SOUND CITY READING

Sound city Reading Blog

  • Sequential Phonics Program
    • Welcome
    • Copyright Information
    • How To Navigate This Site
    • Information About The Sound City Reading Program
    • Information About The Author
    • How Was This Program Developed?
    • Why Are There So Many Different Books?
    • How To Get Started
    • What If I Can't Do Everything In This Program?
    • Information About Reading Street Materials
    • Reading Readiness
    • Understanding Consonants
    • Understanding Vowels
    • What Happened To The Old Web Site
    • Other Recommended Sites
  • Program Overview
    • Step Charts
    • Flow Charts
    • Teaching Levels
    • Books Used At Each Level
    • Color-Coded Vowels
    • Skill Sequence
    • General Information About Instruction
    • Integrating Phonics And Whole Language
    • Sound Story
    • Level 1 - Learning The Alphabet Overview
    • Level 2 - Exploring Sounds In Words Overview
    • Level 3 - Short Vowels Overview
    • Level 4. Phonics Patterns Overview
    • Level 5. Advanced Phonics Patterns Overview
    • Phonemic Awareness Picture Pages Overview
    • Handwriting Books Overview
    • Charts, Flashcards, And Games Overview
    • Newer Wall Charts
    • Previous Wall Charts
  • PDF Files
    • How To Work With PDF Files
    • Printers And Printing Supplies
    • PDF Files For Any Level
    • PDF Files For Handwriting
    • Level 1 - Learning The Alphabet PDFs
    • Level 2 - Exploring Sounds In Words PDFs
    • Level 3 - Short Vowels PDFs
    • Level 4 - Phonics Patterns PDFs
    • Level 5 - Advanced Phonics Patterns PDFs
    • PDF Files For Flashcards
    • PDF Files For Activities And Games
    • PDF Files For Newer Wall Charts
    • PDF Files For Older Wall Charts
  • Reading Street
    • PDFs Decoding Practice Pages
    • PDFs Spelling Worksheets
    • PDFs Word And Phonogram Cards
    • PDFs Reading Street Tests
    • PDFs Reading Street Stories
  • Pictures
    • Sound Story Pictures
    • Keyword/Sound Chart Pictures
    • Level 1 And 2 Pictures
    • Level 3 Pictures
    • Level 4 Pictures
    • Consonant Blends
    • Level 5 Pictures
  • Audio
    • Sound Story Part 1 - Alphabet Sounds
    • Sound Story Part 2 - Beyond The Alphabet Sounds
    • Sound Pictures With Letters - Part 1
    • Sound Pictures With Letters And Letter Patterns - Part 2
    • Individual Sound Pictures - Part 1
    • Individual Sound Pictures - Part 2
    • Individual Alphabet Sounds - ABC Order
    • More Letter Sounds - sh, th, ch, ng, oi, oy, ou, ow
    • Level 1 And Level 2 Sound Charts
    • Level 3 - Short Vowels - Sound Charts
    • Level 3 - Advanced Short Vowel Sound Charts
    • Level 4 - Book 1 - Sound Charts
    • Level 4 - Book 2 - Sound Charts
    • Two-Letter Sound Blending - Short U
    • Picture-Word Page Short U
  • Video
    • Sound Story Part 1 Videos
    • Robot Game a_e/safe Video
    • Advanced Sound Charts Videos (All SCR Patterns)
  • Blog
    • Contact Me
    • Share Your Experience
    • Take This Expanded Survey

11/12/2021

Slow Downloads

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Slow Downloads

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I recently received a message via the survey on this website that someone is not able to download the PDF files he or she wants because of their large size.  I apologize for this enormous frustration.  I know quite of few of the PDF files are very large because they have many, many pictures in a single book or single set of charts.    

There are several types of files that I use.  I compose my materials in Microsoft Publisher.  When finished, I save a copy of the Microsoft Publisher file as a PDF file.  I also work with various image files.  Most of my images are in a tiff, png, or jpeg format.

I decided to play with one of my larger files to see if I could make it smaller, so that it could be downloaded more quickly.  This is what I discovered. 

I can make a Microsoft Publisher file or a file folder with a set of pictures smaller by compressing it.  This often makes it possible to reduce the size of the file enough to email it within the usual size limits. 

In my experience, when sending a folder with individual picture files online it is very worthwhile to compress the folder first.  The file size will be much smaller.  The user will need to extract the images in the file after receiving it, which is easily done.

I tried compressing a Microsoft Publisher file, thinking that might be helpful for visitors to this site to speed up the downloads.  But I discovered that there was no way to convert the compressed file to a PDF file.  This would be necessary, since many people don't have the Microsoft Publisher program and wouldn't be able to open it in that format.

I also found that if you compare a compressed Publisher file to a PDF file created from the same original file, the PDF file is much smaller than the compressed file.  So making a compressed Publisher file available instead of a PDF file would not be advantageous. 

It is possible to make the PDF files themselves smaller.  To do so, I would have to change the specifications when I create the PDF files.  As I thought about this, I remembered that I printed many test pages from PDF files when I first started putting my materials together.  I tried printing with a variety of settings.  I found that adjusting one of the settings to 600 dpi made the pages easy to read, with sharp, crisp lettering and clear line drawings.  This is true if the pages are printed, viewed on a computer screen, or displayed on a projector.  It is very important to me to use this setting so that students would always be able to see the words and pictures clearly.  So in order to meet this standard, I cannot make the PDF files any smaller, to my knowledge.

It does appear that I could subscribe to a paid service to reduce the size of PDF files.  I'm not sure what the quality of the files would be after conversion.  And I'm afraid that spending more money above the cost of this Weebly website and the Vimeo charges for supplying the videos is not something that I can do.  

If you are trying to download PDF files from this site without success, you might first try using a different browser.  Be sure that you're waiting several minutes for each file to download.  If that doesn't work, the easiest remedy would be to use a newer, faster computer and a faster connection to the internet.  However, I know that this is not possible for many individuals. 

If you are not able to download the files you want, please email me at kathjdavis@gmail.com.  If you are willing to use a file that will not have as much sharp detail as the regular files, I will try to make the file smaller for you.  This will be time consuming, so I can't do this for every file on the site.  But if there are specific files you need at this time, let me know and I will try to get them ready for you.   

​If you are familiar with technology that would solve this problem, I would appreciate hearing from you.  

Kathryn Davis  

  

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6/13/2020

Information About The Sound Story

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There are many elements in the Sound City Reading program that work together to help students learn to read and write.  In this post I will talk about A Sound Story About Audrey And Brad.  It is available as a separate book with large print and large color pictures.  It is also included as a smaller version in the student books.

What Is The Sound Story?

