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

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. 

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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.