Word with short a sound

Sounding it Out: A Comprehensive Guide to the Short A Sound Words

Sounding it Out: A Comprehensive Guide to the Short A Sound Words

What is the Short A Sound?

The short A vowel sound is an open middle vowel sound. To make the /ă/ sound, the front part of the tongue is low in the mouth. The lips are unrounded¹.

A curved symbol above the vowel represents a short vowel: /ă/.

The most common spelling of the /ă/ sound is as in cat.

Words that start with a short /ă/ sound: apple, alligator, astronaut, axe, acrobat, apricot, add, ask, adult, alley.

What is a spelling pattern?

A spelling pattern is a group of letters that represents a sound. Around half of English words are spelled according to their corresponding sound patterns, meaning that their letters reflect their pronunciation.

What are CVC Words?

A CVC word is a closed syllable three-phoneme (sound) word that follows the pattern of consonant-vowel-consonant. When the word follows this pattern, the vowel represents its short sound. The most common CVC spelling patterns with a short /a/ sound are AB, AD, AG, AM, AN, AP, AT, and AX.

Short A Sound – Blends and Digraphs

A CVCC and CCVC words are closed syllable four-phoneme (sound) words that follow specific letter sequences of consonant and vowel sounds. When the word follows these patterns, the vowel represents its short sound. The most common CVCC spelling patterns with a short /a/ sound are ACK, ACT, AFT, AMP, AND, ANG, ANK, ANT, ASK, ASM, ASP, and AST.

Other spelling patterns with a short /a/ sound are ANCE, ANCH, ASH, ACTH, and ATH.

List of Short A Words (CVC Words)

List of Short A Words (Blends and Digraphs)

a_e – like in a word have;
ai – like in a word plaid;
al – like in a word half;
au – like in a word laugh;
aa – like in a word baa;
ach – like in a word drachm;
ag – like in a word diaphragm;
ui – like in a word guimpe;
ah – like in a word dahlia;
i – like in a word meringue
ua – like in a word guarantee.

How to Teach Short A Words

Teach one spelling pattern at a time. Once it is mastered, you can add another CVC word family with a short A sound. It’s much easier to learn how to read short A words within one family than to learn how to spell different words.

In What Order Should I teach Short A Word Families?

There is no particular order to choose from. We recommend starting with AT word family. Once students can identify the letters and their sounds, they change the first letter of the word and create a new word. We recommend separating confused letters and word patterns to avoid confusion. For example, do not teach AD-AB, AB-AP, AD-AG, AD-AP, and AM-AN word families at the same time.

We recommend the following order: AT, AB, AP, AD, AM, AN.

Phonemic Awareness Assessment

Blending and Segmenting Short A Words

Blending and segmenting are fundamental skills to teach young readers. The ability to blend sounds together and break sounds apart supports both reading and writing development. Developing phonemic awareness is especially important for students identified as being at risk for reading difficulty³.

Phonemic Activities – Oral Blending and Oral Segmentation

Oral Blending. Picture cards can be added to these activities to provide an additional reference for children.
Onset/rime. Listen to these word parts: /k/ … at. Say the word as a whole. What is the word? (cat)
Phoneme by phoneme. Listen to these word parts: /k/ /a/ /t/. Say the word as a whole. What is the word? (cat)

Oral Segmentation. Onset/rime. Listen to this word: cat. Say the first sound in the word and then the rest of the word. /k/ … at
Phoneme by phoneme. Listen to this word: cat. Say the word sound by sound. /k/ /a/ /t/

Phonics Activities – Blending and Segmentation

Orthographic Mapping

Orthographic mapping requires both phonemic awareness and phonics skills. They both work on developing automatic word recognition and identifying a word “on sight”. Some students develop those skills faster, while others need more time, explicit instructions, guidance, and repetition.

With orthographic mapping, students take a whole word, break it into sounds and connect it to the correct letter (or letter combinations). Students pay attention to the exact sequence of the letters and how they are connected to the sounds. This process helps students store the word in long-term memory and read it “by sight.” Try mapping the word cat, and provide explicit instruction and feedback for students.

