When your students see two vowels together in a word, things can get tricky. One of the most common vowel teams is ‘ea’, usually pronounced as long ‘e’, like in eat.
But what happens when your students want to write about eating great bread?
Let’s look at how you can teach your students to read and write with vowel teams.
What's a vowel team?
A vowel team is a group of two to four letters that represents a single vowel sound, like 'a-i' in nail or the 'e-i-g-h' in eight. The name "vowel team" can be deceiving because a vowel team can include both vowels and consonants, as in 'igh'.
What's important to remember is that these letters represent one single vowel sound. For example, the two letters 'a' and 'y' make the vowel team 'ay', which makes one single vowel sound in the word play: the long 'a' sound.
What's a diphthong?
A diphthong (pronounced /dĭf-thŏng/) is a variation on a vowel team. A diphthong combines two vowel sounds in a single syllable, as in coin and loud. You'll notice the 'ou' vowel team in loud begins as one vowel sound and glides into another in the same syllable. Our mouths move as we say diphthongs, though they are only one syllable.
Click through the interactive below to hear and see the articulatory features of the sound and common spellings for the diphthong /ow
So how do we teach these?
Vowel Team Generalizations
A lot of spelling patterns have rules, like the -ck rule: ‘ck’ spells /k/ after a short vowel, like in duck. Vowel teams aren’t as predictable.
For example, ‘ow’ often spells the long ‘o’ sound at the end of a word, like in grow. But it can also spell the diphthong ‘ow’ as in cow. This is why it’s important for students to be flexible in their reading and spelling.
And using that flexibility, you’ll teach them what we call “generalizations” about the vowel teams, guidelines on when and where to use them in words.
Here are two examples of vowel teams generalizations:
'ai' occurs at the beginning or in the middle of words, like in the words aim or braid.
'ay' can be found at the end of words, like in the word hay.
Here’s part of what makes them tricky:
Some vowel teams have one sound-spelling correspondence; for example, the vowel team 'igh' is fairly consistent in spelling the /i/ sound at the end of a word like in high or before a final ‘t’, like in light. You rarely see the letters 'igh' representing a different sound than the long 'i' sound. So you can teach this to your students directly.
Or one vowel team can represent multiple sounds. We take the approach of introducing those that are found most often in words that our students, often beginning readers, will see. For example 'ea' can make the long 'e' sound and open up words like teach, peach, tease, and peak. This is the most common sound of the 'ea' vowel team, but not the only sound. This vowel team can also make the short 'e' sound like in head or the long 'a' sound in break. Since these are less frequent we do not spend as much of our instructional time on these sound-symbol correspondences
Your understanding as a teacher of all the ways vowel teams can be spelled is important. Check out our scope and sequence (opens in new window) that has a comprehensive list of vowel teams and the sounds they can represent.
Introducing Vowel Teams to Your Students
As you'll see in our How to Teach section, we start our vowel teams instruction by focusing on the vowel sound (not the new spelling), connecting to the ways students have already learned to spell that sound before introducing the new spelling. Here’s an example:
Let’s say you want to introduce the vowel team 'oa' to your students. You wouldn't tell them that to start. You would begin with the long 'o' sound, reviewing the two ways your students already know how to spell it … in an open syllable like in go and in a magic 'e' syllable like in rode.
Then you would tell them about the new long 'o' spellings … 'oa' and 'ow'. We teach these two vowel teams together because they have a generalization that students can remember for when to use each spelling, where they are typically found in a word.
'oa' is almost always at the beginning or middle of a word, like in oat and boat; and 'ow' is typically found at the end of a word, like in bow or know.
After introducing the two new vowel teams, students will end up understanding how one sound can be spelled four different ways.
With lots of practice and exposure to words with the 'oa' and 'ow' vowel teams, students will be able to absorb these generalizations. Then they'll know how to pronounce moat or tow when they come across it in a book — and they'll know how to spell coat or low when they need to write it.
