A Phonics Snapshot

Teaching Yourself How to Teach Your Child to Read: A Phonics Snapshot

Reading Philosophy

To be frank, I do not prescribe to any one theory or idea in reading. There are several approaches to tackle this imperative and time-consuming task. Since I am constantly asked, “How did you teach your kids to read?” I decided to put something together to help anyone else who has this same question. Please research them if you like and see where you find yourself.

This information is written to help the not-so-informed teacher or homeschool parent. It is not an end-all, be-all. It’s simply a quick guide to introduce reading and phonics skills in a smooth way when you have no idea of how to get started or if you’ve hit a wall in trying to introduce something your child/student is not “getting.” Listed below are some (mostly) sequential steps to follow in your attempt to teach an early reader how to read. I offer definitions of what they mean and a method of introduction to use (or not) and tweak as you see fit.

Consonants and Vowels

A consonant is any letter that is not a vowel. For most words, vowels are identified as A, E, I, O, or U. Sometimes Y is considered a vowel, for example in the word “my." For teaching purposes, many decide to go through the alphabet teaching students what each sound makes with no special emphasis on the difference between consonant or a vowel. At this point, it is important for the student to learn all 26 letters and their sounds.

Vowels (short and long)

Once the students know all 26 letters and sounds, it is time to spend some concentrated time on isolating these 5 letters: A, E, I, O, U, as vowels. The key idea you want to convey is that vowels are specials letters. I have heard some teachers say vowels are the “glue” that hold our words together. However you decide to introduce that concept is up to you, but you want to emphasize why vowels are special. The reason is because they make two sounds. I normally have my children repeat that back to me. Pointing to a vowel chart I ask, “What are these letters?” To which they respond, “Vowels!” Next I say, “Why are they special?” And they respond, “Because they have two sounds!” Then, I ask “what TWO sounds do they make? And they respond, “A short sound and a long sound.” Finally, I ask, “How can we tell them apart?” And they respond, “When it’s short we say they sound and when it’s long we say the letter!” I help them remember this phonics rule by telling them the S’s and the L’s go together. I also teach them if a letter is not a vowel then it is consonant.

CVC Words (consonant-vowel-consonant)

After the students are familiar with the five vowels and both of their sounds it is time to introduce them to CVC words. CVC words are three-letter words that follow the consonant-vowel-consonant sequence. For example: had, mug, box, pen, or bin. These are words that most children can sound their way through using all the above information they have learned. I also teach a very important phonics rule here: When there is one vowel in a word, it normally pronounced with the short sound. (I have them repeat it back to me when I ask for until it becomes second nature in their reading.) There are some exceptions like “my” or “be” but these are best learned through sight words. (see below_

Word Families

A word family are groups of words that have the same ending (in sound and spelling) but the letter(s) at the beginning make each word its own separate word. For example, the “-UG” family includes the following words: bug, dug, mug, jug, hug, and rug. Other word families include “-IG”, “-AG”, “-AT”, “-AN”, “-EN” and so forth. (There are several of them.) Word families expand the child’s reading vocabulary and fluency. In addition, it helps with reading practice and becoming familiar words.

Sight Words

Sight words, in essence, are words that a reader cannot sound out phonetically. These words must be learned by sight as they do not follow the typical English phonics rules. There are a total of 220 words that expand across Pre-K (pre-primer) through 3^rd grade. This would be a great time to begin introducing the words from the pre-primer and primer lists. (Though, at this point, you have probably already taught them “the”, “a”, and “and.”) Some words from the list include: my, who, me, you, etc. Sight words are also called Fry Words or Dolch Words.

Silent e (Sneaky e or Magic e)

Oh, silent e! This one gives most students a hiccup to work through. I am never sure which of these names to call it. When I say “Silent e”, children want to know why it’s there if it doesn’t have a sound. After all, they have learned that all letters make a sound up to this point! When I say “Sneaky e”, they want to know why it’s being sneaky. (I guess kids really don’t like the attribute of sneakiness.) I always have one kid who says, “It’s not being sneaky!  I see it right there.” When I call it “Magic e” they all want to know what makes it magical and what “special powers” it has. So let’s just say I have not figured out the ideal name to introduce this rule of phonics. I call it “Silent e” because the students will learn more silent letters later as they become more fluent readers. I figured consistency never hurt anyone’s learning, so I stick with Silent e.Choose your preference.

The skill you want to build here is the child’s ability to know when to rely on a short or long sound from their vowels. You give the child a CVC word, for example, “mad” and you add a “Silent e” to make the word “made.” You explain to them that once Silent e is present it turns the short “A” sound into a long “A” sound. I sum up this rule like this: The Silent e makes the other vowel say its letter (or name.)

Rule of C & K

By now, children have picked up that “c” and “k” make the same sound but they don’t know why or when a C is used over a K and vise versa. Since they are probably beginning to write simple sentences, I find it necessary to point out when you use “C” and “K:” Here is the phonics rule: K comes before “i” and “e”, C comes before “a”, “o”, and “u.”

Consonant Blends

A consonant blend is when two or more consonants are blended together, but each sound may be heard in the blend.  The most common beginning consonant blends include: bl, br, cl, cr, dr, fr, tr, fl, gl, gr, pl, pr, sl, sm, sp and st.  Blends can also occur at the end of words as in the word “past”.  There are also blends which contain three consonants.  Common three consonant blends include: str, spl, and spr.  It is easier to teach blends in groups. For example, the r-blends (cr, dr, fr, gr, and so on) would be considered a blend group.

Consonant Digraphs

In a consonant digraph, two consonants are pronounced together in one sound.  The most common consonant digraphs are: sh, ch, th, and wh.  There are some ending digraphs as well, such as, nk (in the word wink) or ng (in the word ring.) There are other consonant digraphs, but these mentioned above are the most common.

Diphthongs

A diphthong (also known as a gliding vowel) refers to two adjacent vowel sounds occurring within the same syllable sound. Some common diphthongs are: oo, oi, ow, ou, oy, au, aw, ew, and ae.

There you have it! Many children have learned to become independent readers with age-appropriate books at this point. You will want to continue listening to your children read aloud, master sight words per grade level, increase speed and fluency, and learn grade-level phonics rules. I have a listed a few common phonics rules below for your familiarity but these are the not the only rules.  

Additional Phonics Rules

• The X sound is pronounced at the end of the word, not the beginning.
• Q and U are almost always together.
• When E, O, and Y are the only vowel at the end of a short word, it normally has a long sound. Example: “be”, “no”, or “my” (Do and To are exceptions to the rule. That’s why they are sight words.)
• When Y is at the end of the word, it usually has the sound of long E. Example: “funny”, “skinny”, “happy”
• The doubled consonant is pronounced in one sound. Example: “bell”, “fuss”
• Two Vowel Rule: when 2 vowels are beside each other the 1^st one does talking, the 2^nd one does the walking. (Which means the first vowel is the one you hear.) Example: “each”, “boat”, “toe”

  Happy Teaching Reading!

Blessings,
Joyice
The Writing Enhancer