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Lindsay Paul

Fall 2016

Long-A Vowel Teams


Lindsay Paul
Student Learning Objective (SLO)
3rd Grade at Lincoln Elementary Fall 2016


Lindsay Paul

Fall 2016

Table of Contents
Cycle of Inquiry
Lesson Plans
Benchmark Assessments
Pre-test
Lesson #1 Orthographic Mapping
Lesson #2 Write a Short Story
Lesson #3 Read Aloud
Lesson #4 Rhyming Words
Lesson #5 Differentiate Between the Correct Long-A Vowel Team
Lesson #6 Finding Words in Scrambled Letters
Post-test
Articles
Overall Reflection with In-Text Citations


Lindsay Paul

Fall 2016

SLO Cycle Inquiry Project

Identifying Instructional Need


Benchmark
Assessments Used:

1) Spelling Inventory
2) Collection of Weekly Spelling Tests
3) DIBELS
Explanation of
As I graphed data from a spelling inventory I conducted with
Analysis Process
all of the students in my class (a class of 16 students), I noticed
a lot of students fell under the Long Vowel Patterns column.
What this means, is that in their spelling they misidentified a lot
of the long vowel patterns such as /ai/, /ay/, /oa/ /a-e/, and /ow/.
Because of their lesser knowledge of long vowel sounds within
words, I realized that there are so many vowel teams that they
should be able to know when to use which ones. The
benchmark assessments used demonstrated their low scores,
giving me what I needed in order to select what I would be
focusing most on.
Targeted
CC.1.1.3.DKnow and apply grade level phonics and word
Instructional Need analysis skills in decoding words.
Standard
CC.1.4.3.FDemonstrate a grade appropriate command of the
conventions of standard English grammar and spelling.
Rationale for
The standards stated above were chosen because they
selecting this
aligned well with my overall spelling goal. These standards
standard
apply phonics, which is essential in sounding out vowel teams.
The students need to work on getting up to grade level in many
ELA areas, so working with these 3rd grade standards have set a
purpose them.

Identifying Targeted Students


Rationale for
selecting these
students

I selected a group of five students who scored low on their


Spelling Inventory. What I noticed was that they struggled with
vowel team patterns. I want my students to be able to accurately
spell words with challenging sounds (i.e. vowel teams), and to
know when to differentiate between the teams. In their reading
and writing, they often go with short vowel sounds, even after
they can verbally identify to me that the word clearly possesses
a long vowel sound. Although I am only working on /ai/ and
/ay/ vowel teams with my small-group of students, I feel that
this is an important place to focus on.

Identifying Goal
Goal:
Explanation of how
goal was selected &
why

Students will be able to differentiate and correctly identify


long-a vowel teams in their reading and writing.
While conducting a benchmark assessment spelling
inventory 1, to keep track of students progress in English
Language Arts, I noticed that several students struggled to
identify their long vowel patterns as I graphed spelling data.


Lindsay Paul

Fall 2016

Learning too many vowel teams at once can be too much for the
students, so I chose a specific vowel team letter that would be a
good starting point.

Pre-Test/Post-Test Development
Rationale for Goal
selection

Choosing what to work on with my students and setting a


goal for them was the basis for this SLO. It helped me to choose
lessons that were a good fit for this small-group. Also, when
coming up with exactly what to work on with the students, my
co-op teacher had a lot of input and prior knowledge about the
students and their needs.

