The O-Team: Using Stories and Play to Teach English Vowel Teams (oo, o͝͝o, oi/oy, ou/ow, al/all)

Description

The O-Team represents a group of spelling choices for English vowel sounds that don’t say their name or their short sound, and are not categorized as R controlled. These ‘other’ vowel sounds are spelled by a vowel team that almost always starts with an ‘o’ that teams up with another vowel (or semi-vowel) letter.. We gathered these o team vowel digraphs into a phonic story featuring a baseball team, with the different spelling choices coming to life as the hitter (oo), the catcher (oo), the outfielder (ou/ow) the runner (oi/oy), and the umpire (al). The goal of this Koala room is to give educators the tools needed to TEACH the O-Team story, practice spelling words with O-Team digraphs using the story and the Vowel Table as scaffolds, and apply their understanding of the O-Team to write controlled “safe sentences” that use words that mostly play by the rules. It is one of our most ambitious rooms. If you want to learn more please check out the Wired for Reading Introductory Course.