CREATING LITERACY INSTRUCTION FOR ALL CHILDREN, 4/E
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CREATING LITERACY INSTRUCTION
FOR ALL CHILDREN, 4/E
© 2003
Thomas G. Gunning
0-205-35539-0 Bookstore ISBN
Visit www.ablongman.com/replocator to contact your local Allyn & Bacon/Longman representative.
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4
Teaching Phonics,
High-Frequency
Words, and Syllabic
Analysis
140
ANTICIPATION GUIDE
F or each of the following statements, put a check under “Agree” or “Disagree”
to show how you feel. Discuss your responses with classmates before you read
the chapter.
Agree Disagree
1 Before they start to read, students should be
taught most of the consonant letters and their
sounds.
2 Phonics rules have so many exceptions that they
are not worth teaching.
3 Phonics is hard to learn because English is so ir-
regular.
4 The natural way to decode a word is sound by
sound or letter by letter.
5 Memorizing is an inefficient way to learn new
words.
6 Syllabication is not a very useful skill because
you have to know how to decode a word before
you can put it into syllables.
USING WHAT YOU KNOW
T he writing system for the English language is alphabetic. Because a series of
twenty-six letters has been created to represent the speech sounds of the lan-
guage, our thoughts and ideas can be written down. To become literate, we
must learn the relationship between letters and speech sounds. Chapter 3 pre-
sented techniques for teaching the nature and purpose of writing and reading,
concepts of print, the alphabet, awareness of speech sounds, and a technique
for presenting initial consonants. These techniques form a foundation for learn-
ing phonics, which is the relationship between spelling and speech sounds as
applied to reading. This chapter covers high-frequency words, some of which
may not lend themselves to phonic analysis. In addition, the chapter explores
syllabic analysis, which is applying phonics to multisyllabic words, and fluency,
which is freedom from word identification problems. This chapter will be more
meaningful if you first reflect on what you already know about phonics, syllabic
analysis, and fluency.
Think about how you use phonics and syllabic analysis to sound out strange
names and other unfamiliar words. Think about how you might teach phonics,
and ask yourself what role phonics should play in a reading program.
141
142 Chapter 4 Teaching Phonics, High-Frequency Words, and Syllabic Analysis
RATIONALE AND APPROACHES FOR
PHONICS INSTRUCTION
As you read the following sentence out loud, think about the processes you are using.
In Palampam Day, by David and Phyllis Gershator (1997), Papa Tata Wanga of-
fers sage advice to Turn, who refuses to eat because on this day, the food talks
back, as do the animals.
In addition to thinking about what the sentence is saying, did you find that
■ Phonics is the study of you had to use phonics and syllabication skills to read Palampam, Gershator, and Tata
speech sounds related to Wanga? Phonics skills are absolutely essential for all readers. Most of the words we
reading. read are sight words. We’ve encountered them so many times that we don’t need
to take time to sound them out. They are in our mental storehouse of words that
we recognize automatically. However, we need phonics for names of people or places
or events that we have never met in print. Without phonics, we would not be able
As adept readers, we apply to read new words.
our skills with lightning speed As adept readers, we use phonics occasionally. Because of our extensive ex-
and process words by patterns perience reading, we have met virtually all of the word patterns in the language.
of sound. Having read words
such as papa and tango, you Although you may have never seen the word Palampam before, you have seen
may have grouped the letters the word patterns pal and am. Chances are you used these patterns to decode
in Tata as “ta-ta” and those in Palampam. You probably decoded the word so rapidly that you may not even be
Wanga as “Wang (g)a” and conscious of applying your skills. For novice readers, phonics is a key skill. For a
pronounced the a’s in Tata period in their development, novice readers may be using phonics in a con-
just as you have the a’s in
papa and the ang in Wanga scious, deliberate fashion to decode many of the words that they read. In time, after
just as you would the ang in they’ve had sufficient experience with a word, that word becomes part of their
tango. instant recognition vocabulary.
The purpose of learning phonics is to enable students to decode words that are in their lis-
tening vocabularies but that they fail to recognize in print.
http://www.ablongman.com/gunning4e Stages in Reading Words 143
HOW WORDS ARE READ
Words are read in one of four, often overlapping, ways. They are predicted,
sounded out, chunked, or recognized immediately. Predicting means using context
by itself or context plus some decoding to read a word. Seeing the letter w and using
the context “Sam was pulling a red w ____ ,” the student predicts that the word
missing is wagon. Sounding out entails pronouncing words letter by letter or sound
by sound (/h/ + /a/ + /t/) and then blending them into a word. As readers become
more advanced, they group or chunk sounds into pronounceable units (/h/ + /at/).
In the fourth process, the words are recognized with virtually no mental effort. Adept
readers have met some words so often that they recognize them just about as soon
as they see them. These are called sight words because they are apparently recog-
nized at sight (Ehri & McCormick, 1998).
How High-Frequency Words Are Learned
According to Ehri (1998), learning words at sight entails forging links that connect P. M. Cunningham (1998)
the written form of the word and its pronunciation and meaning. Looking at the notes that “words we have
spelling of a word, the experienced reader retrieves its pronunciation and meaning not read before are almost in-
stantly pronounced on the
from her mental dictionary or storehouse of words instantaneously. Beginners might basis of spelling patterns the
look at a word, analyze it into its component sounds, blend the sounds, and say the brain has seen in other words”
word. At the same time, they note how the word’s letters symbolize single or (p. 199).
groups of sounds. Over time, the connections that the reader makes between let-
ters and sounds enable the reader to retrieve the spoken form and meaning of the
word just about instantaneously. The reader makes adjustments for irregular words
so that certain letters are flagged as being silent or having an unusual pronuncia-
tion. “Knowledge of letter–sound relations provides a powerful mnemonic system
that bonds the written forms of specific words to their pronunciations in memory”
(Ehri & McCormick, 1998, p. 140).
