comicphonics for early readers

Transitioning from short vowels to long vowels

Posted on March 28, 2024 | Leave a comment

Today I worked with a kindergartener who has mastered CVC words with blends at the beginnings and ends of words (for example, “slept” and “brand”). It was time to move on to long vowels.

I started with two-letter words ending in “e” (be, he, me, and we). I explained for small words ending in “e,” the “e” is pronounced differently. Even so, the child wanted to say the words as if they ended in a short e.

In one way this was satisfying to me, her teacher. She had learned the rules about pronouncing short vowels.

But in another way it was frustrating. Her brain was saying she didn’t accept the logic of one letter representing two sounds. Until now every letter of every word we have read together has had one sound only. But now I am changing the rules. It’s like I am telling the child that until now your little brother has had one name, but from now on he is going to have two names, and you have to remember when to call him John and when to call him Fred. Huh?

Some students learn sight words in school at the same time they are learning phonics. For them, words like “me” and “go” are memorized rather than sounded out. But my student has not learned sight words, so I needed to switch gears.

I stopped focusing on two-letter words. Instead, I focused on words ending in “ee.” It was easier for my student to accept that “ee” represents a different sound from “e.” So, we worked on reading words like “bee,” “fee,” “lee,” “see,” and “tee.” I added nonsense words like “dee,” “pee,” “vee,” and “zee” as well to extend the practice.

At our next class I plan to continue delaying two-letter words like “he” and “me.” Instead I will continue with “ee” words, adding ending letters and blends. “Bleed,” “creek,” “heel,” “seem,” “green,” “sleep,” and “feet” are some examples.

Until now, my student has moved quickly in acquiring reading skills. But I may need to slow down now and make sure she can go back and forth from short-vowel words to long-vowel words and vice-versa. For some students this is easy. For others, it takes months. We will see.

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Posted in blends, CVC words, exceptions to phonics rules, letter sounds, long vowels, phonics, pronunciation of words, reading strategies, reading tips, short vowels, sight words, teaching tips, vowels

Don’t stint on advanced reading skills

Posted on March 7, 2024 | Leave a comment

One of my students is a high schooler still learning English as her second language. She has learned so much in the few years she has lived in the US, but she struggles with reading.

She has pretty much mastered how to read one-syllable and two-syllable words which follow the rules. But three-syllable words confound her. Instead of stopping to figure out big words, she slurs over them and keeps reading almost as if they aren’t there.

That works when the reading level is at the second or third grade level because not many three- or four-syllable words are in books meant for that reading level. But my student is in high school. She is confronted with long words in almost every sentence she reads in text books. Like many older students I have taught, she thinks she can get by skipping over words. Now that she is preparing for the SAT, she realizes she can’t.

In late elementary grades students learn about root words, prefixes and suffixes. Knowing words can be dissected leads good readers to break apart words rather than skipping over them. My student thinks this is too time-consuming, so she is reluctant to do this on her own.

She is a wiz with computers and can look up the meaning of a word faster than I can. But sometimes the synonyms are long words too. Or sometimes one synonym works in one context, but not in another context. Or sometimes, most times, she doesn’t bother.

What’s my point? Reading instruction can’t stop after a student learns basic phonics rules. This is especially true for impatient students who would rather finish quickly than finish well. The tedious work of learning how to break words into syllables can’t be skipped. Nor can understanding the meanings of prefixes, suffixes and roots.

Reading is probably the most important skill we learn in school. Don’t stint on it.

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Posted in phonics, reading readiness., reading strategies, reading tips

Cursive is on the upswing

Posted on February 19, 2024 | Leave a comment

The number of states requiring that cursive writing be taught is increasing, according to MyCursive.com. IN 2016, 14 states required teaching cursive. Today that number is 21.

Why is that important for students learning to read? Brain studies have shown a positive connection between writing in cursive and reading. (More about that in my next blog).

To find out if your state requires cursive, scroll down.

AK: No.

AL: Yes, cursive must be taught in grades 2 and 3.

AR: Yes, cursive must be taught before students leave grade 3.

AZ: Yes, students must be taught and must master cursive by grade 5.

CA: Yes, students are taught cursive in grades 1 to 6.

CO: No.

CT: No.

DC: No.

DE: Yes, cursive must be taught by the end of grade 4.

FL: Yes, cursive must be taught between grades 3 and 5.

