HAY THERE!
A BEGINNING READING LESSON
Rationale: This lesson teaches children about the long vowel correspondence ai/ay = /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/ay. They will learn a meaningful representation (bundles of hay saying ‘hey’ and smiling), they will spell and read words containing this spelling in a Letterbox lesson, and read a decodable book that focuses on the correspondence ai/ay = /A/.
Materials: Bundles of hay saying ‘hey’; cover-up critter; whiteboard or smartboard LBL boxes for modeling and individual boxes for each student; letter manipulatives for each child and magnetic or smartboard letters for teacher: a, b, d, f, i, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, u, w; list of spelling words on poster or whiteboard to read: strain, braid, snail, swum, flat, mist, paint, stair, play; decodable text: Fun and Games with Lad and Slim: The Train Trip.
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 tap, and today we are going to learn about long A. When I say /A/ I think of bundles of hay saying ‘hay’ and smiling at me.
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 my lips spread apart like I’m about to eat something. [Make gesture for /A/.] I’ll show you first: pay. I heard a say its name and I felt my lips spread apart for a second [make mouth motion with mouth when saying /A/]. There is a long A in pay. Now I’m going to see if it’s in flat. Hmm, I didn’t hear a say its name. Now you try. If you hear /A/ say, “Hay.” If you don’t hear /A/ say, “That’s not it.” Is it in snow, rain, pants, coat, nose, lips? [Have children make mouth motion when they hear /A/ say its name.]
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 when ai are together and in between two letters or a set of letter or when ay are at the end of a word [Write ai/ay on the board.] The blanks at the beginning and at the end are for the letters that will be at the beginning and at the end of the word and the blank at the beginning here is for the letters that are only at the beginning. What if I want to spell the word train? “I like to train my puppy new tricks” Train means teach in this sentence. To spell train in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word so I stretch it out and count: /t//r//AI//n/. I need 4 boxes. I heard that /A/ just before the /n/ so I’m going to put an ai in the 3rd box. The word starts with /t/, that’s easy; I need an t. Now it gets a little tricky so I’m going to say it slowly, /t//r//AI//n/. I think I heard /r/ so I’ll put an r right after the t. Next, I hear A . . . /t//r//AI//n/. I think I need to put ai because I hear n at the end. [Point to letters in boxes when stretching out the word: /t//r//AI//n/].
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t r ai n
4. Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You’ll start out easy with three boxes for play. A play is something you engage in, “I love to play outside.” What should go in the first box? [Respond to children’s answers]. What goes in the second box? What two letters should go in the third box? I’ll check your spelling while I walk around the room. [Observe progress.] You’ll need four letterboxes for the next word. Listen for the beginning sound that goes in the first box. Then listen for /A/ and don’t forget to listen if the A is in the middle or towards the end. Here’s the word: braid, I like to braid my hair; braid. [Allow children to spell words.] Time to check your work. Watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the board: b – r – ai – d and see if you’ve spelled it the same way. Try another with four boxes: snail; the snail moves very slow. [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; you need to plan for your trip. Did you need two letters in one box? Why not? Right, because we don’t hear a say its name hear. We spell it with our short vowel a. [volunteer spells it on the front board.] Now let’s try 5 phonemes: strain; don’t strain yourself too much.
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 there’s letter on both sides of ai; that’s my signal that the vowels together will say /A/. There’s the vowel ai. It must say /A/. 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/ = /strA/. Now all I need is the end, /n/ = /strAn/. 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.]
6. Say: You’ve done a great job and reading words with our new spelling for /A/: ai/ay. Now we are going to read a story called The Train Trip. Tim is waiting for his friend Nate to get into town but there is an issue. The train stops and now Tim has to wait for Nate. What does Nate do in all the time he is waiting until the train starts up again? Does he make it to the train stop where Tim is? We will have to read and see if Nate meets up with Tim.. [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 The Train Trip aloud together, and stops between page turns to discuss the plot.]
7. Say: That was a fun story. Did Nate and Tim get to meet up? Yes they did!. Before we finish up with our lesson about one way to spell /A/ = ai/ay, I want to see how you can solve a reading problem. On this worksheet, we have some letters missing. Your job is to look at your long A choices, and decide which one fits best to make sense. First try filling in the one you know, then choose the letter that fits best in the space. Reread your answers to see if they make sense. [Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress.]
Resources:
Murray, G. (2019) The Train Trip. Hard copy.
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