Beginning Reading
LESSON 1
Our program is based on the Words in Color approach originated by Caleb Gattegno of Educatonal Solutions, and is modeled after the methods employed by Reading Horizons. Consequently, we do not teach the alphabet song until after all the consonant and short-vowel sounds have been learned. Moreover, we do not mention the name of any letter until its sound is firmly established in the learner's mind and he or she has practiced reading that sound in a number of contexts.
Watching this video presentation will give you a good overview of Reading Horizon's entire system, after which you will have a clearer picture of how instruction progresses through different stages until the child reaches fluency.
After introducing a sound in isolation, our next step is to have the child practice reading "sentences" composed exclusively of the sound immediately under consideration. The first minute of this Pop Up video clip from Educational Solutions will give you a rough idea as to how we initially introduce a new letter to our learners.
When we read, all we are doing is making the sound that each letter tells us to say, moving from left to right and from top to bottom
Reading out loud will help you to remember the sounds of the letters. So for practice, I would now like you to read the lines of letters you see here by saying the ones that are placed close together, one right after the other, but leaving a short period of silence between groups of letters separated by a space…like this:
If you would like to provide your learner with additional reading practice similar to the previous activity, there are a few alternative versions of the same type of exercise you might try for variety.
For example, you could have your learner point to the letters as you say the sounds.
Or you can have your learner point to the letters as he or she reads them himself or herself.
In a moment, you are going to help your child learn to write the symbol(s) for /ă/, after which your learner can write the sound and vocalize it each time he or she does so.
Or perhaps you could recite “sentences” like the ones you were just reading, one group of letters at a time, and have your learner write each group as he or she recites them after you.
And then of course, you might ask your learner to make up his or her own “sentences,” saying each “word” as you write them down on paper.
The two of you might even want to take turns writing your own original “sentences” without saying the sounds, and then hand the paper to the other person so he or she can read aloud what the first individual wrote.
The same type of activities can be used with each and every one of the other sounds as well.
Now that your learner has had some practice reading, let’s have the youngster begin developing his or her ability to recognize the letter in different contexts.
(These supplemental activities can be used in the future with any letter or sound needing additional reinforcement.)
Contrary to what you saw in the previous 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.
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