Instructional Demonstration: Developmental Word Learning with /ay/ - ‘ay’

Emergent

Context: Shared reading and phonemic awareness activity to go along with Snow Dog Go Dog
by Deborah Heilingman in a kindergarten class (whole group)
SOL: K.3 The student will orally identify, segment, and blend various phonemes to develop
phonological and phonemic awareness. d) Blend and segment one-syllable words into
phonemes including onset and rime. e) Identify words according to shared beginning and/or
ending sounds.
Instructional scenario: After reading “Snow Dog, Go Dog” the teacher will go back and re-read
the page that says, “A play dog, a stray dog, a wanders-far-away dog.” The teacher will repeat
the word “stray” and then say, “Hmmm, this is an interesting word! Stray means to go away
from where you’re supposed to be. How many syllables are in the word stray? (1) Let’s “catch”
the onset and rime in this word str – ay. (**for this part the teacher will use the fist motion
from Heggerty) What ending sound did you hear in the rime? /ay/ Do you hear the /ay/ sound
in any of the other words on this page?” Re-read the sentence. “Turn and talk with a partner
and share with them the other words you heard in the sentence that have the /ay/ sound at the
end of the word.” (stray, play, away) After students have shared the /ay/ words with a partner,
explain that the sound /ay/ at the end of a word is spelled a – y. Ask students if they can think
of any other words that have an /ay/ sound in the rime/ending of the word. As students come
up with words, have them separate and then blend the onset and rime (with the Heggerty
motion) to confirm that the /ay/ sound is at the end. As students come up with words, the
teacher will write them on chart paper for students to see. The rime /ay/ will be written in a
different color to bring attention to this new letter combination. (examples: play, may, May,
say, day, pray, sway, spray) The anchor chart will be displayed in the room for students to refer
back to and add words to throughout the year.
Language components:
 Phonetics (phonological awareness) is addressed by identifying and isolating the
phoneme /ay/.
 Phonology is addressed by highlighting the fact that /ay/ is the rime in the words stray,
play, and away.
 Orthography is addressed by teaching that /ay/ can be spelled with ‘ay’.
Possible follow-up: Later during a free write, a student writes the sentence, “I pla in the tub.”
The teacher compliments the student on their use of CUPS (Capitalization, Understanding,
Punctuation, Spelling/Spacing). The teacher says “I want to help you complete the spelling for
one of the words in your sentence. Do you remember when we read the book “Snow Dog, Go
Dog” and we learned a special letter combination that makes the /ay/ sound at the end of a
word? Do you remember what two letters spell the /ay/ sound at the end? Is there a word in
your sentence that ends in the /ay/ sound? That’s right! Play! Now that we remember how to
spell the /ay/ sound, is there a letter we should add to the end of this word? Great job! Now
let’s re-read your sentence.”
Beginner

