4. Videos: See Vowel Teams and Diphthongs in the Classroom

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: Mama 'e' says ...

Together: You say your name!

Mikara Gallegos: Okay, let's read it. Ready?

Students: /n/, /ō/, /t/. Note.

Mikara Gallegos: Good. Next one.

Students: /v/, /ō/, /t/. Vote. /r/, /ō/, /d/. Road.

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.

Elizabeth Hogan: All right guys, we are going to get started. We're going to do our listening game.

Narrator: Today, reading specialist Elizabeth Hogan is teaching vowel teams to third graders at Burgess-Peterson Academy in Atlanta. They're learning how to spell the long 'e' sound using vowel teams 'ee' and 'ea'. She begins with a listening game.

Elizabeth Hogan: I am going to say the sounds. You're going to listen and blend the sounds together to figure out the word. All right? So the first word is this. Listen. /s/, /t/, /ā/, /n/.

Students: Stain.

Elizabeth Hogan: Good job. It was a little tricky. Okay. Listen to this next one. /th/, /r/, /ē/.

Students: Three.

Elizabeth Hogan: Three. Yes. All right. You're putting my sounds together to figure out my word. Ready?

Narrator: After students practice blending sounds together, Ms. Hogan moves to warming up with flashcards where she reviews vowel teams they've already learned, like 'ai' and 'ay'.

Elizabeth Hogan: Listen to this. This comes in the beginning or middle of words. Where do we see this?

Students: Beginning or middle of words.

Elizabeth Hogan: Yes. We're going to need that today for writing.

Narrator: Then she introduces the vowel teams they'll be working with today.

Elizabeth Hogan: Ooh, sound?

Students: /ē/.

Abby: This can be at any spot.

Elizabeth Hogan: You're exactly right, Abby. It can be in any place in the word, so that's a little tricky. When we're spelling today, I'll have to give you some hints about where it is. Okay? Sound?

Students: /ē/.

Elizabeth Hogan: Good job. All right. This can also be anywhere in a word. So we're going to work on this one a lot today because it's a little tricky.

Narrator: Today's vowel teams often appear in homophones. Words that sound the same, but are spelled differently and have different meanings. And because 'ee' and 'ea' can be found anywhere in a word, this means that students will need explicit instruction on how to use context to determine the correct spelling.

Elizabeth Hogan: What about, I want you to think in your head if I say the word /m/ /ē/ /t/ ... /m/ /ē/ /t/ ... what picture just popped in your head? Quiet hand. What picture just popped in your head if I just say the word /m/ /ē/ /t/? What do you think, Ellison?

Ellison: Like the food meat.

Elizabeth Hogan: The food meat, like, "Oh, we cooked the meat on the grill." Everyone say, "We cooked the meat on the grill."

Students: "We cooked the meat on the grill."

Elizabeth Hogan: "We cooked the meat on the grill." And that is this type. This vowel team, M-E-A-T. Yes. There is another type of /m/ /ē/ /t/. Show me with a quiet hand if you know the /m/ /ē/ /t/ that uses this vowel team. Sahanya, what do you think?

Sahanya: The one that you meet somebody.

Elizabeth Hogan: Yes. Like if you meet someone, like if I'm meeting you for the first time and I say, "Nice to meet you, Sahanya." Yes. That is this /m/ /ē/ /t/ with 'ee'. So do you see how that's a little tricky? We have this /m/ /ē/ /t/ and we have this /m/ /ē/ /t/. Okay. I'm going to teach you some other homophones today. The homophones we're going to talk about today are the words "peek" and Peak. There are two types of /p/ /ē/ /k/. It is a homophone, but they are spelled with different vowel teams that say /ē/. So the first word we're going to talk about today is the word "peek" with the 'ee' vowel team. Okay? And this one means like you're looking at something. So everyone's going to put their hands up and I want you to say, "I peak into the box." Everyone say it.

Students: "I peak into the box."

Elizabeth Hogan: Good. The word is peek. What's the word?