In the Sound City Reading program, the teacher reads a sound story aloud to the students to introduce the sounds for the letters of the alphabet and for the various phonics patterns used in the English language.  In each section of the sound story, a action takes place that creates a sound.  A picture is shown which illustrates the sound.  After reading each section of the sound story, the teacher points to the sound picture, pronounces the sound, and points out the capital and lower case letters that represent the sound in words.  Students respond by saying the sound in unison for the picture and for each letter or letter pattern.
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Part One Of The Sound Story

There are two parts to the sound story.  The first part includes pictures that teach the sounds for the letters of the alphabet, including the short vowel sounds (a/ax, e/egg, i/in, o/ox, u/up), the consonant sounds, and the long i sound (i/lilac).  Students see the capital and lower case letters that represent each sound. ​
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Part Two Of The Sound Story

​The second part of the story includes pictures that teach the "Beyond The Alphabet" sounds.  There are not enough letters in the English alphabet to show all of the sounds.  The extra sounds are shown in two main ways.  Some sounds are shown with two letters that work together to show a completely new sound: sh/ship, th/thumb, th/this, ch/chicken, ng/ring, oi/oil, oy/boy, ou/ouch, and ow/cow.  ​
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In these patterns, you do not say the individual letter sounds.  You pronounce just one, completely new sound for each of the letter patterns.  The sound story also includes alternate sounds for the single vowels:  a/raven, a/all, e/begin, o/robot, o/to, u/music, and u/push.   ​

When To Use The Sound Story

  • Young students, who cannot read, who are learning the letters of the alphabet for the first time.
  • Older students, who can already read, who are beginning the Sound City Reading program for the first time.
  • Students who are starting a new school year, both those who are new to the program and those who have already received Sound City Reading instruction in previous years.
  • Students of any age who are learning English as a second language.

The sound story is used with students at all reading levels.  The pictures in the story serve as a reference point when teaching the many phonetic patterns in the English language. ​

What Teachers And Parents Need To Know

Here are some things to know about using the sound story.
  1. Using sound pictures makes it possible to teach just the sound first.  Students are able to hear the sound distinctly because it is pronounced by itself, not as part of a key word. After students hear the sound, they immediately repeat it.  Because the picture makes sense to students as part of the story, they will be able to remember the sound, when given enough practice.  
  2. After students are introduced to a new sound, the teacher then points out the letter symbols that represent the sound in words.  The teaching sequence goes from sound to symbol.  Students immediately repeat the sound as the teacher points to each of the letters.  They learn that each letter is a symbol for a specific sound.  ​ 
  3. Both capital and lower case letters are shown with the sound picture.  In the full sized sound story book the letters are printed in two different fonts.  Students learn from the  beginning that letters are printed in both capital and lower case forms.  The learn that letters can be printed in two different ways in books, either with serifs or without serifs.  Serifs are the little points that stick out from the letters in many books, which makes them look slightly different from the hand written form.     
  4. Some programs introduce alphabet letters with a key word and picture, using this sequence:  C, cat, /c/.  Teachers say the name of the letter, say the keyword, then give the sound.  The teaching sequence from the student's point of view is 1) look at the letter, 2) hear the letter name, 3) hear the keyword, and 4) hear the sound.  While the overall structure of these programs can be very effective, this is often too much information for students.  When students spell or read, they must mostly focus on the letter sounds, not the letter names.  For some students, the essential information, the sound, gets lost.  If students see a letter and associate it with three different things (name, keyword, and sound) it becomes more difficult for them to read and spell, because they have to take the time to filter out the unneeded information instead of just thinking about the letter sounds.  For a few students, this task is almost insurmountable.  While students still need to learn the letter names, they are secondary.  Students will only need to use the letter names in a few instances, for example, when someone asks them to spell their name.   Students will also need to know the letter names in order to help them understand alphabetical order.  This can easily be accomplished by learning to sing the names of the letters in the classic ABC alphabet song after first learning to recognize the letters and associate them with their sounds.

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4/9/2019

Please Share Your Experience With Sound City Reading

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I have added a new survey to allow anyone who has used the Sound City Reading program to share their experiences with visitors to this website.  I believe that these entries will be very helpful to individuals who are looking for instructional materials to teach reading but aren't sure whether or not the Sound City Reading materials will work for them.  I've received many e-mails over the years from people all over the world who have used Sound City Reading materials with success.  If you have a story to tell about these materials, I hope you will share it.  Look under the BLOG menu heading and go to Share Your Experience. You may fill out the entry form, or if you prefer, e-mail your information directly to me at kathjdavis@gmail.com.  I will post them on a designated page on this site for others to see.  Thank you in advance if you choose to participate.  All entries will be greatly appreciated.

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2/27/2019

How Are Sight Words Taught In The Sound City Reading Program?

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Before talking about sight words, I want to mention that reading aloud to students for fun is the very best thing you can do while you are also teaching the reading skills from this program.  As I'm sure you already know, reading aloud to students is an essential part of any reading program, at all levels.  It builds comprehension skills and vocabulary, and because it's so enjoyable, fosters excitement about reading.  After I talk about sight words, I'll will explain some ways you can integrate reading aloud with the instruction at Levels 1 and 2.  

I want to discuss sight words very thoroughly because I know most programs do teach many sight words at the earliest levels.  I can hopefully reassure anyone that is using the Sound City Reading program that because I don't teach sight words in that way, your students will learn many more sight words, even faster, with far less difficulty, in the long run. 

Most sight word lists include a selection of the most common words, both phonetic and non-phonetic. For example, the first list of Dolch sight words includes the phonetic words: and, we, in, go.  It also includes these words that have phonetic elements that are not pronounced in the expected way: said, the, two, where.    

In the Sound City Reading program, the term "sight words" refers only to "rule-breaker" words that cannot be read phonetically.  It does not apply to words that can be read phonetically, even if they are among the most common words.  For example, the words in, we, and go, are very common, but they can be taught phonetically, so they are not considered sight words.  

As I put the sound city reading program together, I used a list of the one thousand most common words to help me choose which words to teach.  So although there are relatively few non-phonetic sight words listed in the program, a large number of the phonetic words taught are taken from the list of the first thousand words. 
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At Levels 1 and 2, students are not specifically taught to read words, either phonetic words or irregular non-phonetic words.  (That doesn't mean that your son won't naturally begin to recognize some of the words that he sees.)  However, there is much "learning to read" that is going on during this period.  Levels 1 and 2 teach the necessary sub-skills that are required for successful reading and writing.  This includes letter recognition and letter/sound association, beginning handwriting-which not only reinforces letter recognition and sounds but also prepares students for spelling, and phonological awareness exercises (oral blending, segmenting, rhyming). The lessons develop an understanding that words are made of individual sounds that are represented, in order, by a series of sound symbols/letters. While some students are able to develop these skills instinctively, other students need lots of practice to develop them.  So the skills are taught throughout the books, built into the daily lessons, so that both types of students are able to master them. 

At Level 1, there are eight lessons read aloud by the teacher to convey a basic understanding of how print works, how words are arranged on a page, and why the letters in words are arranged the way they are. During this process, students are exposed to a number of printed words.  Students study lists of illustrated words with the teacher a Level 1 and Level 2 to help them understand beginning and ending sounds in words.  Although students are not yet expected to be able to read the words, students may be able to recognize some of them after this initial exposure.  

At Level 2 (and Level 1 if desired), students learn to spell words with plastic letters.  This allows students to learn to spell phonetically while they are still mastering handwriting skills.  Spelling words with plastic letters requires students to listen carefully to the sounds in each word so that they can place the letters accordingly.  Learning to analyze words in this way helps students to "crack the code," so that learning to read and spell words phonetically will make sense to them.  

