Rationale: This lesson teaches children about the long vowel correspondence 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 ay. They will learn a meaningful representation (confused man saying Aye?), they will spell and read words containing this spelling in a Letterbox lesson, and read a decodable book that focuses on the correspondence ay = /A/.

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Materials: Graphic image of confused man; 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 letter for the teacher: r, c, n, k, o, e, d, t, p, s; list of spelling words on poster or whiteboard to read: play, day, stay, clay, spray, away; decodable text: Jakes Joke, and assessment worksheet.

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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 say, and today we are going to learn about long /ay/ and the silent signal that is used to make A say its name, /A/. When I say /A/ I think of Bugs Bunny being funny saying “Aye, what's up doc!”.

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 mouth is wide open. [Make a vocal gesture for /A/.] I’ll show you first: away. I heard a say its name and I felt my mouth open wide [make your mouth a big oval shape and smile]. There is a long A in away. Now I’m going to see if it’s in “apple”. Hmm, I didn’t hear a say its name, and my mouth did not have the same big open shape. Now you try. If you hear /A/ say, “Aye, what's up doc?” If you don’t hear /A/ say, “That’s not it.” Is it in the tray, snail, brake, fail, hay, weigh? [Have children open their mouth wide and keep their tongue in their mouth when they feel /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 y signal a at the end of the word to tell me to say A’s name. [Write ay on the board.] This blank line here means there is a consonant after A, and at the end of the word, there is a little silent signal. What if I want to spell the word essay?“If I write an essay my paragraph has to be three to four sentences each.” An essay discusses, explores, describes, or analyzes one subject or topic in this sentence. To spell “essay” in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word so I stretch it out and count: /e//s//s//a//y/. I need 5 boxes. I heard that /A/ just after the /s/ so I’m going to put an a in the 4th box and the silent signal outside the last box. The word starts with /e/, that’s easy; I need an e. Now it gets a little tricky so I’m going to say it slowly, /e//s//s//A//y/. I think I heard /s/ so I’ll put a s right after the e.It is a long s so i put another s before the /A/, I have one empty box now. [Point to letters in boxes when stretching out the word: /e//s//s//A//y/.] The missing one is /y/ that includes the /A/.

4. Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You’ll start out easy with two boxes for hay. Hay is used to feeding some farm animals, “A farmer fed hay to his horses today on the field trip.” What should go in the first box? [Respond to children’s answers]. What goes in the second box? What about silent y, did you remember to put it outside the boxes? I’ll check your spelling while I walk around the room.[Observe progress.] You’ll need three letterboxes for the next word. Listen to the beginning sound that goes in the first box. Then listen for /A/ and don’t forget to put the signal silent y at the end, outside the boxes. Here’s the word: sway, The leaves sway off the trees when the wind blows; sway. [Allow children to spell words.] Time to check your work. Watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the board: s –w –a –y and see if you’ve spelled it the same way. Try another with three boxes: clay; I needed more clay for my sculpture. [Have a 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: chase; be careful when chase her playing tag. Did you need a silent y? Why not? Right, because we don’t hear “a” say its name. We spell it with our short vowel a-e. [volunteer spells it on the front board.] Did you remember to spell /s/ with a se? Now let’s try 4 phonemes: delay; the race had a delay from the rain. One more then we’re done with spelling, and this time you need five boxes: essay; If I write an essay I have to make sure it is long enough. 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 stroke on the top and model reading the word.] First I see there’s a silent y on the end; that’s my signal that the vowel will say its name. There’s the vowel a. 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.] /e//s/ = /es/ + /s/ = /ess/. Now I’m going to blend that with /A/ = /essA/. Now all I need is the end, /y/ = /essAy/. Essay; that’s it. Now it’s your turn, everyone, together.[Have children read words in unison. Afterward, 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 read words with our new spelling for /A/: ay. Now we are going to read a book called Jake’s Joke. This is the story of a boy named Nate who has a pet snake named Jake. Jake can disappear easily and that’s just what he does, right when it’s time to rush to the airport to fly back home. Let’s pair up and take turns reading Jake Joke to find out what the joke is. [Children pair up and take turns reading alternate pages each while the teacher walks around the room monitoring progress. After individual paired reading, the class rereads Jake Joke aloud together and stops between page turns to discuss the plot.]

7. Say: That was a fun story. What was Jake’s joke? Right, he had snuck out of his cage and into Nate’s bag. What did Nate think was in his bag? Right, a rope. Before we finish up with our lesson about one way to spell /A/ = ay, I want to see how you can solve a reading problem. On this worksheet, we have some words missing. Your job is to look in the box of word choices and decide which ay word fits best to make sense of this very short story. First try reading all the words in the box, then choose the word that fits best in the space. Reread your answers to see if they make sense. [Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress.]

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