Dictating Sentences with Short 'i' and Short 'e'

Estella Escajeda: Now I'm going to give you a phrase or a sentence.

Narrator: Teacher Estella Escajeda's third graders are in the middle of a phonics lesson about the difference between short 'i' and short 'e'. They're writing phrases and sentences, which helps them integrate their new knowledge with existing knowledge about other spelling patterns.

Estella Escajeda: I'm going to give you a phrase or a sentence. What is the difference between a phrase and a sentence? Maritza?

Maritza: [She answers the question in Spanish.]

Estella Escajeda: So, a phrase is shorter, right? And a sentence is longer, right? Because a sentence is what? A complete thought. It's a complete thought. It's either going to have a punctuation at the end, it's going to be a question mark, a period, or exclamation mark. So, that's the difference, okay? I'm going to give you a phrase and then I'm going to give you a sentence. So, the first phrase I'm going to give you is "not yet." Say "not yet" ...

Students: "not yet" ...

Estella Escajeda: Let's count how many words ...

Students: "not," "yet" ... two ...

Estella Escajeda: Let me see your boards. The check for spelling. Let's check for spelling.

Students: Notice how Ms. Escajeda is able to do a quick assessment of every student when they hold up their boards, and she encourages them to check for accuracy.

Estella Escajeda: So let's write "not" ...

Students: 'n', 'o', 't' ...

Estella Escajeda: And then "yet."

Students: Space ... 'y, 'e', 't' ...

Estella Escajeda: What does "yet" have? Sebasatian?

Sebastian: It's short ... 

Estella Escajeda: It's the short 'e'. The next phrase I'm going to give you is "got ten."

Students: "got," "ten" ... two ...

Estella Escajeda: Good job. Let me see. Let me see your boards. Let's check for spelling. I want to check for spelling. Okay. Let's spell "got ten."

Students: 'g', 'o', 't', space, 't', 'e', 'n' ...

Estella Escajeda: What do we notice in the word "ten"? What do we see? What do we hear?

Student: In "ten,' there's the long 'e' ...

Estella Escajeda: Is it the long 'e' or is it the short 'e'?

Students: The short. 'e'.

Estella Escajeda: The short 'e'. How do you say "ten"? Say "ten" ...

Students: "ten" ... 't', 'e', 'n' ... "ten" ...

Estella Escajeda: Good job. So our last phrase that we're going to write is "Kim's got a wig." Wig ... fake hair. Have you ever guys ever seen a wig?

Students: Yes.

Estella Escajeda: "Kim's got a wig."

Narrator: As they write dictated sentences, the third graders are building up automaticity and spelling. They're also getting practice and conventions of sentence structure and a little vocabulary work.

Estella Escajeda: What do we notice about Kim? What does it have? Joseline?

Joseline: It has the short 'i'.

Estella Escajeda: What sound does the short 'i' ..

Students: /ĭ/ ... 

Estella Escajeda: What do we notice about wig, Freddy?

Freddy: That it has a short 'i' ...

Estella Escajeda: Short 'i'. And what letter are we using in the word wig?

Students: 'i' ...

Estella Escajeda: 'i' ... So what sound does 'i' make?

Students: /ĭ/ ...

Narrator: After this challenging work of writing dictated phrases and sentences, the next step in their lesson is reading.

Estella Escajeda: Good job.

Narrator: If you enjoyed this video, please subscribe to our YouTube channel @RUTeaching. For more information, please visit ReadingUniverse.org. Special thanks to Loma Linda Elementary School, Vado Elementary School, the Gadsden Independent School District, and the New Mexico Public Education Department. Reading Universe is made possible by generous support from Jim & Donna Barksdale, the American Federation of Teachers, The Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation, and anonymous donors. Reading Universe is a service of WETA, Washington, D.C., The Barksdale Reading Institute, and First Book.