AAS questions

[hobbystamper]

Hi,

I just started using AAS level 1 with DD and I have 2 questions.

 

We are at the step where she is required to spell using the tiles. She finds it slow to look for the tiles and would prefer to spell the words verbally.

 

My question is whether spelling using the tiles is an important step that the creator of AAS has developed for something later on or can she just skip that step and spell verbally.

 

My DD is in 2nd Grade but since I am new to hs, i decided to go ahead and start her at level 1. As a result, up till this point in time (step 9), she got a lot of the words right.

 

My second question has to do with "th". I listened to the CD and the two sounds for "th" sound really different from what I envisioned "three" and "then" to sound like. Can someone enlighten me how should I pronounce "th"?

 

Thanks.

[MerryAtHope]

Hi Charlene,

 

You could probably have her use the tiles for the demonstration portion, and then let her choose whether to use them for the words, or to write the words she is spelling. By using the tiles for the teaching portion (where you demonstrate a new concept), you are letting her get the visual of seeing the phonogram together on one tile, and the visual of the color-coding.

 

One reason it might be slow for her could be that she's not used to alphabetizing. Some kids have to start back at the beginning of the alphabet to figure out where a letter is--and if they are looking for a T, that's a lot of letters to go through before finding the T! So, when you do use the tiles for demonstrating, have her put them back. This will help her to strengthen those alphabetizing skills, which will lead into dictionary skills later.

 

For the TH sounds, if you are a native speaker and pronounce three and then like other people, your pronunciation is probably fine. The first one is "unvoiced," meaning that you won't feel a vibration on your tongue or teeth as the air passes by when you make this sound. When I've tried the CD ROM on some speakers, it almost sounds like a /ssss/ sound, but I think it's just a limitation of trying to record this sound in isolation. The TH in "then" is "voiced," meaning that you will feel the tongue and teeth vibrate (and if you put your hand on your neck, you'll feel the vibration there too, but won't feel it with the TH in "three").

 

If you really aren't sure whether you say the sounds correctly, you could ask a friend or your husband about whether your sounds sound correct--my guess is it's just a limitation of the recorded sound & how it might sound on your speakers.

 

HTH! Merry :-)

[Mom-ninja.]

I know one skill learned from using tiles is that the child begins to learn alphabetical order. The fact that it takes her a long time to find the tiles is because she doesn't know alpha order yet.

 

Maybe just have her do some of the words with tiles and write the rest if she gets too bored or frustrated.

[black_midori]

When we went through level 1, my then-6yo would do some of the words on the board and then just write a lot on paper (he "got it" quickly & also found tile moving too slow - we did some for the alpha thing, but skipped for "learning by touching"). I actually also find the tiles hard to use - I generally use the dry erase markers on the board and only use tiles for a few particular things at this point (level 3).

[timetoteach]

We started 6 months ago when my daughter was halfway through first grade after pulling her out of public school. My daughter also found spelling with tiles kind of annoying, but I encouraged her to do it for any word spelled as part of the lesson or the 10 spelling words. If she did them, the "reward" was to write the additional practice words on the board. She loves to write on the white board in various color markers. I am glad we did this, as it helps reinforce the phonograms. The first two levels went very fast, and for level 3 we aren't as strict about using the tiles, unless we are using a new phonogram.