mathmarm Posted October 31, 2014 Share Posted October 31, 2014 Why are the short vowel sounds taught first? Is there a reason to this that is so obvious it is just never mentioned? I know that there are many short vowel nouns so that might aid in comprehension, yes...But there are also many, many, many useful words that have long vowels. (Me, he, she, we, I, go, no, so, etc). Hubby and I have been looking through phonics programs for awhile now and they all teach short vowel sounds first. I mean....why? How come (almost) no one teaches the long vowels sounds first? I know that there are programs out there that focus on phonograms, which means you're introducing all of the sounds of the letters etc...But if you get a list of 100 phonics programs/resources at random, all of them start with short vowels first. I understand the inherent logic in teaching arithmetic via a specific sequence, but how did we get the sequence for teaching reading? Can an Anglophone from somewhere outside of the US tell me if a different sequence in common elsewhere? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris in VA Posted October 31, 2014 Share Posted October 31, 2014 IDK, but it would seem to me two things-- One, CVC words are easy to sound out. And I'm sure there are a lot more words that have a short sound than words with an open vowel like you listed--which leads to ... Two, most long sounds are made with two letters. LOL--I hope that makes sense! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted October 31, 2014 Share Posted October 31, 2014 Why are the short vowel sounds taught first? Is there a reason to this that is so obvious it is just never mentioned? I know that there are many short vowel nouns so that might aid in comprehension, yes...But there are also many, many, many useful words that have long vowels. (Me, he, she, we, I, go, no, so, etc). Hubby and I have been looking through phonics programs for awhile now and they all teach short vowel sounds first. I mean....why? How come (almost) no one teaches the long vowels sounds first? I know that there are programs out there that focus on phonograms, which means you're introducing all of the sounds of the letters etc...But if you get a list of 100 phonics programs/resources at random, all of them start with short vowels first. I understand the inherent logic in teaching arithmetic via a specific sequence, but how did we get the sequence for teaching reading? Can an Anglophone from somewhere outside of the US tell me if a different sequence in common elsewhere? You got me, lol. It's one of the many reasons I like Spalding: children learn all the sounds that each letter and combination of letters make. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mathmarm Posted October 31, 2014 Author Share Posted October 31, 2014 IDK, but it would seem to me two things-- One, CVC words are easy to sound out. And I'm sure there are a lot more words that have a short sound than words with an open vowel like you listed--which leads to ... Two, most long sounds are made with two letters. LOL--I hope that makes sense! Well, yeah, I guess. But it seems that it is easier to blend CV words than CvC. Take the words "me" vs "man" or "mom".) If you are trying to teach blending, then 2-sound, 1-syllable words such as "no" or "go" are easier than 1-syllable, 3-sound words such as "man" or "cat" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted October 31, 2014 Share Posted October 31, 2014 Well, yeah, I guess. But it seems that it is easier to blend CV words than CvC. Take the words "me" vs "man" or "mom".) If you are trying to teach blending, then 2-sound, 1-syllable words such as "no" or "go" are easier than 1-syllable, 3-sound words such as "man" or "cat" That may or may not be true. Spalding teaches those words from the beginning. Of course, Spalding doesn't focus on "blending." :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ottakee Posted October 31, 2014 Share Posted October 31, 2014 Check out the I See Sam program. They teach the ee (long e sound) in the first lesson. The first letters the kids learn are s, m and short a, ee (long sound) and I (as in the word). They then blend these together to form the words I See Sam. They use these as they are visually quite different (no b/d/p/q thing), sound quite a bit different and are frequently used. From there they do add in other consonants and short vowels but also do the long o (like in go) and long e (as in me) etc. which makes the stories flow a lot better. www.iseesam.com or www.3rsplus.com THey might even have the history of the program and research on why each sound was taught in the order it was. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosie_0801 Posted October 31, 2014 Share Posted October 31, 2014 I started drilling dd on the long vowel sounds as per ElizabethB's thread a while before beginning 'I See Sam.' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarah0000 Posted November 1, 2014 Share Posted November 1, 2014 I figured it was because the long sounds sound like their names and so are more easily just picked up naturally while reading rather than needing a lot of practice. At least that's what happened with my son. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanikit Posted November 1, 2014 Share Posted November 1, 2014 Many programmes that teach the short vowels first do start with two letter combinations: at, an, add, am, if, in, it, up, us, on etc as well as those where s has the z sound: as, is However if you want to teach the long vowels first then do so. I don't think it matters. You could teach a child to read starting with words that have the "ew" ending if you liked and just teach only the consonant sounds in those words waiting to teach the rest of the alphabetic sounds til later. I don't think order matters at all - except as far as availability of early materials - you might need to make a whole curriculum yourself if you do that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lots of little ducklings Posted November 1, 2014 Share Posted November 1, 2014 So far we've used 100EZ first with our children, then moved on to Spalding. 100EZ does introduce long "e" very early on, adding short "e" much later, and several other long vowels appear very early on as well. This does help tremendously with expanding the vocabulary used in the reading passages. Though I don't officially drill Spalding phonograms until they finish 100EZ, my children are taught from the beginning that the vowels make multiple sounds, and that 100EZ's phonetic markings are there to help them out until they are more comfortable with the rules governing those sounds. Then, when they start moving away from the phonetic markings in the latter half of 100EZ, I've always taught my children to assume a vowel is short unless there is a reason (such as silent "e," or an open syllable, or the fact that a vowel is part of 2+ letter phonogram) to lengthen it. So from this perspective it may be easier, at least in the mind of some creators of phonics programs, for a child to learn short vowels first, then become accustomed to the "rules" that can cause a vowel to be lengthened? Just a guess. For practical purposes, though, vocabulary in readers is definitely limited until long vowels are introduced. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.