STAGES IN READING WORDS
Logographic Stage
Students go through stages or phases in their use of word analysis skills. Young
children surprise their elders by reading a McDonald’s sign, soda can and milk car-
ton labels, and the names of cereals. However, for the most part, these children are
not translating letters into sounds as more mature readers would do; instead, they
are associating “nonphonemic visual characteristics” with spoken words (Ehri, l994).
For instance, a child remembers the word McDonald’s by associating it with the golden
arches and Pepsi is associated with its logo. At times, teachers take advantage of
the nonphonemic characteristics of words. They tell students that the word tall might
be remembered because it has three tall letters and that camel is easy to recall because
the m in the middle of the word has two humps.
In the logographic (prephonemic) stage, students learn a word by selective as-
sociation, by selecting some nonphonemic feature that distinguishes it from other Most children in preschool
words (Gough, Juel, & Griffith, 1992). For the word elephant, it could be the length and early kindergarten are in
of the word; or in the word look, it could be the two os that are like eyes. The prob- the logographic stage.
144 Chapter 4 Teaching Phonics, High-Frequency Words, and Syllabic Analysis
Purcell-Gates (1997) con- lem with selective association is that students run out of distinctive clues, and the
cluded that observing and clues that they use do not help them decode new words. Students can learn only about
working with print without forty words using nonphonic clues (Gough & Hillinger, 1980). In addition, stu-
the support of pictorial clues dents don’t begin to advance in their understanding of the alphabetic nature of the
as provided by labels and language until they begin to use letter–sound relationships to read words.
signs was more effective in
building literacy concepts Students’ invented or spontaneous spelling provides clues to the stage they are
than was working with signs in. They may use random letters to represent a word. Or they may even be able to
and labels. When children spell their names because they have memorized the letters. As students become aware
read signs or labels, they at- of individual sounds in words and the fact that letters represent sounds, they move
tend to the pictorial portions into the second stage of reading, the alphabetic stage (Byrne, 1992).
rather than the print.
Early Alphabetic Stage
In the alphabetic (letter name) stage, learners use letter–sound relationships to
read words. In the early alphabetic stage, they may use just a letter or two. They
may use only the first letter of a word and combine the sound of that letter with
context. For instance, in the sentence “The cat meowed,” students may process
only the initial m and then use context and their experience with cats to guess that
the word is meowed. Or they may use the first and last letter to decode the word cat
in “I lost my cat”; so they read the word cat as opposed to cap or car. Students can-
not use full decoding because they haven’t yet learned vowel correspondences.
In their spontaneous spelling, students in this stage may represent a word by
using just the first letter: K for car or KR, the letters that represent the most distinctive
sounds in car. At the end of this stage, they begin using vowels, but may not spell
the words correctly.
Advanced Alphabetic Stage
In the advanced alphabetic stage, students begin to process all letters in the words.
As they learn to apply their growing knowledge of letter–sound relationships,
their reading may be slow and effortful. Focusing on using their newly learned de-
coding skills, students cautiously read word by word. Students are “glued to print”
(Chall, 1996). The danger at this stage is that too much emphasis will be put on ac-
curacy and sounding out. This could impede students’ development. “Too analyti-
cal an approach . . . may hold up silent reading comprehension” (Chall, 1996, p.
47). With students glued to print, this is a bottom-up stage. As students build their
store of known words, they are better able to see commonalties in words. They
note that cat and hat both have an at. Encountering the word mat, which they have
never seen in print, they can decode it by noting the pronounceable part at and blend-
ing it with m. Or they may use an analogy strategy. Seeing that mat is similar to cat
enables them to read the word.
Students spell vowel sounds in this stage but may not spell them correctly.
Spelling and reading experts Because they may not perceive patterns until the end of this stage, they may fail to
have chosen different terms to use final e (hope) and double vowel letters (coat) to represent long-vowel sounds.
refer to similar stages. The al-
phabetic stage is the same as
the letter name stage. The or- Orthographic Stage
thographic stage is the same
as the within-word-pattern In the orthographic (within-word-pattern) stage, students process longer and more
stage. sophisticated units. For instance, instead of processing hen as h-e-n, they may divide
http://www.ablongman.com/gunning4e Stages in Reading Words 145
it into two units: h+ en. They process light as l+ ight and make use of such elements
as a final e (as in cape) to help them determine the pronunciation of a word. In spelling,
they begin using final e or use two vowel letters to show that a vowel is long.
As students process the same words over and over again, connections are Because they begin to notice
made, and they do not have to read cat as /k/ /a/ /t/, or even /k/ /at/. Rather, the patterns and don’t have to
printed representation of the word as a whole elicits its spoken equivalent. The process a word letter by letter,
students’ reading speed and
printed representation becomes bonded with the spoken equivalent (Perfetti, oral fluency begin to improve
1992). As Ehri (1998) explains, “Sight word learning is at root an alphabetic process at this point.
in which spellings of specific words are secured to their pronunciations in mem-
ory” (p. 105). Gough, Juel, and Griffith (1992) explain the process somewhat dif-
ferently. They believe that just about all the letters in a word are analyzed. Through
practice, access speed increases so that even though words are analyzed element by
element, this is done so rapidly as to be almost instantaneous. Perfetti (1985) sug-
gests that even when words are recognized immediately, the decoding processes
are still at work but are on a subconscious level. This underlying processing veri-
fies our word recognition so that we are alerted when we misread a word. This sys-
tem also enables us to read words we have never seen before very rapidly.