Instructional Strategy/Best Practice


Rationale for
selection of this best
practice

2 References
(journals, textbook
series)

Explanation of what
was suggested from
references

I chose to go with one of Gardners Multiple Intelligences,


Linguistic, as my best practice. All of my lessons were reading
and writing-based, because I believe that having the students
see long-a vowel team words written down in front of them is
the best way to learn the vowel team rule. I cannot just recite
information about vowel teams to the students and expect them
to understand; they had to see it written in front of them, and
then practice when /ai/ or /ay/ vowel teams are used
appropriately. The students were given opportunities to pick out
the /ai/ and /ay/ vowel teams from words while orthographic
mapping, pick them out of a reading passage, and a board game.
They had to be able to pick out and identify words when given
certain letters, and remember to always say // when coming
across a vowel team in the given words. All of my chosen
activities for the students involved them reading, writing, and
memorizing, which are the key elements in Gardners MI
definition.
Article #1:
The Effects of Multisensory Vowel Instruction
during Word Study for Third-Grade Students by
Wendy Johnson Donnell
Article #2:
Syllable Types: A Strategy for Reading Multisyllabic
Words by Mary Knight-McKenna
Article #3:
VowelsSonic Gems of Emotion for Social
Communication: Practical Singing Strategies for
Non-musician Teachers with Developmentally
Diverse Young Children by Kaja Weeks
Article #1:
Application of their knowledge regularly occurring
vowel phonologicalorthographic representations; with
increased application comes increased automaticity.
Intervention lessons can consist of multisensory word-


Lindsay Paul

Lesson Plans

Reflection on each
lesson

Fall 2016

study lessons following a progression from childrens


oral language, to phonological and phonemic awareness,
to phonics, to specific vowel-spelling patterns.
Article #2:
By chunking words according to six syllable types,
students learn clues to determine whether the vowel is
long or short. When students master quick and accurate
recognition of the syllable types, they can decode long
words in a systematic manner.
When two vowels go walking, the first one does the
talking is used to teach this category of vowel teams
Cofounded by lack of knowledge confidence in their
ability, struggling readers typically do not make
attempts to break longer words apart to determine
whether there are portions they could read by
themselves.
Article #3:
Communicative and social capabilities are known to be
of primary developmental importance to all children and
often present a particular difficulty for children
aim of this strategy is to enable the teachers singing
or other vocalizations, enhanced through attention to
vowels, to spark a childs attention, engagement,
communication, and social reciprocity.
Lesson #1 Orthographic Mapping
Lesson #2 Write a Short Story
Lesson #3 Read Aloud
Lesson #4 Rhyming Words
Lesson #5 Differentiate Between the Correct Long-A
Vowel Team
Lesson #6 Finding Words in Scrambled Letters
*see attached*

Pre-Test Results
Reflection on pretest results

Description of
rationale for lesson

Some students did much better on the pre-test than others,


but all the students struggles were mostly part of their vowel
team recognition. I had a couple of students do very poorly, one
do a little better than some, and then another does well. Out of
20 vocabulary words, my highest student got a total of 17
correctthat was exceptional compared to a few students who
scored below 5 correct words. The results from the pre-test
helped me to modify my lessons based on the students needs,
and showed me exactly where to point my focus with each
individual.
I started off my SLO lessons with orthographic mapping,
because I wanted the students to sound out words letter-by-


Lindsay Paul

sequence

Fall 2016

letter prior to the lessons where they had to identify whole


words. Next, I chose an activity where they had to look at
pictures or read sentences, and choose a related vowel team
word that best fit; then they would have to write sentences using
those words to show that they understand their meanings. Third,
my lesson involved the students reading short passages, one /ai/,
and another /ay/. After a lesson of having the students
identifying vowel team words, I chose to have them be able to
read the words accurately in a passage. They students went
from word identification within sentences, to within paragraphs.
After reading a passage, I went with word soundsthe students
would read /ai/ and /ay/ vowel team words, and then had to give
rhyming words that also involved the same vowel teams. I
wanted them to read, but then also identify the teams without
reading them, only by sound. I proceeded by having students
identify sounds in words; I gave students words with blanks
where a vowel team would be. This taught the students to
differentiate between the /ai/ and /ay/ vowel teams. They know
that both teams say //, so choosing which team came down to
hearing the // either in the middle of a sound, or at the end of
one. Lastly, I chose to have the students find words with /ai/
and /ay/ vowel teams from scrambled letters. The students took
letters, incorporated vowel teams, and could identify real words
on their own. My lessons got progressively challenging for the
students, and each time added another ELA skill.

