An Introduction to Readability Levels

I began homeschooling over thirty years ago when Ray and I taught my younger sister (who was in eighth grade at the time) in our home. During my first several years of homeschooling, I used early readers when my children were first learning to read, but I did not care for “readers” for older children. I always felt that abridged or excerpted stories were inferior—and that children should read whole books.

This worked wonderfully for my first two (the ones who learned to read at age eight and nine). They didn’t like abridgements and excerpts very much anyway—and could easily read a couple of chapter books a week from ages ten and up. (I should note that they are both real literature buffs as adults, and our son teaches literary analysis of many novels to homeschooled students every semester. All of that reading really paid off!)

Then along came our third child, who begged for everything that I did not think was “best” for learning—workbooks (the more, the merrier, in her opinion); readers with excerpts and short stories; tons of what I had thought were useless pages of worksheets and coloring pages; and more. She was a different type of learner than Joshua and Kayla had been—and desired different learning tools.

So I began my hunt for “older” readers—readers for children beyond the phonetically-controlled ones that I had utilized to teach reading. I found many that I liked—and actually used some of them to read aloud to the kids since we found the stories and excerpts interesting and fun. They even caused my kids to go on and read entire books for themselves that they might have otherwise not known about or read (after reading an excerpted portion in their readers).

So…the moral of this story? Every child is different. Each child has his own learning style, likes, dislikes, etc. And we need to cater to those as much as possible in their learning. In order to choose reading materials for your children, a basic knowledge of readability levels will be a great help. I will detail readability levels and determinations in this month’s newsletter (March) and next month’s. 

When a child is in school, he is likely in a “reading group,” that is a group of children from his class in which all of the students read at about the same reading level. The child’s teacher chooses readers/stories for each group of children based on that group’s (the children in that group’s) reading level.

To practice with your child at home, you will want to do the same thing—but in a one on one, rather than small group, situation. How do you know what level is appropriate for your child?

I will enumerate some tips for choosing books at your child’s reading level, primarily for word-calling purposes. First, though, a small peek at readability levels will help you in determining your child’s reading level.

Readability is based on many factors. Many readability scales use one of a few simple formulae in which the number of words in a passage or story is divided by the number of words—and a readability level is derived based on the number of words each sentence contains (on an average). Other formulae use the number of syllables, considering that a sentence that contains twenty “one-syllable” words is certainly easier to word call than a sentence that contains twenty “three-syllable” words.

In both of those cases, the readability level is based on word calling, which is an accurate portrayal of early readers since children do not focus much on comprehension at that level of reading. (And if a class does focus on comprehension, it is usually just literal comprehension—what happened, who the characters were, etc.)

As students progress in their reading, we want them to not only be able to sound out words in a passage or story, but we want them to derive meaning from those words. Formulae for readability of a text based on comprehension is much more difficult to assess (though definitely counting number of words with longer syllables demonstrates a higher comprehension level than just merely counting the number of words).

So many things come into play when considering readability of, say, a chapter book of 150 pages. A book might be short but extremely difficult to comprehend due to the vocabulary used (which some formulae do not consider). Likewise, a book can be very long but have extremely immature vocabulary and not be difficult to comprehend at all.

In our language arts and composition books, we give students passages to write from at least half of the time for factual writing in the early grades, lessening as students learn to find appropriate sources themselves, etc. In choosing these passages to write from, comprehension is extremely important. In order to write from source material, a much higher level of comprehension must be realized than merely that of sounding out the words. In choosing passages for students to read, take notes from, and write from, we consider readability in terms of word calling first, then we consider sentence structure. Sentence structure includes the length of the sentence, the type of sentence (i.e. what we learned as compound, compound-complex, etc.), the type of and length of sentence openers a sentence contains (prepositional phrase openers, adverb openers, etc.), and finally, the vocabulary of the passage.

How does this apply to your reading with your student? Consider the list of ascending skills below concerning readability and readers:

Readability and Readers

1. In the early grades, you will be concerned with readability in terms of decoding, phonics, sight words, etc. That is, can your student read the words?

2. If your child already reads well in terms of decoding (sounding out words), and can “pick up anything and ‘read’ it,” you will want to focus on content—comprehending what he reads, discussing it, etc.

3. As students progress in reading, homeschooling moms and teachers in school often forsake the practice of reading aloud with children, noting that the child can word call anything, so there is no need to check for word calling skills/application of phonics. However, we advocate reading aloud with your child for some years, at least a couple of times a week. No, you will not be checking for word calling anymore (though my older boys will still say something like, “How do you pronounce this word—m-y-r-i-a-d?” when they are reading something to themselves), but reading involves word calling AND comprehension. A child who can “read anything” but not comprehend it is like a child reading “There’s a Wocket in My Pocket.” To say that a child in fourth grade can read at a ninth grade level because he can decode all of the words in a passage that is rated at a ninth grade readability level is like saying he can read the “Wocket” tale by Dr. Seuss. He might be able to word call it, but is he “reading” if he cannot comprehend what he reads?