Regardless of how the process is explained, the end result is the same. In time, USING TECHNOLOGY
nearly all the words expert readers encounter in print are read as “sight” words. They A talking word processing
are recognized virtually instantaneously. What makes the instantaneous recogni- program such as Write Out
tion possible are the connections that have been created between each word’s spelling Loud (Don Johnston) can
or phonics elements and its pronunciation and meaning. To create this bond between be used to help children
develop phonics. As stu-
a word’s written appearance and its pronunciation and meaning, it is essential that dents type in a word, it is
students have many opportunities to encounter the word in print. It is also impor- pronounced for them.
tant that students process the whole word rather than simply look at the initial This kind of program en-
consonant and guess what the rest of the word is. By processing the whole word, courages them to explore
students are creating a stronger, clearer bond between the word and its pronuncia- letter–sound relationships
and the sounds of words.
tion. However, the rate at which individuals create these bonds may vary. Research
suggests that there is a processing ability that determines the rate at which these
associations are formed (Torgeson et al., 1997). This means that some students will
need more practice than others, and, in some instances, special help.
Having a firmer command of basic phonics skills, students in this stage begin When students miss a word
to incorporate top-down strategies. They begin to rely more on “knowledge of here or there, teachers may
language, of ideas, and of facts to anticipate meanings as well as new words” (Chall, get the impression that they
do not know their phonics
1996, p. 47). Students begin using an integrated approach. Their decoding also be- and so may review phonics
comes fluent and virtually automatic so that they can devote full attention to from the beginning. Students
comprehension. become bored when taught
In the beginning of the orthographic stage, students begin using final e and skills they already know. Ob-
double letters to represent long-vowel sounds, but may do so incorrectly. By the serve students as they read or
give them a test, such as the
end of this stage, their spelling has become conventional. Word Pattern Survey pre-
sented in Appendix B, and see
■ Implications of Stage Theory what they know and where
This theory of the stages of reading has two very important implications for the teach- they might need help.
ing of reading. First, it suggests that nearly all the words we acquire are learned
through phonics. Therefore, words to be learned (except for a few highly irregular
ones, such as of or one, and perhaps a few learned in the very beginning) should be
taught through a phonics approach rather than through an approach based on vi-
sual memory. Most words that have been classified as having irregular spellings are
at least partly predictable. For instance, the first and last letters of was are regular,
146 Chapter 4 Teaching Phonics, High-Frequency Words, and Syllabic Analysis
as are the first and last letters of been. In fact, except for of, it is hard to find any
word that does not have some degree of spelling–sound predictability. In teaching
words, take advantage of that regularity. It will make the words easier to learn and
to recognize. And establishing links between letters and sounds helps fix words in
memory so that they are eventually recognized instantaneously, or at sight.
The stage theory also implies that instruction should be geared to the stage
that a student is in. Students lacking in phonemic awareness may have difficulty
with letter–sound instruction unless it incorporates practice with phonemic aware-
ness. Whereas using picture clues and memorizing predictable stories is appropri-
ate for building emergent literacy, students in the alphabetical stage should be focusing
on letters and sounds. This helps foster their decoding ability. Moreover, a student
in the alphabetic stage is not ready for the final-e pattern as in pipe and late.
BASIC PRINCIPLES OF PHONICS INSTRUCTION
Phonics instruction is of no value unless it fulfills some specific conditions. First, it
must teach skills necessary for decoding words. Being able to read the short a in
hat is an important skill, but knowing whether the a is long or short is not impor-
tant; students can guess that the a is short without being able to read the word. Noting
so-called silent letters is another useless skill. Knowing that the k in knight is silent
does not ensure that a student can read the word.
Insufficient familiarity with Second, the skill should be one that students do not already know. One second-
the spellings and spelling-to- grader who was reading a fourth-grade book was put through a second-grade
sound correspondences of fre- phonics workbook to make sure she had the necessary skills. If students can read ma-
quent words and syllables
may be the single most com- terial on a third-grade level or above, they obviously have just about all the phon-
mon source of reading difficul- ics skills they will ever need.
ties (Stahl, Osborne, & Lehr, Finally, the skills being taught should be related to reading tasks in which stu-
1990). dents are currently engaged or will soon be engaged. For instance, the time to
teach that ee = /ē/ in words such as jeep and sheep is when students are about to read
One major improvement in a book like Sheep in a Jeep (Shaw, 1986). All too often, they are taught skills far in
today’s basal reading systems advance of the time they will use them, or well after the relevant selection has been
is that the selections carefully read, with no opportunity to apply the skills within a reasonable amount of time.
reinforce the phonics ele-
ments that have been taught. This is ineffective instruction. Research indicates that children do not use or inter-
If you have a pre-2000 series, nalize information unless the skills they have been taught are applicable in their
this may not be true. day-to-day reading (Adams, 1990).
In summary, phonics instruction must be functional, useful, and contextual to
be of value. It also should be planned, systematic, and explicit (Fielding-Barnsley,
1997; Foorman et al., 1998).
When infrequent spellings PHONICS ELEMENTS
are included, there are more
than 300 spellings of the
forty-plus sounds of English. Before discussing how to teach phonics, it is important to know the content of phon-
Many of these infrequent ics. Knowing the content, you are in a better position to decide how to teach
spellings occur in words bor-
rowed from other languages, phonics elements and in what order these elements might be taught.
as in the long a spelling of ex- The content of phonics is fairly substantial. Depending on the dialect, English
posé and beret. has forty or more sounds; however, many of them, especially vowels, may behttp://www.ablongman.com/gunning4e Phonics Elements 147
spelled in more than one way. As a result, children have to learn more than one Although there are forty
hundred spellings. The number would be even greater if relatively infrequent sounds in English, there are
spellings were included, such as the eigh spelling of /ā/ in neighbor or the o spelling only twenty-six letters. This
of /i/ in women. explains some of the variabil-
ity in the spelling system.