At Level 3, students learn to read and write phonetic short vowel words.  Students are also taught these sight words: a, A, as, has, was, is, his, I.  The sight words are taught as exceptions to the rules.  For example, in the Rhyming Short Vowel Words And Sentences book, first, students learn to read short a words.  Then they are taught that in the words a, A, and was, the letter a is pronounced as the short u sound.  Since they can already read short a words, learning these words as sight words, as rule breakers, will make sense.  As another example, when studying the sight words as and has, students learn that in some words the letter s is pronounced as the /z/ sound.    

Learning a few sight words is very useful at the short vowel level because it allows students to begin reading and writing sentences. Students learn to read one word after another, going from left to right, putting the words together so that they convey meaning.  Lots of practice helps them develop a rhythm to their reading so that it sounds like normal speaking.  

Most programs, even phonetic ones, teach a lot of sight words at the short vowel level so that students can begin reading easy stories.  In these programs, many sight words are integrated with the short vowel instruction.  This is not how the Sound City Reading short vowel materials are set up.  The focus is on mastering decoding and spelling skills with short vowel words and developing the ability to read sentences.  This prepares students to make rapid progress at the next level, which teaches the various phonics patterns. 

Why have I set up the first three levels in Sound City Reading in this way?  It is because some students are able to pick up sight words fairly easily, while others find it difficult, and others find it nearly impossible.  Many students get discouraged from the very beginning, becoming so anxious that they are unable to focus and learn.  They fall behind quickly and never catch up.  It is not fair to these students to teach this way, when they could be taught the same words phonetically with far better results.     


For example, in one basal reader program that I worked with, the words out, about, around, found, and a number of other ou words were taught throughout the year as sight words, starting at the short vowel level.  During this time, students were not told that the ou pattern shows the ou/ouch sound, so they had to memorize all of the words.  The ou/ouch pattern was not taught until the end of the school year.    


This is my reasoning.  Once students have become confident reading and spelling short vowel words, they can then learn to read and spell words with various phonetic patterns relatively quickly.  Instead of spending a lot of time drilling sight words such as see, look, out, and funny at the short vowel level, why not wait until the phonics patterns level and introduce the patterns in those words, ee, oo, ou, and _y as soon as possible.  It's much easier to teach see, feet, need, keep, and heel as a group of words, phonetically, than it is to teach see as an individual sight word, without teaching the ee sound.  Using the phonetic approach makes more sense to the students.  It builds confidence and paves the way for rapid progress.  Students are able to learn a large number of words in a short amount of time.   

After starting Level 4, Phonics Patterns, students study one new phonetic pattern each day.  This fast pace is possible because they have already learned all of the necessary skills in the previous levels. This works well, allowing students to begin reading real books as soon as possible.  The same lesson plan is followed for each new pattern taught.  For example, students learn that the ai pattern represents the long a sound, as in rain.They practice spelling and reading ai words with that sound.  After studying one or more new patterns, students then read a short practice story that contains words with those patterns and previously taught patterns.  

Level 4 is when most of the sight words in the program are taught.  As they study a new set of phonetic words, students are introduced to any non-phonetic words that are spelled with the same pattern.  For example, when studying words with the ai pattern, which represents the long a sound in words, they are also introduced to the sight word said.   The word said has the short e sound instead of the long a sound, so it is taught as an exception to the rule.   Students are not taught the word saidbefore learning phonetic words with the ai pattern, because they might expect other words with the ai pattern to have the short e sound.  Learning the phonetic words first eliminates that type of confusion. 

The ultimate goal of this phonetic instruction is to provide enough practice so that students are able to decode, or "sound out" words well enough that the process becomes automatic.  At this point, the phonetic words, in a sense, have also become "sight words" that are recognized instantly.

How Reading Aloud Can Be Used To Reinforce Skills At Different Levels

For the suggestions listed below, you can do several words on each page, depending on the amount of time you have and how long your son remains interested.  You will probably be able to think of other similar questions to ask.
  • After reading a page aloud at Level 1, have your son find a word that starts with the /t/ sound or the /h/ sound, using sounds for the letters most recently taught.   Reread the word, emphasizing the beginning sound, and have your son repeat it.
  • After reading a page aloud at Level 2, have your son find a word that either begins or ends with a designated sound.  Reread the word, and have your son repeat it.
  • After reading a page aloud at Level 3, pronounce a short vowel word from the page and have your son find it and read it.  Or ask him if he can find and read a word with the short a sound, and or any other short vowel sound.  Also look for any sight words that have been taught.
  • After reading a page aloud at Level 4, ask your son to find and read words with the sh/ship pattern, or any other recently taught pattern.  


Preparing Students To Read Easy Trade Books Aloud

In Level 4, students study a series of eight books that teach the most common phonics patterns.  They will be able to begin reading easy trade books starting with Phonetic Words And Stories, Book 5.  The books are listed on the sequence charts to show when then can be read.  When a book is listed, you will know that almost every word in the book can be read phonetically, using the patterns that students have already learned.  The sight words that have been taught are also taken into account.  For example, after studying the er/her pattern in Book 5, students will be able to read The Foot Book, by Dr. Seuss.  Because they have already learned the necessary phonetic patterns and sight words, students can generally read these books by themselves, with a little help as needed.  

A good strategy is to read each of these books aloud before asking students to read them.  This can be done from the very beginning of instruction, at the earliest levels.  Multiple readings of each book, over a period of time, are the most effective.  Being familiar with the story provides extra support as students read the words and sentences.  

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3/7/2018

Preparing To Sell Physical Copies Of The Sound City Reading Books

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I haven't posted in a while.  I'm trying to get ready to provide physical copies of the Sound City Reading books for purchase on this website.  The PDF files will still be free to download for those who want to print them themselves at home or at school.  But I know some people may not have the equipment needed to print and bind the books.  I want the finished books to be available for those who need them.  It has taken a lot of thought to figure out how exactly to set up the books to sell them.
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  1. I'm still finishing the revisions that I've posted about previously on this blog.  I've added handwriting review pages to the two Learning The Alphabet books and modified the large letter tracing pages so that they can be finger traced and also traced with a pencil.  I've combined the two Exploring Sounds In Words books into one book, and separated the handwriting pages and picture dictionary pages into separate books.  I'm almost finished with these revisions.  I'm happy with the changes and I think I'll be satisfied with the newer versions.  
  2. In the previous versions of the books, I've included extended instructions for teachers, parents, and tutors.  This won't work for someone who is buying multiple books to use in a classroom.  Printing the extra instructions pages in every book would make the books more expensive.  So I'm working on removing the instructions from the student books and placing them in a separate teaching guide.  I still have a long way to go on this.   I've struggled to make this decision because I want to be sure every person who uses the books has the instructions they need.
  3. Because the extended instructions will be in a separate book, I've been working on adding brief one or two-line instructions on all of the pages in the student books.  I'm also including a short lesson plan outline at the end of each student book.  
  4. It has been very difficult trying to decide how to price the books.  I designed the books while working with students in my classroom.  I set them up exactly the way I wanted them, with large print, a predictable format, and a clear layout.  In some of the books, the vowels in the words are printed in color, to make the vowel patterns stand out and to show which vowel patterns sound the same.  In some books, the print is extra large with lots of white space around the words and between the lines.  Some of the books have many, many pictures illustrating the words, sentences and stories.  Most of the books are sequential, starting with the easiest skills and patterns, progressing to more challenging material, going one step at a time.  The books for beginners have sub-skills such as phonemic awareness and handwriting readiness pages designed specifically for that level.   All of these things help students learn to read with confidence.  As I created the books, tried them with my students, tweaked them and tried them again, I didn't take cost into account.  I just wanted to see every student possible learn how to read.  The problem is that the large print, extra white space, step by step lessons, and color-coded vowels make the books costly to print.  The color-coded books are particularly costly, and yet they were the most successful with my students. 
  5. I've been trying to learn about shipping costs and calculations, label printers, and scales to weigh packages.  The business side of providing Sound City Reading books is a topic that has been a steep learning curve for me.

