The Long and Short of “A”

by Kristi Lindsay

Just when Ethan, my beginning reader, successfully mastered words with the short “a” sound in his reading, along came the long “a” sound. The small phonetic reader he brought home over the weekend was written with a combination of short and long “a” words. He was able to read the short “a” words and the long “a” words with the “a-consonant-silent-e” pattern. However, the text also included a variety of other long “a” patterned words.

After struggling through the reader several times, I decided that Ethan needed a visual to remember which words had the short “a” sound and which had the long “a” sound. So, we made a two-columned chart on a piece of paper with the headings “Short a” and “Long a”. We searched through his reader for all of the short and long “a” words, I read them out loud, and he wrote them under the appropriate columns.

After our chart was completed, Ethan read all of the short “a” words without help. Then we focused on the long “a” column. Together, we identified which letter or letters made the long “a” sound and underlined them. In some words, vowel teams such as “ae” and “ai” made the sound. For other words, “ay” or “a-consonant-silent-e” made the long “a” sound. Ethan and I looked for similarities in the words, and he was able to make several good observations about the letters that made the long “a” sound and began to formulate rules for these spellings. As we looked over the words, Ethan said, “There sure are a lot of different ways to make the long ‘a’ sound!” I agreed.

As Ethan read the story again, he used the chart to help decode long “a” words. We placed the chart in his reading folder for easy reference.

Making the chart helped Ethan distinguish between the short and long “a” vowel sounds. Creating and displaying a chart like this can help ESOL students and struggling readers classify and identify spellings of each vowel sound. Then, after making the chart, the students can derive the rules for spelling the vowel sounds, such as vowel teams, vowel-consonant pairs, and vowel-consonant-silent “e”. Understanding and being familiar with the different spellings of vowel sounds aid in reading new and unfamiliar words. Plus, if students make charts, they can use the words in the charts to help them sound out and decipher new words that follow the same patterns. Any reference, visual, or aid to help students be successful readers is a valuable tool. Our simple chart made all the difference for Ethan and his ability to read the long and short “a” words in his reader. And, he continues to use it to help him read other texts. I’m sure we’ll make more charts for the other four vowels!