Consonants ■ If you look at the conso-
nant chart in Table 4.1, you
There are twenty-five consonant sounds in English (see Table 4.1). Some of the will notice that some of the
sounds are spelled with two letters (church and ship) and are known as digraphs, sounds are spelled with two
but these two letters represent just one sound. The most frequently occurring di- letters. The sound /f/ is usu-
ally spelled with f as in fox
graphs are sh (shop), ch (child), -ng (sing), wh (whip), th (thumb), and th (th
− at). Common but may also be spelled with
digraphs are listed in Table 4.2. ph or gh, as in photograph.
Some groups of consonants represent two or even three sounds (stop, strike). When two letters are used to
These are known as clusters or blends and are listed in Table 4.3. Most clusters spell a single sound, these
double letters are known as
digraphs (di, “two”; graphs,
“written symbols”).
TABLE 4.1 Consonant spellings
■ A cluster is composed of
Sound Initial Final Model Word two or more letters that rep-
resent two or more sounds,
/b/ ba rn cab, robe ball such as the br in broom.
/d/ deer bad dog Clusters are sometimes called
/f/ f un, photo laugh fish “blends.” Because it is diffi-
cult to hear the separate
/g/ gate, ghost, rag goat
sounds in a cluster, this ele-
guide ment poses a special difficulty
/h/ house, who hat for many students.
/hw/ whale whale
/j/ jug, gym, soldier age, judge jar
/k/ can, kite, quick, back, ache cat, key
chaos
/l/ l ion mail leaf
/m/ me him, comb, autumn man
/n/ now, know, pan nail
gnu, pneumonia
/p/ pot top pen
/r/ r ide, wr ite ring
/s/ sight, c ity bus, miss, face sun
/t/ time rat, jumped table
/v/ vase love vest
/w/ we, wheel wagon
/y/ yacht, onion yo-yo
/z/ zipper has, buzz zebra
/ch/ chip, cello, match chair
question
/sh/ ship, sure, chef, push, spec ial, mission sheep
action
/th/ thin breath thumb
−/
/th this breathe the
/zh/ azure, version beige, garage garage
/ŋ/ sing ring148 Chapter 4 Teaching Phonics, High-Frequency Words, and Syllabic Analysis
TABLE 4.2 Common consonant digraphs are composed of l, r, or s and another consonant or
two. Because they are composed of two or more sounds,
Correspondence Examples clusters pose special problems for students. Novice
ch = /ch/ chair, church readers have a difficult time discriminating separate
ck = /k/ tack, pick sounds in a cluster and often decode just the first sound,
gh = /f/ rough, tough the /s/ in /st/, for example.
kn = /n/ knot, knob
ng = /ŋ/ thing, sing Vowels
ph = /f/ phone, photograph
sc = /s/ scissors, scientist English has about sixteen vowel sounds. (The num-
sh = /sh/ shoe, shop ber varies somewhat because some dialects have more
(s)si = /sh/ mission than others.) Each vowel sound has a variety of
th = /th spellings. For example, /ā/, which is commonly re-
−/ there, them
ferred to as long a, is usually spelled a-e, as in late; a
th = /th/ thumb, thunder
ti = /sh/ station, action at the end of a syllable, as in favor; or ai or ay, as in train
wh = /w/ wheel, where and tray. We can say then that the vowel sound /ā/
wr = /r/ wrench, wrestle has four main spellings, two of which are closely re-
lated: ay appears in final position, and ai is found in ini-
tial and medial positions; so these two spellings work
together.
TABLE 4.3 Common consonant clusters
Initial Clusters
With l Example Words With r Example Words With s Example Words Other Example Words
bl blanket, black br broom, bread sc score, scale tw twelve, twin
cl clock, clothes cr crow, crash sch school, schedule qu queen, quick
fl flag, fly dr dress, drink scr scream, scrub
gl glove, glue fr frog, from sk sky, skin
pl plum, place gr green, ground sl sled, sleep
sl slide, slow pr prince, prepare sm smoke, smile
sn snake, sneakers
sp spider, spot
st star, stop
sw sweater, swim
Final Clusters
With l Example Words With n Example Words Other Example Words
ld field, old nce prince, chance ct fact, effect
lf wolf, self nch lunch, bunch mp jump, camp
lk milk, silk nd hand, wind sp wasp, grasp
lm film nk tank, wink st nest, best
lp help nt tent, sent
lt salt, belt
lve twelve, solvehttp://www.ablongman.com/gunning4e Phonic Elements 149
TABLE 4.4 Vowel spellings
Vowel Model
Sound Major Spellings Word
Short Vowels /a/ rag, happen, have cat
/e/ get, le tter, thread bed
/i/ wig, middle, event fish
/o/ fox, problem, father mop
/u/ bus cup
Long Vowels /ā/ name, fa vor, say, sai l rake
/ē/ he, even, ea t, seed, bean, key, these, ei ther, wheel
funny, serious
/ī/ hide, tiny, high, lie, sky nine
/ō/ vote, open, coa t, bow l, old, though nose
/ū/ use, human cube
Other Vowels /aw/ daughter, law, wal k, off, bought saw
/oi/ noise, toy boy
/o o/ wood, should, push foot
—
/oo/ soon, new, prove, group, two, frui t, tru th school
/ow/ tower, south cow
/ə/ above, operation, simi lar, opinion, suppose banana
r Vowels /ar/ far, large, hear t car
/air/ hair, care, where, stair, bear chair
■ Short vowels are the
/i(ə)r/ dear, steer, here deer vowel sounds heard in cat,
/ər/ her, sir, fur, ear th bird pet, sit, hot, and cut.
/or/ hor se, door, tour, more four
■ Long vowels are the
vowel sounds heard in cake,
sleep, pie, boat, and use.
