Introducing Magic 'e'
This lesson follows the lessons on Long Vowels.
The introduction to Magic 'e' is a gradual one. In these lessons, children are simply given a wide range of Magic 'e' words to read, thus extending and developing their understanding of Long Vowels. The actual rule for Magic 'e' is taught later on, when the pattern has become familiar. |
Magic 'e', Silent 'e', Lengthening 'e' .... the pattern has many names.
Here, we shall call it Magic 'e', simply because it's a cheerful name and one that is easy to remember. In your lessons, you will use the name that the children use in the classroom.
Magic 'e' explained
As we have seen, each of the 5 vowels has two sounds - a short sound and a long one. This creates a difficulty in our writing system: if the same letter has two sounds, how do we know which one it is? Should the letters M A D be read as 'mad' or 'made'? In many languages, French for example, this problem is solved by using accents above the letters. In English (unfortunately for children) we have more complicated ways of indicating the sounds - and Magic 'e' is one of them.
In English spelling, the E at the end of a word is silent. Its purpose is to show that the preceeding vowel is LONG rather than short. If you like, you can think of the E as a message explaining how the previous vowel should sound. Here are some examples:
Short Vowels |
Long Vowels |
hat |
hate |
pip |
pipe |
hop |
hope |
tub |
tube |
A favourite explanation among teachers is to say that the E at the end of the word is 'a magic 'e' that makes the letter say its name' - a very neat way of dealing with both the long vowel sounds and the use of the final E. |
Introducing Magic 'e' to children
The children you teach will most certainly have heard of Magic 'e' and will have listened to their teachers explain the Magic 'e' rule. If children already understand the pattern, there's no need to spend time on it. Simply run through the exercises described below so that the long vowels are thoroughly practised, and then move on. A surprising number of children will not have understood, however, and for them the rule needs to be introduced more carefully.
There are two reasons why children find Magic 'e' difficult. The first is that they don't really understand the difference between long and short vowels and so the rule makes little sense to them. The second is that the whole idea of an E indicating how a vowel should be pronounced is a difficult one, and understandably so.
This is why we are spending so much time practisng the difference between long and short vowels, and why we're teaching them in pairs. In the lessons that follow, children move smoothly from the work they've been doing on Long Vowels to working with Magic 'e'. The idea is that they get used to seeing the Magic 'e' pattern in the context of Long Vowels, and at the same time become familiar with a large number of actual words. The Rule itself is introduced later on, at a time when the children are thoroughly at home with the idea. In fact, you may find that it hardly needs teaching at all. |
Unit 1
In this Unit, children are given many more opportunities to practise reading the long vowel sounds.
By bringing in the Magic 'e' words, the range of vowels is greatly extended. |
What to do
You will need
copymasters LVE1-a and LVE1-b
coloured highlighters
exercise book,
pens and pencils |
Carry on working in exactly the same way as before (Unit 2 of the Long Vowel lesson) only this time work with Copymasters LVE1-a and LVE1-b.
1. To start off, run through the Long Vowel Drill several times as a reminder, just as you did before.
2. Put the LVE1-a sheet on the table and explain that all the words have long vowels in them - you are going to see how many he can read.
3. Then say, just as before, "Let's go over the long vowels again so that it's easy," and with the long-vowel side of the cards uppermost, run through the sounds together once or twice.
4. When you've done this, work through the sheet together, ticking off the words as your child manages to read them. Explain that the E is a silent letter and there's no need to sound it out when he reads the words. Again, remind him that all the vowels in these words are LONG vowels.
You'll need to be aware that your child may realise that these are Magic 'e' words and be expecting you to say so. We're not intending to teach the rule at this stage but it would be wise to give it a quick mention just the same. Once is enough, and do so casually as though you don't expect the child to remember. Children who don't understand will soon forget so no harm is done. But those who have learnt the rule are given a chance to talk about it, and you can encourage them to do so if you wish.
It's important to keep closely to what children are using in the classroom. Take care to use the term the class teacher uses (it may not be 'Magic e') and find out how she explains the pattern to the children. You need to use the same term and explanation. For parents working at home, check with the class teacher if you can. If not, your child may be able to tell you what the teacher says. If he doesn't know, use 'Magic e' and the explanation given here.
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5. Next, continue as before matching up the words in rhyming groups with highlighters. Then read them through in groups so that your child has a chance to appreciate the sounds once more.
7. Now turn to the new sheet in his exercise book and fill out the two pages in the same way as before. This time, there will be more than two long vowels so you'll need to divide the page accordingly.
8. To finish off - read the words through once more.
Target
At the end of this lesson, children should be able to read all the words on the sheet and should feel that words with long vowels are fairly easy to read. |
What next
Move straight on to Unit 2.
Unit 2
Lots more pratice with Magic 'e' words. Everything should get easier and easier. |
What to do
There are many more sheets of Magic 'e' words for you to work with. Do two or three more in your lessons, in the formal way described above. The others can be done as revision exercises later on or given to children to do at home or in the classroom.
