PHONICS PART II

“Teaching phonics is a lot easier than teaching children to use the phonics they know. When taught in isolation children often learn what letters makes what sounds but are unable to quickly apply this knowledge. The logic is in the pattern, not in simple “vowel rules.” Psychologists tell us that our brains separate unknown words into their onsets* and the rimes. **   To be good decoders and spellers, children need to learn to quickly separate words into these parts, think of sounds associated with the patterns, and recombine the sounds.”  Dr. Dottie Hall

Several years ago when I was teaching second grade, I was introduced to the Four Blocks reading program. It is the most comprehensive program I have ever come across for teaching phonetic reading and spelling skills to students. It approaches learning from a hands-on method, the preferred learning style of most children.  In this post I will explain two components:  the word wall and making words.

The program begins with the word wall. In the classroom, the teacher will begin adding the children’s names, a few each week, so you can add your child’s name. If your child’s name happens to rhyme with other words like Lane or Pat you have the beginnings of some great lessons.  If your child’s name doesn’t rhyme with real words, you can have fun playing the Name Game and making nonsense words. (You might have fun making up definitions for them.) Add a word a day perhaps on your refrigerator or another specified area.  Be stingy with your choices, mixing sight words and pattern words. Mix nouns and verbs so you can eventually construct sentences. As you add the word, cheer and clap the letters. “There. T-H-E-R-E There!” You can continue this throughout the day.

 Play games with the words by breaking down the rime of the word and adding other onsets.  For example, say your word wall word is kind.  Make a flash card with ind. Then add:  f, m, b, bl, gr, r, etc. Discuss the meaning of unknown words such as rind. Now add t, z, g, fl, etc.  As you make nonsense words make up definitions for them. You are not only learning phonics, but you are developing vocabulary.  You could even write a rhyming story about a fantasy kingdom.   What a way to practice context clues!

The second component is making words. To begin, make a strip of mixed letters that make a word. Cut into individual letters.

a

l

t

e

p

Have (help) your child make words in a logical succession such as.

at

pat

let

pet

lap

tap

tape

leap

tea

pea

plea

peal

teal

pale

ale

tale

ate

late

pate

Now is the exciting part.  Have your child put all the letters together and find the “magic” word, plate.

Making words is for children who have learned most of their basic phonetic sounds. It helps them put meaning to the sounds, and the manipulation of the letters stimulates learning.  It also solidifies learning to write the words on a piece of paper after each one is put in place. You might even write a simple story and have your child place the missing word into the correct slot.

This is just an introduction to the concept of making words.  If you are interested in learning more you can buy Making Words for different grade levels. They are written by Patricia Cunningham and Dottie Hall.

* Onsets are beginning consonant sounds.

* *Rimes are vowels followed by consonants. Some examples are:

ack; ail; ain; ake; ale; ame; an; and; ank; ap; ash; at; ate;

aw; ay; eat; ell; est; ice; ick;  ide; ight; ill; in; ine; ing;

in; ip;  it; ock; oke; op; ore; ot; uck; ug; ump; unk

This is the School Marm,

 Ringing her bell. 

School’s out!

TO PHONICS OR NOT TO PHONICS?

That is the question that has been contemplated among reading educators for many years. My basic philosophy is:  Everything in balance. Tedious phonics programs with endless worksheets that belabor phonics rules are not the answer, but neither is throwing out phonics instruction entirely. 

Solid foundational phonics training is a crucial connecting piece of the reading puzzle. Regardless of how convoluted our language might seem, there are enough patterns of sounds and language to justify learning phonics.  Of course, to gain smooth, fluent reading with comprehension, good readers must gradually incorporate sight words into their repertoire, but learning certain patterns of the language will help children decode and spell words. 

Basic vowel and consonant sounds can be learned via a variety of programs.  You can choose a program to teach phonics, or create your own, but make it mostly fun and games with lots of manipulatives. Remember that children learn in different ways, some auditory, some visual, some tactile. The best instruction incorporates all three senses, but concentrate on the learning method that best accommodates your child. 

As I delineated previously, music enhances learning by stimulating endorphins, and movement, well let’s just say kids are made to move. I Googled phonics song and phonics dance and was immediately inundated with a plethora of resources. Looks like fun!  Of course, you’ll want to do some worksheets to develop small motor coordination, and it has also been proven that writing by hand helps solidify learning better than typing on a keyboard. Also, remember that color can be used effectively.  Vowels one color, consonants another.  Or easy letters one color, hard letters another.  Customize your instruction to meet the needs of your child; that’s the beauty of teaching your own child.

Yikes! I just listened to one of those phonics songs, and they committed the phonics cardinal sin. NEVER EVER teach your child that the letter R says “er!”  ER, IR, and UR say “er.”  If you teach a child that R says “er,”  he/she will add an extra syllable to every R word.  You will have, “erats, terucks, and erings.” R is pronounced with the vowel sound following it.  “Ra  -  Rat,.  Tru -  Truck, Ri  -  Rings.”  Okay. I just had to get that off my chest.  I feel much better now.

As I started writing this, I discovered I had more to say about phonics than I realized. So I’m going to start with this as the first part to a three part series.  Part two will be how to teach word reading through making words.  Part three will be how to teach phonics skills to older children.

This is the School Marm,

 Ringing her bell. 

School’s out!