Cycle 51
Last updated
Last updated
In this task, students will learn the sound /ō/ as in goat.
The second part of this task introduces students to reading sounds in a regular serif font.
This marks the beginning of the process of phasing out the specialized orthography that students have been reading so far.
For the first time in the curriculum, you will use the word letter when referring to letters in the regular font; however, you will still use the word sound when referring to characters in the specialized orthography.
Even though you can say the word letter, do not say the letters’ names (for example: a, b, c) when referring to letters in the regular serif font or characters in the specialized orthography. That will come later in the curriculum.
This task introduces the fact that a final s is sometimes pronounced /z/ (when a voiced sound comes before it).
The final part of this task begins the process of teaching students to read words the slow way sub-vocally (only "sounding" the words out in their heads, not out loud) so that the first thing they read out loud is the fast version of the word (in this case, the word in). At this point in the curriculum, many students will be reading many words in this way already, but some students will need more explicit instruction to do so consistently.
To make what you are doing clear to the student, be demonstrative when pretending to read the word slowly in your head. Touch beneath each sound slowly while you make a pensive expression and mouth the sounds silently.
When students get better at reading words out loud fast without saying them slowly first (to read with more automaticity) and then they encounter a word that they struggle with, they tend to make a common mistake: they look away from the word (usually at you, the instructor) and begin to guess instead of read. In those situations, make sure that you always insist that students keep their eyes on the word, that they keep their finger under the word, and that they read it the slow way out loud. If students can read a word the fast way first, great. If not, they should read it slowly first, and that is fine too.
Many students will go through a phase in which they won’t want to read words the slow way even if they are struggling to read it correctly the fast way. That’s because they’ve experienced being able to read the fast way, and they might see it as a failure not to be able to do so for every word. Remind them that even adult readers have to sound out words that are unfamiliar to them. Save your most enthusiastic praises for those times that a student needs to go back to “the slow way” in order to read a word correctly.