As you work on these word sheets, you can begin to show how the Magic 'e' pattern works. The first two words in the top row of each sheet are ones that will demonstrate the pattern easily - because both are real words - hate (hat), pine (pin), hope (hop), cute (cut). From time to time, explain that it's the E that makes the vowel LONG. Cover up the final E in these demonstration words so that children can see how the word changes. There's no need for them to fully understand at this stage. Just point it out casually as an interesting fact, every now and again, and children will absorb it in their own good time.
Another thing you can mention from time to time is the fact the E tells us the vowel is LONG. You can say, "These words all have Long Vowel sounds - we know that because the E tells us so," or "the E makes the vowel long." Take care to keep to the explanation the children's teacher uses. Again, there's no need for them to understand or remember what you say. It's there for children to take in when they're ready to do so.
The words in the various word sheets are shown below, with the demonstration words underlined.
LVE1 |
hope
rope
cope
slope |
hate
late
gate
plate |
bone
cone
stone |
wide
hide
side |
|
LVE2 |
made
shade
blade
spade
|
hide
side
wide
pride |
tube
cube |
bone
cone
stone
phone |
|
LVE3 |
tube
cube |
hope
rope |
five
live
dive |
cave
brave
save
gave |
nine
line
fine |
LVE4 |
same
came
name |
pipe
ripe
wipe |
bone
phone
stone |
pale
whale
gale |
time
crime |
LVE5 |
make
take
snake
cake
shake |
|
joke
Coke
woke
spoke
smoke |
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There are two points to make here:
1. Don't do the 'ke' words (LVE5) if you have just taught (or plan to teach) the 'ck' rule - back sack track etc. The two patterns should be kept well apart. Notice that there are no demonstration words for the 'ke' words. This is because the spelling changes to 'ck' as in - like / lick.
2. It is not safe to let children add their own words to the rhyming groups, as there are many other ways to spell these long vowel sounds. For instance, for gate hate plate we also have wait and straight. For what to do if children come up with their own ideas, you might like to look again at the note in the blue box in Unit 2 of Digraphs: 'An Important Point'.
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What to do next
It is worth spending time on these exercises. Reading the words aloud in rhyming groups is an excellent way to develop a lasting understanding of the Long Vowel sounds. It also gives children an opportunity to work out the Magic 'e' rule for themselves (or get partway there) before we actually teach it to them.
If you want to prolong this activity, any of the suggestions on page 231 of the Handbook are suitable. Perhaps the best idea would be for children to make up their own book of Long Vowel words, using Copymaster 91 from SoundWorks. If you do this, use several copies of the copymaster and staple the pages together on the left to make a fairly thick book. The front cover should say 'Long Vowels'. Children can gradually fill up the pages with the various rhyming groups as they meet them. Use all the Long Vowel words not just the Magic 'e' ones. The book will give you a framework for asking children to read aloud the sets of words. You could say, "Read me all the words in the Houses," or "Read me three different pages with the Long /A/ sound," or "Read the first four pages in your book," and so on. After each set ask, "What is the Long Vowel in those words?" All this will give plenty of practice in reading, looking and listening.
One last point...
Once the Magic 'e' pattern is thoroughly familiar, you might like to introduce the actual Magic 'e' exercises that children are doing in the classroom.
Looking ahead...
Magic 'e' is only one way of spelling the long vowel sounds. The long 'a' is just as likely to be spelt with 'ai' as in gate/wait, lane/train, pale/sail. The long 'i' could be spelt 'ight' as in bite/light. The long 'o' is just as likely to be spelt with 'oa' as in bone/groan, pole/goal. There's no way of knowing which pattern to use because they both sound the same. You just have to know how each word is spelt.
This is not a problem for most children. They can usually rely on what looks right, and are able to do this because they've come across the words many times in their reading and know how they look. The children we work with will have read far less and will not have built up strong visual images of the way words look. These Magic 'e' exercises, where children read, match, colour and copy lists of Magic 'e' words, are designed to develop a feel for how words look. A child who has worked with the bone - cone - stone words, for instance, - matching them up, colouring them in, reading them through and then writing them out - will have had so much visual exposure to the words that he's unlikely to write boan, coan or stoan. They would just look wrong!
When you work through these word sheets, you'll be helping your child develop strong visual images of the Magic 'e' words. This will help compensate for the experiences he has missed by not reading as many books as other children. |
Target
At the end of these lessons, children should be able to read the words on the sheets and should find most Magic 'e' words easy to read. Their understanding of Long Vowels should be fully secure. As a bonus, they'll probably have worked out the Magic 'e' rule for themselves by now - so you may never need to teach it! |
What next
This completes the work on Long Vowels and the introduction to Magic 'e'.
The Magic 'e' Rule can be taught any time you like. There's no hurry for this. You can start the work on Syllables whenever you wish, but you'll need to allow a bit of time to elapse before you teach the 'ight' words or the digraphs 'oa' and 'ai'.
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