Phonics for Dummies E-Book

Susan M. Greve

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Bildung
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 404

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Beschreibung

Features kid- and parent-friendly tips and activities The fun and easy way to grasp the ABCs of reading Want to introduce your child to reading, or strengthen your child's reading skills? This fun and entertaining guide shows you how to use phonics as an easy and engaging path to reading. Phonics For Dummies contains tips on mastering letter sounds in reading, activities to engage your child's enthusiasm, and advice for making reading interesting and fun. Discover how to: * Use phonics to learn to read * Improve reading and spelling skills * Master unusual sounds and spellings * Build your child's vocabulary * Play games that encourage progress All this on the audio CD: * Dozens of letter sounds in friendly lessons * Keywords to help your child with reading and spelling * Easy examples and tips for your child to follow Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.

Leseprobe

Phonics for Dummies

by Susan M. Greve

Phonics for Dummies®

Published byWiley Publishing, Inc.111 River St.Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774www.wiley.com

Copyright © 2007 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2007926403

ISBN: 978-0-470-12764-3

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

About the Author

Susan M. Greve has been a reading specialist for 23 years. She taught first and second grade for four years and has been a publisher, editor, and a reading and curriculum consultant for schools and home-schooling parents.

Susan’s methods of teaching phonics are based on those of Sister Monica Foltzer, OSU (Order of Saint Ursula), who was a nationally known pioneer in the field of phonics. Prior to her death in 2001, Sister Monica was a teacher, guidance counselor, principal, and a reading and curriculum consultant. Susan was a student of Sister Monica’s at the Institute in Intensive Phonics at Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio.

In 1997, Susan acquired Sister Monica’s Professor Phonics Systems and has published and edited the Professor Phonics series ever since. Her day job includes her book business and tutoring. Susan developed a reading assessment test that has been very successful in analyzing reading problems and helping numerous children and adults. Susan hosts a website, www.professorphonics.com, and has done phonics workshops across the country. She was the project manager of the Professor Phonics with Me and My Mouse CD-ROM.

Susan attended Mercy School of Nursing, which at the time was affiliated with Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. She considers her nursing experience a great aid in helping her assess children with learning weaknesses.

Susan lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, with her husband. She teaches her grandchildren to read and enjoys spending time traveling, sewing, reading, and gardening.

Dedication

This book is dedicated to Sister Monica Foltzer, OSU.

Author’s Acknowledgments

I am indebted to the following people for their assistance, encouragement, opinions, guidance, advice, and input throughout this project: Joanne and Eric Engel, Kathie Condit, Kathi Davis, Patrick Greve, Babina Bajracharya, Angie and Chas Eddingfield, Kendal Krouse, Kristine Bedel, Maribeth Lind, Jessica Faust, Assistant Professor D’Arcy Smith at Wright State University, Jerome Doerger, and Jenna Rockey.

Many thanks to the staff at Bridgetown Frisch’s for not charging booth rental during those marathon proofing sessions.

Publisher’s Acknowledgments

We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our Dummies online registration form located at www.dummies.com/register/.

Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:

Acquisitions, Editorial, and Media Development

Project Editor: Natalie Faye Harris

Acquisitions Editor: Michael Lewis

Copy Editor: Sarah Faulkner

Technical Editor: Alicia Sparks

Media Development Specialist: Laura Moss-Hollister

Editorial Manager: Christine Meloy Beck

CD Production: Recorded at Wright State University in co-operation with 2:27 AM Inc., Produced and Directed By: D’Arcy Smith, Sound Engineer: Matt Rosenfeld, Voice Over Talent: Jerome Doerger

Media Development Manager: Laura Carpenter

Editorial Assistants: Erin Calligan Mooney, Joe Niesen, Leeann Harney, David Lutton

Cover Photos: © Datacraft/Getty Images

Cartoons: Rich Tennant (www.the5thwave.com)

Composition Services

Project Coordinator: Heather Kolter

Layout and Graphics: Claudia Bell, Brooke Graczyk, Denny Hager, Joyce Haughey, Stephanie D. Jumper, Barbara Moore, Heather Ryan, Christine Williams

