Teaching any long vowel and all of its spellings can be challenging. Luckily with Long A its spellings (graphemes) have some pretty clear guidelines of when to use each of them. Most of the them only make one sound instead of multiple ones like with other vowels.

Overview

Long A has 9 graphemes or spellings that are used to represent it. We can break them down into 4 common spellings and 5 less common spellings.

Long A Graphemes

A

This is the grapheme most used for Long A. It is generally used in words that have 2 or more syllables. A makes the Long A sound when it is an open syllable (which is a syllable that ends with vowel). This spelling can be found in the beginning and middle of words. It is not used at the end of words as it tends to make the schwa sound like it does at the end of banana.

For example, take the words- paper, agent and table.

pa-per

a-gent

ta-ble

A_E

This is the next most common way to spell Long A. It is used at the beginning or middle of words. It is has consonant sound in the middle of the A and E so A_E will never represent Long A at the end of words. This spelling pattern is used for all vowels which is why this is an easier spelling for students to use and apply to their reading and writing.

AI

AI is the next most used way to represent Long A. It is mainly used in the middle of words. It is never used at the end of a word because we don’t have words that end with i in our English language. There are 3 root words that use AI at the beginning of a word- aid, aim, ail.

AY

AY is a grapheme used mainly at the end of words. There is only one word that uses it at the beginning of a word which is aye. There are a couple words that use it in the middle of a word but that is only to avoid having three vowels in a row in a word because that is frowned upon even more than using AY in the middle of a word.

EIGH

EIGH is the start of the less common grapheme used for Long A. There are only 6 root words that use this grapheme. All of them use eigh at the end of the word or have eigh followed by a t. The words are weigh, sleigh, eight, freight, weight, neigh.

EI

We would think that EI is used to spell Long E, but really it is best described as a Long A grapheme. It is used in the middle of words. Many of the words have gn or n that follow the EI like in rein, reign, vein, skein.

EY

This is grapheme that normally represents the Long E sound. However, it can also be used to represent Long A. No matter what vowel it is representing, It is used at the end of words. The general guideline is if the syllable is stressed EY says Long A and if it is unstressed it says Long E. If a syllable has more emphasis on it, it becomes a stressed syllable. When it does not, it is considered unstressed. For example take the word obey. Breaking it down into syllables we get o-bey. When we say it, we say it with a little more ump on the bey syllable. When it comes to the work money breaking it down we get mon-ey. Both syllables are pronounced the same so no stress on either syllable.

EA

Another grapheme that is usually used for Long and Short E. Yet we have three words and three words only that use these grapheme to make the Long A sound: great, break and steak.

AIGH

There is only one word that uses this spelling: straight. It is not a grapheme to focus on teaching, but being aware of this grapheme is helpful. Also it can be a fun trivia fact to use some time.

A_E, AI or AY?

These three graphemes are the ones students will get confused on as they are applying them to their reading and writing.

AI, AY or A_E

  • AY and AI are easy to remember if you teach that AI is used in the middle of words AY at the end.
  • AY can’t be used in place of A_E because there is always a sound after the long a sound if the words uses A_E.
  • A_E and AI are the trickiest to decide what to use as they both would have a sound after the long a. There aren’t any rules or guidelines to which one to use but here are a couple tricks.
    • If you hear a /k/ sound after Long A, you know it is A_E being used. We don’t have words that end like that.
    • If you hear a /v/ sound after Long A, you know it is A_E being used. We don’t have any words that end with v in our language.
    • We also have many homophones that involve these spellings. Like bail, bale, male, mail, tail, tale, pail, pale so teaching meaning will help know which spelling to use.

Things to Remember:

  • You don’t have to teach all the graphemes at once.
  • Yes, there are some expectations for a few of these graphemes but most of the guidelines for each work for the words students will be using the most.
  • Start with A and A_E graphemes as the guidelines and ways of using these graphemes apply to all the other vowels.
  • It is okay to only teach the 4 common graphemes.
  • Practice, practice, practice and practice some more.

Need More Help

To help me teach Long A, I created these spelling patterns posters and more resource. It includes a poster for each grapheme that breaks down when in a word it is used and how. There are also posters for any rulebreakers that are words students would be using a lot like the word- said. There are students’ spelling guides for students to reference to remember what grapheme to use and where.

If you want just a little bit of these post to keep with you for reference you can download The Teacher Guide to Long A Graphemes.

 

Both of these resources are ones I wished I had when I first start teaching first and second grade. Both help to see that these spellings aren’t so hard and the English language isn’t as tricky as we first make it out to be.

Teach Well,