Watch as second grade teacher Mikara Gallegos follows these steps. She starts by reviewing the previously taught sound-spelling correspondences of the long 'o' sound and then introduces the two new vowel teams 'oa' and 'ow'.
Produced by Reading Universe, a partnership of WETA, Barksdale Reading Institute, and First Book
Hide Video TranscriptShow Video Transcript
Mikara Gallegos: Okay, boys and girls, we're going to work on long 'o' today. Okay? Are you ready? I'm going to give you a word. You're going to give me all the sounds and then you're going to tell me what vowel sound you hear. Are you ready?
Students: Yes.
Mikara Gallegos: Say boat.
Students: Boat.
Mikara Gallegos: Give me the sounds.
Students: /b/, /ō/, /t/.
Mikara Gallegos: What vowel sound?
Students: /ō/
Mikara Gallegos: Long 'o'. Good.
Narrator: Today, Mikara Gallegos is teaching second graders at Shull Elementary in San Dimas, California. How the vowel teams 'oa' and 'ow' can spell the long 'o' sound.
Mikara Gallegos: Say vote.
Students: Vote.
Mikara Gallegos: Sounds?
Students: /v/, /ō/, /t/.
Mikara Gallegos: What vowel sound?
Students: /ō/
Mikara Gallegos: Long 'o'.
Narrator: She begins the lesson with a listening game to help students tune their ears into that long 'o' vowel sound.
Students: Long 'o'.
Mikara Gallegos: Long 'o'. Say slope.
Students: Slope.
Mikara Gallegos: Give me the sounds.
Students: /s/, /l/, /ō/, /p/.
Mikara Gallegos: What's the vowel sound?
Students: Long 'o'.
Mikara Gallegos: Yeah. What do they all have in common?
Student: /ō/. Long 'o'.
Mikara Gallegos: Long 'o'. But there's so many different patterns to make long 'o', right?
Narrator: Ms. Gallegos' students already know two ways to spell the long 'o' sound. First in an open syllable word.
Together: No. Go.
Students: So. Bro.
Mikara Gallegos: Those all have long 'o's, right? 'O' at the end says /ō/.
Narrator: They also know how to spell long 'o' with magic 'e', or as Ms. Gallegos calls it, mama 'e'.
Mikara Gallegos: Good reading. That's all 'o' with the mama 'e'. Well, I have two new long 'o' patterns for us today.
Narrator: She starts with the vowel team 'oa'.
Mikara Gallegos: Okay. Look at my examples. Are you ready? Here's 'o' and 'a'. It says oak.
Students: Oak.
Mikara Gallegos: Good. Next one.
Together: /ō/, /t/, oat.
Mikara Gallegos: Next one.
Students: /s/, /ō/, /k/, soak.
Mikara Gallegos: Awesome.
Students: /b/, /ō/, /t/, boat.
Mikara Gallegos: Last one.
Students: /k/, /ō/, /t/, coat.
Mikara Gallegos: Good job. So 'oa' says ...
Student: /ō/.
Mikara Gallegos: /ō/. Okay. I have another one. 'ow' says ... /ō/. Okay. Let's read it.
Students: /s/, /n/, /ō/, /w/, snow.
Mikara Gallegos: Good. What about this one?
Students: /g/, /l/, /ō/, /w/, glow.
Mikara Gallegos: What about this one?
Students: /g/, /r/, /ō/, /w/, grow.
Mikara Gallegos: "Grow." Do this one again.
Students: /g/, /r/, /ō/, /w/, grow.
Mikara Gallegos: What if I added '-ing'?
Students: Growing.
Mikara Gallegos: Growing. Oh, you guys are so smart. Okay, here's 'ow' again. But here's an 'n' at the end of it. 'O-W-N'. Let's read it.
Together: /ō/... /w/... /n/, own.
Mikara Gallegos: Good. Let's do this one.
Students: /g/, /r/, /ō/, /w/, /n/, grown.
Mikara Gallegos: Good. Last one.
Students: /f/, /l/, /ō/, /w/, /n/, flown.