Anniversary Logo Design: Richard Pacifico

Proofreaders: Aptara, Susan Moritz, Jessica Kramer

Indexer: Aptara

Special Help: Victoria M. Adang, Stephen R. Clark, Traci Cumbay, Peter Weverka

Publishing and Editorial for Consumer Dummies

Diane Graves Steele, Vice President and Publisher, Consumer Dummies

Joyce Pepple, Acquisitions Director, Consumer Dummies

Kristin A. Cocks, Product Development Director, Consumer Dummies

Michael Spring, Vice President and Publisher, Travel

Kelly Regan, Editorial Director, Travel

Publishing for Technology Dummies

Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher, Dummies Technology/General User

Composition Services

Gerry Fahey, Vice President of Production Services

Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services

Contents

Title

Introduction

About This Book

Conventions Used in This Book

What You’re Not to Read

Foolish Assumptions

How This Book Is Organized

Icons Used in This Book

Where to Go from Here

Part I : Getting Ready to Read with Phonics

Chapter 1: Pondering the Power of Phonics

Taking the First Steps toward Using Phonics

Getting Your Child (And You) into the Swing of Things

Getting an Overview of the Phonics Fundamentals

Ramping Up to Exciting Books and Readers

Boosting Skills with Fun Activities

Chapter 2: Setting Up Your Teaching Aids and Techniques

Getting Phonics in a Flash with Flashcards

Charting for Phonics Success

Picking Up Phonics with Word Strips

Engaging the Senses with Phonics

Managing Phonics Progress

Part II : Exploring the Fundamentals of Phonics

Chapter 3: Starting with Simple Consonants and a Vowel

Digging Into Blending

Going Deeper with Consonants and Keywords

Next Stop: c, k, ck, and l

Chapter 4: Finishing Short Vowels and Seeing Patterns

Exploring the Short i Sound

Understanding the Difference between a and i

Making the Acquaintance of Short u

Summing Up Short a, i, and u

Getting Acquainted with Short o

Introducing Short e

Recognizing Consonant-Vowel-Consonant (CVC) Patterns

Chapter 5: Joining Consonants Together to Make More Sounds

Delving into Digraphs (Two Letters, One Sound)