4. Oral reading together with Mom or Dad at upper elementary grades is for comprehension—you will not necessarily be checking on the application of his decoding skills, but you will be checking on his comprehension, vocabulary recognition, etc. You will hopefully be guiding him through his reading, discussing it, answering questions about vocabulary words (i.e. words he can easily sound out but does not know the meaning of), etc.

5. If your child is beyond the beginning phonics instruction, you may not need books that are “graded” in terms of readability. Perhaps he already enjoys reading a certain picture book series or early junior fiction series. These can then become his “readers” to read with you.

6. Consider the differences in “readability” in the materials he reads with you vs the materials he reads to himself:

 
a. Be sure the material he reads aloud with you is somewhat challenging (i.e. he needs some help with words here and there but the books do not leave him in tears).

 
b. Be sure that what he is reading to himself is not so difficult that he needs cueing or instruction as he reads it.
 

 
c. Keep in mind that there are other things that affect readability besides syllable count, numbers of pages, sentence structure, and vocabulary. Interest is a strong factor in determining readability. (That is why I recommended the Saxon Bold Intervention+ for older students who need remedial reading on our Positive Parenting blog.The materials that they read from are high interest for older students—not childish or primary stories.) This is the reason that children who would not read their science or history book in fifth grade are picking up huge books of Harry Potter and these vampire books (not sure of their titles). Whether we like them or not, many children out there are reading these tomes simply because they are interested in them—despite the fact that those kids are not “at that reading level” and would never have picked up a book over two hundred pages prior to these books being released. (If you have an older student who is working on remedial reading, ask your librarian specifically for high interest/low readability materials for older students. Some of the adult literacy materials are extremely high interest with lower readability levels, as well.)

Other reading links:

Phonics Program Roundup for Reading Instruction

Using Word Cards for Reading Instruction

Reading Round Up: Tips for Teaching Your Child How to Read

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One of the greatest homeschooling joys—and greatest challenges—during my thirty-two years of homeschooling has definitely been teaching my kids to read. My undergraduate degree is in elementary education, and my master’s work is in reading specialist. So, um, yeah, I should have been a specialist.

But learning to read is hard work. And teaching a child to read is hard work. And well, it is really just hard sometimes. (Those amazing four year olds who just start reading road signs along the road, notwithstanding!)

(If your reader is struggling, you might want to watch my video on Solving Reading Difficulties)

I was blessed with a program that taught me more about phonetic instruction than six years of college did! And my kids were blessed to be taught using what was touted as “the Cadillac of reading programs—Play ‘n Talk. It helped my dyslexics become truly accomplished readers (even my three super late readers), and I am forever grateful for the visionary and genius lady who invented this program.

But today programs are a dime a dozen. Seriously, they are everywhere. So how can you know what to turn to in teaching your child to read?

I have some personal benchmarks that I talk about in this video:

1) It must be phonetic-based (not sight word based)

2) It must be word-family based (at family; ad family; ag family ) vs ladder letter based (ba, be, bi, bo)

3) It must have a lot of real reading built into it (preferably a reader with each sound that is introduced)

4) It must be incremental—one skill upon another

5) It must have the option of going slowly (with extra practice as needed) whenever necessary

So here are some thoughts about four programs that I recommend (or those whom I trust recommend):

Phonics Tutor

a. Two options:

(1) Phonics Tutor; good for all ages; lots of practice.

(2) Frequent Words Program by Phonics Tutor; especially good remediation for older students since it moves quickly.

b. No-nonsense program that works with all learning styles; has auditory, kinesthetic (students types in letters on the keyboard), and visual exercises

c. Is a cd-rom for the computer; appeals to struggling children because it isn’t “another phonics book”

d. No bells or whistles—as Timberdoodle says, “no dancing bears”—but a solid program with sequential learning, based on true phonetic components

e. May move at own pace or follow easy to understand lessons

f. Can literally load it on the computer and begin—the least teacher preparation I have ever seen in any curriculum

g. Multiple students may use it at the same time (i.e. multiple log ins allowed)

h. Non-consumable, so may be resold

i. Excellent spelling foundation; may also be used for spelling after reading instruction is completed

j. Does have child “spell” words he is learning, but only once words are mastered at the reading level

k. Timberdoodle describes this program: “With no dancing bears or racing bunnies, PhonicsTutor seems uniquely designed to meet the needs of the reluctant or non-reading older child. PhonicsTutor is a step-by-step computerized teaching tool with 128 lessons and seven activities within each lesson to instruct and reinforce the main topic. All 3,500 words are presented orally along with associated spelling rules. Phonetic analysis, reading, word spelling and diction activities make PhonicsTutor appealing to all learning modalities. No other program we examined has matched PhonicsTutor for thoroughness and ease of use. It is a perfect format for the older non-reader or special need child.”

