by Sarah Major, M.Ed
It's so critical to teach right-brained learners (those who learn best through visuals, motions, stories and the like) with a global view so they can find patterns in all the material they are taught. Teaching your children to read falls into this category. What follows are some ideas for teaching sound spelling patterns in a right-brain-friendly way. By the way, I taught all my students this way, as even the predominantly left-brained learners gained more from this approach than from concepts taught in isolation.
Let’s say you are going to tackle long A vowel sounds.
1. On your whiteboard or chart paper, list the various spellings like this:
a-e ay ai a
Tell your children that when they see these letters, they will know to say A (long sound of a).
2. Under a-e write a few of the following words in a column so your children can see the pattern that is made of a-e in all the words:
Face, lace, mace, pace, race,
bade, fade, jade, made, wade,
age, cage, page, rage, sage, wage,
bake, cake, fake, lake, make, rake, take, wake,
bale, dale, gale, hale, male, pale, sale, tale,
came, tame, dame, fame, game, lame, name, same, tame,
bane, cane, lane, mane, pane, sane, vane, wane,
cape, gape, nape, tape,
base, case, vase,
ate, date, fate, gate, hate, late, mate, rate,
cave, gave, pave, rave, save, wave,
daze, faze, gaze, haze, maze, raze
3. Have the children use their whiteboards. Tell them you are going to call out words that use the a-e pattern. Don’t mix them up. Start with the “ace” words and call them out one at a time--face, lace, etc.--using the collection of words above. The children will write the words in a column so they can see the spelling pattern emerge.
4. Say the word first, then break it into sounds so they can write a letter for each sound they hear. In the case of “silent e” they will write the final consonant and the final e as the letters that together spell the final sound they hear. So for the word FACE, you would sound F-A-CE, three sounds, but four letters.
5. Next have them start a new spelling. Tell them this one will be “ade.” Call out the ade words from the list above.
6. Continue until you have done all the words listed above even if you break this into two sessions. The reason for including all those words is that they will learn most easily that this is a spelling pattern that occurs throughout our language and it will be easier for them to notice words that include a-e after having practiced.
Please do not use letter names or tell the children the spellings of the words. Sound out the words and encourage them to sound out loud as they write them. I always made my students sound out loud no matter how old they were. It made a huge difference for them.
WORDS for AY:
Bay, day, gay, hay, jay, lay, may, nay, pay, ray, say, way, bray, clay, cray, gray, play, pray, slay, spray, stay, stray, sway, tray.
(Point out that when your children hear long a at the END of words, it will be spelled AY.)
WORDS for AI:
Aid, laid, maid, paid, raid
Ail, bail, fail, hail, jail, mail, nail, pail, rail, sail, tail, wail
Lain, main, pain, rain, vain, wain
Bait, gait, wait
(Point out that when your children hear long a in the MIDDLE of words, it will be spelled AI.
The exception to this is MAY-BE, however, the AY comes at the end of a syllable in that word.
This same rule applies to words with OI and OY. OI in the middle of words, OY at the end of words except LOY-AL and ROY-AL.)
Be sure to do all this to give your right-brained learners a solid base before having them read sight word and decodable books that are full of the target sounds you are teaching. When you are ready to introduce a story, scan the storyline with them to find their sight words (which you can post on the wall near where they are reading) and to locate words that use the long A spellings. If during reading they come to a sight word and hesitate, rather than letting them guess wrong, simply point to the stylized word as a prompt. The main point is to relate their sight words on cards with the same words in text.
Sarah Major, CEO of Child1st Publications, grew up on the mission field with her four siblings, all of whom her mother homeschooled. As an adult, Sarah homeschooled a small group of children in collaboration with their parents, and has taught from preschool age to adult. Sarah has been the Title 1 director and program developer for grades K-7, an ESOL teacher, and a classroom teacher. As an undergraduate student, Sarah attended Wheaton College in Wheaton, Ill. and then received her M.Ed. from Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, MI. In 2006 Sarah resigned from fulltime teaching in order to devote more time to Child1st, publisher of the best-selling SnapWords™ stylized sight word cards. In her spare time Sarah enjoys gardening, cooking, pottery, quilting, and spending time with her family.