Blending Endings

Beginning Blendings

Examining Some Blending Quirks

Dealing With Vowels at the Start of Words

Chapter 6: Pursuing Plurals and Compound Words

Exploring Plurals in Speech and Spelling

The Letter s Counts for a Lot

Adding es Is an Easy Thing to Do

Decoding Multisyllable Words

Compiling Compound Words

Chapter 7: Making Long-Vowel Sounds

Understanding the Long, the Short, and the Silent

Looking at Vowel Digraphs

Taking On More Challenging Vowel Digraphs

Turning w and y into Vowels

Ending Words with Long Vowels

Chapter 8: Presenting Diverse Vowel Sounds of a, o, and u

Saying ä before u, w, r, ll, and lt

Studying the Third Sounds of o and u

Chapter 9: Delving into Diphthongs and Shortcuts

Introducing Diphthongs: When Vowel Sound Meets Vowel Sound

Sounding Out ou/ow and oi/oy

Exploring Murmur Diphthongs

Discovering How Vowel Sounds Change in Contractions

Part III : Moving Beyond the Phonics Basics

Chapter 10: Stepping Through the Pronunciation Process

Unlocking the Sounds of Words

Understanding y in Syllables

Accessing Opened and Closed Syllables

Chapter 11: Finding Happy Endings with Suffixes

Exploring the ed Suffix

Taking on Suffix Spelling Challenges

Chapter 12: The Dual Personalities of s, c, and g

Sounding s As z in Words

Tuning into Nice c Sounds

Gauging the Sounds of g

Chapter 13: Tapping into Unusual Spellings

Introducing Vowel Digraphs

Exploring the Vowel Digraph ie

Looking Farther Into the oo’s

Moving Up with Some Great ea Digraphs

Cueing You to another View of u

Weighing In On ei

Dealing with the Troublesome Letters ou

Grouping the Difficult y

Exploring Some Miscellaneous Homophones

Chapter 14: Digging Deeper into Prefixes and Suffixes

Understanding Roots

Profiling Prefixes and Suffixes

Part IV : Tackling the Trickier Side of Phonics

Chapter 15: Schwinging with Schwa: Finding the Quick uh Sound

Introducing Your Child to the Schwa

Exploring the Schwa-Syllable Connection

Getting Acquainted with Schwa Words

Delving into Some Harder Schwa Words

Chapter 16: Explaining English Exceptions

Dealing with Silent Letters

Discovering Exceptions to Standard Murmur Diphthongs

When Joined Vowels Aren’t Digraphs

Exceptions to Long-Vowel Guidelines

Words in Which Every o Is a Short u

Arresting the Outlaw Words

Discovering Special Consonant Digraphs

Exploring Words with the French and Greek ch Sounds

Examining Six sh-Sound Spelling Patterns

Rounding Up the ch Sounds

Chapter 17: Zeroing In on x and zh

Differentiating the x Sounds

zh: A Consonant Sound with No Distinct Spelling

Part V : The Part of Tens

Chapter 18: Ten Challenging Activities for Reinforcement

Word Scramble

Froggy Phonics Learning Game

“Sounds Great!” Phonics Song

Take

Mix and Match

Packing My Suitcase

Journaling

Kinesthetic Activities

Tried-and-True Games

Book Making

Chapter 19: Ten (Well, Not Just Ten) Recommended Supplemental Resources

Brookes Publishing Company

Educators Publishing Service

Homeschool World

Huntington Learning Center

Intelli-Tunes

Ladybug Phonetic Readers

Langsford Learning Center

The Moore Foundation

Scottish Rite Learning Centers

Starfall

More Wonderful Web Sites!

Appendix A: Phonics Guidelines and Definitions

Consonant Guidelines

Vowel Guidelines

Guidelines for Syllabication

Phonics Terminology

A Mini-Glossary

Appendix B: Recommended Books for Your Kid’s Library

Appendix C: Keyword Cards You Can Use

Appendix D: On the CD

: Further Reading

Introduction

When the subject of phonics comes up at a PTA luncheon or a family gathering, I see many parents scratching their heads. My reputation as a phonics tutor ultimately brings them to approach me with comments like these:

“I can read okay, but my spelling is atrocious. Is this because of the way I learned in grade school?”

“I never learned from the phonics approach. Maybe that’s why I hate to read so much.”

“I was always labeled as one of the slow kids because I had so much trouble reading. Do you think it was because we didn’t have phonics training?”

Every one of these parents shares the same fear and desire. They want to protect their children from the kind of problems they had to endure. And I give every one of them the same answer: All the children I’ve helped could master any subject after they caught on to reading.

Most phonics books are written for teachers. This book is for anyone. If you want to know what phonics is, how to use it, and how important it is in learning to speak, read, write, and spell, you’ll benefit from this book.

After you understand the value of phonics, you realize how far your — or your child’s — reading skills can advance. I destroy the myth that phonics works only for some people and assert that phonics helps 100 percent of the time. And reading well is the first step to unlocking all the opportunities available to everyone. Many people think phonics is much more complicated than it actually is. To put it simply, phonics is merely about sliding sounds of letters together to make words. It’s a science of application and is under the umbrella of linguistics. Its popularity has grown due to the fact that educators now acknowledge that learning phonics is of the utmost necessity in teaching children to read, write, spell, and speak.

The word phonics has become a household word (mostly due to a little voice on the radio that says “Hooked on Phonics works for me!”). The phonics revolution that began in the last ten years has made many products available, such as LeapFrog educational games, Reader Rabbit, and Hooked on Phonics, to name a few. Besides the games, companies develop plenty of TV programs, CDs, videos, and DVDs for phonics. Even though technology has definitely narrowed the gap between home and school, the requirements for a good reader haven’t changed. A good reader is able to recognize words instantly, has superb word attack skills, comprehends what she’s reading, and applies her skills on a daily basis. The use of a good phonics program helps to develop each of these skills to the highest degree.

