YAY YAY! HOORAY FOR A!
Beginning Reading Design
By: Maggie Van Thullenar

Rationale: This beginning reading lesson teaches children about the long vowel correspondence of a_e= /A/. When learning to read in the primary stages of life, children should learn to map out how words are spelled using letter recognition to pronunciation. a_e=/A/ is a strong example of this need to learn spelling because /A/ can be modeled in different ways (a=/A/, ay=/A/, ai=/A/, and a_e=/A/). In this reading lesson, /A/ will be modeled and taught by a_e=/A/. Children will learn how to recognize and identify, spell, and read words with the spelling of a_e. The student will be taught how to remember this long A sound by using the fun representation of “Yay, Yay, Hooray for A!” modeled by a jumping cheerleader. The student will practice spelling and identifying a_e=/A/ by spelling in a letterbox lesson and reading a short story that focuses on words containing a_e=/A/. 

 

Materials needed: 

Graphic image of a jumping cheerleader; cover-up critter; dry-erase flashcards or whiteboard; letter tiles/manipulatives for each student; large magnetic letters for teacher: c, r, a, m, s, l, e, t, n, f, h; list of practice spelling words on poster:  paste, fame, shame, shake, fade, cape, base, lake; decodable book: Late Kate; assessment worksheet. 

 

Procedures: 

1. Say: Someday we want to grow up and be able to read almost every word in front of us automatically! In order to do this we have to learn how to decode words and figure out how to say them just based on their spellings! This is called pronunciation. We already know that when we see the vowel a in words like sat and map, it makes an /a/ sound like ahhh ahhh (*mimick crying baby*). Today, we’re going to learn how to see a say it’s name, like /A/ in “YAY, YAY, HOORAY!” When I hear /A/, I think of a cheerleader jumping up and saying “YAY, YAY, HOORAY!” (show graphic image of cheerleader). 

2. Say: Before we spell words with /A/, we have to learn how to hear it first. When we listen for /A/, I hear /A/ say it’s name out loud. /A/, /A/, /A/. See how my mouth widens into a smile and I can see both sets of my teeth. (Model /A/ with mouth by showing both sets of teeth and widening mouth into smile). We say YAY for /A/ so of course we’re going to open our mouth wide and smile! Let me show you! (Pick up tape dispenser) This is my favorite tape. See how my mouth opened into a smile when I said tape. That’s because we hear /A/ in tape. (Motion to edges of mouth indicating smile and wideness as you repeat tape two more times). There is a long A in tape. What about in the word mat? I didn’t hear /A/ say its name in mat, did you? Now, it’s your turn! If you hear /A/, I want you to say “YAY, YAY, HOORAY!” If you don’t hear /A/, say “BOO!” Ready? Frame, Check, Mate, Lick, Lane, Sit, Gate, Hack, Lace, Happy? (Have the students make a motion such as raising hands or jumping when they hear /A/) 

3. Say: Now that we know how to listen for /A/, we have to learn how to find it in a word! We are looking for a_e to make the /A/ sound today. (Write a_e on the board with a blank before and after the a). The blank line between the a and the e is reserved for a consonant, not a vowel. We can’t have three vowels in a row! The e at the end of the word is a silent e. We see a_e in the word mate. Without the silent e, the word would be mat but mat and mate are different words because of a_e. What about the word sale? “I went to Old Navy because they were having a big sale on pants!” To spell sale in letterboxes (bring out letterboxes and tiles for each of the kids) we first need to figure out how many phonemes are in the word and count them: /s/ /A/ /l/. I have 3 phonemes. Why? Because the silent e at the end of the word is not heard in sale. I heard YAY for /A/ between the /s/ and /l/. I am going to need 3 letterboxes for this word, so I put /A/ in the second letterbox. Sale starts with /s/ so I will put the letter tile s first. Now I have /s/ and /A/. Sale. I’m pretty sure that /l/ is represented by the letter L so that would be our next tile. (e is on the outside of the boxes but because of computer formatting I cannot put it outside on this document.) 