l. Concerning Frequent Words (listed above with link), Timberdoodle says: “A young child who is already reading but needs additional phonics work may find Frequent Words, (see software), more appropriate.”

m. TRY BEFORE YOU BUY! Timberdoodle (at the link above) has “try before you buy” portions of this program available at their site; you can try it out with your child to see if it is what you are looking for

n. When Ray and I dream of how we want our ministry to grow and reach people, we have a crazy, unrealistic dream of being able to give this program to families with dyslexic students to give them the gift of reading—that’s how much I love this program.

o. Downfalls:

(1) Will want to purchase readers to practice sounds; however, this phonics program has more “built in” reading of words and sentences within it than most programs I have seen

(2) Students must type all of the letters/families in the blanks. Some might see this as a downfall; I think it is a blessing as many children who struggle with writing also struggle with the “penning” process of writing

(3) Must have computer to use it; there is a workbook available, but I didn’t find it that helpful compared to the cd’s, which are loaded with exercises.

Saxon Publishers

Saxon has three options to teach phonics to young children and struggling/older students. I will detail the three separately since they are uniquely designed for different purposes.

1. Saxon Phonics and Spelling

a. Complete phonics program graded for each grade kindergarten through third grade

b. Concepts are introduced incrementally

c. Easy to use lesson scripts

d. Has remediation strategies and activities emphasized throughout

e. Contains little readers that go with each lesson (no need to purchase separate readers); this would also save you from trying to figure out which reader out of your collection is appropriate for your child following each lesson

f. Includes a good blend of high frequency words and phonemic awareness

g. Good for spelling instruction too; strong foundation for spelling later too

h. Daily practice and review

i. Downfalls:

(1) Pricey for remediation—might be more “stuff” than a summer remediation really needs

(2) Contains handwriting practice within it, which many might consider a benefit, but my struggling readers were not ready to do a lot of writing too, so I would consider that a downside or just omit that portion

(3) Created for the classroom (like Saxon Math); thus, it has “more” than a tutor might need; contains some busy work because of this

(4) Looks overwhelming when you open the package AND you have to assemble all of those great little readers I just described above!

(5) Since it is a “graded” program, you will likely not get what you need in a remediation situation; you will either get all of the first grade skills (if you purchase grade one) or all of the second grade skills (if you purchase grade two), etc.

2. Phonics Intervention

a. Created specifically for remediation, targeting fourth grade and up, though a second or third grader would also benefit from it

b. Clear, well-paced lessons at more of a tutorial speed than a regular classroom speed

c. No training needed; just open and begin

d. Skills are introduced and repeated as needed

e. Comes with colorful, controlled-vocabulary reading material, so you do not need to purchase readers

f. Not too childish for older students

g. Downfalls: I’ve never used or seen this program first hand, but I have heard a lot of good about it. The downside I would think could be that it is not a Christian publisher, so the readers will likely be secular. However, I think the benefits (tutoring approach, easy to use, reading material provided, intensive phonics, etc.) would outweigh that for a short tutoring situation

3. Bold Intervention

a. Saxon says this program is THE program to put your older struggling students on the path to progress

b. Systematic, explicit phonics programs—a real plus for an older child’s remediation program as many times older children’s (and adults’) programs have a tendency to forget the phonics in favor of memorization techniques)

c. Definitely made for older kids—magazine style books, older topics in the reading materials, not childish looking, etc.

d. Claims to get results in just one semester—so seems very tutor-friendly, not focusing on superfluous skills but just getting down to the bare bones of making a reader our of a non reader

e. Easy to teach

f. “Readers” are magazine style with full color graphics and a variety of types of materials—if you have an older child who need phonics remediation, this would be a real plus because it would not have the student reading “Mat sat” at age eleven or twelve, which can be demoralizing

g. Downsides: Again, I have not seen this program, but it is rare to find a strong phonetically based program for older students—with high interest/low readability materials such as those contained within this. Again, the content is secular, and I imagine that all of the reading material would not be up to my liking, but the topics (extreme sports, wild animals, legends, etc.) are extremely interesting to older kids

In A Nutshell….

In a nutshell, I wouldn’t hesitate to use one of the last two programs listed here for remediation (or the Saxon Phonics and Spelling for my first or second grader as a homeschooler). I would probably go with the Intervention for struggling second through fourth graders and Bold Intervention for fifth graders and up who are still word calling at a primary level.

