Beginning Reader Design
"A? I Can't Hear You"
by: Emily Barnes
Rationale:A key ingredient to fluency is to learn how to read and spell words.  One aspect of words that can be challenging to students is a diagraph.  A diagraph is a combination of graphemes written with more than one letter.  There are many different diagraphs.  This lesson will focus on the ay=/A/ correspondence.  After the completion of this lesson, the students should be able to identify words in written and spoken language that contain ay=/A/.
Materials:Pencil, Letters and Letterboxes for each individual student, chart with the tongue twister: Today, Kay and May go away to bail hay, chalk or markers for board, the book Ray and the Blue Jay by Raceway books (Phonetic Storybook Reader), work, cards with ay on one side and a ? on the other side (each student gets a card), picture page that has a variety of pictures that deal with words that contain ay=/A/
Procedures:
1.I will introduce the lesson by telling the class "Today, we are going to look at some words, that contain letters "a" and "y", combined to form one sound.When some letters are combined they make a totally new sound.Isn't that interesting?Let's learn about the new sound that we hear when the letters a and y are combined.

2."Has anyone ever asked you a question and you didn't hear it?Some people respond by putting their hand behind their ear and saying A.That is how the letters a and y combined sound.Let's put our hand behind our ear and make the /A/ sound.Very Good!"

3."Now I would like for everyone to look at the chart while I read the tongue twister:Today, Kay and May go away to bail hay.Now les say it together.What words did we hear that had the ay=/A/ sound?Very Good!Today, Kay, May, away, hay"

4."Now lets practice reading and spelling words that contain ay=/A/.As I am drawing letterboxes on the board, I would like for everyone to pull out their own letters and letterboxes.First, I am going to spell out some letters in my boxes on the board and I want to see if you can read it.Remember, I am going to put one mouth move in each box so our ay letters will be in one box because they make one sound.Our first word is hay.We should use on two letterboxes.H-ay.Now I am going to call out words and I would like for everyone to spell them out in their letterboxes.Some sample ay words for a letterbox lesson along with some review words are as follows:sad, jay, wash, sway, babe slay, same, stray.When you are finished spelling the word, raise your hand so I can come around to see how you did.Great Job!Let's see if we can read the words on the board that we just spelled in the letterbox lesson.This will be down without the letterboxes.I will have the children read aloud the words I write.Way to Go!"

5.I will now distribute the cards out to the students.On one side of the card is a picture of ay and the other side is a question mark.The students are to show the ay when they hear words with ay and they are to show the question mark when they hear words that do not contain ay.Some sample questions is as follows:Do you hear ay=/A/ in Today or Tomorrow?Hay or Bail?Away or Far? Play or Work?Great Job Class!

6.  "I have a story that I would like for you to read.  It is called Ray and the Blue Jay.  While you are reading, pay attention to the different ay words.  When you are finished, write a story about a blue jay.  When everyone is finished, we are gong to talk about what we have just read a written.

7.  For assessment, I will distribute a picture page.  I will help the students name the pictures on the page.  After we have named each pictures, I would like for the students to circles the pictures whose names have the ay=/A/ correspondence.

References:
The Reading Genie Website
Today is May Day by Laura Meadors
Ay=/A/, You Say? by Katie Naylor

Click Here to Return to Discoveries