All the other vowel sounds are similar to /ā/ in having two to four major spellings. ■ The onset is the initial
part of a word, the part that
Considering correspondences in this way makes vowel spellings seem fairly regu- precedes a vowel. The onset
lar. It is true that /ā/ and other vowel sounds can each be spelled in a dozen or could be a single consonant
more ways, but many of these spellings are oddities. For instance, the Random (c+at), a digraph (sh+eep), or
House Dictionary (Flexner & Hauck, 1994) lists nineteen spellings of /ā/: ate, Gael, a cluster (tr+ip). A word that
champagne, rain, arraign, gaol, gauge, ray, exposé, suede, steak, matinee, eh, veil, feign, begins with a vowel, such as
owl or and, does not have an
Marseilles, demesne, beret, and obey. Many of these are in words borrowed from onset.
other languages.
■ The rime is the part of a
A chart of vowels and their major spellings is presented in Table 4.4. Note that
word that rhymes and refers
the chart lists twenty-one vowel sounds and includes r vowels, which are combina- to the ook in look or the ow in
tions of r and a vowel so, technically, are not distinct vowels. cow.
Onsets and Rimes Although onsets and rimes
seem to be natural units of
The onset is the consonant or consonant cluster preceding the rime: b-, st-, scr-. The language, some students may
rime is the pattern’s vowel and any consonants that follow it: -at, -op, -een. Rimes, have to process individual
which are also known as phonograms and word families, are highly predictable. sounds before being able to
group them into rimes. They
When considered by itself, a can represent several sounds. However, when fol- may need to learn a = /a/ and
lowed by a consonant, it is almost always short (-at, -an, -am). A list of common rimes t = /t/ before learning the -at
is contained in Table 4.5. rime.150 Chapter 4 Teaching Phonics, High-Frequency Words, and Syllabic Analysis
TABLE 4.5 Common rimes
Vowel
Sound Rimes
Short Vowels /a/ -ab, -ack, -ad, -ag, -am, -amp, -an, -and, -ang, -ank, -ant, -ap, -ash, -ask, -ast, -at, -atch
/e/ -ead, -eck, -ed, -ell, -elt, -en, -end, -ent, -ess, -est, -et
/i/ -ick, -id, -ig, -ill, -im, -in, -ing, -ink, -ip, -ish, -iss, -it
/o/ -ob, -ock, -od, -og, -op, -ot
/u/ -ub, -uck, -ud, -udge, -uff, -ug, -um, -ump, -un, -unch, -ung, -unk, -us, -ust, -ut
Long Vowels /ā/ -ace, -ade, -age, -ake, -ale, -ame, -ane, -ape, -ate, -aid, -ail, -ain, -aste, -ate, -ave, -ay
/ē/ -e, -ea, -each, -ead, -eak, -eal, -eam, -ean, -ee, -eep, -eet
/ī/ -ice, -ide, -ie, -ife, -ike, -ile, -ime, -ind, -ine, -ipe, -ite, -ive, -y
/ō/ -o, -oe, -oke, -old, -ole, -oll, -one, -ope, -ow, -own
/ū/ -ute
Other Vowels /aw/ -alk, -all, -aught, -aw, -awl, -awn, -ong, -ought
/oi/ -oil, -oy
/oo/ -ood, -ook, -ould
/oo/ -ew, -oo, -ool, -oom, -oon, -oot, -ue, -oup
/ow/ -ouch, -ound, -our, -ouse, -out, -ow, -owl, -own
r Vowels /air/ -air, -are, -ear
/ar/ -ar, -ard, -ark, -art
/ər/ -ir, -ird, -irt, -urt
/e(ə)r/ -ear, -eer
/i( ə)r/ -ire
/or/ -oar, -ore, -ort, -orn
Note: Rimes containing few examples have been omitted. Because of dialect variation, some rimes (-og, for instance) may have more than
one pronunciation. Depending upon onset, some rimes will vary in pronunciation: mash vs. wash, for example.
APPROACHES TO TEACHING PHONICS
■ The analytic approach There are two main approaches to teaching phonics: analytic and synthetic. In
involves studying sounds the analytic approach, which is also known as implicit phonics, consonants are
within the context of the generally not isolated but are taught within the context of a whole word. For ex-
whole word so that /w/ is re-
ferred to as the “sound heard ample, the sound /b/ would be referred to as the one heard in the beginning of ball
at the beginning of wagon.” and boy. The sound /b/ is not pronounced in isolation because that would distort it
to “buh.” Although somewhat roundabout, the analytic approach does not distort
■ The term synthetic
phonics refers to saying a the sound /b/.
word sound by sound and In the synthetic approach, which is sometimes called explicit phonics, words
then synthesizing the sounds are decoded sound by sound, and both consonant and vowel sounds are pro-
into words. nounced in isolation. A child decoding cat would say, “Kuh-ah-tuh.” This ap-
proach is very direct, but it distorts consonant sounds, which cannot be pronounced
accurately without a vowel. However, Ehri (1991) maintained that artificial proce-
dures, such as saying the sound represented by each letter in a word, may be neces-
sary to help beginning readers decipher words.http://www.ablongman.com/gunning4e Aproaches to Teaching Phonics 151
For most of the twentieth century, the major basals advocated an analytic ap-
proach in which letter sounds were never isolated and there was heavy reliance on
the use of the initial consonant of a word and context. Selections were chosen on
the basis of topic or literary quality, so they didn’t reinforce the phonics ele-
ments that had been taught. Today, all of the basals use a systematic approach to
phonics in which students are taught to say individual sounds and blend them.
However, this book recommends a combination of the analytic and synthetic ap-
proaches. Novice readers need to have the target sound highlighted by hearing it
in isolation, which is what the synthetic approach does. And they need to hear it in
the context of a real word, which is what the analytic approach does.
