Cycle 21

Video Modeling Sounds and Words: 21.1 — 21.5

21.1 New Sound

Purpose and Procedure

In this task, students will learn the sound /th/ as in father. This sound should be voiced. Do not say the unvoiced /th/ as in think.

This is the first digraph (one sound written with two letters) taught in this curriculum, but do not talk about individual letters when introducing this sound. We want students to recognize it as a single unit, which is why the characters are visibly connected. Now is not the time to talk about t or h or even to say the word letter.

Your finger should stay over the dot beneath the sound the whole time that you say the sound, rather than moving from beneath the t to beneath the h.

21.5 Word Reading

Purpose and Procedure

This task introduces the fact that the can be pronounced in two acceptable ways: /thē/ and /thǝ/.

‍Fist and raft are the first words that students will read with four distinct sounds. They also have the first consonant blends that students will read. You may need to model the sounds more times than you usually do and let the student have more tries than they usually need.

21.7 Writing

Purpose and Procedure

This task introduces students to writing their first digraph (one sound written with two letters).

Even though the t and the h are tied together in this specialized font, you should write them as separate characters, just as the red lines indicate.