Chapter 5 Resources
Listed beloware a variety of resources for teachers related to the content in chapter 5.The Phonics primer has been a popular resource with teachers.
A Phonics Primer
Lee Gunderson
Reginald D’Silva
Dennis Murphy Odo
The following are phonics generalizations that some teachers teach directly to students. We do not call them “rules” because, in many cases, there are exceptions. We begin with some well-known generalizations.
Phonics Generalizations
1.When there are two vowels side by side, the long sound of the first is heard, and the second vowel is usually silent.
2.When a vowel is in the middle of a one-syllable word, the vowel is short.
3.If the only vowel is at the end of a word, the letter usually stands for a long vowel.
4.When there are two vowels, one of which is final e, the first vowel is long and the e is silent.
5.The r gives the preceding vowel a sound that is neither long nor short.
6.The first vowel is usually long and the second short in the digraphs ai, ea, oa, and ui.
7.In the phonogram ie, the i is silent and the e has a long sound.
8.Words having double e usually have the long e sound.
9.When words end with silent e, the preceding a ori is long.
10.In ay, they is silent and gives theathe long sound.
11.When the letter i is followed by the letters gh, the i, usually stands for its long sound and the ghis silent.
12.When a follows w in a word, it usually has the sound aas in was.
13.When e is followed by w, the vowel sound is the same as represented by oo.
14.The two letters ow make the long o sound.
15.W is sometimes a vowel and follows the vowel digraph rule.
16.When y is the final letter in a word, it usually has a vowel sound.
17.When y is used as a vowel in words, it sometimes has the sound of long i.
18.The letter a has the same sound as (o) when followed by 1, w, and u.
19.When a isfollowed by r and final e, it makes the vowel sound we hear in care.
If you wish to be a knowledgeable teacher, you should know some basic phonics terms, vocabulary, and relationships.
Phonics Terminology and Primer
Phonic Generalizations:Spelling in English is sometimes quite irregular. The phonics teacher does not teach rules, but instead teaches generalizations because there are many exceptions.
Vowels and Consonants:In English, vowels are represented by the graphemes (visual symbols) a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y. Consonant graphemes represent consonant sounds. The 26 graphemes represent, in various ways, the 44 or so English phonemes (speech sounds). They are put together in many different ways to produce syllables and words. Consonants are voiced or unvoiced, the words pat and bat differ in that the first consonant in pat isunvoiced while the first consonant in bat isvoiced.
Word Patterns:Phonics teachers describe words by using the letters V for vowel and C for consonant.
1. Nuclear word is a basic unit comprised of the CVC pattern. Words such as fat, met, pit, pot, and rut are CVC words. This unit forms the basis for CCVC (stop), CCCVC (strip), CVCC (wick), CVCCC (witch), CCVCC (stock), etc. words.
2. The CVCe pattern is called the long-vowel pattern, as in the word bite.
3. Word families or phonograms are the terms phonics teachers use to describe patterns such as at, it, uy, in, and eight.
4. Root word: This is a basic word unit. Linguists call them free morphemes. The word man isa root word. A compound word is a combination of two or more root words. We can add parts to root words.
a) Affixes: Graphemes representing bound morphemes such as un-, dis-, -1y, and -ness.
b) Prefixes: Graphemes representing bound morphemes attached to the beginning of a root word, e.g., un-happy.
c) Suffixes: Graphemes representing bound morphemes normally attached to the end of root words, e.g., friend-ly.
Syllables: A part of a word that contains at least one vowel sound.
1. Closed syllable: This syllable has the pattern CVC as seen in the word wonder (won- isa closed syllable).
2. Open syllable: Has the CV or VC pattern as in the word empty, which has one VCC and one CV syllable (emp- ty).
3. Accented syllable: The syllable in a word that is given the most stress in pronunciation. For example, in the word wonder, the stress is on the won- syllable.
4. Unaccented syllable: The first syllable of the word aboutisunaccented. This is a widely distributed unaccented syllable in English and is called a schwa. Other unaccented syllables exist at the end of such words as little and garden.
