The first rule for selecting material is that it must be new for the student with reading problems. The readalong books and tapes are interesting. The student can write his own story and tape it. There are special television programs that give preview questions. The student will know what he is to look for. These television programs are enjoyable as well as educational. “Little House” is one such program. Children enjoy Video taping. It gives them a chance to produce as well as to be a part of the production. There is an unlimited amount of lessons that can be taught from newspapers. After a visit to a newspaper publishing company, the students may be interested in putting together their own paper. It need not be elaborate. Most book companies have a wide variety of suitable materials. Commercial games are useful as well as the teacher prepared ones.
The students learned to put these sounds into longer words with consonant blends, e.g.,
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blow, please, grow
consonant diagraphs,
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phone, know, write
but only in the closed syllable, short vowel pattern,
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camp, trash, swept
we then advanced them to the long vowel sounds and two
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and three syllable words.
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As we took them through the sequence of combining the vowel consonantpatterns, we made up drills for the students. The drills consist of a list of words in the unit that was being taught to the students. We varied the types of vowelconsonant patterns. We made some of the words, consonant vowel consonant: example,
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c v c — hat
consonant consonant vowel consonant
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c c v c — that
or, consonant vowel consonant consonant
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c v c c — fist
The teacher points to these features and has the student name them as the drill progresses.
Stop often and ask the student questions: example,
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“What kind of a vowelconsonantpattern is this?”
as she points to the word hat
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The student will say, “It is a consonantvowelconsonant pattern.” (c v c)2
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The teacher will ask, “How do you know?”
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The student will answer, “Because it has a consonant
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followed by a vowel and it ends with a consonant.”
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The teacher will reinforce the student by saying, “Yes, it does, John. Very good.”
You will find that the student thrives on being praised for a job well done. Do this until the student has mastered this concept. The purpose of teacherstudent response is to make sure the student begins by learning the correct sound. We used this technique throughout the teaching of all concepts, any new words and all activity sheets.
While working with the one syllable type word, use consonant substitution extensively. The students can see that changing the initial consonant, they get a new word, e.g.,
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bib
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rob
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cub
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dib
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nob
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rub
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fib
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mob
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hub
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We do the same for the two letter consonant symbol:
We also teach the three letter consonant symbol in this manner:
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sch
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scr
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str
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thr
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school screen
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straw
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three
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These are all initial consonant symbols. After the student has learned to do these exercises independently, he is introduced to the end consonant symbols. We find these symbols in words like:
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band
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cast
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bath
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thrash
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bang
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clasp
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depth
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through
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bend
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clump
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thing
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width
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As students use consonant substitution, they strengthen the basic understanding that consonant sounds are not only phonemes (the smallest unit of sound) but morphemes (the smallest meaningful unit in the structure of words). Example: for ip , try
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sipsip
for at, try
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hat
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that
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sat
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chat
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bat
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slat
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As we teach the students about consonants, they learn that in a word s can stand for its own sound: Example:
Words in which s has the z sound
The letter s sometimes has the sh sound, as in
They also learned that letters may even be silent in words, as in the words
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price
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trace
and that there are also silent consonants, as in the words below:
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gnaw
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knife
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knot
We do not encourage competition among the students, and we also think competition among slow learners should not be encouraged by teachers. Most of the response should be by the group. This gives the class a feeling of togetherness.
We give drills again and again. The drills accomplish a dual purpose. They move the student from a slow response to a more rapid one.
To bring phonics into other subject areas, we did the following for reading. It can be used for any reading group, whether or not you are using the Basal Readers. This was done with the Wind Chimes and Passports Basal Readers. As the first experiment the teacher used the story, Two Weeks Old and on His Own, in the Passport’s reader.
After having the group read orally, I gave them a previously prepared activity sheet. I listed the headings, Blends (all kinds), Short vowel sounds, Long vowel sounds, Affixes, Other. I asked the group to go to their seats and read silently, then do the activity sheet in this way: put the word under the appropriate heading and underline it. The students’ answers were not in the same sequential order, but the answers were there. The teacher wrote all of the headings on the chalk board, and asked each student to read the words from his list. The teacher wrote the word under its heading. Under the heading “other,” the students found some phonics concepts that the teacher missed. With this visual aid before them, the students could see the phonics concept in the word, sound it, and say it. If a student had trouble with one of the words in the list he had a second chance to learn the word. Do this often to help improve their reading.
For Language Arts label a work sheet, Listening Sounds. This is good for classroom discipline. Have the class sit quietly and listen to outside sounds. The work sheet could look like this:
Listening Sounds
(figure available in print form)
The chart above was used over and over for Language Arts. We also showed how the suffixes er and est can help the student compare things by
adding them to a verb, e.g.,
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verb
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suffixer
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suffixest
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fast
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faster
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fastest
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Put each word in context to make sense for the student.
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John runs fast.
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Bob runs faster than John
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Bill runs the fastest of the three.