Post-Test Results
Reflection on posttest results

Chart of Growth (or


not)

Grading the students post-test, I was proud to see less


spelling errors than I had on the pre-test. Before checking for
correct spelling, I went through circling all correctly identified
/ai/ and /ay/ vowel teams. My main goal for this post-test was to
see if the students could differentiate between the two vowel
teams, using them properly. After seeing that the students
hadnt failed to incorporate either the /ai/ or /ay/ vowel teams in
each of the 20 words, I went back through to check for spelling
surrounding the teams. Each student made mistakes with
spelling, but I could definitely say that they gave a sincere
effort remembering to incorporate long-a vowel teams.
Purple = Pre-Test Green = Post-Test


Lindsay Paul

Analysis of Charts
(pre post)

Fall 2016

After analyzing pre-test to post-test results, I could see


constant increases. The chart was an easier way to see the
students progress made, because the bars in the post-test have
significant height above the pre-test bars. Those students who
had a lot to improve on showed greater growth in the charts,
and those students who did better on the post-test did not have
much to improve on, so their bars had less growth. Being able
to visualize their growth through a bar graph is a better, more
efficient way to see growth than just viewing their scores sideby-side.

Findings
Analysis of results

Reflection on what
you learned

From the pre-test to the post-test, no student had decreasing


scoresthey all improved! Each student got a minimum of 2
more correct, telling me that they are growing. The lowest
students in the group did even better than I imagined. One
scored 4 points higher, another 3 points higher, and the last
went up 6 points. Those other 2 students who didnt do as
poorly on the pre-test also had increased scores. Looking at the
graph comparing the pre-test to post-test results, seeing the
drastic increases shows positivity and hard-work by these
students.
Through conducting this SLO with five students in my 3rd
grade classroom, I realized how behind grade-level they are in a
subject that affects every aspect of their school-day and beyond.
I learned how to be able to pick one specific skill for a group of
students to improve on, and just focus on that for an extended
period. Through working with this small-group of students, I
learned a lot about them and a lot about their work ethic.
Working with this group showed me that I need to spell out
spelling rules for them with several examples; I told them about
/ai/ only being allowed to be within a sound, and /ay/ must end
a sound, even if its not the end of the word (e.g. maybemaybe, or Sunday. Constantly, I was reminding the


Lindsay Paul

Fall 2016

students of this rule when they would forget or move too


quickly and carelessly through their work. Sometimes you have
to take more time than allotted for just to have them practice,
rather than maneuvering through because youre on a timedschedule.

Final Reflection
Reflection of overall
process

I was dealt a challenging group of students who are


considered very low in many skill areas. Working with this
group forced me to begin with the basics of a skill, and explore
ways to work towards a common goal that was not too much of
a stretch. I wanted the students to understand the difference
between vowel teams, and when to appropriately use them
considering the fact that they sound exactly the same when said
aloud. When they could correctly identify key information for
writing and reading words with long-a vowel teams, it was great
to see their excitement. Using a series of linguistic-based best
practices was the most beneficial way for these students to
begin grasping this simple, yet very important skill. Throughout
each of the lessons conducted, I could tell how little they
understood about the rules involving vowel teams, so having
them spelled out to them daily for a period of time was
beneficial, and will help them out in the skills they have yet to
grasp. Overall, I feel that the students benefitted from the
experience in working with this small group. They enjoyed the
routine of coming together each day to work on the same skill;
they were sad when they realized we were all done with my
planned vowel team activities. Each of the students were
focused, and because they enjoyed the activities planned, they
had a better grasp and focus on the skill at-hand.