Consonant Blends: A blend consists of two or more consonants (i.e., CC, CCC) that are pronounced together with the sound from each being heard separately.
1. Initial consonant blends:bl, cl, fl, gl, pl, sl, br, cr, dr, fr, gr, pr, tr, sc, sk, sm, sn, sp, st, sw, dw, sw, tw, spl, scr, spr, and str.
2. Final consonant blends occur at the end of words: st, sk, mp, ld, and nd.
Consonant Digraphs:A digraph consists of two or more consonants that represent one sound.
1. Initial digraphs: ch, ph, sh, th, and wh. The thdigraph can be voiced (the) or unvoiced (thank).
2. Final digraphs: ch, gh, ph, th, tch, ck, and lk.
Vowels: Vowels are represented in English in many different ways. Indeed, one vowel sound is often represented by 10 or 15 graphemes or grapheme combinations, e.g., I, kite, iron, tried, fly, high, height, buy, guide, eye, rye, style, aisle, and aye.
1. Short vowel: Phonics teachers call the following vowels short vowels, bat, bet, bit, rot, and rut.
2. Long vowels: “The long vowel says it’sown name” is the standard elementary teacher’s definition. The following are "long-vowel" words: made, hide, and hope.
3. Vowel digraphs: Vowel digraphs are two-vowel graphemes that represent one phoneme as in the words read, beast, pain, boat, etc.
4. Diphthongs: Some phonics teachers refer to these vowels as glided vowels. Diphthongs contain two vowel sounds, e.g., boil, mail, pie, saw, soon, and cow.
5. R-controlled vowels: When a vowel is followed by r or l the sound is affected by the anticipatory mechanism of speech. The r is produced by rounding the lips, arching the tongue, and constricting the pharynx. Vowels preceding r are changed because the speech mechanism is changed during production of the vowel in anticipation of the r. The following are r-controlled vowels, far, her, fir, and fur.
The following lessons are based on selecting the relationships that are most reliable. Piper (1983), for instance, found that the first pattern, CVC, had 84 percent reliability in the reading series she surveyed. The generalizations are rank ordered and get less reliable as the discussion progresses.
There is a phonic generalization that says CVC words have a short vowel sound. If a fairly reliable initial consonant grapheme and a reliable phonogram are selected, students can be introduced to patterns that will teach them to recognize thousands of words.
Some Reliable Consonantsb, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, and t.
Some Reliable Phonograms-ab -ad -ag -am -an -ap -at -ed -eg -en -et -ib id -ig -im -in -it -ob -od -og -op -ub -ud -um -un -ut
An -an Exercise
Make as many words as you can with the -an phonogram
__an __an __an __an __an __an __an __an __an
The possibilities are nearly endless. Often a student doing such an activity suddenly realizes, often for the first time, that there are regularities in English spelling. Games can be made that involve students in such activities. The phonogram is put on the chalkboard and students are asked for a letter that will form a word. Each word and its meaning are discussed. Students can also substitute different initial consonants, read the word, and discuss its meaning. A teacher can use her imagination and make board games, or group games. The next step is to begin to build on the basic CVC pattern by adding initial and final consonant blends and digraphs.
Initial Consonant Blends
bl-, br-, cl-, cr-, dr-, dw-, fl-, fr-, gl-, gr-, pl-, pr-, scr-, sl-, spl- sp-, spr-, squ-, st-, str-, sw-, tr-, tw-, thr
Final Consonant Blends
-ct, -dk, -dt, -ft, -ld, -lk, -lf, -lt, -lp, -mp, -nd, -pt, -rd, -rk, -rm, -rn, -rp, -rt, -sk, -st, -sp
Consonant Digraphs
ch, ck, gh, kn, ng, ph, qu, sh, wh, th (voiced and voiceless)
The possible combinations are nearly endless. The phonograms -an and-and can be added and the same exercise can be conducted, only this time students are given cards containing initial blends and digraphs. The teacher writes -and on the chalkboard. The task is to write as many real words as possible with the initial blends and digraphs given to them in combination with the phonogram on the chalkboard. Some CVCC patterns do not follow the generalization, however. The -indphonogram cannot be used, because it combines with initial consonants and produces “long-vowel” words such as find, blind, and kind. With a little imagination, one can produce lessons and games that show students how regular English orthography is.