I'm aiming to add books to the website store a few at a time over the next few months.  I'd love to have all of them available by the beginning of June.
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2/1/2018

The Old Web Site Is Coming Down

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Today I contacted the hosting service for the old Sound City Reading website at www.soundcityreading.com to ask them to close the site.  It should be down as soon as they can fulfill the request.  Within a short time, the .com address will automatically forward to the newer site at www.soundcityreading.net.  

I have strong mixed emotions about discontinuing the older site.  I originally posted it in 2008, if I'm remembering correctly.  I updated it regularly with the newest versions of the phonics books I created.  I was able to see a map showing the locations from which people were downloading pdf files from all over the world.  It was very exciting to see more and more countries colored in on the map.  The web site also provided a way to share phonics materials that I created with fellow teachers in Shelby County.  

The software platform for the old site was completely outdated, so much so that my newer computers could not even log on to the site builder any more.  Yet, I didn't have the heart to take it down because hundreds of people were still visiting the site every week.  

The hosting network updated to a new platform but I was stuck in the old one.  It became difficult to even communicate with the web hosting site at all.  So today is the day that the old site is coming to an end.

As I looked at the old site for the last time, it struck me how much better the new Weebly site really is.  I sincerely hope that the users that have visited the old web site faithfully will find many things to like about the new site.

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12/17/2017

Site Format Changes

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I have changed to a newer "theme" for the Sound City Reading website.  The format is different but I'm hoping it will not be too difficult to navigate.  I had to make some trade offs as I've gone through this process.

A major improvement is that the area on the page on which I can display materials is wider.  This will allow me to place sound chart pages and picture-word pages side by side on the pages.  The pages appear to me to be sharper and clearer as well.  

After looking at this new version on my PC and Mac laptops, I can see that some of the charts and images are too tall to fit within the screen area.  To fix this, adjust the window to make it narrower.  This will force the images to become smaller.  Then they will fit on the screen.  On larger screens this won't be a problem.

The site construction controls include an ability to create sections.  This will make it easier for me to add new material.

I'm not happy with the blog format!  The new website version will not allow me to add a sidebar, which I had before.  However, it appears I can add the same pictures I used before within each post.  A little more trouble, but doable.  However, there is no workaround that I can find that will make the blog entries visible until you click on them.

If you have any display issues with the new version, please let me know.  My e-mail address is kathjdavis@gmail.com.
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10/23/2017

Updated Charts Showing All Of The Sound City Reading Books

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I've updated the overview charts and the flow charts showing all of the Sound City Reading phonics books.  Click on any chart to enlarge it. 

​The changes to the overview charts make it more clear that it is not necessary to use every book in a given level.  You could choose, for example, Book A OR Book B OR Book C at a particular level. The different options may present the material in a different order (as in the short vowel books) or in a different format (as in the phonics patterns books).  Although having a variety of books at some of the levels may be initially confusing, the advantage is that you can fine tune your instruction by selecting the particular books that are best suited for your students.

​The overview charts give a range of suggested grade levels for each group of books.  The books are not limited to a single grade level, so that they can be used at any level as needed.  
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The flow chart pages have been changed to show two alternate routes for beginning readers.
  1. You may choose to complete the Learning The Alphabet books, then the Exploring Sounds In Words book, and then one of the short vowel books.  
  2. Or you may complete the Learning The Alphabet books and then work through the Exploring Sounds In Words book and the Mixed Short Vowel Words And Sentences book at the same time, integrating the daily instruction. 
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10/17/2017

I've Uploaded Learning The Alphabet Revised, Books 1 And 2

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I've revised the Learning The Alphabet books and have uploaded the PDF files today.  A separate teaching guide for these books will be posted in the near future.  These books are perfect for students who are learning the alphabet letters.  I developed these pages for my grandson when I was teaching him the alphabet.  The PDF files are copyrighted but they may be downloaded and printed by teachers, parents, and tutors, to use with their own students.

I had previously thought that I might combine these books into one book and put the handwriting and sound story pages into a separate book.  After more thought, I decided that since this is the very first book in the Sound City Reading program, I should leave everything together.  This will make it easier for teachers and parents to follow the teaching sequence.  All you have to do is go from one page to the next, in the order in which the pages appear in the book.

The changes in the books are as follows.
  1. The front and back cover pages are printed in color.  The rest of the book has all black print, as before.
  2. The handwriting pages with the large letters have been changed.  The letter outlines are narrower.  (See the pictures below.)  This allows students to finger trace the letters first and then trace them with a pencil.
  3. An additional handwriting page has been added to each letter section.  It is a letter review page.  Students trace letter outlines for all of the letters that have been taught so far.  (See the picture below.)
  4. The order of the oral blending pages has been modified.  In Book 1, students complete three compound word pages, four two-syllable word pages, and six two-sound pages.  In Book 2, students complete two two-sound pages and eleven three-sound pages.  The purpose for this change is so that there will be a gradual increase in difficulty spread across both books as students complete the pages.  Both books include six pages of two-syllable words at the end of the book as extra practice, to be used as needed.
  5. Due to the addition of the extra handwriting pages, the teaching guide will become a separate book.  However, brief instructions are included on each student page in Books 1 and 2.  Please use the teaching guide in the original Learning The Alphabet 1 until I get the separate guide posted.

This is the handwriting page with large letters in the original version.  Students finger trace the letters.
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This is the handwriting page with large letters in the revised version.  Students finger trace the letters, and they can also trace the letters with a pencil.
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The letter introduction page with small letters has not changed.
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A handwriting review page has been added after each new letter has been taught.
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Both the original and revised versions are set up with beginning learners in mind.  They use multi-sensory instruction to teach new letters.  Tracing large and small letters helps students internalize each letter shape so that they can recognize the letter when they see it.  Saying the letters sounds as they trace helps students associate each letter with its sound.  After tracing a new letter, students complete a letter discrimination page, on which they circle the new letter in rows of individual letters, in rows of words, and in a sentence.  (Students are not expected to read the words and sentence; they are read aloud by the teacher.)
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As each new letter is taught, two types of picture pages are included to teach beginning phonemic awareness skills.  The first teaches oral blending, and the second introduces students to rhyming
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Students also study a page with words and pictures.  Each word on the page begins with the new letter.  The students look at the pictures to figure out the words, with the teacher's help.  As students pronounce each word, they listen carefully for the first sound, and circle the beginning letter.  This introduces them to the concept of beginning sounds in words.  The begin to understand that the beginning letter in a written word represents the first sound in the spoken word.
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10/9/2017

I've Uploaded A Smaller Version Of The Letter Connections Activity Used To Teach "Sound Blending"

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These instructions in the book Color-Coded Short Vowel Words explain how to make letter connections materials to teach sound blending.  However, both a large and small version of these  materials are available as pdf files to download from this web site.
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The two versions of the Letter Connections Activity can be found on the PDF Files page for sound cards, sounds charts, etc.  The larger version has been available for a while.  It is large enough to use with a whole class, displayed on a large easel or on a chalkboard.  I uploaded a smaller version today.  It is a good size to use when working with a single student or a small group.  For one student it can be used on a flat surface such as a desk or table.  For a small group, it can be used on a tabletop easel.  These charts are used to teach "sound blending," the ability to connect a series of letter sounds smoothly when pronouncing them.