Lindsay Paul

Fall 2016
SLO Lesson 1

Learning Goal:
Students will use orthographic mapping to spell out /ai/ and /ay/ vowel team words.
Standard:

CC.1.1.3.DKnow and apply grade level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.
CC.1.4.3.FDemonstrate a grade appropriate command of the conventions of standard English
grammar and spelling.
Assessment:
Orthographic mapping on white boards.
Motivation:
Give students a blank box strip, 6 blue, 3 red, 3 green and 3 yellow circles.
Tell students which colors stand for what sound type.
Direct Instruction:

Blue circles are consonants, red circles are short vowels, green circles are long vowels, and
yellow circles are vowel teams.
Take the words: claim and crayon, and Sunday.
o C-l-ai-m blue, blue, yellow, blue.
o C-r-ay-o-n blue, blue, yellow, red, blue.
o S-u-n-d-ay blue, red, blue, blue, yellow.
You should sound out each sound within a word placing each circle on the strip of boxes.
Do this on top of a whiteboard; you will separate and underline each syllable, then write each
sound below the line.
Identify the long-a vowel team.
Guided Practice:
Work through a variety of words with the students with the colored circles.
Follow above directions.
Independent Practice:

Students will map out a series of /ai/ and /ay/ words using the orthographic method.
o Say, may, play, spray, display, crayon, crayfish.
o Tail, paid, claim, paint, restrain, entertain, monorail.
Review/Closure:

Students will each demonstrate a word correctly to their group members, explaining each step.

SLO Lesson 2
Learning Goal:

Students will be able to identify the correct spellings of /ai/ and /ay/ vowel team words.
They will be able to choose the correct long-a vowel team word to the corresponding pictures or
text.
Standard:


Lindsay Paul

Fall 2016

CC.1.1.3.DKnow and apply grade level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.
CC.1.4.3.FDemonstrate a grade appropriate command of the conventions of standard English
grammar and spelling.
Assessment:
Write a short story using at least 3 /ai/ and/or /ay/ words.
Motivation:
Show long /ai/ and /ay/ vowel team cards; give a set to each student.
Direct Instruction:

Show students the vowel team ai and ay task cards.


Show them task card #1. It is a picture of rain, and I will pick out the correct word from the words
given. Tell them that these words use the ai vowel team.
Show task card #2. This is a sentence card, and we have to fill in the blank with the correct word.
We fill it in with the word chain.
Guided Practice:

Go through task cards #3-6 with the group.


Show task card #3, it has a picture of a sail boat. Which of these words is the correct spelling of
sail?
Task card #4, what is this a picture of? Students will say hay, and tell what vowel team they see
in the word.
Task card #5, How many cookies were on the ____? tray.
Task card #6, what is the picture of the girl and the dog demonstrating? Stay. Which is the correct
spelling?
Hand out short story sheet. At the top, have students write the correct words/spellings at the top
according to task card #.
Independent Practice:
Write a short story using at least 3 words from the vowel team task cards5 sentence minimum.
Review/Closure:

Students will read their short stories to their classmates within the group.
Group will give positive feedback about the short stories.

SLO Lesson 3
Learning Goal:
Students will be able to correctly sound out vowel team /ai/ and /ay/ words in context.
Standard:

CC.1.1.3.DKnow and apply grade level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.
CC.1.4.3.FDemonstrate a grade appropriate command of the conventions of standard English
grammar and spelling.
Assessment:
Fluency and accuracy of read aloud passages.
Motivation:


Lindsay Paul

Fall 2016

Discuss /ai/ and /ay/ from previous day. What rules do they remember?
Direct Instruction:

Talk about ai and ay vowel team rule.


o ai is the vowel team if the syllable sound begins and ends with a consonant.
o ay is the vowel team if the syllable sound ends with the long-a sound.
Tell students they will be reading a short reading passage to me; one student will read to me at a
time.
Guided Practice:

Students will read short story to me. I will mark off words they said incorrectly, and listen
carefully for pronunciation of ai and ay vowel team words.
Independent Practice:
Students will go through passages identifying (circling) /ai/ and /ay/ vowel team words.
Review/Closure:

Ask students to tell what they noticed about the /ai/ and /ay/ vowel team words in the short
passages.