After students have begun to recognize the basic CVC short-vowel pattern, their knowledge can be used to help them understand and be able to recognize what phonics teachers call the “long-vowel” pattern. The CVCe pattern usually has the long sound of the vowel as in the words hide, kite, ride, etc. The usual approach is to present the CVC patterns and have students supply the “silent e,” making the word a long-vowel word.
Change the following short vowel words to long vowel words.
bit___ cap___ fin___ hid___ kit___ mat___ rat___ rob___ tap___
Again, the combinations are nearly limitless. Board games can be made that reinforce the CVC-CVCe relationship. The phonic relationships discussed so far are fairly regular. However, there are exceptions, especially in the very high frequency words. The CVC, with all its combinations, and the CVCe pattern have been discussed. This knowledge of the CVC pattern can be extended by introducing the “when two vowels go walking, the first does the talking” pattern, i.e., CVVC.
CVC words are selected that produce CVVC words with the long-vowel sound. The following are examples:
bedbeadwedweedbestbeastbetbeat
ledleadmetmeatmenmeansetseat
stepsteepnet neatredreadbledbleed
In each of these cases the second vowel is added after the first vowel and the first vowel now says its own name. It's possible to select CVC words with the same vowel. The quick student will look at the red-read pair and note that they “can sound the same.”
betbeet
fedfeed
metmeet
wedweed
redreed
redread
bledbleed
Piper (1983a) found that the ee produced the “long e” sound about 94 per cent of the time. Again, the combinations are numerous. The purpose is to show students that there is a regularity in English orthography. The teacher should experiment a bit. The great number of logical operations that can be found are surprising, e.g., bat-boat, flat- float, cat-coat, cot-coat, got-goat, ram-roam, bat-bait, man-main, mad-maid, lad-laid, ran-rain, etc.
The teacher who has taught his students these relationships will have armed them with considerable phonics knowledge. They can produce CVC words with the short-vowel sound and all its variants (i.e., CVC, CCCVC, CVCC, CVCCC, CCVCC, CCCVCC, and CCVCCC). In addition, they know the CVCe pattern. Finally, the CVVC pattern. Each of these generalizations has a high degree of regularity, not perfect, but highly regular. The cautious teacher will probably stop at this point. Those who choose to go on, however, should realize that the orthography becomes considerably less reliable.
Some Phonograms
Adding consonants to produce or build words is a tradition in reading classrooms. Phonics teachers select phonograms such as -eigh, -igh, -ight, -ing, -fve, -ong, -ould, -udge, -ump, and -unny and have students add initial consonants, consonant blends, or consonant digraphs. This is, of course, not an exhaustive list. Those who wish to become accomplished phonics teachers, transcending the bounds of the present discussion to extend their students' learning, will need a source of word families, root words, and such. The following book is an extremely valuable resource: The Reading Teacher’s Book of Lists by Fry and Kress (2006)because it contains lists of such things as phonics skills, spelling families, affixes, and word lists.
Instruction involving fairly reliable phonics generalizations is quite good in helping ESL students begin to understand that English does have some regularity to it. Further discussion of phonics issues are contained in the text.
Online Resources
The Internet TESL Journal provides samples of quizzes, tests, exercises and puzzles to help students learn English as a Second Language (ESL). It is noted that “This project of The Internet TESL Journal (iteslj.org) has thousands of contributions by many teachers.”
The Internet TESL Journal
Dave Sperling maintains a website titled “Dave’s ESL Café” that has a wide variety of resources for various individuals interested in ESL.
Dave’s ESL
Randall’s ESL Cyber Listening Lab is a website that provides help for students in developing English listening skills.
The Canadian Association of Second Language Teachers’ website contains useful links and information for second language teachers.
The ABC English websitecontains the note that, “This site exists to help ESL students learn English as a second language.” It contains information about grammar and tests.