GA: Yes, public schools must teach cursive in grades 3 and 4.

HI: No.

IA: No.

ID: Yes, public schools must teach cursive.

IL: Yes, public schools must teach cursive by the end of grade 5.

IN: Yes, public schools must teach cursive.

KS: Yes, the Kansas Board of Education does require teaching cursive.

KY: Yes, public schools must teach cursive beginning in grade 1.

LA: Yes, cursive must be taught beginning in grade 3.

MA: Yes, cursive must be taught beginning in grade 3.

MD: Yes, cursive must be taught between grades 2 and 5.

ME: No.

MI: No.

MN: No.

MO: No.

MS: Yes, cursive must be taught between grades 2 and 8.

MT: No.

NC: Yes, cursive must be taught to public school students.

NE: No.

ND: No.

NH: Yes, cursive must be taught to public school students.

NJ: No.

NM: No.

NV: No.

NY: No.

OH: Yes, public schools must teach cursive.

OK: Yes, cursive must be taught in grades 4 and 5.

OR: No. Child writing with right hand.

PA: No.

RI: No.

SC: Yes, public schools must teach cursive by the end of grade 5.

SD: No.

TN: Yes, public schools must teach cursive.

TX: Yes, cursive must be taught in grades 2 and 3.

UT: No.

VA: Yes, public schools must teach cursive between grades 2 and 5.

VT: No.

WA: No.

WI: No.

WV: Yes, public schools must teach cursive between grades 2 and 4.

WY: No.

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Posted in cursive handwriting

Record students’ voices while they read, play back, and improve

Posted on November 30, 2023 | Leave a comment

The latest issue of Edutopia (www.edutopia.org) suggests several ways to integrate technology into reading classes in order to improve student reading. Here is one easy way to improve reading fluency:

Have students record their own voices while they read aloud. Then play back the recording. Ask students to reflect on their reading skills.

What questions can they ask themselves?

Do I use punctuation properly? Do I pause at commas, pause slightly longer at periods, and raise my voice at the ends of sentences that end in question marks?
Do I read with rhythm, linking together the words in phrases?
When reading dialog, do I raise or lower my voice and add emotion to mimic the imagined voice of the characters who are speaking?

Now, have students record the same passages again and listen for improvement.

Even though students seldom read aloud, the skills they use when reading aloud are likely the same ones they use when reading silently. If students are poor “out loud” readers, they are likely to be poor silent readers, too. Especially for poor readers, recording their voices reading and then listening to their performance can improve overall reading skills.

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Posted in Edutopia, fluency, listening, technology

Learning to read is not a race

Posted on November 15, 2023 | Leave a comment

This fall I am teaching two kindergarteners to read via Zoom. I am making progress with both students, but it is an uneven progress typical of young children.

One student—I will call her Jane—is lighthearted and imaginative. For Halloween, she came to class wearing a wolf’s face. Jane is social, engaging me in conversation as easily as she talks to her sibling. She can identify almost all letters and letter sounds. When I show her an alphabet letter, she will say, “Maybe B, for banana and ball.”

Jane is working on reading two-letter “A” words like “at” and “ax.” Three-letter words are a bit advanced except for a few she has memorized. Her mother tells me that outside class she loves to mix up letters and to make silly sounds.

John is serious and reserved with me. He does not engage in chit-chat during our lesson. Two months ago, he could identify fewer letters and their sounds than Jane could, but now he has mastered them all. He pronounced two-letter “A” words with such consistency that we have moved on to three-letter “A” words. At our lesson this week John read several phrases and a few sentences containing short “A” words (A fat cat sat. A man ran in a can.). I was thrilled. He smiled and said nothing. At our next lesson we will begin to work on short “O” words.

Mrs. K is a writing, reading and grammar tutor.

Both Jane and John are normal kindergarteners, displaying behaviors typical of children learning to read. One is not better. One is not worse. They are each moving along at their own pace.

Learning to read is not like learning algebra. With algebra, every student starts at the same place on page one of the text and is expected to keep up with the pace the teacher sets for covering the curriculum within a school year.

With reading, students start at different places depending on personality, preschool or parental exposure to letters and sounds, hearing and vision acuity, being read to, and speaking English as a native language or as a second language. Age of the student is another factor.