Mikara Gallegos: Yeah. Let's do the 'F-L' blend again. /f/, /l/... . Let me hear it.
Students: /f/, /l/ ... /ō/, /w/, /n/, flown.
Mikara Gallegos: Good.
Narrator: Ms. Gallegos' kids have added two new long 'o' spellings to their repertoire with the vowels teams 'oa' and 'ow'. But vowel teams can be tricky. Eventually, these students will learn that 'ow' can also spell /ow/ as in cow. So consistent practice and lots of reading are key for students to build confidence with vowel teams.
Mikara Gallegos: Let's read it. Ready?
Together: /ō/ ... /t/, oat.
Mikara Gallegos: Oh, it's good. Let's go to the next one.
Narrator: Reading Universe is made possible by generous support from Jim and Donna Barksdale, the Hastings/Quillin Fund, an advised fund of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, the AFT, the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation, and anonymous donors. Special thanks to Schull Elementary School, Bonita Unified School District, and the Los Angeles County Office of Education. If you enjoyed this video, please subscribe to our YouTube channel @RUteaching. Reading Universe is a service of WETA Washington D.C., the Barksdale Reading Institute, and First Book.
Schull teachers: This is Reading Universe.
Teacher Tip
What's a grapheme? You might know that a letter or a letter combination used to represent one sound can be called a grapheme. For example, the two middle letters of the word boat — 'o' and 'a' — are a grapheme representing the single sound /ō/ in the middle of the word. Using this terminology can help your students make the connection between a combination of letters (a grapheme) and one sound (a phoneme). And that can help with learning the concept of vowel teams.
Word Meanings, Homophones, and Homographs
When you introduce vowel teams to your students, you can draw attention to homophones (opens in new window) — words that sound the same like main and mane — and homographs — words that are spelled the same like read (rhymes with seed) and read (rhymes with bed). This will give them a chance to explore word meanings and how context is critical to determining them. Try this exercise yourself:
Read out loud the word bow.
As you read this word, how did you pronounce it?
Did you pronounce it /bow/ (rhymes with cow)? or /bō/ (rhymes with go)?
Without context, it's impossible to know which pronunciation is accurate!
Try reading bow again with the pictures for context below:
The pictures make it possible for you to know how to pronounce the vowel team 'ow'.
We also gain context from surrounding words when we find a vowel team in a paragraph or other text. Read the following lines out loud, and you'll instantly pronounce bow correctly for the circumstance:
a bow on a package
a bow and arrow
a bow used to play the violin
a conductor taking a bow
the bow of a ship
So for your students, you'll teach the meanings of words with vowel teams through the context of a sentence with explicit instruction in homophone and homograph pairs. Many of these words are already part of students' oral language, so this guidance will deepen their understanding of the words.
Here is a routine you can use to explicitly teach homophone pairs. For example, with peak and peek, you can follow this routine:
Say the word: peak
Give the vowel team spelling: 'p', 'e', 'a', 'k'
Use in context: peak, 'e-a', peak, the top of a mountain
Picture or motion: show a picture of a mountain peak or use your hands to make a peak
What We Hope You'll Learn
In this skill explainer we'll show you in detail how to teach lessons for these common vowel teams:
* These are vowel sounds that will be new to your students, if you're following our phonics continuum.
Scope and Sequence for Teaching Vowel Teams
Here is a quick reference chart to help you remember the vowel team spelling rules.
Vowel Valley
The vowel valley chart provides a concrete visual to help readers see, hear, and articulate the vowel sounds, including vowel teams. Use this resource to guide students in vowel sound pronunciation and spelling.
These will make a lot more sense once you've learned how to explicitly teach these using our lesson plans!
Teacher Tip
What about "When Two Vowels Go Walking?" Have you ever heard this saying: "When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking"? While this is true for some common words like treat, rain, and boat, what about the words head, break, and heard?
Although this is a catchy saying, this broad generalization is not reliable. It actually works less than half the time. For that reason we do not want students to rely on this, which is why we do not recommend teaching it.