Context: Vowel Valley/Heart/Flash Word mini-lesson with /ay/ with a first grade class (whole
group)
SOL: 1.6 The student will apply phonetic principles to read and spell. f) Use word patterns to
decode unfamiliar words.
Instructional scenario: It’s Monday and students are engaged in their weekly Whole Group
routine of introducing the Flash/Heart words for the week that focus on a specific phonics skill.
The Flash/Heart words are Dolch words. This week the phonics skill is /ay/. The teacher starts
by saying the words aloud, play, may, say, away, always, today, they. “What do you notice is a
common sound in our flash/heart words this week? Talk with a partner. That’s right! The /ay/
sound. This is how we spell the /ay/ sound in words that end in /ay/. We spell it ‘a-y.’” The
teacher will draw attention to their mouth when the make the /ay/ sound. The mouth is open
and the jaw drops down. Students will get out their compact mirrors and practice making the
/ay/ sound. Then, students get out their sound segmenting pop-its and whiteboards. The
teacher says aloud the Flash Word, the students segment the sounds in the pop-it, then write
the letters that spell those sounds on the whiteboard. As students are writing, they are saying
out loud, “a-y spells /ay/” and circling the ‘ay’ for each word. For each word, students will turn
to a partner and verbally give a sentence using the new word. The teacher will model correct
syntax for each new word and correct students’ syntax as needed. When students get to the
Heart Words (away, always, today, they), the teacher draws the sound lines for each sound and
then puts a heart underneath the sound line that needs to be remembered “by heart.” For
“away,” the initial ‘a’ gets a heart. For “always” the initial ‘a’ gets a heart. For “today” the ‘o’
gets a heart. For the word “they,” the ‘ey’ gets a heart. The teacher will draw attention to the
fact that ‘ay’ is a reliable spelling for the long /ay/ ending sound. There are only 10 words with
an exception (they, convey, obey, abeyance, grey, hey, prey, purvey, survey, and whey). Bolded
words will be displayed in the room since they are in a typical first grader’s vocabulary. After
introducing the /ay/ ending sound, introducing, segmenting, writing, and reading the
Heart/Flash words with /ay/, the teacher will “unlock” the /ay/ spelling in the Vowel Valley for
students to refer to throughout the year.
Language components:
 Phonetics (phonological awareness) is addressed by identifying and isolating the
phoneme /ay/. This is enhanced by drawing attention to the mouth placement with the
compact mirrors.
 Orthography is addressed by teaching that /ay/ can be spelled with ‘ay.’
 Semantics is potentially addressed if any word meanings are discussed.
 Syntax is addressed by modeling correct sentence structure using the new ‘ay’ words
and correcting syntax as needed
 Morphology is addressed in the follow up lesson by discussing inflected endings of the
word “play”
Possible follow-up: In a lesson the next day, the teacher reviews the word “play” and reviews
the /ay/ spelled ‘ay.’ Students discuss that play has two meanings. You can play or you can also
go and watch a play. “When we use play in the sentence, “I can play.” There are three endings
we can use -ing, -ed, and -s.” Each student will have the word “play” written on their
whiteboard and 3 sticky notes with -ing, -ed, and -s written on them. Discuss why -es will not be
used (the ending sound isn’t a s, ch, sh, x, or z). Have students practice giving the word “play”
an inflected ending, saying the two syllables, blend the syllables together, and then use the new
word in a sentence. Ex. play + ing = playing I was playing outside until it was dark.

Instructional

Context: Word sort introduction for multiple spellings of a (short a, a_e, ai, ay), 2 nd grade Within
Word Pattern small group, Word Study group
SOL: 2.4 The student will use phonetic strategies when reading and spelling. b) Use knowledge
of short, long, and r-controlled vowel patterns to decode and spell words.
Instructional scenario: The teacher displays the sort for the students without any headings.
“What do you notice is the same about all these words? That’s right, they all have an ‘a’. What
do you notice about the sounds for these words? That’s right, some have the short a sound and
some have the long a sound. What do you notice about the spellings for the short a vs. long a?
Yes, the short ‘a’ only have an ‘a’ and the long a is spelling three ways – ‘a_e’ ‘ai’ and ‘ay.’ Let’s
look at just the long a words. What do you notice about the /ay/ sound placement in these
words?” Students would then notice that when the long a sound is in the middle or beginning
of the word, it is spelled with either ‘a_e’ or ‘ai.’ When the long a sound is at the end of the
word, it is spelled ‘ay.’ “Let’s read through these words and as we read, let’s highlight either the
short a, a_e, ai, or ay.” Have students read the words and highlight the feature as they go. Ask
students if they understand the meanings of all the words. Address any confusions about word
meaning – such as the word “stray.” Point out to students that this sort doesn’t have any
oddball words, but have students write in their Word Study journal the word “said.” Point out
that although the word “said” has an ’ai’ in the middle, the ‘ai’ does not make a long a sound in
this word. After students have highlighted and read the words, they will go back to their desk to
cut the words out, sort them on their desk, and then write them in their Word Study Journal.
Afterwards, their words will go back into a baggie to continually practice throughout the week.

Language components:
 Phonetics (phonological awareness) is addressed by identifying and isolating the
phoneme /ay/.
 Phonology is addressed by distinguishing where the /ay/ sound occurs in words
(beginning, middle, or end).
 Orthography is addressed by teaching that /ay/ can be spelled with ‘a_e,’ ‘ai,’ and ‘ay.’
 Semantics is addressed by going through the words to ensure they are all familiar and
discussing any meaning clarifications students need.
Possible follow-up: Later in the week, students play Bingo to practice reading and writing the
multiple spellings of a. Another activity to address the difficulty in choosing ai or a_e when
writing words with a medial /ay/ sound; students will take a white board and divide it into 2
columns. One labeled /ai/ and one side labeled /a_e/. Students will be taught to write a word
with both possible spellings and then select the word that looks correct. For example, if the
word is “paint” they will write it as “pante” and “paint.” Hopefully, after enough exposures to
the correct spellings of words, students will recognize “ai” as the correct spelling.

Word Sort for Instructional Scenario