reading

Vowel Discrimination Activities.

Jj is for Jottings 84.  Vowel Discrimination Activities.

Vowel Discrimination Activity 3. Identifying /i/ and /e/, plus a picture of the Ii is for Itchy page of "Aa is for Alpacas".

Vowel Discrimination Activity 3. Identifying /i/ and /e/.

 

As promised in the previous article, here are some vowel discrimination activities to help your child to hear the difference between vowel sounds, in particular the tricky pairs of a/u and i/e.  At the same time these activities reinforce the sound-letter links for the vowels.  After all, it’s not much use for reading and spelling if you can hear the difference between them but don’t know which letter belongs to the sound. Continue reading →

Decodable Readers and Phonics.

Jj is for Jottings 80.  Decodable Readers.

What are Decodable Readers?

As mentioned in the previous article (see here), decodable readers support the teaching of phonics in a cumulative manner.  The rules and patterns of the English language are taught sequentially.  As the student learns the rules, he practices using decodable readers.  In this way there are no nasty surprises involving unknown words, because they know the rules  and every word can be decoded.  This gives the reader both skills and confidence, and makes learning to read much less of a challenge.

Most Children Learn to Read Without Decodable Readers, Don’t They?

Continue reading →

Literacy, Language and Prison.

Jj is for Jottings 79.  Literacy, Language and Prison.

Here are studies from three countries on the relationship between literacy, language and prison or young offender sentences:

1. USA.

Approximately 80% of prison inmates are functionally illiterate, and 47.8% of the inmates were deficient in word attack skills, according to reports.  (Texas, 2000) Continue reading →

Blending Sounds: A Simple Game For Everyday Life.

Jj is for Jottings 77.  Blending Sounds: A Simple Game For Everyday Life.

What is Blending?

Blending is “pushing” individual sounds or syllables together to make a word.  In early stages of reading the child will be blending sounds, but as they progress and begin to recognise chunks of words, they will also be blending syllables. Continue reading →

Prince William on Punctuation and Social Media.

Jj is for Jottings 73.  Prince William on Punctuation and Social Media.

Prince William addressed a group of female students at a London school on the issue of cyberbullying.  He talked about the stress of trying to live up to all the faked “perfection” seen online, and he urged students to put down their devices, in order to improve mental health.  He said that they need to balance their time with other activities, especially outside, and not to be on a screen all day because “it takes you into a different world.”

Prince William also made the point about how often feelings can be hurt be text messages and social media, saying: “Unless you punctuate it correctly — I’m not the best at punctuation and I’m not the grammar police, either — you can read it in 100 different ways.”  He also went on to talk about the importance of emotional intelligence and sharing feelings, but that is not my focus today.

Punctuation – many people ignore it and consider it of no importance, but that is absolutely untrue.  A message can be completely changed by those little marks on the page, even without changing the words themselves.  Here are a couple of examples:

“Let’s eat, Grandma.”

With the comma, these words indicate that the speaker is talking to their grandma and suggesting that they eat dinner. Watch what happens when you remove the comma:

“Let’s eat Grandma.”

Without the comma, the speaker is suggesting that they eat their grandma!

Another example:

“Please replace the chair’s.”  The chair’s what?

Clearly, poor punctuation can interfere with the meaning of the message, and for people who punctuate correctly, each punctuation error is a stumbling block to fluent reading, since one must  re-read parts to check what is really meant.  In text messages and on social media, the writer is not present for you to check what was really meant; in conversation you can clarify meanings and sort out misunderstandings on the spot.

There is much more I could say about punctuation.  I’m sure it will work its way into posts at some point!

 

Source of photo:  World Bank Photo Collection.

Single Words Versus Connected Speech.

Jj is for Jottings 72.  Single Words Versus Connected Speech.

Following on from the discussion about the end of a word not always really being the end (here), we find that, as a result of running our words together to get a smooth flow which is easier for the listener to follow, we can end up with strings of consonants together, as in, “He mends trucks.”  Continue reading →

The End of a Word is Not Always the End.

Jj is for Jottings 70.  The End of a Word is Not Always the End.

In traditional tests of articulation (speech sounds) and when we are sounding out words in reading, we think very much in terms of sounds at the beginning, in the middle and on the end of a word.  In the case of early stage reading and spelling using 3-sound words, we are asking, “What sound can you hear at the beginning of the word?”  “What sound can you hear at the end of the word?   “What sound can you hear in the middle of the word?”  Continue reading →

Reading Comprehension – Is Your Child Barking at Print?

Jj is for Jottings 67.  Reading Comprehension – Is Your Child Barking at Print?

When your child is reading to you, are you sure they (I’m using “they” to cover both boys and girls) are actually understanding what they are reading, or are they just barking at print? i.e. Reading the words correctly but not actually decoding them, so they really have no idea what they are reading. Continue reading →