Students: Peek.

Elizabeth Hogan: Say "E-E, peek."

Students: "E-E, peek."

Elizabeth Hogan: And put up your binoculars. We're peeking around the classroom.

Narrator: Adding a hand motion while spelling helps students lock in the letters. And it keeps it fun.

Elizabeth Hogan: Amazing. That is p/ /ē/ /k/ with the 'ee' vowel team. We put up our binoculars for that peek. Okay? I'm going to put that one up here because we're going to need it later. All right. This is the next /p/ /ē/ /k/ with the 'ea' vowel team. Said the same way, but this one is spelled E-A and it means something totally different. So I want you to say "E-A, peak."

Students: "E-A, peak."

Elizabeth Hogan: This /p/ /ē/ /k/ means the very tip top of a mountain. All right. I want you to say, "This peak means the very tip top of a mountain."

Students: "This peak means the very tip top of a mountain."

Elizabeth Hogan: Nice. Say, "I hiked to the peak of Stone Mountain."

Students: "I hiked to the peak of Stone Mountain."

Elizabeth Hogan: Nice. And we're making a little mountain with our hands, right? And our tips of our fingers are the ... peak. Right? So this /p/ /ē/ /k/ say E-A, peak.

Students: "E-A, peak."

Elizabeth Hogan: "Means the top of a mountain."

Students: "Means the top of the mountain."

Elizabeth Hogan: Yes. All right. I'm going to put that one up here. This is the word /f/ /ē/ /t/. What's the word?

Students: /f/ /ē/ /t/.

Elizabeth Hogan: This is "E-E, feet."

Students: "E-E, feet."

Elizabeth Hogan: And I'm going to point because this /f/ /ē/ /t/ means our body part, right? The body part that helps us stand and walk. Everyone say "E-E, feet."

Students: "E-E, feet."

Elizabeth Hogan: And show me your feet. "Our body part."

Students: "Our body part."

Elizabeth Hogan: Nice. All right. I'm putting that one up next because we got it. So everyone say "E-A, feat."

Students: "E-A, feat."

Elizabeth Hogan: And a "feat" is a major accomplishment. You say it.

Students: "A feat is a major accomplishment."

Elizabeth Hogan: Nice job. All right. So now, do you know two types of /f/ /ē/ /t/?

Students: Yes.

Elizabeth Hogan: Did you ever know that before? Really cool. All right. So now we're going to review the words we talked about because you're going to be writing them today and you're going to need to know which one by listening to my sentence. So the thing is, if I just say /p/ /ē/ /k/, /p/ /ē/ /k/, you don't know which one to write. You're having to listen to the rest of my sentence to know which one I'm talking about. All right. So one more time. Let's review the words we did. Say "E-E, peek."

Students: "E-E, peek."

Elizabeth Hogan: "Means to look at something."

Students: "Means to look at something."

Elizabeth Hogan: Yes. And we put on our binoculars. Okay. Ready? Echo me. "E-A, peak."

Students: "E-A, peak."

Elizabeth Hogan: "Means the top of a mountain."

Students: "Means the top of a mountain."

Elizabeth Hogan: Yes. All right. Now let's move on to /f/ /ē/ /t/. Ready? Say "E-E, feet."

Students: "E-E, feet."

Elizabeth Hogan: "Means our body parts."

Students: "Means our body parts."

Elizabeth Hogan: Great. Good job. Did you point to your feet?

Students: Yes.

Elizabeth Hogan: Yes. Okay. Ooh. And our last one, say "E-A, feat."

Students: "E-A, feat."

Elizabeth Hogan: "Means a major accomplishment."

Students: "Means a major accomplishment."

Elizabeth Hogan: Everyone make their wow face for the feat.

Together: Wow.

Elizabeth Hogan: It might be like a home alone face. Okay, good job. I think you know these words. I think you're ready to get writing. Thumbs up if you're ready to open your dictation notebook.