SLO Lesson 4
Learning Goal:

Students will apply their knowledge of the long-a sound to identify rhyming words when given a
different long-a vowel team word.
Standard:

CC.1.1.3.DKnow and apply grade level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.
CC.1.4.3.FDemonstrate a grade appropriate command of the conventions of standard English
grammar and spelling.
Assessment:
Recording sheet with correctly-spelled rhyming /ai/ and /ay/ vowel team words.
Motivation:

Introduce the Get the Sheet to the Jeep trail sheet; read and explain directions.
Give example of a word that rhymes with a word on the sheetpray, stay (they rhyme and have
/ay/).
Direct Instruction:

Students will work in pairs.


They will take turns rolling the dice and land on ai and ay vowel team words.
On their recording sheet, they will write a word that rhymes with whatever word they landed
onthey must spell it correctly. The word also must use the same vowel team.
Guided Practice:

Students will take turns rolling the dice; roll 5, land on maid. Played rhymes, but is using a
different vowel team. Laid works because it rhymes, and uses the correct vowel team.
Continue until somebody lands on the jeep at the end of the board.


Lindsay Paul

Fall 2016

Independent Practice:

Students will write correctly-spelled rhyming words on their recording sheets as they go through
the trail to the jeep.
Review/Closure:

Students will cross out any words on their recording sheets that they may have misspelled;
compare results with group members.

SLO Lesson 5
Learning Goal:

Students will be able to differentiate between the vowel teams, /ai/ and /ay/, when looking at a list
of words with blank spaces.
Standard:

CC.1.1.3.DKnow and apply grade level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.
CC.1.4.3.FDemonstrate a grade appropriate command of the conventions of standard English
grammar and spelling.
Assessment:
Cut and glue /ai/ and /ay/ the correct vowel team words to their matching team paper.
Motivation:

Introduce the 40 /ai/ and /ay/ words, and explain that each word is either /ai/ or /ay/; theyre not
interchangeable.
Direct Instruction:

Students will be given a sheet with 40 words to be cut out.


Prior to cutting them out, they should go through the words, choosing whether the ai or the ay
vowel team applies.
To choose which vowel team applies, they will need to say the long-a sound while reading the
words with blanks. These words are tough to read with blanks, but all of the blanks use this
sound.
o If the long-a sound is at the end of a syllable, the blank will be an ay vowel team.
o If the long-a sound is within a syllable and between consonants, it will be an ai vowel
team.
Guided Practice:
Students will be going through the word list deciding which long-a vowel team belongs.
They will cut these words out and place them in two separate piles: ai and ay.
Independent Practice:

Students will go through the 40 vocabulary words, and per the /ai/ and /ay/ vowel team rule,
they will write in which vowel team belongs in the blanks.
They will cut these out and glue them on their /ai/ or /ay/ papers.
Review/Closure:


Lindsay Paul

Fall 2016

Students will check each other for accuracy as they go through words and explain why they put
certain words with certain vowel teams.

SLO Lesson 6
Learning Goal:

Using what they know about vowel teams, students will be able to identify real words when
connecting letters to the /ai/ and /ay/ vowel teams.
Students will be able to find words with more than 4 letters.
Standard:

CC.1.1.3.DKnow and apply grade level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.
CC.1.4.3.FDemonstrate a grade appropriate command of the conventions of standard English
grammar and spelling.
Assessment:
List of words identified as having ai or ay vowel team from a table of scrambled letters.
Motivation:
Working from scrambled letters to form words with ai and ay vowel teams.
Direct Instruction:

This is similar to the game, Boggle.


Students will be given two different 3x3 tables with a letter in each box. One box will have an ai
or ay vowel team.
Students will look at the letters surrounding the vowel team, and look for words using that team.
Guided Practice:
Students will go through and write down as many words as they can see in each table.
They will start with the two ai vowel team tables, and then move on to the ay vowel team table.
Independent Practice:

Students will identify words with /ai/ and /ay/ vowel teams in a scrambled square (similar to the
game, Boggle).
Review/Closure:

Students will tell their group members the words they found, and point them out.


