RULES
For your child to be able to make sense from the reading lessons that you are about to teach, they will need to be helped to understand reading skills that follow rules.
Rule #1
A E I O U and sometimes Y. These are vowel sounds that are long.
I begin my reading programs and teach Short Vowels that follow rules.
If you remember this sentence, it will help you to remember the short vowel
sounds, “Fat Ed is not up”.
Y gets to be a little complicated. Y may have either short or long vowel sounds. At the start, Y will be used as a short vowel, as in words such as: gym myth hymn crypt abyss lynch bicycle
Words where the Y sound is long will be taught when needed.
Words such as:
- may (ā) day say play stay gray grey prey
- city (ē) key money monkey candy pretty
- cry (ī) sky fly by bye-bye sly rhyme style Kyle
Words that break the long o rule: do and to
Dodo says long (Ō) and d Ō (as in do ra me) and the name OttŌ but do and to
say do (o͞o) as in boo to be active in plat activities. Correct eye-tracking allows
children to follow left to right images to follow words on each line. To move eyetracking from paragraph to help c.
LISTENING #ONE
No listening activities can be more effective to start with than reading to your child. Have your child go with you to the library and have them choose the books they find interesting. Be sure the books have plenty of illustrations.
Ask questions such as:
- a) what do you think will happen next?
- b) Who is your favorite character?
- c) When resuming Storytime, ask, “Catch me up to where we were last time?
- d) What do you think that the ‘witch, cook or wolf’, should have done?
- e) What was the name of favorite character in the sound of the letter Y is usually sounded a long e/yuh, as in ē/yes ē/yellow ē/yet ē/year ē/yak ē/yule ē/yell ē/yelp
- But y has a zzz sound in words like:
zoo zero zig zag zip zipper zone zinc zebra zombie buzzer
Rule #2
The vc and vcc rule to keep vowel sounds short. VC means vowel/ consonant.
The first part of my skill building lessons depend on this rule to be completely
understood. As in words such as:
Mom pop cat spell math add hop skip jump, if they are to understand the VCV
rule.
“Warning”- Not all vc/vcc words follow rules. Take the word son won once, they look like vc/vcc words but their vowel sounds break the rules. The vowel sound should say short o but says “shot u” instead. The words most, post, cold, cold, scold look like short vowels that follow the vcc rule but the vowel sounds are long o. That’s why I start with words that follow rules. Be prepared for words that break vowel rules like the word breāk.
Rule #3
The VCV rule. Vowel/consonant/vowel where the final e makes the first vowel
long and the final e silent.
can/cane hop/ hope rod/rode rid/ride slop/ slope plan/plane
Not all words follow the vcv rule, words like:
To be active in plat activities. Correct eye-tracking allows children to follow left to right images to follow words on each line. To move eye-tracking from paragraph to help c.
LISTENING #ONE
No listening activities can be more effective to start with than reading to your child. Have your child go with you to the library and have them choose the books they find interesting. Be sure the books have plenty of illustrations.
Ask questions such as:- a) what do you think will happen next?
- b) Who is your favorite character?
- c) When resuming Storytime, ask, “Catch me up to where we were last time?
- d) What do you think that the ‘witch, cook or wolf’, should have done?
- What was the name of favorite character in live/live give have come some none love shove above
Rule #4
The TVT rule where there are ‘two’ vowel together, the first vowel is long and the second vowel becomes silent. (There are many words that break this rule). Words that follow the tvt rule:
main plain paid afraid meet meat steel steal leaf sleep
oak loaf soak groan boat float coach wheel beef cheap
Words that “break” the tvt rule: The word break, breaks the tvt rule:
greāt chiēf grief field belief steak dead said health beige
Rule #5 SYLLABICATION
We use syllabication to make the sounding out of words easier to pronounce and spell. By the time I start words with two or more syllables, your child will have mastered their ability to sound out each syllable. Think of syllables as building blocks to make the sounding and spellings of words easier to understand. Most syllabication of words tend to follow the vowel/consonant rule because you divide to keep the first vowel short.
a) Closed Syllables (Closed syllables are usually short)
To keep the first vowel short when you syllabicate a word, divide to be active in plat activities. Correct eye-tracking allows children to follow left to right images to follow words on each line. To move eye-tracking from paragraph to help c.