Narrator: During sound and word dictation, Ms. Hogan gives students the chance to practice finding a word's meaning from context, which is the key to unlocking the correct spelling.

Elizabeth Hogan: The first word is the word peek. Repeat. Peek.

Students: Peek.

Elizabeth Hogan: "I will peek into the gift bag." Everyone say the sentence.

Together: "I will peek into the gift bag."

Elizabeth Hogan: I wonder if you're remembering the right /p/ /ē/ /k/. Sahanya, which /p/ /ē/ /k/ did you write?

Sahanya: E-E.

Elizabeth Hogan: Yes. Everyone say "E-E, peek."

Students: "E-E, peek."

Elizabeth Hogan: And put on your binoculars. All right. Next word. The word is peak. Repeat.

Students: Peak.

Elizabeth Hogan: Peak. Repeat.

Students: Peak.

Elizabeth Hogan: All right. You don't know yet. So listen to my sentence. "I ran to the peak of Stone Mountain." What's the sentence?

Students: "I ran to the peak of Stone Mountain."

Elizabeth Hogan: Yes. Jacob, which vowel team did you choose for that /p/ /ē/ /k/?

Jacob: E-A.

Elizabeth Hogan: Yes. Awesome. The reason he chose that is because he listened to my sentence and he heard me say, "I hiked up to the peak" and he listened the whole way. So he knew I wasn't talking about this type of peek, looking into something. It doesn't make sense. So we have to know which vowel team to use by listening to the clues in the sentence, right?

Students: Yes.

Elizabeth Hogan: Awesome. Great job. Okay guys, let's read the words we wrote today and then we're going to move on to phrases. Okay?

Students: Peak.

Narrator: After reading what they wrote, they move on to the next step of today's lesson — phrase dictation.

Elizabeth Hogan: We are going to use a set of our homophone words. So you're going to have to think about which one to use. Okay? So we're going to write two phrases. The first phrase is, "peeked at the prize." Repeat.

Students: "Peeked at the prize."

Elizabeth Hogan: Good. Let's write it. I hope you chose the right /p/ /ē/ /k/. Check yours with mine. Park your pencils when you're ready so I know we can go to our next phrase. Your second phrase is, "hike to the peak."

Students: "Hike to the peak."

Elizabeth Hogan: Again, "hike to the peak."

Students: "Hike to the peak."

Elizabeth Hogan: Good. Write it. Check your /p/ /ē/ /k/ with my /p/ /ē/ /k/ and make sure you chose the right one. Thumbs up if you chose the right /p/ /ē/ /k/. Good. We did E-A, peak.

Narrator: The last step of the lesson is sentence dictation. Students will pick one of the phrases and turn it into a complete sentence. By adding a "who" or a "what."

Elizabeth Hogan: All right. Get started turning one of these phrases into a complete sentence. You get to decide. You get to make it up. You want to say, "I peeked at the prize," talking about you? I like it. Okay, you do that. All right. Everyone has wrapped up their sentences. If you would like to share your complete sentence, show me a quiet hand and I am going to call on some friends to share their sentence. Hadley, I would love for you to share your sentence.

Hadley: "Addie and me peaked at the prize."

Elizabeth Hogan: Yes. Amazing. "Addie and me peaked at the prize." All right, Chase, I would love for you to share your sentence.

Chase: "At my birthday party, I peek at the prize."

Elizabeth Hogan: Ooh. At Chase's birthday party, he peaked at the prize. Amazing sentence. Good job. I love the work you put into your sentences and I saw a lot of others really creative sentences. Amazing. Pat yourself on the back. You guys are amazing.

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 Burgess-Peterson Academy, Reading Is Essential for All People and Atlanta Public Schools. 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.

Lisa Glickman: All right. We are going to get ready to get started with our listening game. Are you ready? Okay. I'm going to say a word. You're going to repeat the word. We are going to tap the sounds in the word. Today, we are going to listen for the sound /oi/. Everybody say /oi/.

