Click here for a link to the Reading Genie's Communication Index.