Lindsay Paul

Fall 2016

Lesson Reflections
Pre-Test
For my pre-test on long-a sound vowel teams, I gave my small group of students a 20word spelling test with all /ai/ and /ay/ vowel team words. Out of the 5 students I am working
with, only 2 students spelled more than half of the words correctly, and the other 3 scored 25%
and below. With these low scores, I could see which students need more help than others,
especially which need more one-on-one assistance. Throughout my lessons, I am hoping to see
an understanding of how to appropriately use long-a vowel teams, and to see an increase of at
least 3 more words by each student on the post-test.
SLO Lesson #1
My first lesson on the long-a sound vowel teams went well. I asked students to tell me
what they knew about the long-a sounds, and introduced the goal we will be working towards
over the course of the next lessons. For my first lesson, I showed the students how to map
orthographically. I gave each student different colored chips (red, blue, green, and yellow), a
strip of paper with blank boxes, and a list of words to map out. The students had to sound out
words by each sound, and put the corresponding colored chip. The chips each symbolized a letter
type; consonants were blue, short vowels were red, long vowels were green, and vowel teams
were yellow. The students enjoyed using the colorful chips, though it got confusing at times for
them to remember which color to use and when. They knew that blue chips were consonants, but
differentiating between long vowel, short vowel, and vowel team colors was part of where they
struggled. Being a low group of students, they often need assistance remembering which are the
vowels, and which are consonants, so I wrote all the vowels down in front of them for reference.
The students seemed to enjoy the mapping, and understood how to map quickly. I was happy to
see them enjoy it, and thought that it was good way to introduce my SLO topic to them.
SLO Lesson #2
Given a series of task cards involving /ai/ and /ay/ sound vowel teams, the students were
engaged. We discussed what sounds the vowel teams make, when each one appears within a
word, and how to say them correctly. When they saw a picture of rain, they recognized the word;
they saw the r in the word choices, and knew that it couldnt have been the other options. The
students individually moved through the task cards filling in the blanks within sentences, and
choosing the correct spellings of words. On a separate sheet, they wrote each of the answers from
the task cards, and then were to incorporate those words into a story. Because many of these
students struggle with reading and writing, I modified the lesson on the spot so that they would
just write sentences using the words, rather than telling a story. Each of the students followed
directions well, and successfully identified and used the long-a vowel teams correctly. Next, the
students will be reading short passages incorporating multiple /ai/ and /ay/ vowel team words.


Lindsay Paul

Fall 2016

SLO Lesson #3
I worked on this lesson individually with each student. Because the students were being
asked to read a passage, I pulled each student one-by-one to read to me; I did not want them
listening to the person before them reading. If they would have heard the passage before they
read it on their own, I feel that the accuracy in their reading would have been different since they
would have an idea of what to expect. I had a short review session with each student about the
long-a vowel team rule prior to them reading to me. I gave the students 2 different short passages
to read as I followed along with a copy of the passages, marking off errors that they made while
reading. They were careful to read long-a vowel team words correctly, although sometimes
forgot about the rule and gave the word a short vowel sound. Most of the inaccuracies in their
readings were corrected when they realized the word in context didnt make any sense. The
students know to self-correct while reading, and were careful (most of the time) to reread the
parts of the text that maybe did not make sense to them the first time they read it.
SLO Lesson #4
My group of 5 students was split into two groups, 1 group of 2, and 1 group of 3. The
students worked together sounding out /ai/ and /ay/ vowel team words, and came up with words
that rhymed with them and included the same vowel team. The words that the students had to
identify a rhyming word for were on a board gamethis was not a game activity; the game
board was just full of words to use in a different way. The game board was there so that they
could roll a dice, land on a word, and identify a word that rhymes. I could have had the students
go down a list to rhyme words with, but the game board made the activity more engaging and
attention-grabbing to the students. The groups worked well together, and collaboratively came up
with good lists of rhyming words.
SLO Lesson #5
This lesson differentiated between the long-a vowel team /ai/ and /ay/ words. Each
student was given 40 words with blanks where the vowel teams would be. They were told to say
// where the blanks were in order to sound out the word. From there, they could separate the
words by sound, deciding which long-a vowel team to use. The students know that the /ai/ team
can only be used in the middle of a sound, and that the /ay/ team must end a sound. This helped
them to decide which vowel team to use in each of the 40 given words. When they were done
filling in the blanks, I went over the answers with each student individually. For those words
they chose the incorrect vowel team, I discussed why it was wrong, and why the other vowel
team is the right answer. The students cut out each of the words, and glued them on their correct
paper. One paper was titled /ai/, and the other was titled /ay/. They glued each word on their
correct vowel team page; even if they did not correct the spelling of the word in writing, they
made sure to at least glue it onto the correct page. I feel that the students being able to identify
the correct vowel team for most of the words was helpful for continuing to build the necessary
skills to understand vowel sounds and vowel teams.