The Sounds of English was created and is maintained by Sharon Widmayer and Holly Gray. Kit contains interesting activities related to the sounds of English.
The following website is animated and beautiful. It is not clear what its affiliations are.
Multicultural Children’s Literature Resources
Dr. Robert F. Smith, Professor Emeritus, Towson University, Towson, MD maintains as website called Celebrating Cultural Diversity through Children’s Literature. It is a valuable resources for selecting appropriate multicultural literature for students.
The American Library Association ( maintains a webpage that includes resources categorized as: Notable Children's Books, Diversity, Grade Middle School Reads, Growing up Latino, Asian American Children's Authors, Best Books for Young Adults, Quick Picks for the Reluctant Young Reader, and Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults. It can be found at:
The Center for Children's Booksat the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, maintains a webpage that “is a crossroads for critical inquiry, professional training, and educational outreach related to youth-focused resources, literature and librarianship.It can be found at”:
The Children’s Literature Web Guide is hosted at the University of Calgary in Canada. It contains links to many resources related to children’s literature. It can be found at”:
The Farirrosa cyber Library of Children's Books contains Thematic Lists and Links to Other Lists:
International Reading Association and Children's Book Council ( contains various lists of popular books categorized as Children's Choices, Teachers Choices, and Young Adult Choices. Teachers Choices, for instance, can be found at:
Jim Trelease presents lists of books to read aloud at:
The National Council for the Social Studies and the Children's Book Council maintain a list of Notable Trade Books in Social Studies:
The National Science Teachers Association And Children's Book Council presents“Outstanding Science Trade Books for Children” listed by year of publication at
New York Public Library maintains a website that contains a list of 100 Picture Books Everyone Should Know and 100 Favorite Children’s Books at:
The Smithsonian maintains a list of Notable Books for Children at:
The website “Teachers First” contains tips and lists of good books for students at:
Picture Dictionaries
The Visual Dictionary provides illustrations organized by categories.
The following website provides links to online dictionaries organized by focus.
The following is a dictionary that focuses on dinosaurs. It is organized alphabetically and contains relative complex information about dinosaurs. Some students are highly interested.
The Internet Picture Dictionary is organized alphabetically and by category. It is also contains French, German, Italian, and Spanish entries categorized separately.
Dictionaries
Merriam-Webster’s website is designed for students. They are able to build their own online personal dictionaries.
The One Look website provides links to various online dictionaries that have different foci.
Neurological Impress Method (NIM)
Below are some web resources to help teachers and parents understand and implement the NIM.
Learning Disabilities
This is a list of behavioral characteristics to help teachers identify students who might have learning disabilities. Such students should be referred to other school personnel who have the expertise to make judgments about who might, in fact, have a learning disability.
Students below 12 years
1. Poor visual memory for words
2. Poor auditory discrimination and memory
3. Persistent reversals after 7 years
4. Poor established handedness
5. Immature articulationin speech after8 years
6. Late speech development
7. Poor fine-motor control
8. Poor gross-motor control
9. Short attention span
10. Perseveration
11. Emotionallability (impulsivity)
12. Difficultyin organizing
13. Difficultyin integration of skills
14. Poor handwriting
15. Persistent spelling problems
16. Failure to learn by standard techniques
17. Bizarre and consistent perceptual errors in spelling and reading
18. Strong familial incidence
19. Variety of soft neurological signs:
a) late language development
b) poor short term memory
c) failure to establish laterality
d) mixedlateral dominance
e) non-specificgross- o r fine-motor control
Adolescents
1. Poor memory (retention)
2. Poor auditory discrimination
3. Poor attention
4. Chronic absenteeism
5. Poor visual discrimination
6. Inability to blend letter sounds
7. Poor sensory-motor coordination
A learning disability is a significant discrepancy between an individual’s apparent capacity for language behavior and her/his actual level of languagefunctioning resultingdue to emotional physiological or neurological difficulties. A studentwith a learningdisabilityis one who is characterized by a “cluster” of signs. Such students should be referred to individuals in the district who have the expertise to make such judgments.