This Reading Mama—video here

This inexpensive phonics program is better than any of the expensive ones I’ve seen through the years (except Play ‘n Talk, which isn’t available any more AND is not as great on practice pages and activities as this one is). Seriously, don’t let the ten bucks make you think it’s not great…because it is! 🙂 She has word family books for all five vowels (for short vowels) for beginning readers…plus tons of other great products.

All About Reading

I have to stick this program in here even though I have never personally used it. It gets rave reviews and seems to meet my qualifications (plus is consistent with methodology for dyslexic user). Here’s a review I found for this program.

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Click to watch!

I have loved teaching reading again! And I have loved creating products to use for letter recognition and sounds/letter recognition. It is so fun to work with younger children again…and makes me anxious to teach my grandkids to read (or help teach them!).

(Click to preview the curriculum below 🙂 )

I have also loved finding a new resource for teaching reading—This Reading Mama. This inexpensive phonics program is better than any of the expensive ones I’ve seen through the years (except Play ‘n Talk, which isn’t available any more AND is not as great on practice pages and activities as this one is).  Seriously, don’t let the ten bucks make you think it’s not great…because it is! 🙂 She has word family books for all five vowels (for short vowels) for beginning readers…plus tons of other great products.

Click here or on the picture below to get it!

I recommend you subscribe to her blog to get updates of all of her products and her freebies too!

For more reading help, check out this podcast, and  a video I recently made!

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The post This Reading Mama Phonics Program & More appeared first on Character Ink.

School is in session everywhere now, which means young learners are learning their ABC’s and 1-2-3’s! I love back to school! I especially loved it when I taught my own kids at home! Nowadays, I am enjoying teaching (along with my oldest son Joshua, age thirty-two, history major with emphases in too many subjects to list!) one hundred students writing and language arts in cottage classes at three locations in and around Fort Wayne, Indiana. I call it my “testing program” to test my new books before we publish them, but really, they are just excuses to do what I love most—teach!

Speaking of new books, I have a new line of preschool materials coming out at my three stores (CurrClick, Teachers Pay Teachers, and Teacher’s Notebook), and I am thrilled to introduce you to the first book/download in the series! The series is called “Letters and Sounds,” and the first book in the series is a full-color download of alphabet cards. This product is called ABC Picture Cards, and it has many unique features that other alphabet letter and picture cards do not have (and features that are definitely not found in your grocery store workbooks).

Because of my love for children and my thirty-plus years of teaching experience, when I create curriculum, it has to be user-friendly. It has to do the job with as much help for the student as I can possibly put in a book. The same is true of this product. Each aspect—the font, the size of the letters, the colors, the pictures for each sound, etc.—has been carefully thought out (and tested). You can read more in the description below the video!

The first book in the series is available for download now at these three stores!

• CurrClick,
• Teachers Pay Teachers
• Teacher’s Notebook

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION: ABC PICTURE CARDS (from the “Letters and Sounds” series)

Welcome to the first of many products in the “Letters and Sounds” series by Language Lady, Donna Reish! This first product contains three sets of alphabet cards (though all of the sets contain the same letters and pictures). The cards have all thirty-three letters (see “What Makes Letters and Sounds Products Unique” ) and two “clue pictures” per letter. The product also includes instructions in various uses of the cards.

These three ABC/Picture Card sets include

(1) Two-sided cards with ABC’s on one side and clue word pictures on the back—these cards have all thirty-three letters on the fronts of the cards with the coordinating “clue” pictures on the back of each card. (Aa has a picture of an ax and a picture of an apple on the back of it). The front color matches the back color on these cards. These are made to be printed in a two-sided manner and cut out to be used for flash cards and other learning activities.

(2) One-sided cards with ABC’s—these cards are several pages of all thirty-three letters only. The “backs” are intended to be blank. (You will print one sided only for these.) These can be used alone for printed letter recognition or with the one-sided picture clue cards (next) for matching letters and sounds activities and games. (These are the same as the “fronts” of the two-sided cards.)

(3) One-sided cards with clue word pictures—these cards are several pages of clue word pictures for the thirty-three sounds with various colors on them (so that children do not rely on matching colors when using the letter cards and the clue word cards for letter-sound recognition activities). These are created to be cut out separately so that they can be used for letter-sound matching games and activities. (These are the same as the “back” two-sided cards but with different background colors.)

This product also contains three 8.5 x 11 inch alphabet posters with the ABC’s aligned with how the ABC song is sung (along with tips on using these posters).

This product is ideal for any preschool, kindergarten, or homeschool in which letter recognition, beginning sounds, and letter writing are being taught.

