Almost one third of the second grade Houghton Mifflin Language Arts program is devoted to short-vowel words and the CVCe pattern for long-vowel words.  My primary goal is to teach students to recognize these spelling patterns and to use that knowledge when reading. My secondary goal is for students to spell basic short-vowel words and long-vowel words that use the CVCe pattern.  

The primary video I use to help meet these California content standards is Phonics in Context: The Long and Short Vowels. I use all the video segments except the ones “Introducing Pencil Power” and the ones where “Pencil Power Signs Off”. I show the video segments as I am teaching the phonics/spelling pattern of the week. The first week, I show the short “A” video segment and the short “I” video segment. We work on these two vowels for two weeks. The third week I show the short “E”, “O”, and “U” video segments. I continue to introduce video segments as I teach the long vowel patterns.

Different ways an individual video segment can be used: 

1. I can show the video segment as a preview before teaching the phonics and spelling lessons of the week.
2. We can view the video segments in conjunction with teaching the phonics and spelling lessons.
3. These video segments are an excellent source of review. The video segments may be viewed right before the students are tested on the skill. It can also be viewed the following week when the program has a lesson that reviews the introduced skill from the prior week.
4. I have organized PowerPoint presentations that are taught with the first four stories:
   1. Dragon Gets By is short “a” and short “i”.
   2. Julius is short “o”, “u” and “e”.
   3. Mrs. Brown Went to Town is long “a” and long “i”.
   4. Henry and Mudge and the Starry Night is long “o”, “u” and “e”.

These PowerPoint presentations can be put in a learning center for students to view. It is very easy for the students to view the video segments. The students really enjoy these video segments. When students had free choice in the computer lab, many elected to watch the videos again.

5. These video segments may also be used as part of Discovery’s Assignment Builder.

I always download videos from Discovery Streaming for two reasons. The technology department of our district has asked us not to stream videos because it slows down the network. The more important reason is that I don’t want to depend on the internet. If the internet is down, I can still teach my planned lesson.