Students: /oi/.

Narrator: Today, reading specialist Lisa Glickman is teaching second graders at Burgess-Peterson Academy in Atlanta how to spell the /oi/ sound with vowel team 'oy' or vowel team 'oi'. She begins with a listening game to help tune students' ears into where in the word they hear that /oi/ sound.

Lisa Glickman: We're going to listen to hear if we hear the sound /oi/ at the beginning, in the middle or the end of the word. First word, joy.

Students: Joy.

Lisa Glickman: Let's tap it.

Together: /j/, /oi/.

Lisa Glickman: Where did we hear the /oi/ sound in that word?

Student: End.

Lisa Glickman: At the end. Good. Next word. Spoil.

Students: Spoil.

Lisa Glickman: Let's tap it.

Narrator: Where that /oi/ sound appears in a word, the beginning, middle or end, is the key to unlocking the correct spelling.

Lisa Glickman: Okay, ready? Next word. Hoist.

Narrator: Hoist.

Together: /h/, /oi/, /s/, /t/.

Lisa Glickman: Where did we hear the /oi/ in that word?

Students: Middle.

Lisa Glickman: In the middle. And to hoist is to lift. So now we are going to look at letters that spell the /oi/ sound that we were just listening for. Everybody say O-Y.

Students: O-Y.

Lisa Glickman: Toy.

Students: Toy.

Lisa Glickman: /oi/.

Students: /oi/.

Lisa Glickman: And in the word toy, that /oi/ sound is at the end. O-Y spells /oi/ at the end of a word. Everybody say, "O-Y at the end."

Students: "O-Y at the end."

Lisa Glickman: And what does this say?

Students: /oi/.

Lisa Glickman: Great job. The other way we can spell the /oi/ sound is O-I. Everybody say O-I.

Students: O-I.

Lisa Glickman: Boil.

Students: Boil.

Lisa Glickman: /oi/.

Students: /oi/.

Lisa Glickman: This spelling for O-I comes at the beginning of a word, like oil, or in the middle. So everybody say O-I.

Students: O-I.

Lisa Glickman: Beginning or middle of a word.

Students: Beginning of the middle of the word.

Lisa Glickman: And what does O-I say?

Students: /oi/.

Lisa Glickman: /oi/. Okay. Ready for your next direction? Take out your dictation notebook and a pencil.

Narrator: This rule is fairly simple. We use O-Y to spell /oi/ at the end of words, like in joy or toy. And we use O-I to spell /oi/ at the beginning or in the middle of words like in oil or hoist. So Ms. Glickman gets right to student practice, beginning with sound dictation.

Lisa Glickman: Okay. The first thing we're going to do is practice writing the letters that spell the /oi/ sound. Okay. Watch what I'm going to do. I'm going to write and say at the same time. Nobody's writing yet. Watch me. 'O', 'y', /oi/, at the end of a word. Can you all do that in your book and say it? Let's say it together.

Together: 'o', 'y', /oi/, at the end of a word.

Lisa Glickman: So everybody should have O-Y on their paper. What does this say?

Students: /oi/.

Lisa Glickman: It says /oi/. Now we're going to write the other spelling for /oi/. Watch me. Eyes up here. Don't do it yet. Listen to what I'm saying. 'O', 'i', /oi/, in the beginning and the middle. Everybody write 'O', 'i'.

Together: 'O', 'i', /oi/.

Lisa Glickman: And where does it come?

Together: At the beginning or in the middle.

Lisa Glickman: Good job.

Narrator: The next step in this lesson is word dictation.

Lisa Glickman: Now, when we do our word dictation, you're going to have to listen for where in the word that /oi/ comes so that you know which way you're going to spell /oi/. Okay? The word is hoist. What's the word?

Narrator: Hoist.

Lisa Glickman: Hoist. I hear /h/, /oi/, /s/, /t/. Everybody write the word hoist. Nice job. Everybody park your pencils for a minute. Everybody say, "To hoist is to lift."