Lindsay Paul

Fall 2016

SLO Lesson #6
The students final lesson looked much like a game of Boggle. Out of a textbook given to
me by one of the reading specialists at the school, I found a 3x3 box of letters, one box
containing the /ai/ vowel team and another 3x3 box of letters where a box contained the /ay/
team. The students had to look within the 9 squares, and see what words they could find that
used the vowel team. I thought that this would be a good way to wrap up my series of SLO
lessons, because it was the only one where they werent given a list of words, but had to come up
with one themselves. They would not have been able to do this in the beginning, but after long-a
vowel team practice, the students were easily able to pick out words that they recognized. When
I found this activity, I knew it would be a good way to end my SLO in a way the students would
enjoy. I demonstrated how to find words within the boxes, but they didnt need much help after
that. I found one word for them, and they came up with a nice list from there. This was another
successful long-a vowel team lesson where I feel that the students were able to grasp the spelling
rule, and apply it when necessary.
Post-Test
I was proud to see such improvement from the pre-test to the post-test! My highest
scoring student from the pre-test improved by getting 2 more words correct, putting him at a
95%. My lowest student got a 35% on the post-test, but was a definite improvement from his
20% pre-test score. With all students improving from one test to the other, I feel confident that
they are on their way to understanding spelling rules, such as vowel teams, better. We only went
over a couple of vowel teams, and there are many more that the students need to learn. But with
basic knowledge and recent improvement, I am confident that they will catch up and eventually
be where they should.


Lindsay Paul

Fall 2016

SLO Long-A Vowel Teams Overall Reflection


Over the course of three school-weeks, I worked with five students who struggle with
vowel teams. The goal that I came up with for these students was for them to be able to
differentiate and correctly identify long-a vowel teams in their reading and writing. With this low
group of students, most of which have an Individual Education Plan in place, I stuck strictly to
the long-a vowel team. I was careful to not incorporate other vowel teams, because I did not
want to create too wide of a range for the students to focus on. I felt that these students needed to
focus on one specific skill, succeeding in one vowel at a time. I started by using the entire classs
Spelling Inventory as my benchmark assessment; it told me which spelling rule that each student
in the class struggles with identifying. With data from the inventory, I reviewed past spelling
assessments also. Each of my five students lacked accuracy in their vowel teams, and that is how
my SLO began.
My Student Learning Objective (SLO) concentrated on the Long-A Vowel Teams, /ai/
and /ay/. Too many vowel teams to work on at a time could be too much for the students, so a
strict focus on solely /ai/ and /ay/ was perfect for this group. After forming my overall ideas
relating to this SLO, but prior to the start of implementing lessons, I did some research through
online journals to read about the experts thoughts on vowel teams. Incorporating some quotes
about vowel team rules into discussion with my students, one journal discussing the different
syllable types referred to the all-famous reference, When two vowels go walking, the first one
does the talking (Knight-McKenna). This was a constant reminder with my students who
always wanted to use the short-a sound, rather than the long-a sound.
Carefully, I arranged an assortment of lessons that built on different skills in a sequential
order. After the students had finished the preliminary-test, I realized how little they could