Phonics instruction can also be part to whole or whole to part. In a whole-to-
part approach, students listen to or share-read a selection. From the selection, the
teacher draws the element to be presented. After share-reading “Star Light, Star
Bright,” the teacher might lead students to see that bright, might, and light contain
the ight pattern. After discussing the pattern, students then read a selection such as
Sleepy Dog (Ziefert, 1984) that contains the element. In a part-to-whole approach,
the teacher presents the ight pattern in preparation for reading Sleepy Dog. Both
approaches prepare students for an upcoming selection. However, the whole-to-part
approach also helps students to relate the element to a familiar selection and words
that they have seen in print (Moustafa & Maldonado-Colon, 1999).
Teaching Initial Consonants
Phonics instruction typically begins with initial consonants. Being the first sound A somewhat easier approach
in a word, initial consonants are easier to hear. Initial consonants are typically the to teaching initial consonants,
speech-to-print phonics, was
first element to appear in children’s invented spelling. Students may pick up some
described in Chapter 3. See
knowledge of initial consonants through shared reading and through writing ac- Building Literacy for more ex-
tivities, but letter–sound relationships should also be taught explicitly to make sure tensive examples of speech-
that students have learned these important elements, to clarify any misconceptions to-print phonics:
that may have arisen, and to provide additional reinforcement. A phonics lesson starts http://www.thomasgunning.
org.
with phonemic awareness to make sure students can perceive the sound of the ele-
ment and proceeds to the visual level, where the children integrate sound and let-
ter knowledge. A six-step lesson for teaching initial consonants is detailed in
Lesson 4.1. It assumes that the students can segment a word into its separate
sounds, have a concept of beginning sounds, and realize that sounds are repre-
sented by letters. These are skills that were explained in Chapter 3. The lesson is Although consonant sounds
synthetic and analytic, so the consonant sound is presented both in isolation and in spoken in isolation are dis-
the context of a whole word. If possible, relate your instruction to a story, song, or torted, some youngsters do
rhyme or to an experience story that you have share-read. This whole-to-part ap- better when the target sound
proach helps students relate the phonics they are learning to real reading (Moustafa is presented explicitly.
& Maldonado-Colon, 1999).
If students are having diffi-
culty perceiving initial m, ask
N questions that help them
SO4.1 Analytic-synthetic introduction of initial consonant focus on the beginning
LES
sound. Pointing to a picture of
correspondence the moon, ask, “Is this an
Step 1. Phonemic awareness ‘oon’? No? What is it? What
sound did I leave off?” Use
Teach the letter–sound relationship in the initial position of words. In teaching this same procedure with
the correspondence (letter–sound relationship) m = /m/, read a story such as Papa, other m words: monkey, man,
marker, milk.152 Chapter 4 Teaching Phonics, High-Frequency Words, and Syllabic Analysis
Please Get the Moon for Me (Carle, 1987) that contains a number of m words. Call
students’ attention to the m words from the book: moon, me, man. Explain
If students struggle with this how the lips are pressed together to form /m/. Stressing the initial sound as
approach to teaching initial you say each word, ask students to tell what is the same about the words:
consonants, try the speech-to- “mmmoon,” “mmme,” and “mmman.” Lead students to see that all the words
print approach on pp. 124–
126.
begin in the same way. Ask them to supply other words that begin like moon,
me, and man. Give hints, if necessary—an animal that can climb trees (monkey),
something that we drink (milk).
Step 2. Letter–sound integration
Write the m words on the board, and ask what is the same about the way moon,
me, and man are written. Lead students to see that the words all begin with the
letter m and that the letter m stands for the sound /m/ heard at the beginning of
moon. At this point, moon becomes a model word. This is a simple word that can
be depicted and that contains the target letter and sound. When referring to the
sound represented by m, say that it is /m/, the sound heard at the beginning of
moon, so that students can hear the sound both in isolation and in the context of
a word. You might ask if there is anyone in the class whose name begins like /m/
in moon. List the names of students whose names begin like /m/ in moon. Explain
to students why you are using a capital letter for the names.
Step 3. Guided practice
Provide immediate practice. Help students read food labels that contain /m/
words: milk, mayonnaise, margarine, mustard, marshmallows. Read a story to-
gether about monkeys or masks, or sing a song or read a rhyme that has a gen-
erous share of /m/ words. Try to choose some items in which students integrate
knowledge of the correspondence with context. Compose sentences such as “I
will drink a glass of milk” and “At the zoo we saw a monkey,” and write them on
the chalkboard. Read each sentence, stopping at the word beginning with /m/.
Have students use context and their knowledge of the correspondence m = /m/
to predict the word.
Step 4. Application
As share reading or on their own, have students read selections that contain /m/
words. Students might read the m pages in alphabet books.
Step 5. Writing and spelling
If necessary, review the formation of the letter m. Dictate some easy m words
(me, man) and have students spell them as best they can. Encourage students to
use the letter m in their writing.
Step 6. Assessment and reteaching
Continuants like /m/, /f/, Note whether students are able to read at least the initial consonant of m words
and /s/ are less distorted be- and are using m in their writing. Review and reteach as necessary. Throughout
cause they are articulated with
a continuous stream of breath.
the school day, call attention to initial consonants that have been recently taught.
As you prepare to write the word Monday, for instance, ask students to tell what
sound Monday begins with and what letter makes that sound. Also label items in
your class that begin with the letter m: mirror, magnets.http://www.ablongman.com/gunning4e Aproaches to Teaching Phonics 153
■ Using Children’s Books to Reinforce Initial Consonants Using context to verify de-
A good children’s book can be a powerful medium for presenting or providing coding is known as cross-
practice with phonics. A book such as Easy as Pie (Folsom & Folsom, 1986) is ex- checking. The student
cellent for integrating knowledge of initial consonants and context (see Figure checks to see whether the de-
4.1). Common similes, except for the last word, are shown on the right-hand page, coded word makes sense in
the selection.
as is the letter of the missing word. The answer appears when the child turns the
page. For instance, the S page contains the letter S and the words “Deep as the.”
