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Teaching the sound 'oo'?!


Momma4
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Hi, how do you all teach the sound 'oo' as in 'food' and 'good'?

 

To me and my accent I pronounce 'good' as in 'g/u/d' and 'food' as in

f/oo/d

 

Is there a rule for the 'oo' sound in such words as I'm not sure if it's just my accent that pronounces these words differently.

 

TIA

 

 

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I find myself daily asking how anyone ever learns English. Most of the time, my daughter is able to figure out the word from context after she mispronounces it and corrects herself. She regularly laughs when reading and says something along the lines of the 'the A doesn't say it's name there' when we come across a word that doesn't conform to the rules she's learned. 

 

We were reading a bob book the other day that was obviously focusing on the ai sound (saying ay) like paid, maid, afraid, laid, pain, etc. Then toward the end of the book it had a word like fair where ai didn't say 'ay'. 

Edited by Josh Blade
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So how do we know when to use each version - can such words become almost sight words because they don't always follow a pronunciation rule?

 

 

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They are most definitely not sight words. They follow the rules perfectly since they use a normal sound for that phonogram. It just has 3 normal sounds just as a and o. Ou has four sounds.

 

My boys learn all the sounds of a phonogram at once so they know all three sounds for oo. When we read a new oo word, we always try the first sound as it is the most common. If that isn't correct, we try the 2nd sound and then onto the 3rd. As they read more, their brains automatically associate the right sound and the sounding out process also becomes automatic and faster when they encounter new words.

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I find myself daily asking how anyone ever learns English. Most of the time, my daughter is able to figure out the word from context after she mispronounces it and corrects herself. She regularly laughs when reading and says something along the lines of the 'the A doesn't say it's name there' when we come across a word that doesn't conform to the rules she's learned.

 

We were reading a bob book the other day that was obviously focusing on the ai sound (saying ay) like paid, maid, afraid, laid, pain, etc. Then toward the end of the book it had a word like fair where ai didn't say 'ay'.

How does fair sound to you? To me it sounds like it has an ay sound.

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How does fair sound to you? To me it sounds like it has an ay sound.

 

The same way as care, fare, dare, bear, bare, air, chair, err (like to err). Definitely not 'fay-er', although. I understand how depending on your region, you might run across an accent that sounds like that though. I live in GA, and I could see people pronouncing it that way, though it's non standard. 

 

ETA: Using a phonetic alphabet, paid is \ˈpÄd\ and fair is \ˈfer\ (mirriam webster)

or paid: /peɪd/ fair: /fɛər/ (using IPA format from dictionary.com)

Edited by Josh Blade
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They are most definitely not sight words. They follow the rules perfectly since they use a normal sound for that phonogram. It just has 3 normal sounds just as a and o. Ou has four sounds.

 

My boys learn all the sounds of a phonogram at once so they know all three sounds for oo. When we read a new oo word, we always try the first sound as it is the most common. If that isn't correct, we try the 2nd sound and then onto the 3rd. As they read more, their brains automatically associate the right sound and the sounding out process also becomes automatic and faster when they encounter new words.

 

For us, they definitely became sight words after my DD had been reading for a short while. (And they're sight words for us as adults as well...) I can't imagine having to try out all three sounds each time one comes across a vowel combination with multiple pronunciations. But yes, to begin with I'd have a dc try each pronunciation to see which makes sense. That will only be necessary for a short time on the more common words, perhaps again later when reading longer, unfamiliar words.

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For us, they definitely became sight words after my DD had been reading for a short while. (And they're sight words for us as adults as well...) I can't imagine having to try out all three sounds each time one comes across a vowel combination with multiple pronunciations. But yes, to begin with I'd have a dc try each pronunciation to see which makes sense. That will only be necessary for a short time on the more common words, perhaps again later when reading longer, unfamiliar words.

I do agree but this is a different use of 'sight words'. Yes, your brain does end up memorizing it, but you learn it by sounding it out. True sight words you never learn to sound out, you just memorize from the start. Our school system teaches a lot of phonetic words as sight words such as "like, is, to, the", etc. The kids do not learn to sound out those words just to recognize them by sight.

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The same way as care, fare, dare, bear, bare, air, chair, err (like to err). Definitely not 'fay-er', although. I understand how depending on your region, you might run across an accent that sounds like that though. I live in GA, and I could see people pronouncing it that way, though it's non standard.

 

ETA: Using a phonetic alphabet, paid is

\ˈpÄd\ and fair is

\ˈfer\ (mirriam webster)

or paid:

/peɪd/

fair:

/fɛər/ (using IPA format from dictionary.com)

That's one reason I've always like SWR's "think to spell" idea. I am a PNW'er and dh was an army brat and our kids have mostly grown up in Texas. We have a myriad of accents around us (except me...PNW'ers have no accent, LOL). We think to spell words like fair. It still says ay to me but I agree that it is slightly different than paid. Some here in TX pronounce it the same as paid. When we think to spell it, we overpronounce the ay sound. We only do that when they are learning the word.

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From my well trained phonics student page, the guide to Blend Phonics/Webster speller page 11, U30 and U31, explanation on how to teach, common letters the short oo sound comes before.

 

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/Resources/Blend%20Phonics%20Syllables1.pdf

 

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/WellTaughtPhonicsStudent.html

 

According to recent brain research, the brain of a good reader taught is never reading a word by sight, but is always procssing the letters and letter team sounds for every word, just super fast in parallel, my sight word page has links.

 

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/sightwords.html

 

Dialects may vary how sounds need to be taught, if you say the sounds slightly different, just explain that.

Edited by ElizabethB
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I think it's easier to think of it as teaching the spelling "oo," not the sound "oo."
 

Whenever I'm teaching the spellings for any sound, we brainstorm all the words we can think of that contain that sound (as we say it) and put them in columns on the blackboard under their spellings.

 

So rude, mood, stewed would all be different spellings for a single sound, and that would be an entirely different lesson from the spellings for words like good, pudding, and would.

 

The columns help us see patterns and how common each spelling is.

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Hi, how do you all teach the sound 'oo' as in 'food' and 'good'?

 

To me and my accent I pronounce 'good' as in 'g/u/d' and 'food' as in

f/oo/d

 

Is there a rule for the 'oo' sound in such words as I'm not sure if it's just my accent that pronounces these words differently.

 

TIA

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

There is no rule for which sound is used; it is only that the /oo/ in "food" is the most common; then the /oo/ in "book;" then the /oo/ in "floor," which has much to do with the "r" following it.

 

Spalding and its spin-offs teach all three sounds at once, and then words which represent each sound show up in the spelling list. Because children know that it makes more than one sound, they will know to pronounce a new word with each sound; they generally recognize which one is correct.

 

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