Check out the previews at the links below:

• CurrClick,
• Teachers Pay Teachers
• Teacher’s Notebook

The post Product Highlight: Letters and Sounds ABC Cards appeared first on Character Ink.

I have been busy this summer doing some private tutoring as well as teaching a few small groups in my home. It was fun to teach in my home in a super relaxed environment of fewer students (and less homework since it was “summer school,” and parents wanted about half the normal amount of homework for their kids).

Additionally, I was blessed with the opportunity to work with a special needs student on her letters and sounds. (In case you ever wonder what the best age of kids is, I stand firm in my conviction that the best is four to six year old, followed closely by every other age!)

I didn’t set out this summer to write a preschool program that teaches letter recognition and sounds of the letters. (I’m still finishing my composition series, Meaningful Composition and writing a novel with my son…so I had plenty to keep me busy already!)

I started out like most tutors who are tutoring in an area they are unfamiliar or rusty (in my case, it has been ten years since I taught a child to read, and it has been over twenty years since I worked on my master’s degree in Reading Specialist). However, I didn’t anticipate that so many fun and flashy programs (and grocery store workbooks, flash cards, and activity packs) would be so un-sound in their foundations. (I’m sure there are great ones out there, but just not the ones I was working with.)

For example, one taught beginning sounds at the same time as it taught them as middle sounds and end sounds (way too much new information at one time; plus, once the beginning sound is taught, it is much easier for a child to transfer that information over to end {then middle!} sounds). Some had way too many writing (penning) expectations for preschoolers. Some taught the initial sound then had the student read words with it—really? It only takes recognizing the sound of D in drummer to be able to read that word? One had less-than-best clue words (like alligator for A—too long for a clue word and run for R (verbs are not a good first choice for clue words). Some just had vague clue words (park ranger—who looked like a policeman or an explorer). Others were downright wrong—ark for short A?????

So what does a curriculum writer do when the programs she tries just do not suit her? You guessed it! She writes her own program. Enter “Letters and Sounds”!

I love to teach—so this will definitely be a teaching post! I am going to paste the full front matter for the ABC Sounds Song book/packet below. If you are teaching preschool and/or kindergarten, even if you are not in the market for materials to teach letter and sound recognition, I hope you will take time to read this “front matter” as I give a lot of instruction on teaching littles these first important skills. And check back often as I continue to add new grammar, writing, and other learning materials! (Oh, and check out my demo videos here!)

About “The ABC Sounds Song” Packet

Your teaching of beginning letter sounds is about to get much easier! Yay!

Children remember words of songs. They remember rhymes and mnemonics. They remember jingles and ditties. Thus, a natural way for littles to learn their beginning letter sounds is through one of these means. Enter “The ABC Sounds Song Packet.”

In a nutshell, this packet contains 8.5 x 11 inch colored “posters” of each of the twenty-­‐six
letters of the alphabet (plus five additional ones) in song to the tune of “Mary Had a Little
Lamb.” (It actually includes thirty-­‐three posters; see below.)

Each song is the same (same wording, phrasing, and line breaks) as the other. The only differences among the song sheets are in the letter and the words/picture clues that begin with that letter.

Here is what you get:

1. Three ABC posters with the alphabet laid out in the order and with the line breaks in the same manner it is sung in the “original” ABC song. (See “Tips for Using the ABC Sound Songs” below.)

2. Twenty-­‐six “regular” letter posters-­‐-­‐the “regular” twenty-­‐six letters of the alphabet, one on each poster, with each letter ’s own “song” with the beginning sound. (See “What Makes This Packet Unique” below!)

3. Five“additional” letter posters—the five long vowels (the original five vowels in the first
twenty-­‐six letters contain the short vowel sounds) and the soft sounds of c (suh) and g (juh).

What Makes “Letters and Sounds” Unique

I developed the entire “Letters and Sounds Program” when working one-­‐on-­‐one with a special needs student at the pre-­‐school level based on my experience in my reading specialist master ’s work as well as on my experience as a curriculum author for fifteen years (sixty books and forty thousand pages!). Thus, I do not take lightly the exact breakdown of curriculum development and its usability and effectiveness. Giving students every chance to succeed is what curriculum creation is all about.

