Beginning Reading
LESSON 1
STEP THREE: Practice Letter Formation
In addition to the "air-writing" your child may have done two steps ago, you will definitely want him or her to learn to write each letter correctly, one at a time. (We do not have our students write the entire alphabet everyday, as the video suggests.)
Keep clicking on the arrows until you get to the appropriate webpage. Then click on the drawing of the ear to hear the sound of the letter and on the drawing of the pencil to see how the letter is formed.
Here is a website from which you will be able to print just about anything you need for handwriting.
Contrary to what you saw in the above clip, we do not teach all the short-vowel sounds at once. Rather, we inroduce the sounds in vowel-consonant sets, as follows:
a - t, n, c, m, s
o - p, f, b, d, x
i - b, r, l, g
u - h, w, k,
e - v, y, q, z
Here is another video clip demonstrating the Words in Color approach. We include it to illustrate one type of activity that helps beginning readers connect given sounds to particular "triggers," though we use the actual lowercase letters rather than colored rectangles.
What you see two minutes into this second clip will give you a better idea of how we guide students into combining vowels with consonants. However, we print the letters side-by-side rather than point to them on a chart, more along the lines of what you see forty-five seconds into this video.
Given that you don't have access to our resources (and we have yet to publish our program in its final form) below are some online substitutes you can use instead. Keep in mind that you can easily create similar material on an as-needed basis using your computer's word processing program:
STEP ONE: Introduce each "new" letter/sound in isolation.
You already saw this demonstrated in the "Pop Up" video from Eduational Solutions. Starfall.com offers a couple of nice pages for introducing individual letters. (Click on the sparkling letters in each video to activate the next part of the lesson.)
Aa, Bb, Cc, Dd, Ee, Ff, Gg, Hh, Ii, Jj, Kk, Ll, Mm, Nn, Oo, Pp, Qq, Rr, Ss, Tt, Uu, Vv, Ww, Xx, Yy, Zz
Here is another link to access the same activities. Click on the appropriate alphabet block for an introductory vowel or consonant lesson, and on a vowel at the bottom of the webpage for an introductory song.
Though we prefer to reserve the names of the letters until after our learners have thoroughly leaned their sounds, and elect not teach the long-vowel sounds until the next level of instruction, the following videos nonetheless provide both repitition making the short-vowel sounds and practice with "air-writing" the letters.
We included this next activity because we think it makes identifying letters/sounds more fun. We only wish it offered the instructor more control in terms of choosing exactly which phoneme the learner practices recognizing.
Ask your child to point to the letter that makes the sound you are currently teaching or the sounds you wish to review. (Run the mouse across a letter several times and you can get a pretty cool "rapp" effect.)
This webpage identifies the letters by name instead of by sound. However, we include it because we think it's a nice substitute for letter/picture cards. (We also noticed it uses a soft-g sound, which sounds like "j" instead of the hard-g sound as in "girl.")
STEP TWO: Write and Read Letter "Sentences."
Again, you already saw this demonstrated in the Pop Up video. If you wanted, you could simply copy the sentences from the video (or make up your own) and then use the find/replace tool in your computer's word processing program to change all the letters in all the "sentences" each time you introduce a new sound.
STEP FOUR: Locate the Sound in the Company of Other Letters.
You might want to say something like...
Now I am going to type a line of letters. Find the /ă/ sound in each row and point to it. Remember to make the sound /ă/ as you point to the letter.
Click on whichever letter (ladybug) you wish. Then click on a flower. Ask your learner to point to the letter that makes whatever sound you are teaching (or sounds you are reviewing). Remeber to ask him or her to make the sound as s/he points to the letter.
(You can select to display either three or four flowers. Also, this webpage might prove useful when your learner is proficient enough for you to ask him or her to spell the word or words you indicate.)
Click on all the tabs at the bottom of the page. Then select whichever letters you wish to use to have your child practice finding/identify the targeted sound (or sounds) when mixed in with two or three additional letters. Remember to make sure your learner practices making the sound each time he or she points to the letter.
(This is another webpage you might want to use when your learner is proficient enough for you to ask him or her to spell a word or words you indicate.)
STEP FIVE: Find and Identify the Sound in Words.
If you make your own word cards or design your own computer activity, you could choose to say something like...
This is the word "gap." Find the /ă/ sound in the word "gap." Remember to make the sound as you point to the letter.
Warning: The following game is loud! You might want to turn down your speakers a bit before you begin to play. Have your child push the "pull" button and then point to the targeted letter/sound within the word(s)...making the sound as s/he does so. If the sound is not there, the child can simply keeping pushing the button until if finally appears. (Make sure ahead of time that you are using a phase and/or set that will give you the letter or letters you desire.)
This first game is similar this second game. Have your learner drop the words that contain the targeted sound in the correct location. Select the "Enter your own words" option so you can write words that are appropriate, with the "Real Words" being ones that contain the targeted sound and the "Fake Words" being words that do not.
STEP SIX: Blend Sounds to Decode Words.
(This step does not begin until the second lesson.)
The video clips linked below are from the computer lab teacher and illustrate a possible routine you could use to have your learner begin blending vowels with consonants to make words. Once you have the routine down pat, you can turn down the sound or pause the video to work with your child. Another idea is to introduce letter-sound associations in the same order as the cards and have your child learn to read each word as s/he learns the corresponding sounds
Blending consonants with short-a
Begin having your learner blend vowels and consonants to read words, as you saw demonstrate in the second HeadSprout video clip. Again, you can use your computer's word processing program to create whatever materials you need, but don't forget to make the letters bright and fun. (At TrintyTutors Virtual Acadmy, our favorite font for beginning readers is Century Gothic Bold at least 48pt in size.)
NOTE TO SELF: Starfall.com has this blending machine, if the others are accessible.
More from the Computer Lab Teacher on the art of blending (We do not use sound spelling cards unless it becomes absolutely necessary.)
STEP SEVEN: Learn High Frequency Sight Words.
Ann Glass offers some tips on teaching high-frequency sight words, which we do as the need arises.
Sing and Groove prepared this next video for helping learners practice the first twenty-five (or so) high frequency words using repetition, though we would never use something like this unless it were for practice and review—we choose instead to teach/introduce sight words one at a time.
d
d
d
d
d
d
d
d
d
d
d
d
d
d
d
d
d
d
d
d
d
d