Lindsay Paul

Fall 2016

identify long-a vowel teams, so I began with something called orthographic mapping.
Orthographic mapping has the students use different colors to identify letter-sound types.
Application of their knowledge regularly occurring vowel phonologicalorthographic
representations; with increased application comes increased automaticity (Johnson Donnell, W).
They needed to sound out each letter-sound in words that they were given; consonants were a
color, short-vowel and long-vowel sounds were two different colors, and vowel teams were their
own color as well. The students had to stop to think which color to use, and realize when a vowel
team was present. Color-coding letter-sounds was the best way to begin this SLO because it was
the basis of everything they would see in the following lessons.
The remaining lessons after orthographic mapping went well with my students. They
tested several important skills for the students through linguistic best practices, all of which the
students enjoyed because I made them seem like games. These students needed to stay motivated
all-while being engaged. At times implementing these lessons was a challenge because one
student in particular needs to be tricked into learning; once you get him excited about an activity
that may at first seem dull, theres no stopping him. Students were provided with a series of taskcards each to correctly identify the spellings of /ai/ and /ay/ vowel team words, and asked to
come with a story using said words. Other lessons included students being able to accurately
pronounce long-a vowel team words verbally through a read aloud passage, rhyming words
including the same vowel teams, differentiating between /ai/ and /ay/, and searching for words
through a series of scrambled letters; these lessons were overall thoroughly enjoyed by the
students.
After all lessons were complete, I gave out the post-spelling test which was like the
preliminary-test: a series of 20 words dictated to them to spell correctly while identifying the


Lindsay Paul

Fall 2016

correct vowel teams. I saw results that I was both happy, yet surprised to see. I know that being
coached and scaffolded through lessons showed positive lesson-results, but I saw positive posttest results as well! No student got less than a 35% on their post-test, when the lowest
preliminary-test result was 20%; an increase of 15% was more than I expected to see. This shows
me that the students took something away from this SLO which was huge for them, and crucial
for beginning to learn similar but different skills.
The students worked well together, which I know can sometimes be tough when working
on something difficult to understand; Communicative and social capabilities are known to be of
primary developmental importance to all children and often present a particular difficulty for
children (Weeks, K) This journal that mostly discussed practical singing strategies with
students to help them learn skills, but also demonstrates how different results can be from having
students work in a setting forcing them to use social cues that they may not yet possess. That is
something that really made me think about which students I paired together in my small-group.
Different pairs could have definitely altered my end results.
In a short period, I learned so much from a small-group of students; having worked on
and implemented this type of data collection and research-based inquiry has helped grow my
understanding in the basic needs of a diverse group. Working with a single skill was more
influential than if I had gone with my overall plan of teaching all vowel teams, rather than just
focusing on long-a vowel teams. This narrow focus I can easily tell showed better results than
looking at all five vowels, and even more teams. Walking away from this SLO has taught me so
much about the focus on an individual skill; the importance is more clear. The opportunity to
reflect through showing my data and hard work to my peers and professors who have helped me


Lindsay Paul

Fall 2016

grow over the past semesters was also a great experience. It has shown me a welcome view on
my own professional growth readying me even more for my near-future career as an educator.

Works Cited
Johnson Donnell, W. (2007). The effects of multisensory vowel instruction during word study for
third-grade students. Wiley, International Literacy Association 42 (4): 468-471. JSTOR.
Web. 8 Nov. 2016.
Knight-McKenna, M. (2008). Syllable types: a strategy for reading multisyllabic words.
TEACHING Exceptional Children 40: 18-24. Educational Resources Information Center.
Web. 8 Nov. 2016.
Weeks, K. (2015). Vowels--sonic gems of emotion for social communication: practical singing
strategies for non-musician teachers with developmentally diverse young children. Early
Childhood Education 43: 515-22. Educational Resources Information Center. Web. 8
Nov. 2016.

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