Read the first part of the simile aloud, and tell the students that the last word be-
gins with the letter s. Ask students to guess what they think the word is. Remind them
that the word must begin with /s/, the sound heard at the beginning of sun. Write
their responses on the board. If any word supplied does not begin with /s/, discuss
why this could not be the right answer. Turn the page to uncover the word that
completes the riddle, and let students read the answer. Discuss why the answer is cor-
rect. Emphasize that it makes sense in the phrase and begins with /s/, the same
sound heard at the beginning of sun.
Another book that combines context and knowledge of beginning consonant
correspondences is The Alphabet Tale, by Jan Garten (1964) (see Figure 4.2). Shown
on the S page is a large red S, a seal’s tail, and a riddle:
FIGURE 4.1 S pages from Easy as Pie
From Easy as Pie by Marcia Folsom and Michael Folsom, 1986, Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Copyright © 1986 by Marcia Folsom and Michael
Folsom. Reprinted by permission of Marcia Folsom.154 Chapter 4 Teaching Phonics, High-Frequency Words, and Syllabic Analysis
FIGURE 4.2 S pages from The Alphabet Tale
From The Alphabet Tale by J. Garten (1964). New York: Random House. © 1964 by Jan Garten and
Muriel Batherman. Reprinted by permission of Jan Garten and Muriel Batherman.
He balances balls and swims a great deal.
This tail is the tail of the flippered _____.
When using alphabet books, The next page shows the rest of the seal and the word Seal. Listed in the Children’s
be on the lookout for confus- Reading List are some more titles that may be used to reinforce initial consonants.
ing presentations. In one
book, the words tiger, thin,
and the are used to demon- DREN'
strate the sound usually repre- HIL
C
S
sented by the letter t. READING Recommended books for reinforcing initial
LIS T
However, th in thin represents consonants
a different sound than that
heard at the beginning of
tiger, and th in the represents Amery, H. (1997). Usborne farmyard tales, alphabet book. London: Usborne.
the voiced counterpart of th in Reinforces the target letter with an alliterative sentence and question.
thin.http://www.ablongman.com/gunning4e Aproaches to Teaching Phonics 155
Calmenson, S. (1993). It begins with an A. New York: Hyperion. Rhyming
riddles challenge the reader to guess objects whose names begin with let-
ters A to Z.
Cohen, N. (1993). From apple to zipper. New York: Macmillan. Rhyming text,
with illustrations that form the letters they represent.
Ellwand, D. (1996). Emma’s elephant & other favorite animal friends. New York:
Dutton. In black-and-white photos and brief alliterative captions, children
with animals are depicted.
Hindley, J. Crazy ABC. (1994). Cambridge, MA: Candlewick. Target letters are
reinforced with zany alliterative sentences.
Hofbauer, M. (1993). All the letters. Bridgeport, CT: Greene Barke Press. Each
letter is accompanied by an alliterative story.
Jonas, A. (1997). Watch William walk. New York: Greenwillow. The story of
William walking with Wally and Wanda on the beach is told in drawings
and words that begin only with W.
Joyce, S. (1999). ABC animal riddles. Columbus, NC: Peel Productions. Readers
are asked to guess the identity of animals based on verbal and picture clues.
Laidlaw, K. (1996). The amazing I spy ABC. New York: Dial. Readers spy ob- ADAPTING INSTRUCTION
for ENGLISH LANGUAGE
jects whose names begin with the target letter.
LEARNERS
Moxley, S. (2001). ABCD: An alphabet book of cats and dogs. Boston: Little, Before teaching elements
Brown. Alliterative tale accompanies each letter. that are not present in
Spanish—sh, for instance
—make sure that these ele-
ments have been intro-
After an alphabet or other book has been discussed, place it in the class li- duced in the ESL class. For
easily confused auditory
brary so that students may “read” it. Encourage children to check out books for
items—sh and ch, for ex-
home use. ample—provide added
Be sure to make use of students’ emerging knowledge of letter–sound rela- auditory-discrimination ex-
tionships when reading big books. After reading Paul Galdone’s (1975) The ercises in which students
Gingerbread Boy, for instance, turn to the page on which the gingerbread boy meets tell whether pairs of easily
confused words such as
the cow. Read the words cow, can, and catch. Discuss how the words sound alike and
choose-shoes, shine-shine
begin with the letter c. Encourage the use of context. Reread the story, stopping when are the same or different.
you come to a word that begins with c. Encourage students to read the word. Also, use the items in sen-
Using cow as a key word, remind students that the word should begin with /k/ as in tence context or use real
cow. Also remind them of the context of the sentence to help them learn to inte- objects or pictures to illus-
trate them. When dis-
grate letter–sound relationships with context. To further reinforce the c = /k/ cor-
cussing sheep, for example,
respondence, have students draw a picture of something they can do and write a short hold up a picture of sheep.
piece about it. Individual stories could be the basis for a group story or booklet
that tells about the talents and abilities of all class members.
ADAPTING INSTRUCTION
■ Sorting for ENGLISH LANGUAGE
One activity that is especially useful in deepening students’ understanding about LEARNERS
phonics elements is sorting (Bear, 1995). Sorting forces children to analyze the el- Native speakers of Spanish
ements in a word or picture and select critical features as they place the words or may have difficulty perceiv-
pictures in piles. Through sorting, students classify words and pictures on the basis ing /b/, /v/, /k/, /j/, /z/,
/sh/, /th/, and /ch/. You
of sound and spelling and construct an understanding of the spelling system. They
may need to spend addi-
also enjoy this active, hands-on, nonthreatening activity. tional time with auditory
Students should sort only elements and words that they know. This allows discrimination.
them to construct basic understandings of the spelling system. Although they may156 Chapter 4 Teaching Phonics, High-Frequency Words, and Syllabic Analysis
be able to read cat, hat, and bat, they may not realize that the words all rhyme or
that they follow a CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) pattern. Sorting helps them
come to these understandings.