   1. |S|A|L| e​

4. Say: Now it’s your turn! We’ll start out very easily with the word: ate. “I ate all of my dinner last night!” This word is going to use two letter boxes. Everyone take out two letter boxes and put them on your desk. What letter do we hear first in the word ate? (Students respond with “a” and place a magnetic A in the first box on the board. The board should look like two boxes and a blank outside the box to serve as a reminder that the silent e goes on the outside.) What do we hear next? /t/, /t/, /t/ is represented by what letter? (Students respond with “t”) So now we have /a/, /t/ but we need the word ate. What letter could we put OUTSIDE the box to make a say its name? (Students respond with e or silent e and put an e in the blank outside the boxes on the board.) That was great practice! Let’s do a couple more by yourself now. For the next word you are going to need three letter boxes. Listen for the sounds that each letter makes in the word; listen for a to say its name; and don’t forget the silent e at the end of the word! Here we go. The word is name. A name is something you call someone by when you’re speaking to them or about them. “Her name was Sarah.” Name. I’ll check your letter boxes as I come around and check your spelling. (Let students work as you walk around and check spellings.) Watch how I spell it on the board in my letterboxes! N-a-m-e. Did you spell it like me? Next practice word we are going to need four letterboxes! The word is frame. “I took a great picture at the Grand Canyon and printed it out to put in a frame.” (Have students do it individually and call on one student to perform how they put the letters in letterboxes up on the board. Emphasize the pronunciation of each letter as it is put in the box.) Now, I want you to tell me why or why not you need a silent e in this next word: cram. “I bought more food than I have space for in my fridge so I have to cram everything in there in order to shut my door!” Cram. Do we need a silent e in cram? No, because a does not say its name. We spell this word with our short vowel a. How would we spell the word cram? (Have volunteer spell it on the board.) Last word! You are going to need four letterboxes. The word is grape. Remember to stretch out the word to spell it out. Remember to see if you need a silent e. (Have a student model on the board after everyone is finished.) 

5. Say: Now that we finished spelling all together, we’re going to learn how to read difficult words with a_e=/A/. This is a tough word because it has some blending of letters in it. (Bring out poster with the word shame). First, I see a which I know is either going to say /a/ or /A/. Then, I see an e! Remember what that means? An a and an e is going to make a say its name! I am going to cover up everything except for the first part. (Uncover the s and then the h). /s/ and /h/, but we know that s and h together make a /sh/ sound. (Uncover and blend sequentially before the vowel, then blend with the vowel.) Now we know that a says its name in this word so /sh/ + /A/ is going to sound like what class? /shA/. Now, we add the end. The letter m gives us what sound? /m/. /sh/ + /A/ + /m/ gives us the word shame. Now everyone, let’s read this word together. (Children read this word in unison. Everyone should read at least one word on the word list poster. Words will include: paste, fame, shame, shake, fade, cape, base, lake. 

6. Say: Great job you guys! We now know how to identify and spell words with a_e which makes what sound? (in unison) /A/! Next, we are going to read a book called Late Kate. This is a story about a girl named Kate who hates to be late! She has to do a bunch of activities and still make it home on time. To see what all she does and if she is going to make it home on time, we have to read the book together. I am going to put you in groups of three and you guys are going to take turns reading the pages of Late Kate. You are going to see a lot of words with a that says its name so make sure we watch out for that. (Teacher puts children in groups of three and walks around, monitoring progress, as they read together.) Now, we are going to read Late Kate all together and I want you to raise your hands up like a cheerleader everytime you hear /A/! (Teacher reads aloud with class, using popcorn reading or volunteers and stopping between pages to note a_e=/A/ and plot.) 

7. Say: That was awesome, class!  What are some things that Kate does before she will be late? (Children name off activities that Kate did in the story.) Last thing that we are going to do for today’s lesson about how to spell /A/ is a fun worksheet. On this worksheet we are going to see words that have a long A or a short A sound. It is up to us to look at the picture and determine what the picture is, if we hear YAY for /A/ or a say its name and then bubble in how we would spell the word. But be careful! There are also pictures that have a short a or /a/ which would NOT be spelled with an e at the end. (Teacher walks around to monitor progress and collects at the end to assess student understanding and progress.) 

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8. Say: Finally, we are going to do one more worksheet. Using the word bank below, fill in the sentence with the correct a_e and short a word! [Teacher walks around to monitor progress] 

 

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Resources: 

Barchers, S. Late Kate. https://www.teachercreatedmaterials.com/estore/files/samples/15124s.pdf 

Noie Yancey, Oh, Oh, My Knee Hurts:

http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/invitations/yanceybr.htm 

Assessment Worksheets:

https://www.themeasuredmom.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Shrta-a-eWrk.pdf