The Problem
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Often, students are able to say the sounds for the letters of the alphabet, put alphabet letters together to form words, and read words by saying the sound for each letter.  They understand that letters are symbols for sounds and know that the letters are arranged sequentially in words to show us how to pronounce those words.  However, they are still reading each word by saying one letter sound at a time, pausing between the sounds.  While they can mentally put the sounds together after they have pronounced them separately, they are not yet able to read fluently because the decoding process slows them down quite a bit.
 
The Solution

The Letter Connections Activity teaches students to pronounce two or more letters, one after another, putting the sounds together smoothly.  

Step One: Working With Two Sounds
Students begin by pronouncing short vowel-consonant combinations, such as ab, ac, ad, af, ag, and am.  This exercise helps students learn to slide two letter sounds together smoothly.  For beginners, this can be a challenge but it is much easier than trying to put three sounds together smoothly to pronounce a whole word.  As students pronounce these vowel-consonant combinations, they are also learning that single vowels followed by a consonant usually represent the short vowel sound.  Most of these two-sound combinations are not real words, so in this program they are called "silly sounds."  Often, when students are having trouble pronouncing three-sound short vowel words smoothly, they will also have trouble putting just two sounds together.  This activity teaches them how to do that. 

Step Two: Working With Three Sounds To Read Short Vowel Words
After the first step has been mastered, students can begin reading series of short vowel words formed by moving cards showing the same ending chunks they have already mastered (_at, _oss, _in, _ell, _un, etc.) down a column of beginning consonants.  Students add various beginning sounds to the ending chunks to pronounce either real words or nonsense words.  For example, using the ending chunk _at, students would read bat, cat, dat, fat, gat, hat, etc.  Even though not all of the letter combinations are real words, many of the non-word combinations will be beginning syllables from multi-syllable words that students will eventually learn to read.  Because students are only having to change the beginning letter sound as the ending chunk is moved from one letter to the next, they will find it easier to pronounce the three-letter combinations smoothly, without having to say the sounds separately.

If you prefer to work with only real words with the students, you can just skip any combinations that don't form words.

Step Three: Working With Advanced Letter Connections Charts
After mastering short vowel words, students will learn to read words with beginning and ending consonant blends and words with various long vowel and r-controlled vowel patterns.  As they learn new consonant and vowel patterns, the teacher can use the various advanced letter connections charts to give students practice pronouncing consonant-vowel and vowel-consonant combinations.  Again, these combinations are often not real words, but they are generally found in words that students will be learning to read.  For example, students might practice putting beginning consonants with long vowel patterns, as in bai, cai, dai, fai, gai, hai.  They can also practice pronouncing words or chunks with ending consonant blends, for example band, cand, dand, fand, gand, and hand, or with beginning consonant blends, as in stee, snee, smee, and spee.  (Spell check is NOT happy with these pseudo words!)

Notice that studying these non-word syllables will prepare students to read many multi-syllable words such as daily, Haiti, candy, gander, steeple, and speedy.

Reinforcing With Color-Coded Short Vowel Lists and Color-Coded Phonetic Lists
These two books contain both rhyming and body-coda (same beginning sounds) word lists, sorted by vowel patterns.  They would provide excellent follow up reinforcement after students have done  particular letter connections activities.  Students can practice reading words with the same consonant and vowel patterns they have studied on the charts.

Individualizing Instruction
Some students pick up decoding more quickly than others.  It's important to provide enough decoding practice for students who find it more difficult.  Often students who struggle initially go on to become excellent readers, after mastering sound blending, which is an important sub-skill for decoding.  Developing this skill allows students to begin reading more fluently.  Working with specific letter combinations helps students begin to decode words more smoothly and automatically.  ​At the same time they are able to study a lot of new words in a short period of time.  This allows students to read on their own with more confidence and better comprehension. 

In my experience working with first grade students, even those students who come into first grade already reading will benefit from this specific type of decoding instruction.  It helps them become more conscious of the various letter patterns so that they can apply them when they begin to read more advanced words.  I've seen many good readers become advanced readers who are reading above grade level by the end of the year.  

Some students who begin reading without any problems have particular difficulty with spelling.  These students benefit greatly from this type of instruction because they are able to apply the patterns they have studied when spelling words.

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9/26/2017

The Videos For All Of The Sound Charts In Advanced Phonics Patterns From Children's Books Have Been Uploaded

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I finished the remaining sound charts for Advanced Phonics Patterns From Children's Books today and uploaded them to the portfolio.  You will be able to see the charts and hear the sounds for all of the patterns.  These videos don't have any intro or music.  They are in the same order in which they appear in the book.

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9/25/2017

15 New Videos Showing The Sound Charts In Advanced Phonics Patterns From Children's Book

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Today I uploaded fifteen new videos showing the sound charts in Advanced Phonics Patterns From Children's Books.  This covers approximately the first half of the charts in this book.  You can see the charts and hear the sounds for each of the phonogram patterns.  To see the videos, click on the VIDEOS tab on the menu bar, click on Advanced Sound Charts, and click on the green button to go to the portfolio.  You can watch the videos if you have an internet connection.  If necessary, you can download the videos ahead of time and save them to watch as needed; however, the files are quite large.
Even if you are not teaching from the Advanced Phonics Patterns book, you may want to listen to these sound charts.  Many of them are the same charts found in the Basic Phonics Patterns books, with the addition of a few advanced patterns.  You will be able to get a good idea of how to pronounce the sounds as you work on the charts in your current book. ​

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9/24/2017

About Sound City Reading Video Formats

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When I researched websites that would be able to store and stream the videos I'm making, I decided to use Vimeo.  I'm paying for an account with them because, among other reasons, they have a variety of formats available for sharing videos.  The format I'm using to share videos on this web site is called a portfolio.  I selected this format because, within any portfolio, you can only see the videos that I have selected.  This makes it easy to set up a sequence of videos for a particular phonics book, with all of them together and in order, making it easy to find the one you're looking for.  The really nice thing about the portfolio format is that only the videos I put into the portfolio can be seen.  This is important to me because there may be times children are watching the videos on their own.  I don't want them to be exposed to videos on other topics, created by someone else, since I can't screen the content of other people's videos to make sure they are appropriate.

On the other hand, on the Vimeo web site, I have stored all of the same videos in a different type of collection called an album.  Like a portfolio, I can set up an album for a particular book and put all the videos for that book together.  I can even set it up so that only my videos can be seen from the album page.  This is fine for adults.  The problem is that there is an (unobtrusive) menu at the top of the page.  By clicking on this menu, you can see various other videos, not my own, that are available on the site.  While many of these may be fine for students, there may be some that are not fine. So, I had put a password on the videos in these albums.  Unfortunately, this has caused confusion with teachers searching for the videos and finding them locked, so I have removed the passwords and made them available to anyone.  