Narrator: "To hoist is to lift."

Lisa Glickman: So if I was saying, "I need to lift this heavy box," I could also say, "I need to hoist this heavy box." Hoist is to lift. So is that a who or a what? Or is hoist something that you could do, a did what?

Students: A did what.

Lisa Glickman: It's a did what. Good job. Are you ready? Next word. Your next word is boy. What's the word?

Students: Boy. 

Lisa Glickman: Everybody write the word boy. Nice writing everyone. Okay. Check your work. Did you use the right /oi/ sound spelling? The right /oi/ spelling? Is boy a who or a what? Or a did what? Everybody on three. Let's see. Who or what or did what? One, two, three.

Together: Who!

Lisa Glickman: It's a who. It's telling us who. Good.

Narrator: After reading back the words they've written down, it's time for sentence dictation.

Lisa Glickman: Great job. Are you ready for your sentence? What we're going to do now is I'm going to say a sentence to you. We're going to repeat it and you're going to write it. Okay? The sentence is, "The box was hoisted into the van." "The box was hoisted into the van." Say it.

Students: "The box was hoisted into the van."

Lisa Glickman: Good job. Write it. "The box was hoisted into the van." "The box was hoisted into the van."

Narrator: Ms. Glickman gives students plenty of time to write before putting the sentence on the board so they can check their work.

Lisa Glickman: Okay. Eyes up here. Let's read this whole thing together. Are you ready? Go.

Narrator: "The box was hoisted into the van."

Lisa Glickman: Okay. Now we have to be detectives. All right. Park your pencils. Everybody think in your head. In this sentence, "the box was hoisted into the van." What is the who or the what of this sentence? Everybody think for a minute. What is the who or the what in this sentence? Everybody?

Students: The box.

Lisa Glickman: The box.

Student: And the van.

Lisa Glickman: The box is the who or what that it's about. Yes, a van is also a what. That is so smart. The box is the who or the what that the sentence is talking about. Did what? What did we do with the box, everybody?

Students: Hoisted!

Lisa Glickman: We hoisted. Everybody show me hoisted with your hands. Hoisted. Everybody say, "Hoisted means lift."

Students: "Hoisted means lift."

Lisa Glickman: Hoist means to lift. We have a what was the box. We have a did what. It was hoisted. And where. Into the van. So when you are reading and you are reading sentences and you think about the who or the what, did what, where, it helps you to understand what's happening in the story. Everybody, you guys did a great job. Everybody give yourselves a round of applause. [clapping]

Narrator: Reading Universe is made possible by generous support from Jim and Donna Barksdale; the Hastings Quillen Fund, an advised fund of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation; the AFT; the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation; and anonymous donors. Special thanks to Burgess-Peterson Academy, Reading is Essential for All People, and Atlanta public schools. 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.

Morgan Walton: I am going to demonstrate how to pronounce the vowel sounds. I'm going to start with the short vowel sounds. Vowels spell the short sound when they're enclosed-syllable words ... /ă/ as in apple ... /ĕ/ as in edge ... /ĭ/ as in itch ... /ŏ/ as in octopus ... /ŭ/ as in up. The next group of vowel sounds are long vowels. Vowels spell the long sound when they're found in an open syllable. The silent 'e' syllable, and some vowel teams ... /ā/ as in acorn ... /ē/ as in eagle ... /ī/ as in ice ... /ō/ as in oval ... /ū/ as in unicorn. The next group of vowel sounds are spelled with vowel teams or diphthongs. They make a distinct sound that is neither long or short ... /aw/ as in "saw" ... /o͞o/ as in ooze ... /o͝o/ as in book ... /ow/ as in house ... /oi/ as in oink. The next set of vowels are called r-controlled vowels ... /ar/ as in "arm" ... /er/ as in bird, fern, and turn ... /or/ as in horn. The last sound is called schwa. Schwa is the sound that we say in an unstressed syllable ... /ə/ as in balloon.