Phonics For Dummies has attitude: I want to give to you my positive and confident attitude that you’re up to the task of teaching your child to read through phonics. I show you that phonics is an essential tool that you can use to help your child speak, read, write, and spell. And the best part is that you don’t need a master’s degree to learn phonics or to teach it to someone else.

About This Book

Phonics For Dummies helps you discover that you’re competent to learn or teach phonics. And better yet, you’re able to teach or learn reading, spelling, writing, and language to the best of your ability. On first examination, this book may seem complicated, but never fear: It’s a precise and thorough strategy for becoming an expert in applying phonics to the language arts.

I focus on certain techniques that are the building blocks to a better understanding of the English language. These techniques help you or your child conquer the difficulties in reading or writing. Say goodbye to

Being a slave to a wild guessing game

Reading with a lack of expression

Poor word attack skills

Slow-paced reading

Weak comprehension

Skipping words you can’t read

Relying on the context to “read” unknown words

Guessing at words by using pictures

With the help of this book, you can

Improve reading and spelling skills by going back to square one

Learn about pronunciation and accent

Increase your fluency in decoding multisyllable words

Discover related subject matter and valuable resources

Polish your skills with practice and application exercises

Whether you’re a parent, teacher, or curious adult, you can get as much or as little out of this book as you want. You can start from the beginning and use the step-by-step approach, or refer to the Table of Contents or Index to focus on your own areas of interest. Or just use Phonics For Dummies as a handy reference guide. Each chapter of the book is like a plug-in unit — you don’t have to rely on other chapters to understand it.

Conventions Used in This Book

This book defines phonics, which makes it necessary to use some jargon. Four-year-olds can dig the lingo, so I know that you can, too. It’s stuff like, “Breve means short,” “Macron’s long,” “Define a consonant,” and, “Where does the accent belong?” As you read through this book, you use words like diphthong and umlaut as regularly as a linguistic professor. I believe that vocabulary grows in people who use it wisely from birth on. The same goes for using symbols, known as diacritical marks, when learning to read. You and your child can find great delight when looking up a word in the dictionary and exclaiming, “See the schwa! No accent on that syllable!” In the long run, this know-how puts kids ahead and helps in future dictionary work.

The other conventions that look bizarre are sentences or headings that start with lowercase letters. Some examples are: ing, er, ed, sh, nk, i, wh, u, and so on.These odd letter combinations are italicized so that you can spot them easily. Because they’re the heart of the book, you see them everywhere.

Because this book may be used by a parent or teacher with a student or by someone improving his or her own reading skills, I use he, she, you, child, learner,parent, and instructor to cover all the possibilities. The chapters contain a mix of all these terms, wherever and whenever each noun or pronoun fits. I also arrange a dedicated space for exercises to reinforce the lessons.

What You’re Not to Read

If you’re short on time and just want to get down to the nitty-gritty of phonics, you can skip the stuff in the gray boxes, also known as sidebars. I include this sidebar information for those of you who want to know the whys of everything or who just want to dig deeper into the details of phonics.

Foolish Assumptions

While organizing this book I made some assumptions about you:

You’re interested in teaching someone to read.

You have a curiosity about phonics and want a self-help book.

You know that look/say reading doesn’t work for everyone.

You need help in choosing phonics-associated reading materials.

You want a ready reference book on phonics.

If you identify with my foolish assumptions, you’re ready to go! Take a little more time to read the following sections to get a real feel for how this book works.

How This Book Is Organized

Even though each lesson builds one on the other, you can still pick and choose the chapters that you want to examine. The following is a rundown of each part in Phonics For Dummies.

Part I: Getting Ready to Read with Phonics

I start with practical advice about teaching your child to read. You go over the first steps of learning and find out how easy and inexpensive it really is to teach someone. I show you instructional theory that’s straightforward and understandable. In this Part, I explain phonics in general, the method I follow in this book, and simple formulas for success. This part offers information and quick tips that are kid and parent friendly.