Writing, Spelling & Dictation

These short A worksheets are great for building strong spelling skills:

Reading Short A Words and Building Vocabulary

Understanding the short A spelling patterns is more than just reading a single word. After students master reading words with accuracy and speed, move to the short sentence and passages. Use decodable text featuring the short A sound and check comprehension.

Explicit Instructions & Multisensory Approach

Explicit Instructions and Orthographic Mapping when Teaching Short A Words

Today, you’re going to learn the word CAT. Say the word. (cat) The word CAT has an A between two consonants. When the word follows this pattern, the vowel represents the short sound /a/ Say the short A sound. (/a/) In the word cat, the letter A stands for the /a/ sound.

READ IT.

Read the word three times, and finger-tap the dot under the word as you read it.

SOUND OUT & MAP IT
In this section, students learn how to segment word phoneme by phoneme and count how many sounds the word has.

Listen to this word: cat. Say the sounds in the word CAT: /k//a//t/. Say the sounds again. (/k/ /a/ /t/) This time, place a chip in a box for each sound you hear. How many sounds are in the word CAT? (3)

WRITE IT
In this section, students write the letters for each sound, count how many letters the word has, and build spelling skills.

Now, write the letters for each sound under the boxes. What letter represents the sound /k/? (c) Writhe the letter C. What letter represents the sound /a/? (a) Write the letter A. What letter represents the sound /t/? (t) Write the letter T. How do you spell the word? C-A-T. How many letters are in the word CAT? (3)

Explicit Instructions and Segmenting Words when Teaching Short A Words

Today, you’re going to learn how to read words ending AT.

Worksheet1. Segmenting words by onset/rhyme and phoneme by phoneme. Learning to count phonemes in spoken words.

Look at the first word. Finger-tap each letter to sound it out. (/k/ /a/ /t/) How many sounds do you hear? (3) Great! Now read the first sound and then the rest of the word. Slide your finger across the arrow as you read it. (/k/ … at) Great! Now read the word and slide your finger across the word as you read. (cat)

Now let’s move to the next row. Look at the word. Finger-tap each letter to sound it out. (/h/ /a/ /t/) How many sounds do you hear? (3) Great! Now read the first sound and then the rest of the word. Slide your finger across the arrow as you read it. (/h/ … at) Great! Now read the word and slide your finger across the word as you read. (hat)

Continue with the words hat, mat, and rat.

Worksheet 2. Segmenting words phoneme by phoneme. Learning to count phonemes in spoken words.

Look at the first word. Finger-tap each letter to sound it out. (/k/ /a/ /t/) How many sounds do you hear? (3) Great! Now read the word and slide your finger across the word as you read. (cat) Find and glue the picture of a cat next to the word.

Continue with the words hat, mat, and rat.

When Students Struggle

The most common struggle with reading short /a/ sound words is weak letter-sound correspondence skills when students need help matching letters with the correct sounds. This can lead to difficulty memorizing words and storing them in long-term memory. Start with short /a/ sound clip cards and let struggling students identify the middle sound or the rime. Then, move forward with blending onset and rime to sound out short /a/ words.

Elkonin boxes are great phonics intervention tools to build phonological awareness skills by segmenting words into individual sounds. Orthographic mapping is another strategy to help struggling students. Through orthographic mapping, students use the oral part of their brain to map the sounds of words they already know to the letters in a word. Give students more practice and slowly move from one word to another.

Decoding activities are great for struggling students. Decoding is when students recognize that each letter makes a specific sound, then blend them to read the word. This reading process is also known as “sounding it out.”

The multisensory approach provides visual, auditory, and kinesthetic activities, enhancing the learning process and students’ memory.

LEARNING MATERIALS TO MEET EVERY CHILD’S NEEDS

Here, at PrimaryLearning.Org, we tend to deliver the best-differentiated learning materials to K-2 students. Our resources can be easily incorporated into multisensory lessons to meet every child’s needs, whether s/he is a visual, kinesthetic, or auditory learner.

References

1. 1. Phonics from A to Z by Wiley Blevins
   2. The Students’ Ability In Pronouncing Long And Short Vowels In English Vocabulary by IJEAL
   3. Why Phonological Awareness Is Important for Reading and Spelling by Reading Rockets