By the end of kindergarten, both John and Jane should have a solid foundation in phonics. They will continue instruction in how to read in first and second grades. At that point their reading skills will probably not be any more identical than they are now. But they will read sufficiently well to use their reading skills to learn more. That’s why we learn to read, after all—so we can keep learning.

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Posted in ABC's, beginning readers, learning, letter sounds, phonics, reading in kindergarten, reading readiness., short vowels

14 disconnects between letter names and letter sounds

Posted on October 22, 2023 | Leave a comment

Two kindergarteners I am teaching this fall are having the same problem when trying to figure out the sound a letter is associated with. They are listening to the beginning sound of the letter name, and they are assuming that must be the sound linked to the letter.

In some cases they are right. The name of the letter B begins with a “b” sound, just like the sound B stands for. The name of the letter K begins with a “k” sound, just like the sound K stands for.

But for many letters, this correlation does not hold true. The name of the letter C, for example, begins with an S sound. The name of the letter F begins with an E sound. The name of the letter G begins with a J sound. The name of the letter W begins with a D sound.

Take a look at the table below and notice how many letter names do not begin with the sound that the letter represents. By my count, it’s more than half.

Letter Sound the letter name begins with

a a

b b

c s

d d

e e

f e

g j

h a

i i

j j

k k

l e

m e

n e

o o

p p

q k

r ah

s e

t t

u y

v v

w d

x e

y w

z z

So, if you have a little one struggling to pair a letter name with the sound the letter stands for, relax. It’s normal. Be patient. Gently correct the mistake as many times as it takes. Your child will get it eventually. We all do.

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Posted in ABC's, letter sounds, reading readiness.

What are the most frequently used letters in the English alphabet?

Posted on September 25, 2023 | Leave a comment

What is the most frequently used vowel in text?
What is the least frequently used vowel?
What is the most frequently used consonant?
What is the least frequently used consonant?

And the answers are

E is the most frequently used vowel.
U is the least frequently used vowel.
T is the most frequently used consonant.
Z is the least frequently used consonant.

How did you go about figuring out your answer? I thought of letter frequencies in the game Scrabble. I know from playing the game that E has the most tiles of any letter–12 tiles. A and I have nine tiles, O has 8, and U has 4.

For consonants, I was stumped. Again, I thought of Scrabble tiles. I chose S, but S has only four tiles. N and T both have six. In fact, T is the most commonly used consonant. For the least commonly used consonant, I would have chosen Z or Q or X based on the number of Scrabble tiles and also on the value of those tiles (each worth 10 points).

Who cares? If you are someone who deciphers coded messages, knowing expected letter frequency can help. Almost two hundred years ago, Samuel Morse, the inventor of Morse Code, needed to know which letters were more commonly used in order to assign them the simplest dot and dash patterns. He didn’t have Scrabble to help him. He turned to sets of letters printers used.

Morse found that the letter E appeared 12,000 times, the letter T 9,000 times, the letter U 3,400 times, and the letter Z 200 times in printers’ job cases. These numbers relate to the number of times letters are used in commonly used English words, not to the number of times they appear in a collection of all English words.

To find how many times letters appear in all English words, the number of letters in every word in the Concise English Dictionary (1995) was computed. Those results show the letter E is used the most, followed in descending order by A, R, O, I, T, N, and S. U appears least of all the vowels, and Q appears least of all the consonants.

If you wonder about the frequency of letters appearing at the beginning of words, S is the clear-cut winner. E appears halfway down the list, and X is the least used first letter in English.

Writing topics yield different letter frequencies. For example, most fiction is written in the past tense, increasing the expected number of times D and ED appears.

The California Job Case was a box used to sort and store moveable type. The number of times a letter appears in the box is shown by the relative size of the compartment allotted to that letter.

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Posted in letter frequencies in English

The four, no five, no eight pillars of reading

Posted on August 13, 2023 | Leave a comment

Focusing on four skills leads to good reading achievement in children, we used to think. Then came a comprehensive US government report in 2000 saying five skills are necessary. In the ensuing 23 years, researchers tell us three more skills are necessary. Let’s look at those skills, starting with a chart showing four skills, followed by information on five skills, and ending with the latest three skills.

Previously, vocabulary was considered part of the fourth component of reading. Now it is considered a separate component, as are three previously unrecognized skills: oral language, writing, and background knowledge.

Phonemic awareness, the ability to hear and identify individual sounds in words—such as the sound of “b” in “bat”—and to move sounds around to hear them in various parts of words. This skill is taught in pre-K and kindergarten to most American school children.