Part II: Exploring the Fundamentals of Phonics

In this Part, you learn to read, spell, and write quite well. Before embarking on two-syllable words, you jump headfirst into blending consonants and vowels. You become familiar with the many faces of vowels; students of phonics may refer to this part often, because it wraps up the 16 basic vowel sounds.

Part III: Moving Beyond the Phonics Basics

Why do the British say li’ bree for li’ brer’ ee or gehr’ uj for guh rozh’? Why do Aussies say, guh dye’ and Americans say good day’? This is the place where you learn about accents and getting to the root of words. You also explore unusual spellings and get to meet the softer side of c and g.

Part IV: Tackling the Trickier Side of Phonics

Did you know that most dictionaries use eight sounds of a and almost as many for the other vowels? What about those words like cough, thought, sure, and chiffon? This is the place where you find the quirks of phonics. The classification of these peculiarities is the crème de la crème of this part.

Part V: The Part of Tens

Most people love to hear the top ten songs of the year, the top ten recording artists, movies, golf pros, and so on. (Did this fixation start with the Ten Commandments?) This part gives you quick hits of information that enhance your phonics practice — grouped in tens, of course. It also contains appendixes with useful information, including what’s on the CD.

Icons Used in This Book

For Dummies signature icons are those little round pictures you see in the margins of the book. I use them to laser your attention to key bits of information. Here’s a list of the icons you find in this book and what they mean.

I highlight shortcuts and helpful hints for applying guidelines of phonics with this icon.

Some information bears repeating. I mark points that are worth going over again and again with this icon.

Certain practices may set your practice back instead of moving it forward. I use this icon to keep you on sure footing by alerting you to treacherous ground.

Sometimes, I go into more detail than you need, and I let you know with this icon that these passages are safe to skip. By all means read these sections if you’re interested, but know that you can safely pass these paragraphs over and still become a phonics champ.

You find sample tests, stories, and other activities to assess what you learned in a chapter at paragraphs marked with this icon.

This icon tells you to listen to the accompanying CD for additional information.

Where to Go from Here

Now it’s time to get your head in the game. Peruse the chapters and look at the lessons in them. If you want to begin at the beginning, dig right in at Chapter 1 and move forward in an orderly fashion. But you don’t have to do it that way. Each chapter is modular, meaning that a particular lesson is self-contained. Use the Table of Contents to help you find your area of interest. Need help teaching a child to blend? Jump straight into Chapter 3. If you’ve already progressed in phonics and want to get to the more difficult levels, you can start in Part III.

Part I

Getting Ready to Read with Phonics

In this part . . .

I n the chapters in Part I, I tell you what phonics is and show you how to teach phonics concepts to your child. You also get the tools you need to help your child use her knowledge as she learns to read more difficult words and sentences. I also provide fun ways to reinforce the lessons, and explain how to tell when your child is ready to move ahead with her reading skills. By the end of this part, your child will be able to read her first words!

Chapter 1

Pondering the Power of Phonics

In This Chapter

Understanding phonics and how phonics is taught

Preparing your child to learn phonics

Discovering how phonics concepts build on one another

You’ve already seen your child through walking, talking, eating with utensils, potty training, and countless other processes. Reading is just another part of growing and discovering. Reading is necessary for success in life, and phonics can help. Phonics is a method of word recognition. It helps children understand how to slide letter sounds together to form words. If you’re curious and have some knowledge of phonics, you need to know from the get-go that this book presents a specific phonics approach to reading and spelling. This book, in itself, is very basic because I wrote it for a parent and a child. But no matter what age you are, this book can help you.

Several years ago I taught phonics to two middle-aged men. Both had suffered from look/say teaching in grade school, and had feeble decoding and spelling skills. I taught the same lessons that applied to any beginner: the sequential flashcards and the vowel chart. After they realized that they could decode unknown words, they were on their way. Because they were both intelligent and successful people, they applied their knowledge and greatly improved their skills.