LISTENING #ONE
No listening activities can be more effective to start with than reading to your child. Have your child go with you to the library and have them choose the books they find interesting. Be sure the books have plenty of illustrations.
Ask questions such as:- a) what do you think will happen next?
- b) Who is your favorite character?
- c) When resuming Storytime, ask, “Catch me up to where we were last time?
- d) What do you think that the ‘witch, cook or wolf’, should have done?
- e) What was the name of favorite character in the word between consonants to keep the first vowel short first vowel is short in a word, that’s where you divide the word into syllables to keep the vowel sound short. You divide the word between to consonants in order to keep the vowel sound short, as in words such as: cot ton win dow emp ty an gry hun gry win dow let ter fol low fel low shal low sil ly skip ping hop ping.
b) Open Syllables
Open syllables are usually long, as in go no ho no and so but do and to aren’t open, nor are they long. Syllabicate that where you divide the vowel sound, it is open, as in the word o pen and words such as, mu sic fa mous he ro he ro spi der fro zen and bi cy cle.
I don’t teach words with more than one syllable until the student has mastered all vowel digraphs and vowel diphthongs. The student has to memorize words that break rules. Words that look like they follow a vowel rules but ‘don’t’. The word ‘the’ breaks the open syllable rule and there are countless words that end with an e but says short ŭ like the (thŭ)
Canada America Africa Russia China Alberta Alaska Indiana Iowa
More words that break vowel rules and need to be remembered: to be active in plat activities. Correct eye-tracking allows children to follow left to right images to follow words on each line. To move eye-tracking from paragraph to help c.
LISTENING #ONE
No listening activities can be more effective to start with than reading to your child. Have your child go with you to the library and have them choose the books they find interesting. Be sure the books have plenty of illustrations.
Ask questions such as:
- a) what do you think will happen next?
- b) Who is your favorite character?
- c) When resuming Storytime, ask, “Catch me up to where we were last time?
- d) What do you think that the ‘witch, cook or wolf’, should have done?
- What was the name of favorite character in
The word ‘many’ has a short ĕ vowel sound as does any and if the student doesn’t remember words that break rules, they won’t know to spell them correctly. This applies to the words woman and women, the o in woman says o͝o(as in book) but the first vowel sound in womĕn says short Ĭ. Teachers and broadcasters frequently mispronounce woman and women but never students who are taught using my methodologies.
I have no idea why some words are spelled the way they are but in the word po li man (the vowel i says long e) the vowel i is pronounced long ē, as in Goldilocks, chili and spaghetti. No one can explain colonel colo nel (it sounds the same as the word kernel, as in a kernel of grain) and the word sal mon(the ‘l’ is silent).
The Hard and Soft Sounds of C and G
When the consonant sounds of C and G are followed by ă ŏ ŭ the sounds are hard. The ‘c’ says K as in cat and the g says guh as in good “but” when C and G are followed by an ĕ or Ĭ, their sounds become soft and c says sss, as in cent and city and g says j, as in gentle and giant.
Hard Sounds of C: cat cot cut cab cob cub can comb cunning cute cure
Soft Sounds of C: cell cedar center cement cellar ceiling celery cereal to be active in plat activities. Correct eye-tracking allows children to follow left to right images to follow words on each line. To move eye-tracking from paragraph to help c.
LISTENING #ONE
No listening activities can be more effective to start with than reading to your child. Have your child go with you to the library and have them choose the books they find interesting. Be sure the books have plenty of illustrations.
Ask questions such as:
- a) what do you think will happen next?
- b) Who is your favorite character?
- c) When resuming Storytime, ask, “Catch me up to where we were last time?
- d) What do you think that the ‘witch, cook or wolf’, should have done?
- e) What was the name of favorite character in
Hard Sounds of G:gal got gut gas goal gum gate goat gun gash gush
Soft Sounds of G:gem George general gin ginger gist gypsy giraffe
This may be a challenge when you are teaching vocabulary skills found in homonyms, as in: mane (the hair on a horses neck) and main- Main Street, a water main or the main idea of a song).