Here are some things that are unique about the entire “Letters and Sounds” program and specifically about these letter/picture songs:

1) There are thirty-­‐three song posters, not the typical twenty-­‐six letters only. Why?

a. I think it is important when teaching beginning letter sounds that the short and long vowels not be put on the same poster/taught at the same time. Thus, the first twenty-­‐six letters are in ABC order with the vowels beginning with the short vowel sounds. The remaining five vowels are at the end of the posters and begin with the long vowel sounds. (In other words, one A card does not have Apple and Acorn both on the same card…way too confusing for young learners.)

b. Also, the hard and soft sounds of C and G are separated. The first time through (in the first twenty-­‐six songs), the hard C and G sounds are used (the most common in primer and pre-­‐primer readers). At the end, two additional songs are included with the soft C and G sounds (less common). You may choose not to use the soft sound cards, depending on how the reading program that you will be using handles these.

c. The short vowel sound is given first because it is the more common sound of each vowel (especially in one syllable words that begin with the vowel as found in beginning readers). If you desire to teach the long vowel sounds first, simply start with the vowel song posters at the end of the original twenty-­‐six. There are definitely pros and cons to both methods/orders.

2) Each of the letter song posters has the upper case letter and the lower case letter on it.
The concept of recognizing both of these is very challenging for young learners. The more that the student sees these two together, the better the connection will be between the upper and lower case letters.

3) The letters are Primary. This means that the REAL a is used (not a
typewriter a)—the a that the student will learn to write is used (circle and line lower case a).

4) All of the Letters and Sounds products have the exact same clue pictures. The clue pictures are the most important pictures in all of the Letters and Sounds products, and great care was taken in choosing them. Here are some tips:

a. Do not change clue pictures or clue words when teaching the beginning sounds. A should always be associated with AX and APPLE. B should always be associated with BED and BIKE. (Obviously, worksheets with multiple pictures to practice finding pictures with a beginning sound will contain other pictures, but clue word pictures should remain constant.)

b. The clue picture words for the consonant sounds are primarily from Dolch words lists and Fry word lists. When these words did not work, the words were taken from a children’s dictionary. They are the most common words that a student will encounter when he or she begins reading. Thus, they will already have been exposed to “first words” over and over again in the Letters and Sounds products (as opposed to random choosing of clue pictures).

c. The clue pictures for the consonant sounds have a short vowel picture (BED) first then a
long vowel picture (BIKE). While students are not learning to read yet (just learning beginning sounds and letters), they are continually exposed to both short and vowel sounds with the twenty-­‐one consonants (as opposed to r-­‐controlled, diphthongs, etc., which are used in other Letters and Sounds products as needed to create rhymes, etc.).

d. Whenever possible, the clue words are one syllable words so that the beginning sound can be isolated more easily. There are instances in which two syllable words (and occasionally three syllable words) were used, but only when necessary and only when the beginning sound is clearly heard (like APPLE….even though it is two syllables, the short A sound is heard more clearly than, say, in ANT, which is one syllable, but is more n-­ controlled and the short A sound is not as discernible).

e. Whenever possible (excluding difficult ones like X-­‐tra), noun picture clues were used. It is important in sound-­‐picture recognition activities that the pictures be common ones and that they are clear, non-­‐ambiguous pictures. Verbs were used only when nouns were not clear enough or not available (QUACK for Q, for example). I tried not to use DOVE, for example, because students tend to think that is a BIRD, and this is too ambiguous.

f. Blends were not used for beginning letter picture clues unless the consonant sound was clearer in a blend word than common non-­‐blend nouns.

Tips for Using the “ABC Sound Song Posters”

1) In terms of upper and lower case letters, I personally have students call them CAPITAL and BIG for upper case and LITTLE for lower case. You may choose to have students call them upper and lower case, but the key is to be consistent in what they call them—and be sure that you use the same wording all the time as well.

2) You may desire to use the songs in a different order than ABC order. This is up for debate, but I know many teachers choose to teach beginning sounds in the order of frequency (think “Wheel of Fortune”) as opposed to ABC order. I waffle on this because on one hand, students usually already know the ABC’s in ABC order from the original alphabet song. Thus, it seems there is a “learning hook” already in place to learn the letters in ABC order. On the other hand, learning the consonants by themselves then the vowels by themselves can be somewhat easier—and it is especially helpful not to have “b” and “d” so close to each other in the visual learning sequence (and the sound of short a, short e, and short i very close to each other in the sound learning sequence). Obviously, the order for the sound songs is completely up to the teacher.

3) I recommend still reviewing the “original” ABC song with students even if they already know it. Here are some tips for doing so:

a. Use one of the ABC posters provided on the next pages (with the letters in the order the way the song is sung)—not as a long string of letters. (You may use the ABC pages given here as 8.5 x 11’s or enlarge them for more “poster ” sizes.) You want the break in the letter line to fall in the same place on paper as it does in the song.

b. Students love to sing the “original” ABC song fast. This is not conducive to letter-­‐sound
recognition. (They may be able to sing the song super fast but are not able to see a B and know it is a B because they do not correlate the “sung” letter with the written letter.) Because of this, I recommend that you sing the “original” ABC song with your students painfully slow while pointing to each letter on the song-­‐letter chart. Do not let them speed up or run away with it. Then go through it again a tiny bit faster (but still slowly and still pointing to the letters). Keep going through it, letting them speed up each time until they are doing their “crazy-­‐fast-­‐can’t-­‐point-­‐to-­‐the-­‐letters” (or learn anything!) speed just for fun. If they know that they will get to do the “fun and fast” way later, they will be more patient and more attentive during the “slow and point” way.