So, the bottom line is this.  If you want students to watch phonics videos from Sound City Reading, I suggest that you use the links under the videos tab at www.soundcityreading.net to get to the desired portfolios.  On the other hand, teachers, parents, and tutors may search for Sound City Reading videos on the Vimeo site and watch those if they wish.

Here is a link to the Vimeo site. 
Sound City Reading On Vimeo

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8/17/2017

Revised Mixed Short Vowel Words And Sentences Coming Soon

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After revising the Rhyming Short Vowel Words And Sentences book, I'm working on the Mixed Short Vowel Words And Sentences book.  This book is used at the beginning of first grade. It is set up so that the class will cover short a, e, i, o, and u words completely (but not in that order) by the time they have learned/reviewed how to write all of the alphabet letters, studying one new letter per day. In first grade you have to "hit the ground running," so to speak, because there is so much to cover before the end of the year.  At the same time, you have to be sure that everyone can write the alphabet letters accurately and automatically and decode short vowel words with confidence so they will be successful when learning to read and spell words with phonogram patterns.  
I'm doing a major revision of the book, eliminating the first short i pages, reordering many of the short vowel pages, and revising many of the word lists on the picture/word pages. The words and pictures will be the same, but I'm setting it up so there's less jumping around from one short vowel to the next.  I'm going to try to add a section to the instructions explaining how to integrate reading and spelling  with this book and how to prepare students for the next level by teaching the patterns from Part 2 of the sound story.

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8/15/2017

Update Coming Soon For Rhyming Short Vowel Words And Sentences

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I am revising the Rhyming Short Vowel Words And Sentences book.  I am removing the short i words from the introductory lessons.  The short u introductory lessons will remain the same.  Without the short i words, it is impossible to make sentences with just the short u words, so the sentences in the introductory sequence will be removed, too.
If you have already printed the books, you don't need to reprint them!! Just skip the introductory short i picture/word pages and  the introductory sentences.  
The reason for the change is that the short i sound is not easy to hear for beginning readers.  It is tempting to start with short i words because you can use the words is and I to put together sentences after just a few phonetic words have been learned.  My original reasoning was, "It's just one set of short i words."  On second thought, I think it's better to wait to introduce the short i words.  It's much easier for students to begin with short u words.
I've also added a spelling dictation chart to supplement the sequence chart.  
The main changes have been completed.  I just need to revise the instructions. Hopefully I will put the new version online within the next few days.   

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8/5/2017

Sound Story Part 1 Videos

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I've added all of the videos for Part 1 of A Sound Story About Audrey And Brad to the Sound City Reading website at www.soundcityreading.net.  You'll be able to listen to the sound story and sounds for all of the letters of the alphabet.  You can find them under VIDEOS on  the menu bar.  Each section is recorded separately.  The videos are in a portfolio, which is one way to group videos on the Vimeo website.  They are arranged in the same order in which the letters appear in the sound story.  I re-recorded the first videos so now the voice quality for those videos will be better.  

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7/29/2017

Uploading Sound Story Videos

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I have realized for some time that I need to provide audio recordings and videos for this program.  Many adults have never been exposed to a systematic phonics program.  They may find it difficult to work with the Sound City Reading materials if they have never developed the skills that they would be trying to teach.  Because a phonetic program is strongly based on the sounds in words and the letters and letter patterns that represent those sounds, it's important for teachers, parents, and students to be able to hear those sounds, and to hear how the sounds in words can be taken apart and put back together again.
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I've been working for almost a year now with the Camtasia program to learn how to make screencasts for some of the Sound City Reading books.  I have had good luck with a number of test recordings, but there were always a few glitches that I didn't know how to correct.  Over the past two days I've studied my previous notes, a number of Camtasia video tutorials, and any information I could find online to try to answer the questions I still had.  Victory!  I can now put together a high resolution screen recording that I can share online through Vimeo.  

Unfortunately, my vocal cords are not cooperating!  I have recorded the first pages from A Sound Story About Audrey And Brad, and my voice quality is terrible​​. : ( Nevertheless, with apologies, I'm posting the videos.  At least parents and teachers can watch them and get an idea about how to pronounce the alphabet sounds and present the material.   Perhaps, at some point I can re-record the videos.

If you're not familiar with this sound story, it introduces speech sounds in a story.  Each 
speech sound is represented by a sound that occurs in the story.  Every sound is represented by a picture that could occur in real life.  As far as possible, the pictures are intuitively clear.  For example, some of the sounds include a growling dog, snow crunching under boots, blowing wind, and chains squeaking on a swing set.  Sounds made by people's voices are included: exclamations of surprise (oh!), pain (ow), and satisfaction (mmm).  

Students can have difficulty learning the alphabet letters and their sounds because they are purely symbolic.  There is nothing about the letter T that indicates what the sound for the letter might be.  However, if students are shown a picture of a ticking clock, the /t/ sounds seems reasonable and students are able to make a clear connection between the picture and the sound.  The goal of the sound story is for students to easily learn the sound for each picture, and then relate that sound to the capital and lower case letters that represent that sound.

To me, it can be very confusing for students to learn the alphabet letters because they are truly complicated.  There are capital and lower case forms for each letter.  Some of these look the same, and some look entirely different.  Yes they have the same names and sounds.  For some letters, such as b and d, the sounds are fairly obvious because they are pronounced as part of the letter name.  Other letters are completely disorienting.  The letter H (aich) represents a sound that is totally different from its name.  This is why, in the sound story, students start with the sound picture, and then relate it to the alphabet letter that represents that sound.

 On top of that, letters printed in various fonts can look quite different from the letters that students learn to print.  So I've included two sets of letters with every picture.  The first pair of letters is printed in a "san serif" font, without serifs.  The second set of letters is printed in a font with serifs, which are the small pointed lines that stick out from the basic letters.  I'm hopeful that explaining both types of letters from the very beginning will help students be less baffled but the whole process.

I spent some time a few months ago studying about the development of phonetic languages, just looking for information online.  I found it interesting that the Phoenicians, who adapted a few of the many Egyptian hieroglyphic symbols to create their alphabet, chose letters that were really very simplified  pictures from their everyday life.  Once you learned what object each picture represented, it was easy to remember the sound - it was just the first sound in the word.  Teachers commonly use "key words" to teach alphabet letters, as in a/apple, b/ball, and c/cat.  But the Phoenicians made it even easier because their letters were actually simplified pictures of the key word, making it easier for Phoenician children to learn the alphabet than children who are learning the English alphabet in modern times.  

I used key words to teach the alphabet for years.  Then I began teaching my five year old niece.  I had the alphabet cards on the walls in my living room that I had used for years in my classroom.  But b/ball didn't mean anything to her because she couldn't hear the /b/ sound at the beginning of ball as a separate sound unit.  She just heard the whole word "ball."  I wrote the sound story that I now use for her, writing a new section and drawing a new picture before she arrived for each lesson.  This approach changed everything for her.  She easily learned to recognize the alphabet letters and to remember their sounds after she had learned the sound pictures first.  I later went back to the classroom and used the sound story with groups of first graders for years, with good results.  

