Phonics #10

Summary: The onset is the consonant letters the preceed the vowel in a syllable. The rime consists of a vowel phoneme and final consonant(s) in the syllable. Rime is different from rhyme which is the correspondence of sound between words at the end of the word.

Before doing the activities to decipher between rime and rhyme, I had difficulty distinguishing a difference. However, I am much more confident now understanding the difference. A rhyme has to do with sound, where the rime has to do with the spelling at the end of a word.

Examples of Onset 
pig
smile
chip
wish
splash

thirteen
pumpkin
garden

Rime
-ant            -ug            -op
plant           bug           hop
slant            rug           drop
grant           chug         mop


Rhyme
weight
bait
mate
wait

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

Comprehension Strategies Practiced 3/26

Strategies Used:
-visualizing - this came naturally because the author did such a good job using descriptive language
-through visualizing you could also use sensory details
-personal experiences with the ocean, waves, sand on my favorite vacations and my experience in Thailand
-determining importance (the author used bolded words)
-using the illustrations to pick up on the author's purpose and lead to considering their point of view

However, I must note that I would not have used all these strategies normally.  I think because we were told to write down what strategies we used, I was more aware and more likely to use strategies.

phonics #9

This was section was a giant review of everything we've learned about Phonemes. It was really beneficial for me to go to the back of the book, which practically stated the same thing, but in a more systematic format. Even though it was a lot of information, it was much easier to study and remember due to the way it was organized. While Phonics has rules, there are always exceptions, and this was a great time to review those. One thing I could definitely work on is being able to label each phoneme; it does not come easily for me to know which vowel phoneme I am using since each vowel grapheme has many different pronunciations.  Below is one way to organize the phoneme rules - which has been easy for me to navigate. 

CONSONANTS

Silent

b (comb, doubt)

c (scene, knock)

g (gnat) 

h (khaki, ghost, rhino; oh; hour)

k (knock)

l (calm, chalk, should)

Letters that Represent more than one Phoneme

c: /k/, /s/

d: /d/, /t/

g: /g/, /j/

n: /n/, /ng/

s: /s/, /sh/, /z/, /zh/

z: /z/, /s/, /zh/

Phoneme represented by more than one Letter

/f/: f, gh, ph

/j/: j, g, dg, d

/k/: k, ch, q

/s/: s, z

/w/: w, u

/z/: z, s

c or g - followed by e, i, y reps soft sound (city, gem)

c or g - followed by another letter, or it appears at end of letter - reps hard sound (cup, go)

-ed 

/t/ sound; ed sound - separate syllable or /d/ sound

q always reps /k/

c, q, x - no one distinctive sound

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

Phonics #8

The main focus of this section was the difference between vowel phonemes. There are three main variations: dipthongs, vowel digraphs, and vowel pairs. Even though, like the majority of the English Language, there are exceptions to the rule, typically a vowel phoneme will follow one of these three patterns.

Dipthongs are single vowel phonemes represented by a combination of two sounds that glide together.
While there are only two symbols (oi and ou), the four different combinations are:
-oi/oy such as oil, moist, oyster
-ou/ow such as owl, cow, house


The difference between a dipthong and a vowel digraph is a digraph is a two letter grapheme that only makes makes one sound or  phoneme.
-oo such as food, goose, soon
-oo such as hook, foot, took, wood

Some tips: oo such as stool has a flat line above it and a stool is flat, and oo as in hook has a curve above it just like the shape of a hook.

Also, I noticed as I was saying the words aloud, the oo digraph such as food and goose causes your lips to purse and the sound is in the front of your mouth. On the other hand, the oo digraph as in hook is more in the back of your throat.

The only other vowel combinations are called vowel pairs, these vowel pairs are:
ai (rain), ay (play) ea (each), ee (keep), oa (boat)

Typically the rule to follow is that the first vowel is a long vowel and the second vowel is silent.
Exception - ie: makes the long e sound - believe, field, niece


Remembering these rules will help us decipher how and when to pronounce the different vowel sounds.

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

Word Sorts

Summary: Reading through this article, it became very apparent to me how much learning can be done just through organizing and categorizing information. Specifically, children can learn to become better readers, writers and spellers just by sorting words by sounds, phonograms, vowel sounds, syllable structures, roots and stems, etc.  While there may be different variations of sorts, and different purposes, it all comes down to accessing information children already know and

As I was reading this, I began to jot down rules, suggestions and questions about word sorts and math. Then it dawned on me, what would be the benefit of using this in math to learn? Sometimes in education we just do and don't know why, and after learning about backwards planning I learned the importance of always determining a why or purpose for activities.

I personally know I learn best when I begin to decipher the differences between items, sort them into categories, and then compare and contrast the differences. Not only does this help me to see the differences that exist, but it also allows me to sort through all the information more efficiently. Some of the areas I came up with that would beneifit from doing a 'sort' in math would be: different formulas, geometric characteristics, and rules in math.

"One of the best ways to build accuracy and automaticity in word recognition is to build fast, accurate recognition of these units" (Bear, Invernizzi, Templeton & Johnston, 2008).  While accessing information quickly is not my strong suit, it is one area I really wished I was good at. When I am put on the spot or need to think quickly, I freeze - and it is something that I pray God will help me through as a teacher. However, since this is something I know I am not good at, I have realized the importance of this in math. If students are able to recall information quickly and automatically - such as terms, rules, concepts, or pictures in their heads - learning math is so so much easier. Because math is all about building on what you already know, this would be a great thing to focus on when doing word sorts or using as an essential question.

Bear, D. R., Invernizzi, M., Templeton, S., & Johnston, F. (2008). Words their way. (Fourth ed.). Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education, Inc.