Phonics, the ability to match the sounds of English to letters or to letter pairs in order to form words. This skill is usually taught in kindergarten and first grade.

Vocabulary, the ability to recognize and understand three kinds of words: everyday spoken words, more complex words (SAT-like words), and domain specific words (words used in specific contexts, such as the baseball-related words of pitcher, shortstop, foul ball and bunt).

Fluency, the ability to read text accurately at conversational speed, using expression.

Comprehension, the ability to understand what is read.

The three other skills that have been identified as crucial to learning to read are

Oral language, the ability to understand spoken language and to speak it. Proficiency in oral language precedes proficiency in reading.

Writing, the ability to use written symbols to represent words and to transmit meaning

Background knowledge, the ability to store and retrieve information and apply it to new knowledge gained from reading.

No wonder reading is such a complex skill for children to master.

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Posted in academic vocabulary, background knowledge, comprehension, fluency, letter sounds, oral language, phonemes, phonics, pronunciation of words, reading comprehension, reading readiness., reading research, reading-writing connection, sounds of English, systematic phonics instruction, vocabulary

Ever hear of Bionic Reading?

Posted on August 9, 2023 | Leave a comment

Instead of reading whole words, with Bionic Reading you read only the first few letters of a word and move on to the next word, letting your brain fill in the missing parts of words. The boldfaced initial parts of words lead your eyes through text, allowing you to read faster, and according to the developers of Bionic Reading, in greater depth. It is touted as especially helpful for people with ADHD.

Here is a sample:

Bionic Reading is a new

method facilitating the

reading process by guiding

the eyes through text

with artificial fixation points.

Developed by Swiss typography expert Renato Casutt, the Bionic Reading system of reading only the first few letters of a word allows you to focus on only those letters. Because your brain has stored thousands of words, it can identify words quicker than your eyes can read them, according to Bionic Reading researchers. So your brain moves on to the next word before your eyes have finished reading the previous word.

Does the Bionic Reading system really allow you to read faster? Do you retain information better with this system? Research continues.

If you want to use Bionic Reading, you can access a website which allows a low number of words to be read daily for free, and a higher number of words to be read for a monthly fee.

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Posted in Bionic Reading

Check this list to see if your child is ready for first grade reading

Posted on August 4, 2023 | Leave a comment

As you prepare to send your recent kindergarten grad off to first grade, you might wonder, “Is he ready? Does he have the reading skills necessary to start first grade confidently?”

One way to know is to go to your state’s standards for kindergarten to check the skills your state says a kindergartener needs to know to progress to first grade. You can find these standards through your state department of education’s website.

Since most states adhere to the Common Core of Educational Standards, a simpler way is to check the following standards. Your state’s will be similar.

___Does my child hold print materials properly, knowing what is the top of a page, and knowing that pages are read from left page to right page?

___Does my child identify front and back covers and title pages?

___Does my child follow words from left to right and from top to bottom?

___Does my child pronounce syllables, words and phrases properly?

___Can my child explain whether printed materials make sense?

___Can my child read 10 high frequency words?

___Can my child read and explain his own writings and drawings?

___Can my child identify upper and lower case letters?

___Can my child match sounds to letters?

___Can my child identify consonant sounds at the beginnings of one-syllable words?

___Can my child use pictures to predict the content of picture books?

___Can my child retell stories from beginning to middle to end?

___Can my child discuss characters, setting and events in stories?

___Can my child use story language like characters and setting to discuss stories?

___Can my child identify what an author is? What an illustrator is?

___Can my child identify topics in nonfiction readings?

___Can my child print upper and lower case letters?

___Can my child print his own name?

___Can my child write phonetically to describe his own stories?

___Can my child write from left to right and from top to bottom?

___Has my child explored the use of technology for reading / writing?

If you can say yes to most of these questions, your child is probably ready to start first grade.

However, some children in his class will be performing at higher levels than these standards suggest. In well-to-do neighborhoods where parents are highly educated, these standards might be minimal ones. If you believe that is the case, work with your child to bolster his achievement. You don’t want your child to feel he is behind, or worse, that he is “dumb.” Such negative feelings can worm their way into his self-esteem even if he is on grade level.

Reading is the most fundamental skill your child will learn in school. Give him every advantage to do well from the start.