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A Sequential Phonics Program - Program Overview - PDF Files - Pictures - Audio - Video - Reading Street - Blog
A Sequential Phonics Program - Program Overview - PDF Files - Pictures - Audio - Video - Reading Street - Blog
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Two-Letter Sound Blending, With Short U WordsSound blending is the process of sliding two letter sounds together smoothly, without a break between the sounds. This exercise prepares students to read short vowel words. It should be used with students who are working at Level 2, Exploring Sounds In Words, and Level 3, Short Vowels. Sound blending exercises are included in the following books.
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Background
In the Sound City Reading program, the first words students learn to read are two- and three-sound short vowel words: an, cat, fox, off, it, will, up, sun, egg, mess. There are several reasons that this is a good place to start.
- There are many common short vowel words. This provides a lot of practice for beginning readers.
- Almost all short vowel words can be pronounced phonetically. This means that if you say the sound for each letter in the word, going from left to right, putting the sounds together smoothly, you will be pronouncing the word. This process is called decoding.
- The words studied at the short vowel level have only one syllable, with only two or three sounds in the word. This makes learning how to decode words as easy as possible.
- The short vowel words practiced at level three do not contain any consonant blends (fl, sk, gr), consonant digraphs (sh, th, ng) or vowel patterns with other vowel sounds (ee, ai, ou, or). This makes it possible for students to begin reading many words as soon as they have learned the sounds for the letters of the alphabet.
- Once students have mastered the decoding process with short vowel words, they will be able to make rapid progress when they are introduced to words with new consonant and vowel patterns.
Decoding
Learning to decode begins as a physical process. Students must use their eyes to track the letters from left to right and use their lips, mouth, tongue, voice box, and lungs to pronounce them. It is necessary to practice this skill physically in the same way that practice is important to learn to ride a bike or shoot a basketball. With enough practice, decoding becomes automatic, and students will be able to read/decode words silently, without pronouncing them out loud.
Why Sound Blending Is Important
When students learn the letters of the alphabet they learn to recognize each letter and pronounce its sound. However, reading words is a much more complex task because the letter sounds must be connected smoothly, without a break between the sounds. This is relatively easy for some students, a bit of a challenge for many students, and quite difficult for some students. The purpose of this sound blending exercise is to teach students to put the sounds together smoothly when they are reading words. Because two sounds can be put together much more easily that three or more sounds, we start by blending just two sounds together before attempting to read three-sound words. Separate sound blending exercises are done with the students for each short vowel sound. When working with the students, these two-letter combinations are called "silly sounds" because they are meaningless; they are not real words.
Two-Letter Sound Blending With Short U
Listen to the sound blending exercise below. In the left column, students look at sound pictures and practice putting the sounds together as they pronounce them. In the right column, students look at letters and practice pronouncing the letters one after the other, without a break between the sounds. The sound pictures and letters in each row show the same sound sequence. Students are told to point to the star and move their finger to the right, following the arrow, as they pronounce the sounds. They "start at the star."