Child1st Publications, LLC
www.child-1st.com
704-879-4047
3302 S New Hope Rd
Suite 300B
Gastonia, NC 28056
It's so critical to teach right-brained learners (those who learn best through visuals, motions, stories and the like) with a global view so they can find patterns in all the material they are taught. Teaching your children to read falls into this category. What follows are some ideas for teaching sound spelling patterns in a right-brain-friendly way. By the way, I taught all my students this way, as even the predominantly left-brained learners gained more from this approach than from concepts taught in isolation.
Let’s say you are going to tackle long A vowel sounds.
1. On your whiteboard or chart paper, list the various spellings like this:
a-e ay ai a
Tell your children that when they see these letters, they will know to say A (long sound of a).
2. Under a-e write a few of the following words in a column so your children can see the pattern that is made of a-e in all the words:
Face, lace, mace, pace, race,
bade, fade, jade, made, wade,
age, cage, page, rage, sage, wage,
bake, cake, fake, lake, make, rake, take, wake,
bale, dale, gale, hale, male, pale, sale, tale,
came, tame, dame, fame, game, lame, name, same, tame,
bane, cane, lane, mane, pane, sane, vane, wane,
cape, gape, nape, tape,
base, case, vase,
ate, date, fate, gate, hate, late, mate, rate,
cave, gave, pave, rave, save, wave,
daze, faze, gaze, haze, maze, raze
3. Have the children use their whiteboards. Tell them you are going to call out words that use the a-e pattern. Don’t mix them up. Start with the “ace” words and call them out one at a time--face, lace, etc.--using the collection of words above. The children will write the words in a column so they can see the spelling pattern emerge.
4. Say the word first, then break it into sounds so they can write a letter for each sound they hear. In the case of “silent e” they will write the final consonant and the final e as the letters that together spell the final sound they hear. So for the word FACE, you would sound F-A-CE, three sounds, but four letters.
5. Next have them start a new spelling. Tell them this one will be “ade.” Call out the ade words from the list above.
6. Continue until you have done all the words listed above even if you break this into two sessions. The reason for including all those words is that they will learn most easily that this is a spelling pattern that occurs throughout our language and it will be easier for them to notice words that include a-e after having practiced.
Please do not use letter names or tell the children the spellings of the words. Sound out the words and encourage them to sound out loud as they write them. I always made my students sound out loud no matter how old they were. It made a huge difference for them.
WORDS for AY:
Bay, day, gay, hay, jay, lay, may, nay, pay, ray, say, way, bray, clay, cray, gray, play, pray, slay, spray, stay, stray, sway, tray.
(Point out that when your children hear long a at the END of words, it will be spelled AY.)
WORDS for AI:
Aid, laid, maid, paid, raid
Ail, bail, fail, hail, jail, mail, nail, pail, rail, sail, tail, wail
Lain, main, pain, rain, vain, wain
Bait, gait, wait
(Point out that when your children hear long a in the MIDDLE of words, it will be spelled AI.
The exception to this is MAY-BE, however, the AY comes at the end of a syllable in that word.
This same rule applies to words with OI and OY. OI in the middle of words, OY at the end of words except LOY-AL and ROY-AL.)
Be sure to do all this to give your right-brained learners a solid base before having them read sight word and decodable books that are full of the target sounds you are teaching. When you are ready to introduce a story, scan the storyline with them to find their sight words (which you can post on the wall near where they are reading) and to locate words that use the long A spellings. If during reading they come to a sight word and hesitate, rather than letting them guess wrong, simply point to the stylized word as a prompt. The main point is to relate their sight words on cards with the same words in text.
Sarah Major, CEO of Child1st Publications, grew up on the mission field with her four siblings, all of whom her mother homeschooled. As an adult, Sarah homeschooled a small group of children in collaboration with their parents, and has taught from preschool age to adult. Sarah has been the Title 1 director and program developer for grades K-7, an ESOL teacher, and a classroom teacher. As an undergraduate student, Sarah attended Wheaton College in Wheaton, Ill. and then received her M.Ed. from Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, MI. In 2006 Sarah resigned from fulltime teaching in order to devote more time to Child1st, publisher of the best-selling SnapWords™ stylized sight word cards. In her spare time Sarah enjoys gardening, cooking, pottery, quilting, and spending time with her family.
Child1st Publications, LLC
www.child-1st.com
704-879-4047
3302 S New Hope Rd
Suite 300B
Gastonia, NC 28056
