Wednesday, February 29, 2012

English Sounds and Corresponding Spellings

Sometimes English spelling is confusing because one sound can be represented by multiple letters or letter combinations. Use the following chart as a reference to recognize the different spellings for English sounds. (The letters between slash marks “/  /” represent sounds.)


Vowels
Sound
Spelling
Example
/ə/, /ŭ/
a
about
e
open
i
pencil
o
money, summon, lemon
u
cactus
/ā/
a
gate
ai
paint
ay
say
/ē/
ea
dream
ee
sweet
ie
field, chief
y
sunny
/ī/
i
kite
igh (ign)
tight, sign
ie
pie
y
fly, style
/ō/
o
so, note, cold
oa
boat
oe
toe
ow
show
/ū/
(as in suit)
u
suit, tube
ue
blue
ui
suit
oo
food
ew
new
/ĭ/
i
it
y
gym
Special Vowel Sounds
Sound
Spelling
Example
/ow/
ou
out
ow
how
/oo/ (book)
oo
book
u
push
/aw/
aw
lawn
au
fault
a
call
/oy/
oy
boy
oi
oil
Consonants
Sound
Spelling
Example
/k/
c
cat
k
kitten
ck
truck
ch
choir
/f/
f
fish
ff
stuff
gh
tough
ph
phone
/j/
j
jump
gi
giant
ge
gel
dge
fudge
/n/
n
nest
gn
gnome
kn
knee
/r/
r
red
wr
write
/s/
s
sing
ce
cent
ci
ci
cy
cycle
/sh/
sh
shirt
ch
chef
ti
lotion
ci
special
/ch/
ch
chime
tch
itch

Information reproduced from the English Language Enhancement published by Reading Horizons. Used with permission.

Teaching Students How to Self-Monitor to Improve Pronunciation

Developing the skill of self-monitoring plays an important role in English Language Learners’ abilities to improve their pronunciation. As students practice a particular pronunciation skill, you can choose applicable questions or prompts to teach your students to self-monitor. With consistent, guided, and explicit instruction and practice, students will learn to self-monitor on their own.

There are three different approaches to asking self-monitoring questions or prompts. Each approach can
be used alternately or simultaneously on any particular occasion that self-monitoring instruction is being
given. A description of each approach is as follows:

     1) Self-monitoring prompts based on one’s pronunciation of sounds already learned.
     2) Self-monitoring prompts based on one’s realization of sounds not learned.
     3) Self-monitoring prompts based on phonetic self-awareness: noticing gaps between what one wants
         to say and what one can say.

Examples of prompts for each category are provided below. Choose any combination of the questions/
prompts, or create your own to fit the unique needs of your students. The format in which you provide
guided self-monitoring instruction is up to you. You can ask the questions in a teacher-fronted manner, or
you can create a worksheet with a list of questions for the students to respond to, either in a check-box
format or in an open-ended format, depending on your students’ needs and abilities.

I. Self-monitoring prompts based on one’s pronunciation of sounds already learned:
On the syllable or word level, did I say the following sounds/words correctly? (Circle “Yes” or “No.”)

     Vowel                        Yes   No
     Consonant                  Yes   No
     Blend                          Yes    No
     Voiced sound              Yes    No
     Voiceless sound          Yes    No
     Plural sound                Yes    No
     Suffix                          Yes    No
     Sound of y                  Yes    No
     Sound of -le                Yes   No
     Murmur diphthong       Yes    No
     Digraph                       Yes    No
     Digraph blend              Yes    No
     Special Vowel Sound  Yes    No
     Sight Word                  Yes    No

Phonics for Middle School and High School Classrooms


Middle School
I am in New Jersey this week working with teachers and students at the local High School and Middle School. I have been impressed with the teachers' responses to the opportunity to improve their students' literacy, as well as the students' enthusiasm to learn new strategies to improve their reading and spelling. I visited ten high school classrooms yesterday and introduced the purpose of learning Reading Horizons strategies. Today and tomorrow I'm visiting the Middle School to observe and model teacher instruction. In this process, I have been reminded of why phonics has a place in the classroom for older learners and how these skills fit into the "big picture" of learning to read. I thought I would highlight some specific reasons why phonics has relevance beyond Kindergarten to third-grade classrooms.

First of all, we know that reading is a critical skill. We also know several students need to learn how to read better. We know that reading at an appropriate rate with adequate comprehension is necessary. So for struggling readers, including students who are non-native English speakers, what role does phonics play in this goal to acquire fluency and comprehension? 

Decoding Skills Posters Hanging in the Hallway
Fluency: When students come across difficult words, what happens? Their eyes stop on the word. They reread the word. They reread the sentence. They reread the word again. They may decide (after multiple, unsuccessful attempts to read the word) that they will ultimately just skip the word. Sometimes that may be necessary, and using context to determine the meaning of the unknown word is sufficient. But if that scenario is reoccurring frequently in a student's reading, is that fluent reading? No. Fluency is compromised when students get stuck on a word. And if a student is getting stuck on multiple words in a text, is that student comprehending what he or she is reading? Probably not. If the student is having to use so much of his or her "brain power" to decode the word, there isn't enough "brain power" left to glean meaning from the text. Students need to learn strategies to decode difficult words that they come across in their reading. And these strategies need to become automatic so that students are able to decode words quickly and effortlessly.