Sounds and Letters

1. Sounds and Letters

2. How many speech sounds are in the following words? ox boil king thank straight shout though Underline the consonant blends: doubt, known, first, pumpkin, squawk, scratch.

3. Linguistics This is the formal study of language and how it works. You do not have to be a linguist to be an effective teacher of reading and writing.

4. With a basic knowledge of phonics and linguistics you’ll be able to help students by Interpreting and responding to student errors. Choosing the best examples for teaching decoding and spelling. Organizing and sequencing information for instruction. Using your knowledge of morphology to explain spellings. Integrating the components of language instruction.

5. Definitions A phoneme is a speech sound. It is the smallest unit of sound that distinguishes one word from another. Men has three phonemes: /m/ /e/ /n/ A morpheme is the smallest unit of meaning in language A Grapheme is the written representation of one sound. Ex: /b/ = b, /ch/ = ch

6. There are 44 phonemes in the English language (although this is debated). They are represented by 26 letters A letter can sometimes represent more than one sound. Ex. a sounds differently in the following words: at, ate, all, was. There are hundreds of spellings that can be used to represent the phonemes. Only the most common need to be taught.

7. Consonants Consonants can be categorized according to How they are produced Where they are produced in the mouth Whether they are voiced or unvoiced. The 5 major categories of consonants based on their manner of articulation include the following: plosives (stops) /b/,/p/,/d/,/t/, Fricatives /f/,/v/,/th/ /z/ Nasals /m/,/n/,/ng/ Liquids /l/,/r/ Glides /w/,/y/,/h/

8. Vowels 19 of the 44 English phonemes are vowel phonemes. The consonants w and y often act as vowels. Y acts as a vowel when it appears at the end of a word or syllable. W acts as a vowel when it is used in combination with another vowel.

9. In basal readers vowels are generally classified into the following categories Long-vowel sounds. These are also referred to as glided sounds. Short-vowel sounds. These are also referred to as unglided sounds Other vowel sounds. These include diphthongs, schwa, and the r-controlled vowels.

10. Diphthongs /oi/ (boil, boy), /ou/ (house,cow) These are vowel sounds that are formed by a gliding action in the mouth. R-controlled vowels /ar/ (chair), /ur/ (fern, bird, hurt), /ar/ (park) The letter r affects the sound of the vowel that precedes it in many ways.

11. Schwa (alone, happen, direct, gallop, circus) Not all linguists consider this a separate sound. The schwa is also known as as murmur or neutral sound. Up to 22 different spellings of the schwa sound have been identified.

12. A good phonics lesson: Uses a logical sequence is explicit in the introduction of sound-spelling relationships Provides frequent, daily lessons Keeps the lessons relatively brief and fast-paced Keeps the lesson focused Begins with what children know Creates a classroom environment in which children become active word watchers Provides a built in review of previously taught sound-spellings.

13. Components of a good lesson Repeated readings Phonemic awareness exercises Explicit introduction of sound/spelling relationship Blending opportunities Word-building opportunities Controlled text reading opportunities Dictation