Phonemic Awareness: Speaking of Individuality

What’s the importance of phonemic awareness and what exactly does that mean? First, phonics and phonemic awareness is not the same thing. Phonics is the understanding of the relationship of letters and sounds in WRITTEN language. Phonemic awareness is understanding the sounds of language working together in SPOKEN language to make words. According to the National Institute for Literacy, Putting Reading First, Kindergarten Through Grade 3, “If children are to benefit from phonics instruction, they need phonemic awareness.” The document goes on to say, “The reasons are obvious: children who cannot hear and work with the phonemes of spoken words...

Go to the End and Count Back Three, if You See Consonant + LE

The syllable pattern in REVLOC is is a departure from the Vowel-Consontant-Vowel patterns. This one is Consonant+LE. It is the L in REVLOC. If you have not read the post on REVLOC, please read it and come back. When you have a word with a Consonant+LE at the end, count back three letters, then divide the word. Consontant + LE is ALWAYS at the end of the word. The C+LE endings are: bledlefleglekletlezleple They are pronounced as: ble = b’l (as in bubble)dle = d’l (as in idle)fle = f’l (as in ruffle)gle = g’l (as in giggle)kle = k’l (as in pickle)tle = t’l...

Breaking the Rules: Wild Old Words

I’ve written in the past about closed syllables and how if a syllable is “closed in” by consonants, then it will be a “closed syllable” and the vowel will be short. However, there are groups of words called Wild-Old Words that are “fossil” words left from Anglo Saxon times that do not follow the rules. These words are common but irregular. A student can learn that some common words ending in ld, st, nd, and lt have a single vowel with a long vowel sound. Examples combroll, troll, strollmold, told, sold, scold, old, bold, cold, fold, goldbolt, colt, dolt, jolt, Holt, molt,...

Spelling Is Easier with Generalization Rules: OI/OY, OU/OW, AU/AW

In keeping with the past two posts on spelling consonant sounds and spelling vowel sounds, I am going to cover oi/oy, ou/ow, au/aw generalizations; when to use each to make their sounds. I mentioned these generalizations in my last post in a “Miscellaneous” category. Here I am going more in depth on when to use each letter combination. It can look confusing at first glance to read what I am writing below. If you are not familiar, take your time looking at the rules. Then do the worksheets (or hand give them to a student). On all of these combinations,...

Spelling Vowel Sounds: What Music They Make

In my last post I talked about how to spell consonants. This week, we will cover how to spell vowels. It is important to note that when I say “spell” consonants and vowels I am talking about how letters can make more than one sound. For example, a makes a long and short sound, as in make and tack. But to spell the letter a, we can use many combinations to make the long a sound. For example, the long a sound can be spelled using the letters ai, as in rain, train, brain. The difference that comes out of this...

How to Spell a Consonant Sound

Often in spelling and writing the letters and their pronunciations are considered, but what I had never experienced until working with Orton Gillingham is how to spell a letter sound. This post is on how to spell consonant sounds. Next week, I will cover spelling vowel sounds. There are letters that make sounds, d says “d” (dog), and there are sounds made up of letters, the sound “sh” can be made using the letters sh (shout) or ch (chef). We call that how you “spell” a sound. This can come in handy when teaching how to spell and read. Knowing that...

Short Vowel Rule Overview: FLOSS, Pitch, Judge, Stack

My most recent posts covered the Short Vowel Rules in Orton Gillingham. Today I would like to give an overview of all four of these rules. I will also provide a practice worksheet and a quiz on these rules. Now that you have seen all four rules, grouping them together as “Short Vowel Rules” should make sense. If not, then once you see them in an overview, I think you will see a pattern. The first rule we covered was FLOSS. This rule says: FLOSS: Double f, l, and s at the end of one syllable words following one short vowel. Notice...

Short Vowel Rule: “CH” Rule – An Important Batch of Words

This week we will cover the last of the Short Vowel Rules in Orton Gillingham. So far, we have made it through FLOSS, “K” Rule, and the “J” Rule. The fourth and final short vowel rule is the “CH” Rule. The “CH” Rule says: -tch is used after one short vowel at the end of one syllable words to spell “ch.” This means, in a one syllable word where there is a short vowel sound followed by a “ch” sound, the letters –tch are being used to make that sound. Examples of this rule are: ?              snatch, match, hatch, patch ?             sketch, stretch, fetch,...

Short Vowel Rule: “J” Rule – Make a Pledge to Learn This Rule

Following in the path of my post last week, today we cover the third of four Short Vowel Rules in Orton Gillingham. It is the “J” Rule. So far, we have covered FLOSS and the “K” Rule . The “J” rule says: -dge is used after one short vowel at the end of a one syllable word to spell “j.” This means, in a one syllable word where there is a short vowel sound followed by a “j” sound, the letters –dge are being used to make that sound. Examples of this rule are: ?       badge, cadge ?       pledge, edge, wedge, sedge, hedge, ledge ?       ...

Short Vowel Rule: “K” Rule — The Pick for Learning when to use –CK

In Orton Gillingham, basically the whole English language is divided up into categories and each category is divided into rules. I have given one “Short Vowel Rule,” known as the FLOSS rule. Today, I am moving to a second (of four) short vowel rules: the “K” Rule. The “K” rule says, -ck is used after one short vowel at the end of one syllable words to spell “k.” This means, one syllable words that contain a short vowel and the “k” sound at the end will have a –ck to make the “k” sound. If there is not a SHORT vowel...