In the spelling text, there are phonics concepts throughout the book. Set aside a spelling period to call the students’ attention to the use of phonics to help increase spelling proficiency. Use sounds and structures. Give the list of spelling words for the week. Have the students use any of the previously learned phonics concept to do a teachermade activity sheet. Choose from the list of blends, vowel sounds, consonant diagraphs, affixes, inflected forms or any others.
Using phonics in spelling has done wonders in our classroom. It has worked for us. There has been a noticeable increase in spelling grades. Here is a rough graphic chart to show the progress of four students; two average, two slow learners, and their progress during the school semester. I shall name them Ann, Cora, Ramie and Jess.
GRAPHIC CHART FOR SPELLING PROGRESS
(figure available in print form)
We can see that the progress of the two average students was more rapid than that of the two slowlearners, whose progress went up and down along the way. A good speller makes a better reader. This is a good reason why the phonics approach to spelling works wonders.
The phonics approach can also be applied to mathematics. Teach the students how to spell mathematical terms the phonics way. For example, the teacher can take the word Multiplication. The student is reminded to use what he has learned about letter sound associations and break the word into syllables. The student takes the first syllable Mul which he has learned is a closed syllable, whose vowel sound is short. The second syllable it has the short sound. The next syllable pli has the pl blend sound. The hard c sound and the long a sound equals ca as heard in the word cake. Then the tion syllable is pronounced shun. Then the student puts all of the syllables and sounds together, the word Multiplication is sounded and spelled.
Do the same for map skills. Have the student trace a river, a highway; find a lake, an ocean. Find mountains, plateaus. Name all of the phonics concepts in the Quinnipiac River and/or the Mississippi River.
Puppets are always fun. Make a puppet from an ice cream stick. Using plain white heavy paper, cut a circle six inches in diameter which allows room to print large enough for students in the back to see. Use whatever concept being taught or reviewed. Print the word or symbol on the circle and attach it to the top of the stick by glue or tape. Use a black marking pen to do the printing. Teach the recognition of syllables in words containing suffixes. Have each student make one so there will be enough. Give students activity sheets with sentences written, leaving a black space to put the correct word. We have 27 students in our classroom, so we make about thirty sentences. In this game each student anxiously awaits his turn. We made a list of thirty words containing a suffix. Write a word on the circles, so that each student has a word. Call the first student in row l to the front of the room to read sentence #1. The sentence can be: “The old woman was __________ when I helped her across the street.” The correct word is thankful, and the puppet who has the word, stands and says the word. If a puppet with the wrong word stands, have the class discuss why the word is wrong. This can be adapted to the vowels, consonants blends and many other phonics skills. It can also be used in the primary grades. The circle could also be slit in two places to push the stick through; by doing this the stick can be used again.
Using compound words will help to introduce the student to two syllable words. Show him that each syllable contains a vowel, sometimes more than one. Always use simple compound words that your grade level student can understand. There are compound words that the slow learner has perhaps heard, but never seen. Examples:
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mankind
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earthquake
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township
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milkweed
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hedgerow
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makeshift
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boldface
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shipshape
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broadcast
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quicksand
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Play a game called “Out of the Hat,” and use phonics. The teacher can make a hat or have the students make one. You could borrow a man’s old hat and recover it. Use vowel sounds for this game.
Write all of the vowels on 3” x 6” white cards and line them up on the chaff board ledge. They will be a visual aid for the class.
Make about 50 white cards, 2” x 4”. On these cards, first sequence the short a with all of the consonants learned previously. Example:
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ab
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ae
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ah
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ak
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an
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ar
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ac
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af
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ai
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al
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ap
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as
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ad
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ag
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aj
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am
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ag
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at
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Now write the long a sequenced with the consonants; adding the vowel e on the end. Example:
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abe
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afe
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uke
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ane
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ase
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ace
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age
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ale
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ape
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ate
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ade
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aje
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ame
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are
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eve
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This part of the game is used to help the student learn the sound long a makes when it is used with a consonant. Put all of the short a cards in the hat. Have each student come up and pick a card out of the hat, say the sound it makes, and return to his seat.
Remove these carafe, and put in the long a cards. Proceed as before. To avoid confusion, we call the students up row by row.
After all of the students have had a chance, drop the cards back in the hat.
If you wish to do more with the cards, have the students pick a card from the hat, say the syllable and sound, and give a word that has the same syllable and/or sound. Example:
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ad
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an
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ag
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et
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op
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og
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bad
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ban
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bag
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bet
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mop
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dog
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This is an idea we use to help improve spelling. It works wonders.
When you start teaching consonant diagraphs, try the following examples to help the student learn the sounds diagraphs make in a word. Here are some our students especially like. Example:
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Ch+ab = Chab
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Ph+af = Phaf
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Sh+ab = Shab
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Wh+ag = Whag
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Try three letter blends:
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Sch+ab = Schab
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Spl+ac = Splac
As you go along you will think up many of your own ways to teach phonics in your classroom.
These simple games can be used with any subject by substitution, that is, using words that are associated with the subject you are teaching. We have found this to be especially good for slowlearners. It gives them the much needed booster of realizing, “I picked a word right out of the air, and spelled it correctly.” It’s a good proud feeling, and helps to improve their selfimage.