Phonics #3

Summary: Assignment 2 of the phonics book was loaded with information that the average person knows, but would not be able to explain why. First it reviewed terms such as grapheme, phoneme, and digraph to ensure the reader had a good understanding of the concepts before diving into the lesson. There exits a word associated with each consonant phoneme that they use as a base to refer since there can be more than one phoneme associated with each consonant. Then for certain consonants phonemes that are typically reliable in sound, they listed when they fail the rule of thumb and stated the pattern if one existed. By the end of this section, it was obvious there are a lot of rules that I need to become familiar with the WHY and WHEN.

In order to help myself remember all these, I have created a chart:

Consonant	Key Word	[Sometimes] Silent When It…	Other
Bb	boat	follows m (bomb) or precedes t (doubt) in same syllable
Hh	hat	follows g (ghost), k (kahki), r (rhino); at the beginning of the word (hour); follows a vowel in word or syllable (hurrah)	digraphs: ch, sh, ph, wh, th, gh
Kk	kite	beginning of word or syllable when followed by n (knee)
Ll	lion	is followed, in same syllable, by m (calm), k (chalk), or d (should)
Mm	moon		dependable
Pp	pig	followed by s (psychology), t (pterodactyl), n (pneumonia) at beginning of word	ph sounds like f
Qu		u may be silent	qu may sound like kw (quick)
Rr	ring		dependable
Vv	van		dependable; sometimes f sounds like v (of)
Dd	dog	dd appear together (ladder)	may sound like j (soldier)
Ff	fish		sounds like v (of); gh and ph sound like f
Jj	jelly		sound like y (hallelujah); dj sound like j (judge)
Nn	nut	preceded by m (autumn)	n may sound like ng (thank)
Zz	zipper		/z/ sounds like /s/ (waltz); /zh/ in azure
dg	/j/ jeep		budget
gh		followed by t in syllable (night); at ending (through); h is silent when gh is at the  beginning of a word (ghost)	sounds like /f/ (cough) when follows vowel in syllable;
ph			ph digraph sounds like /f/ (photo) or (laugh)
-ed (suffix)			sounds like: /d/ played 1 syll /t/ missed 1 syll /ed/ seated 2 syll

 
While I continue to wonder why the heck I have to learn this to be a secondary Math teacher, I know that I hate it when students ask "why do we need to know this?" or "when will we ever use this?".  Therefore, I am continuing to study phonics diligently, because someday - whether it be as a mother, missionary, or teacher - I will need this and it will come in handy. I am enjoying learning about the patterns of this language, but more so the than not, the times when the pattern or rule is broken.

Fox, B. (2010). Phonics and structural analysis for the teacher of reading. (10 ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.