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7/28/2017

Revisiting The Learning The Alphabet And Exploring Sounds In Words Books

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I've been doing a lot of thinking about the Learning The Alphabet and Exploring Sounds In Words books.  I've decided to leave the Learning The Alphabet book as it is.  It will continue to have all the different types of pages needed to complete the level, including oral blending, rhyming, handwriting, and sound story pages.  For beginning students and teachers, it would be too hard jumping from one book to another.  And I realized it would be too hard for me to explain it.  
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On the other hand, for the Exploring Sounds In Words level, I'm going to keep the idea of using separate books for certain of the skill pages.  I'm working on revising the directions at this level and I think I will be able to make the use of the various books clear.
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7/27/2017

Revised Handwriting Book For Exploring Sounds In Words

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I've added a revised Exploring Sounds In Words Handwriting book to replace the previous file.  This version is almost the same.  I added more review letters to the pages with smaller letters.  This is  similar to the handwriting format I used at home with my grandson when he was in kindergarten.  The handwriting review pages worked very well for him.  On the revised pages, students trace and copy six review letters per page, both capital and lower case.  
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The Previous Pages Looked Like This
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The New Pages Look Like This

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7/6/2017

Phonetic Words And Stories In All Black Print

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I learn as much from my failures as I do from my successes.  This past weekend I saw my son at a family reunion.  He has used the Sound City Reading materials with his elementary aged children.  He said that the color-coded words in the Phonetic Words And Stories Books have been frustrating.  His children want to know why the letters are in different colors, and he didn't know how to explain it to them.  It sounded like they had just skipped the colored words and worked with the stories printed in all black print and the all black print pages in the workbooks. 

This type of feedback is always very valuable to me.  The original Sound City Reading books had all black print.  Although  the colored print has been most helpful to many of the students I have taught, a few  students have definitely preferred the all black print when reading the stories.

When I got home I sat down and revised a few picture/word pages from Book 1, using all black print and the Century Schoolbook font.  It looks good.  The picture/word format will still work well to help students learn to read new words, regardless of whether the print is in color or is all black.  I'm planning to use the black print format to make a complete set of the Phonetic Words And Stories books.  It will take me some time, but hopefully not too long.

I'm excited about this, not just because some teachers, parents, and students may prefer them, but because the books will be less expensive to print since they are not in color.  More people will be able to afford them.  

I'll continue to make the color versions available, because I do think many students benefit from the color coding.  And I will definitely try to make my instructions about the colored print more clear for those who are using them.

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7/6/2017

Paper Position For Left Handed Students

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I am left handed.  I have read several well respected books that include handwriting instruction. Some books insist that left handed students tilt their paper to the right, just the opposite of students who are right handed.  I disagree with this advice.

Although it seems to make sense to do so, since students are writing with the opposite hand, the logic does not hold up.  That is because lefties still write from left to right.  If left handed students wrote from right to left (basically, forming all of their letter backwards), then tilting the paper in the opposite direction works.  I've tried it.

If you force left handed students to write with their papers tilted to the right, one of two things will happen.  First, they might write with a backhand.  The letters will slant backwards.  Second, they might pull their right shoulder back, pull their left elbow forward, and curve their wrist so that they can write with the letters in the correct letter position.  The second option is what I did throughout early elementary school.  It was uncomfortable for a short period and painful for longer periods to write this way.

The secret is for both right and left handed students to tilt their papers slightly to the left.  Right handers will have their hand, wrist, and forearm in a line parallel to the side edge of the paper.  For left handers, their hand, wrist, and forearm will not line up with the edge of the paper.  Instead, the left hand and left edge of the paper will form a tepee shape.
Like this.
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This way left handed students can write comfortably.

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6/23/2017

Sound City Reading Facebook Page

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I have set up a Facebook page for Sound City Reading. 
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6/23/2017

Changes To The Learning The Alphabet And Exploring Sounds In Words Books

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I'm working on a book of sequence charts that will explain what each book in the Sound City Reading program teaches.  The new sequence chart book is not ready, so I posted the old one, for now, on the home page.  I hope it will be useful.

As I've worked to create an overview of how all the books fit together, I've realized that several of the books are inefficient because they repeat the same skills and information that can be found in other books.  I can see that reorganizing the Learning The Alphabet books and Exploring Sounds In Words books will provide more flexibility and clarity to the instructional process. Paper and toner are expensive, and I'm hopeful these changes will reduce overall printing costs as well.    

Here is a list of pages that will be removed from both books and placed in separate books that focus on specific skills. This will eliminate redundancy.  It won't be necessary to repeat the same pages in both books.
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  1. Full size pages showing each sound story section and picture from A Sound Story About Audrey And Brad.  These will be removed, but a small version of the story will still be included.  It will be smarter to use the separate book, A Sound Story About Audrey And Brad.  It has color pictures which are more appealing to students. The book can be used with individual students or a whole class, and can be used at any Sound City Reading level.
  2. Picture pages to teach oral blending and segmenting.  These will be removed and placed in a separate book, Phonemic Awareness Picture Pages.  This new book can be used at both the Learning The Alphabet and Exploring Sounds In Words levels, and can also be used with any higher level book as needed.  This will allow teachers and parents to personalize the instruction to fit a student's learning level, regardless of age.
  3. Picture pages to teach rhyming.  These will also be removed and placed in a new Phonemic Awareness Picture Pages book.
  4. Handwriting Pages - The handwriting pages in Exploring Sounds In Words will be removed and placed in a separate Exploring Sounds In Words Handwriting book.  The handwriting pages in Learning The Alphabet will stay in the book, but will also be available as a separate Manuscript Handwriting Tracing Pages book.
  5. Print Awareness Lessons.  These will be removed from the Learning The Alphabet book and placed in the Phonemic Awareness Picture Pages book.  This will allow the pages to be used at any level as needed.

I have already made these changes in the files on my computer. I'm pleased to see that by reorganizing the pages, the instruction for all of the alphabet letters will fit into one book instead of two for both Learning The Alphabet and Exploring Sounds In Words. 

Comparing Learning The Alphabet And Exploring Sounds In Words

Although the material is similar, the Learning The Alphabet and Exploring Sounds In Words books are at two different levels.

Learning The Alphabet - Easiest Book For Beginners, The Goal Is To Learn The Letters Of The Alphabet And Their Sounds, Students Do Not Have To Master Each Letter To Continue Through The Book, Students Do Not Have To Be Able To Write The Letters Independently.
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  • Students learn the alphabet letters and sounds using the sound story.  They may or may not be able to remember new letters right away.  Letter discrimination pages are included to help students remember each letter.  Games and flashcards can be used to help students learn the letters over a period of time.
  • Students trace large and small letters in to become familiar with the correct letter formation and to internalize the shape of each letter to help them remember it.  To complete the book, students do not have to write letters on their own.  (But teachers can work with students to help them write on regular lined paper if desired.)  
  • Students are exposed to the idea of beginning sounds in words, but do not have to identify beginning sounds for themselves.  Hearing ending sounds is more difficult and is not included in this book.