Speed of Use

If you are using the product for one-­‐on-­‐one teaching, pay close attention to the student’s of learning and base your speed through the product on that. Some programs recommend a letter a week if you have that option and that amount of time to spend on each letter. Of
course, you will want to do other activities to help cement the letter-­‐sound learning. Watch this spot for additional “Letters and Sounds” products, including our “Little ABC Rhyming Books,” which students love!).

What to Call the Sounds

What to call the consonant sounds: All of the “Letters and Sounds” products have the consonant sounds indicated with buh (or whatever consonant plus uh-­‐-­‐with the uh in a lighter color). This is easier for the teacher than having a key that is confusing (such as /b/ or “b” always refers to the sound, but B refers to the letter, etc.). However, you really do not want your student to say “B says BUH.” You really want your student to say a quick B sound. Thus, be careful that you are not stretching out the BUH (which is why the UH is written in light font).  (see image above)

There are two methods for ensuring that your student does not say BUHHHHHH:

i. One method for teaching the beginning consonant sounds is to have the student whisper the sound (buh). He will be less likely to drag out the UH if he does this.

ii. The second method is to have him say the sound with his
lips closed or just open ever-­‐so-­‐slightly as much as possible (just when saying the isolated
consonant sound). In this way, he will likely say bbb not BUH. (This method might not be desired for students in speech therapy since the advice may be the opposite of what the therapist is giving.)

What to call the vowel sounds: All of the “Letters and Sounds” products have the short vowels written like this Ah, Eh, etc. (with the exception of o since the combination oh is
really a long vowel word—too confusing!). This tells you that you are working on short A, again, you don’t want your student to say AHHHH like he is getting his tonsils checked. The ah is in light font and is there to remind you that it is short A. Sometimes it is better to say “A says ah like in AX” than it is to say Ah by itself.

The Songs

The songs are all laid out with the same breaks as “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” It should be easy for children to catch on to the songs. The song purposely has the following components in it:

1. Letter name (D says the sound of…)
2. Sound (sound of duh)
3. Two clue words (as described earlier in this forward)

The pictures of the clue words at the bottom of each song are in the same order that they fall in the song. Thus, even if your student does not know “sound of duh, sound of duh,” when you get to the end of the song, and you point to the dog and the deer, he should be able to recognize and sing those easily. The song is repetitive enough that children learn it very quickly.

Using the Packet/Book

It is debated as to whether it is more beneficial to learn to recognize the letters by themselves before embarking on sound learning or if it should be done jointly.

Hopefully, your student has had a lot of exposure to letters and has done puzzles, coloring pages, etc., with letters as well as had fun experiences with letters on signs and in his environment.

This makes the transition to letter recognition and beginning sound learning much easier.
If your student does not recognize letters, it might be a little bit difficult to jump right into
the sounds. In my upcoming book (Letters and Sounds: Patterns, Posters, and Pages), I begin with letter recognition entirely—and matching upper case and lower case letters before beginning with sounds.

Whenever we ask students to learn two or three things at one time with no “learning hook” to hook the new material on, learning becomes challenging-­‐-­‐like in the case of very little
letter exposure followed by learning (1) Upper case letter recognition; (2) Lower case letter
recognition; (3) Beginning sound; and (4) Clue words. That is a lot to learn at one time.

For this reason, I recommend that you work on letter recognition first by itself (using the
letter portion of my “Letters and Sounds ABC and Picture Cards”). Once the letter recognition is mastered, your student is ready to move into sound-­‐letter correlation. (I know this is debated, and each teacher has her own way. Some programs even recommend not doing letter recognition at all but simply sound recognition of that letter (this letter {B} says buh as in bed without saying the letter ’s name). That is not how I would handle it because that is not natural—how the child has been introduced to letters at home, at the library, in preschool, etc.—usually.

Email me to let me know how this product helps you. Feel free to send me questions. I answer questions about parenting, homeschooling, language arts, marriage, family living, organization, and teaching in my Wondering Wednesday podcast episodes. I would be happy to answer your questions there or via email or Facebook. Check out my products and blog posts at LanguageLadyBlog.com. Thanks for buying Language Lady products!

The post Introducing the Letters & Sounds Series appeared first on Character Ink.

