BEGINNING READING
Ay' Mate!
Rationale: This lesson teaches children about the long vowel correspondence ai = /A/. 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 ai=/A/. They will learn a meaningful representation (Kangaroo saying “Ay Mate”), they will spell and read words containing this spelling in a Letterbox lesson and read a decodable book that focuses on the correspondence ai = /A/.
Materials: Graphic image of kangaroo; 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 teacher: b, a, y, m, i, h, c, n, s, p, l, t, r; list of spelling words on poster or whiteboard to read: bay, main, tail, plan, chain, strain; decodable text: James and the Good Day, 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 a, like nap, and today we are going to learn about long A and how when you see ai together you hear the long /A/ sound. When I say /A/ I think of a kangaroo saying “Ay Mate! [show graphic image].
2. Say: Before we learn about the spelling of /A/, we need to listen for it in some words. When I listen for /A/ in words, I hear a say its name /A/ and when I say A, my mouth is open, my tongue is behind my bottom row of teeth, and I push air through. I’ll show you first: stay. I heard A say its name and I noticed my tongue behind my bottom row of teeth. Stay has a long A. Is there a long A in spat? I didn’t hear A say its name and my tongue was not behind my bottom teeth. Now you try. If you hear A say its name say “Ay”, if you do not hear it say its name say “No”. Say the words snow, day, sleep, coy, way, plain. Have the students answer whether they hear /A/ or not.
3. Say: Now let’s look at the spelling of /A/ that we’ll learn today. One way to spell /A/ is with the letter a and a signal y at the end of the word to tell me to say A’s name. [Write ay on the board.] You can also spell /A/ with an a and an i. [write ai on the board]. What if I want to spell the word brain? “We use our brains to think, so let’s think about this.” To spell brain in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word, so I stretch it out and count: /b//r//ai//n/. I need 4 boxes. I heard that /A/ right before the /n/ so I’m going to put ai in the 3rd box. The word starts with /b/, that’s easy; I need an b. Now it gets a little tricky so I’m going to say it slowly, /b//r//ai//n/. I think I heard /r/ so I’ll put a r right after the b. Next, I hear that /A/ sound. We know that /A/ can be spelled with ai so I will put an ai in the 3rd box. Finally, we hear /n/ so I will put a n in the 4th letter box.
4. Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You’ll start out easy with two boxes for bay. A bay is a body of water, “We went to the bay during summer time.” What should go in the first box? [Respond to children’s answers]. What goes in the second box? What about the ai sound, where did you put that? 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 /A/. Here’s the word: main, “I have the main idea in my head”; main. [Allow children to spell words.] Time to check your work. Watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the board: m – ai – n and see if you’ve spelled it the same way. Try another with three boxes: tail; my dog has a tail. [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 /A/ in it before you spell it: plan; it is important to have a plan. Did you hear long A? Why not? Right, because we don’t hear A say its name. We spell it with our short vowel a. [volunteer spells it on the front board.] Now let’s try 4 phonemes: chain; the chain stopped us from crossing. One more then we’re done with spelling, and this time you need five boxes: strain; I have to strain the pasta first. 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 strain on the top and model reading the word.] First, I see the ai letters together which signals that a will says its name. 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 /A/ = /strai/. Now all I need is the end, /n/ = /strain/. Strain; 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.] Word list: bay, main, tail, plan, chain.
6. Say: You’ve done a great job and reading words with our new spelling for /A/: ai. Now we are going to read a book called James and the Good Day. This is a story of a boy named James who loves to play with his toys. He has a sailboat that needs a lake to sail in. James decides to make a big lake in the bathtub. What happens when James accidentally makes the lake too big? Lets pair up and 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 James and the Good Day aloud together and stops between page turns to discuss the plot.]
7. Say: That was a fun story. What happened to James’ huge lake? Right, it overflowed, and his mom made him clean up the huge mess. Before we finish up with our lesson about one way to spell /A/, I want to see how you can solve a reading problem. On this worksheet, you are given a picture and three words that could be used to describe the picture. It is your job to pick the word that contains a long A sound. Once you think you’ve got it, bring it to me so we can check it together!
References:
Murray, G. (2004) James and the Good Day. Reading Genie: http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/bookindex.html
Murray, G. (2019). Oh, I Didn’t Know. Online.
Assessment worksheet: https://www.enchantedlearning.com/phonics/mc/a-long/index.shtml