To read well, children must know the common spelling patterns in the English
language. This lesson will help children learn to recognize and understand that CVCe
usually signals us that the vowel is "long." They will learn CVCe by the interesting "Bully
E" story, and will practice reading words with the CVCe pattern.
Primary paper and pencils; dry erase board and dry erase markers;
the Tube (Educational Insights) one copy for every student; Word list for assessment
(bake, ride, stone, tube, fine, cute, made, kite, rope, save, home, tune)
1. Introduce lesson by telling students that mouth moves can sometimes be spelled in
more than one way. "Today we are going to learn a way to spell words with vowels that
say their names. We already know the sounds that vowels like to say, their short sounds.
We will learn that the letter e at the end of a word likes to make the other vowels say
their names instead of their nicknames, or short sounds. At first it may be hard to
remember to use the vowels' long sounds since we have been practicing short vowels, but
once you get the hang of it, you will be able to read and spell words like cake, home, ride,
Does anyone know what a bully is? A bully is a mean person who makes
something you do not like to do". Sometimes, the letter e can be a bully. You see, the
vowels like to say their nick names, or short sounds. Let's practice saying the vowel's
nick names (teacher writes a, e, i, o, u on dry erase board and points to each letter while
prompting the students to voice the short sounds) /a/ /e/ /i/ /o/ and /u/. Now sometimes,
letter e is a bully, and she makes the vowels say their real names; /A/ /E/ /I/ /O/ /U/
She likes to hide at the end of the word, behind another letter, a consonant. Bully E doesn't want to get in trouble for being mean, so she is very quiet and does make a sound;
she is silent.
"Let's try some examples. First I will write a word and we will read
(teacher writes tap) That's right, this word is tap. The vowel "a" says her nick-name,
or her short sound /a/. Now, I am going to add a Bully E to the end of the word. Bully
E hides behind "p" and makes a say her name /A/. Let's try to sound out this word
now, and remember, Bully E does not want to get in trouble, so she doesn't make any
sound at all. t-/A/- p. Bully E made a say her name, so this word is tape. Let's try
some more words to see how Bully E makes the vowels say their names (bit/bite
tub/tube hop/hope, mad/made)
5. Give students an introduction to Rube and the Tube. Ask students to read the book silently and write words with Bully E on their paper. When students are done, ask them to raise their hands to give the examples of Bully E that they have found. List students' words on dry erase board. Guide students to read all of their words out loud together .
Assessment: Individually, ask students to read the word list out loud.
Reference: Barbara DeHaye, Grade six, Whitesburg Middle School, Huntsville, Alabama; Dr. Bruce Murray, Auburn University: http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/
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