People say that it is hard to learn another language. I would have to agree. I tried learning Spanish for 4 years but was certainly not ever fluent. I can say hi, introduce myself, and ask you how you are. My colors and numbers can be pulled out of the hat but they may not be correct. Where am I going with this? Spanish at least sticks to the rules. English doesn't. The founders of the language tried for a while, tried to used some previous languages, and then just started creating words in my opinion...however they pleased.
Try explaining this to a first grader! We are working on short vowel sounds and consonant sounds. Most of the consonants are easy and they are pretty good at. Except for c because it can sound like a k OR an s, the g can be hard or soft, meaning it can sound like the j, k's can be silent, q must be followed by a u, and then there is the x and the z which get thrown into letters and are hard to sound out. First graders use phonetic spelling meaning their spelling normally matches the sounds that they hear unless they have practiced and seen a word many times.
The vowels are a WHOLE other story! All vowels have a short and a long sound. If they are long, they say their name, most of the time. Short vowels all have their own sound. But guess what, you put two vowels together and they make a different sound. Add an e to the end of the word and it makes a vowel long, sometimes. Then we have oddball words or words that simply don't follow any rule and you just have to know how to say and spell. We have this rule called the Bossy R...an r with certain vowels makes a complete different sound. The list goes on! And while you thought you realized this, you probably take it fore granted on a daily basis that you are a fluent reader and don't have to think about every sound.
This is the life of a first grader! At this point in the year, most of them sound out every sound of almost every word. They did have 20 sight words last year. These words were ones that they were expected to know at the end of the year. They are commonly used while speaking, reading, and writing. But that doesn't get you far while you're reading.
This is also why I have a job! This is also why most schools want teachers to have their reading endorsement. This stuff is tricky and there are tricks of the trade that I am still learning. I have found some great resources on teacherspayteachers.com that made teaching these tricky letters though. Many of you have heard my singing skills, because I'm not the shyest person but my students get to hear my lovely voice EVERY day! There are songs for everything!!! For reading strategies, letter sounds, you name it and someone has thought of a song to make it easier to remember!!
For example...The Short /o/ which goes to the tune of The Wheels on the Bus (the / / makes mean its a sound for all of you non teachers!) thanks to Nicole Rios and her Short O Flipbook.
The sound for short o is /o/, /o/, /o/
/o/, /o/, /o/
/o/, /o/, /o/
The sound for short o is /o/, /o/, /o/
like ostrich, off, and Ozzy!
I will add some pictures of our other songs that we use another time. I am on the wrong computer!
I'm made a little font change and color change due to some people not being able to read it..cough..cough..Paulette. :-) At least I know someone was reading!!! Let me know if there is something you really want to know about.
Have a great night and even better Tuesday!!
Toodles!
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