Exploring Sounds In Words - More Challenging Than The Learning The Alphabet Book, The Goal Is To Be Aware Of The Individual Sounds In Words And Relate Those Sounds To Letters Of The Alphabet, Students Have To Master Each Letter To Continue Through The Book, Students Must Be Able To Write The Letters

  • ​Students learn the alphabet letters and sounds using the sound story.  They must be able to remember each letter and its sound to continue doing the pages in the book.
  • Students trace large and small letters and copy small letters to learn correct letter formation. This also helps them remember the letters and their sounds.  Students must also be able to write the letters on the beginning and ending sound pages as they proceed through the book.
  • Students learn to identify beginning sounds, endings sounds, and medial short vowel sounds in words.  They must write letters to show the correct sound.

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5/23/2017

Cursive Handwriting On Letter Sized Paper

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Today I put together a cursive handwriting book that is printed on letter sized paper.  You can find it on the page with PDF files for books and workbooks.
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5/22/2017

Two-Page Short Vowel Words And Sentences

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Older Version 2012
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Newer Version Of The Same Book 2017

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Other Current Short Vowel Books 2017
Today I uploaded the Two-Page Short Vowel Words And Sentences book.  To differentiate it from the Rhyming Short Vowel and Mixed Short Vowel books, I've given it the Two-Page name because it has only two pages of words for each short vowel, plus sentence pages. This makes it substantially shorter than the Rhyming and Mixed Short Vowel books.  I used this short vowel book in my first grade classroom before I retired, and it is posted to my old web site under an earlier title, Basic Short Vowel Words.  I can't use that title any more for this book because I'm using the title Basic Short Vowels for the current book that has illustrated rhyming and body-coda lists in all black print.  Definitely confusing!

In the newer Two-Page Short Vowel Words And Sentences book version I've made a number of changes to the older version which I think make it better and easier to use.
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  • I moved the short o words before the short i words, since the short o sound is easier to hear for beginning readers.  This delays the more difficult short i words until after students have studied both short a and short o words.
  • I revised the workbook to match the new short vowel order.  
  •  I moved the sentence pages so that each set follows immediately after the related short vowel picture word pages.  I had to revise the short o sentences because some of them previously  contained short i words. 
  • I revised the sound charts so that all the sound pictures from part two of A Sound Story About Audrey And Brad are on the same "Beyond The Alphabet Chart."  This makes it less confusing for the students and the teacher.
  •  I revised the sound blending "Silly Sounds" pages so that students only read vowel-consonant combinations (ab, ac, ad, af, ag).  In the previous version they also read consonant-vowel combinations (ba, ca, da, fa, ga).  I think it was too difficult for the students trying to do it both ways.  And I didn't want to set up students to be confused later on when they learn about open syllable.  Vowels generally represent their short vowel sounds in syllables where the vowel is followed by a consonant (ab, ac, ad, ag).  On the other hand, vowels that come at the end of a syllable usually have the long vowel sound.
  • I revised parts of the instructions for the teacher and added new lesson outlines and spelling lists.  In particular, in the instructions about handwriting and spelling dictation, I've explained how to use plastic letters to spell words at the beginning of the school year for words like fuzz, yak, and quit which have letters that students have not yet learned to write.  This allows students to proceed through the book quickly, while taking the time to learn (or review) how to write the alphabet letters.
​
In the Two-Page Short Vowel Words And Sentences book, about half the pages are student pages and the other half of the pages explain how to teach students to read and write short vowel words.  If you are making multiple copies of the books for students, you may want to print just the student pages. 
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​I'm very happy to finally get this book put together because now I have all the missing pieces so that I can finish the materials overview in the sequence charts book.

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Sound City Reading

All Materials Copyright 2023 or earlier by Kathryn J. Davis, All Rights Reserved
Teachers, parents, tutors, and schools may download and print PDF files to use with the students they teach.  They are not to make a profit from distributing the materials.     
If you download one or more PDF files from this site, you may not make the files available from a different site.  However, you may share links to any of the pages on this website, including the pages that have PDF files.    
​Teaching videos are free to watch, and they may be downloaded for use with your own students, at home or in the classroom.  

In special cases I may grant written permission to individuals to use the materials in other ways.  
You can contact me at kathjdavis@gmail.com.
  • Sequential Phonics Program
    • Welcome
    • Copyright Information
    • How To Navigate This Site
    • Information About The Sound City Reading Program
    • Information About The Author
    • How Was This Program Developed?
    • Why Are There So Many Different Books?
    • How To Get Started
    • What If I Can't Do Everything In This Program?
    • Information About Reading Street Materials
    • Reading Readiness
    • Understanding Consonants
    • Understanding Vowels
    • What Happened To The Old Web Site
    • Other Recommended Sites
  • Program Overview
    • Step Charts
    • Flow Charts
    • Teaching Levels
    • Books Used At Each Level
    • Color-Coded Vowels
    • Skill Sequence
    • General Information About Instruction
    • Integrating Phonics And Whole Language
    • Sound Story
    • Level 1 - Learning The Alphabet Overview
    • Level 2 - Exploring Sounds In Words Overview
    • Level 3 - Short Vowels Overview
    • Level 4. Phonics Patterns Overview
    • Level 5. Advanced Phonics Patterns Overview
    • Phonemic Awareness Picture Pages Overview
    • Handwriting Books Overview
    • Charts, Flashcards, And Games Overview
    • Newer Wall Charts
    • Previous Wall Charts
  • PDF Files
    • How To Work With PDF Files
    • Printers And Printing Supplies
    • PDF Files For Any Level
    • PDF Files For Handwriting
    • Level 1 - Learning The Alphabet PDFs
    • Level 2 - Exploring Sounds In Words PDFs
    • Level 3 - Short Vowels PDFs
    • Level 4 - Phonics Patterns PDFs
    • Level 5 - Advanced Phonics Patterns PDFs
    • PDF Files For Flashcards
    • PDF Files For Activities And Games
    • PDF Files For Newer Wall Charts
    • PDF Files For Older Wall Charts
  • Reading Street
    • PDFs Decoding Practice Pages
    • PDFs Spelling Worksheets
    • PDFs Word And Phonogram Cards
    • PDFs Reading Street Tests
    • PDFs Reading Street Stories
  • Pictures
    • Sound Story Pictures
    • Keyword/Sound Chart Pictures
    • Level 1 And 2 Pictures
    • Level 3 Pictures
    • Level 4 Pictures
    • Consonant Blends
    • Level 5 Pictures
  • Audio
    • Sound Story Part 1 - Alphabet Sounds
    • Sound Story Part 2 - Beyond The Alphabet Sounds
    • Sound Pictures With Letters - Part 1
    • Sound Pictures With Letters And Letter Patterns - Part 2
    • Individual Sound Pictures - Part 1
    • Individual Sound Pictures - Part 2
    • Individual Alphabet Sounds - ABC Order
    • More Letter Sounds - sh, th, ch, ng, oi, oy, ou, ow
    • Level 1 And Level 2 Sound Charts
    • Level 3 - Short Vowels - Sound Charts
    • Level 3 - Advanced Short Vowel Sound Charts
    • Level 4 - Book 1 - Sound Charts
    • Level 4 - Book 2 - Sound Charts
    • Two-Letter Sound Blending - Short U
    • Picture-Word Page Short U
  • Video
    • Sound Story Part 1 Videos
    • Robot Game a_e/safe Video
    • Advanced Sound Charts Videos (All SCR Patterns)
  • Blog
    • Contact Me
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