Information About The Sound Story

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.

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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.  ​

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.   ​

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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.