Question for~ElizabethB~

[Tabrett]

ElizabethB,

 

My 6yo dd can't seem to recognize vowel combinations or vowel/consonant combinations in words.

For example:

"feed" she reads as "fed". If I ask her what "ee" says she replies "e" (long sound) then she will proceed to read the word correctly. She does this with all the vowel combinations and the "ir,er, ur, or and ar".

How can I get her to "see" the combinations in the words. If I ask her what they say, she can tell me or if I point it out before we read a word, she is ok. It is not a matter of knowing what the combinations say, it is a matter of recognizing that there is a combination in a word.

 

One thing I tried was to take the sentence "Her first nurse works early." and laid the sentence out on the floor and had her lay words that contained er,ir,ur,wor and ear under the correct word in the sentence. ("burn" would go under the word "nurse" and "squirt" would go under the word "first") Does that make sense? She did have a difficult time finding the combinations and matching them up. Honestly I thought it would be too easy a task. I didn't make her do all the words cards I had because she was getting frustrated.

 

Any tips?

[thowell]

bumping this for you.

[johnandtinagilbert]

Not Elizabeth, but I'd say you're on the right track. I'd encourage 2 things:

 

1. EVERY time you use the teams, identify them as /er/ her, /ir/ first. The more she hears the "name" of the sound, she'll catch on.

 

2. Continue your matching drill with words from her stories, spelling list, copywork, etc.

 

3. Create a special page for her in her LA materials that has your sentence, Her first nurse works early. Go back over past words and add them to the list. Remember, identify each column as /er/ her, /ir/girl, /ur/ nurse, etc. and each time she comes across a new word, go back to the page and add it.

 

This is basically the method prescribed in PR and although I admit these groups were the toughest to really "get in there," after a couple months, it came together.

 

One other idea, play memory using the words on one card, and the sounds (er, ir,us, etc.). She can math "nurse" to ur. Change up the word cards.

 

HTH

[Amber in AUS]

Bumping for you :)

[Tabrett]

bump

[Tabrett]

bump

[ElizabethB]

I would try first underlining them for her or circling them for her. Then, have her underline them or circle them. You could also do some spelling with them.

 

Some programs show these combinations in different colors or different fonts, PP has different fonts, Reading with Phonics by Hay and Wingo (old but nice if you can find a cheap used copy) and School Phonics show different colors. You should be able to get by with just the Student book 1 and Student book 2 for School phonics, the rest is not necessary for someone who has taught some phonics.

 

You could also print out Don Potter's Blend Phonics Lite with red vowels:

 

http://www.donpotter.net/pdf_files/blend_phonics_reader_lite_c.pdf

 

You could do it first in colored vowels, then have her circle vowels in his non-colored version, then have her try a different non-colored version of Blend Phonics and see if she can do it, do more spelling and circling/underlining until she can recognize them on her own.

 

There are some good exercises similar to the one you laid out in School Phonics that may help, as well as it having colored vowels, the student has to match up things. For example, in the first book, lesson 11, there are these words on one side: pile, leap, pole, tight, bile, peet, on the other side: seat, sole, light, tile, seep, sile. They have to draw lines between words that rhyme.

 

You could also do spelling in groups, write a list of ai/ay words, circle or underline the ai and ay, teach that words in native English do not end in i so they will be spelled ay, then have her spell a few long a words trying to figure out whether to use ai or ay. Then, oi/oy and ui/ue.

 

Also, native English words do not end in u, so ou/ow (out/brown); au/aw (pause/lawn). For older students I also teach eu/ew at this time, europe/flew.

 

And, native English words do not end in a (we have many foreign words that end in a, however.) So, oa/oe/ow, boat, toe, glow.

Edited January 16, 2010 by ElizabethB

[ElizabethB]

Another thing I thought of is marked print, these will either be very helpful or very confusing. (Some of my students find them helpful, some find them confusing and distracting.) Try it for a few days and see, it can take a few days to get used to.

 

You have several choices:

 

my UPP

 

Leigh Print

 

The 1879 McGuffey readers, try it out with the large word or pdf files at Gutenberg, buy the whole series for $37 at Amazon if it works.

 

My UPP is very marky, so is the most distracting of any of the marked prints, but you can easily add your own to any regular print.

 

The Leigh print is very elegant and nice, but my pdfs did not turn out that great, Google hasn't scanned them in yet, and the originals are rare, you might be able to get one through library loan but you probably won't find one to buy--at least not at an affordable price.

 

The McGuffey is more marky than the Leigh print, but not as marky as my UPP. A nice thing about it is that the difficult words are marked above the text and then in a normal print below.

 

The Rational Method in Reading by Edward G. Ward is also a possibility, although it is even more marky than my UPP! It starts with a few sight words, just ignore those, it is a good phonetic method otherwise.

Edited January 17, 2010 by ElizabethB