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Resources mentioned in this podcast (affiliate links):

Phonetically-Controlled Readers

Vocabulary-Controlled Readers

Comprehensive Curriculum

The post Wondering Wednesday: Summer Reading Help for Young Students appeared first on Character Ink.

You know what one of my least favorite words is? FACADE.

First of all, I work week in and week out to try to teach that an A, O, U, or most consonants make the C say “kuh.” That would make this word fuh-kade, right? (Or even fay-kade.) Unfortunately, that is wrong.

It is pronounced fuh-sodd. (That A really doesn’t make the C say “kuh.”)

That clearly makes this word a FAKE, which is one of its only redeeming qualities–it means what it looks like! Smile…

That bring us to the second aspect of the word–its meaning. It is a noun that means “a face of a building or a superficial appearance.”

In that regard, it is as it is pronounced–even though it isn’t pronounced like it is spelled (which is true of many words that came from somewhere else).

So it is easy to learn the meaning of—it has to do with what it sounds like–FACE (albeit, a fake face). But it is not spelled as one would think.

So, don’t put on a facade today! Don’t try to put on a superficial front or fake face. Be yourself!

The post U is for UNUSUAL SPELLING–Facade appeared first on Character Ink.

How do YOU spell Wednesday. Many of my students say it just like it looks to spelll it: WED/NES/DAY!
Does that help you?

The post U is for UNUSUAL SPELLINGS: Wednesday appeared first on Character Ink.

The other day I looked down on my steering wheel to find these two abbreviations: accel and decel. I am sure that these are the formal abbreviations, and I also assume that the two are abbreviations for acceleration and deceleration.

The two words are perfect words for working on two of my favorite “wordy” sub-lessons: spelling and prefix/root studies.

As a self-declared bi-phonic woman, I love to point out spelling rules any time there is the slightest bit of phonetic consistency to them. And, it just so happens, that acceleration and deceleration have a little bit of consistency to their spellings:

1. Hard and soft c
     a. ac/cel/er/a/tion
        i. The first c says kuh because it is followed by a c. (When a c or g is followed by a, o, u, or most consonants, it says its hard sound—kuh or guh.)
        ii. The second c says suh because it is followed by an e. (When a c or g is followed by e, i, or y, it says its soft sound–suh or juh.)
     b. de/cel/er/a/tion–This word only contains one c, and that c makes its soft sound (suh) because it is followed by an e.

2. Both spelled the same from then on–syllable by syllable
    a. After our cel phonemes, the remainder of each word is spelled the same.
    b. Both can be spelled syllable by syllable at that point
       i. er
       ii. a
       iii. tion

3. Thus, you can easily remember how to spell both words.
    a. ac/cel and d/cel
    b. er/a/tion (for both)

+Note: If acceleration only had one c, the first two syllables would look (“sound”) like this: a/sell (ay/sell).
+Note: If deceleration had two c’s, the first two syllables would look (“sound”) like this: dek/sell.


If you are not a lover of phonics or you learned to read and spell through sight words and memorization, you might be bored by now, so I will give you something you can take with you from this “wordy” lesson–deciphering meaning from roots and affixes (prefixes and suffixes).

First of all, remember this: You know more than you think you know!

Applying that to our two words: What do you already know about their meanings:

1. They have something to do with movement (on the steering wheel of a car; you hear them association with physics, etc.).

2. De is a prefix you are familiar with–it usually means the opposite.
   a. de-frost–unfrost
   b. de-value–not to value
  
3. tion–Tion (and sion words) words are usually nouns
   a. nation
   b. hypertension
   c. limitation


If you already knew those things (and now you do!), take what you already know and add it to what else you might learn about these two words:

1. ac–Prefix meaning toward

2. In physics, these two words have much more technical meanings that we do not need to concern ourselves with for this lesson. (A part of learning is knowing what you do not need to know!)

3. In medical terms, these two words have to do with getting hurt via a collision (still retaining the general meaning of movement).

4. The suffix cel can have something to do with movement or an action
   a. cancel
   b. excel


Okay, you have all of the information to unlock the definitions (and the spellings, thank-you very much!) of these two words.

Acceleration/Deceleration

A. They have something to do with movement (cel)
B. They are nouns (tion)
C. One means forward (ac–toward)
D. The other means backwards or not or undo (de).
E. Acceleration means to move forward.
F. Deceleration means to move backwards (de) or not to move.



Wasn’t that fun? 🙂





*For complete steps on “dissecting” words, see the posts about Character Ink’s teaching methods we call Definition Dissection. Here is a list of prefixes to get you started: https://languagelady365.blogspot.com/2011/01/days-13-14-roots-and-affixes-list.html

The post WORDY WEDNESDAY: acceleration vs deceleration appeared first on Character Ink.