Students’ sorting activities are determined by their stage of spelling develop-
ment. Students in the early alphabetic stage may sort pictures and, later, words ac-
cording to their beginning sounds. In the orthographic stage, students sort words
according to whether they have long or short vowels, have an e marker, or have a
double-vowel pattern, and then according to the specific long-vowel or other
vowel pattern they illustrate. Words can also be sorted according to initial di-
graphs or consonant clusters or any other element that students need to study.
Here is how students in the early alphabetic stage might be taught to sort ini-
tial consonant sounds. The lesson is adapted from Bear (1995).
SON
Some consonant letters pose 4.2 Sorting beginning consonant sounds
LES
special problems. One of
these letters is x, which is a re-
verse digraph, except when it Step 1. Set up the sort
represents /z/, as in xylophone. Set up two columns. At the top of each column, place an illustration of the
It may represent either /ks/, as sound to be sorted. If you plan to have students sort /s/ and /r/ words, use an il-
in tax, or /gz/, as in example.
lustration of the sun and an illustration of a ring. A pocket chart works well for
this activity.
Step 2. Explain sorting
Tell students that you will be giving them cards that have pictures on them. Explain
that they will be placing the cards under the picture of the sun if the words
begin with /s/, the sound heard at the beginning of sun, or under the picture of
the ring if the words begin with /r/, the sound heard at the beginning of ring.
Step 3. Model the sorting procedure
Shuffle the cards. Tell the students, “Say the name of the picture. Listen care-
fully to see whether the name of the picture begins like /s/ as in sun or /r/ as in
ring.” Model the process with two or three cards: “This is a picture of a saw.
Saw has a /s/ sound and begins like sun, so I will put it under sun. Sun and saw
both begin with /s/.”
Step 4. Children sort the cards
Distribute the cards. Have the students take turns placing a card in the /s/ or /r/
column. When students place their cards, have them say the picture’s name and
the sound it begins with. Correct errors quickly and simply. For instance, if a
student puts a picture of a rat in the /s/ column, say, “Rat begins with /r/ and
goes under ring,” or ask why rat was put there and discuss its correct placement.
A sample sort can be found in Figure 4.3. Have students sort cards a second and
third time to solidify their perception of beginning sounds.
Step 5. Application
Have students find objects or pictures of objects whose names begin with /s/ or
/r/. Proceed to other initial consonants, or sort known words that begin with /s/
or /r/.http://www.ablongman.com/gunning4e Aproaches to Teaching Phonics 157
FIGURE 4.3 A sample sort
Students might conduct sorts in pairs or small groups. A simple way to sort is
to place a target word or illustration in the center of a table and then distribute cards,
some of which contain the target element. Have students read or name the target
element, and then have them take turns placing cards containing the target ele-
ment. As students place cards, they should read the words or name the illustrations
on them (Temple, Nathan, Temple, & Burris, 1993). For illustrations that can be used
for sorting, go to the Webbing into Literacy Web site. Although WIL was de-
signed for preschool students, the illustrations and word cards can be used with
any age student.
Sorts can be open or closed. In a closed sort, the teacher provides the basis for
sorting the cards, as in Lesson 4.2. In an open sort, students decide the basis for
sorting the cards.
Sometimes students sort words visually. For example, after one at word has been
sorted, they simply put all the other at words under it without actually thinking about
the sound that the words have in common. To overcome this practice, use a blind
sort. Draw a word from the pile to be sorted and say it without showing it to the158 Chapter 4 Teaching Phonics, High-Frequency Words, and Syllabic Analysis
Sorting is a powerful technique for helping students make discoveries about words.
students. Then have them tell in which column it should be placed. After putting the
word in the correct column, have a volunteer read it. For instance, picking up the
word rat, you read it without showing it to students and they tell you whether it
goes in the cat, ran, or dad column. A volunteer then reads all the words in that col-
umn (Johnston, 1999).
The first word that most chil-
dren learn is their name. To REINFORCEMENT
take advantage of this natural ACTIVITIES Consonant letter–sound relationships
learning, create a chart of chil-
dren’s first names. When • Have students encounter initial consonants they know in books.
studying words that begin • Creating experience stories also affords students the opportunity to meet
with a certain sound, refer to phonics elements in print. While reading the story with an individual or
names on the chart that also
group, the teacher can call attention to any consonants that have already been
begin with that sound. Attach
photos of the students to the introduced. The teacher might pause before a word that begins with a known
chart so that students may consonant and have a student attempt to read it.
learn to associate printed • Play the game Going to Paris (Brewster, 1952). Players recite this:
names and faces.
I’m going to Paris.
Have students create their I’m going to pack my bag with ______ .
own alphabet books. After a
The first player says an object whose name begins with the first letter of
letter–sound relationship has
been presented, direct stu- the alphabet. Subsequent players then say the names of all the objects
dents to create a page show- mentioned by previous players and identify an object whose name begins
ing the upper- and lowercase with the next letter of the alphabet.
forms of the letter along with
• Play the game Alphabet It. In this counting-out game, one child recites the
a key word and an illustration
of the word. As students learn letters of the alphabet. As the child says each letter, she or he points to the
to read words beginning with other members of the class whose names begin with the letter being re-
the letter and sound, they cited. Each child pointed to removes himself or herself from the game.
may add them to the page.http://www.ablongman.com/gunning4e Aproaches to Teaching Phonics 159
The alphabet is recited until just one child is left. That child is “it” for the
next round or next game.
• Use software that helps students discover letter–sound relationships, for
instance, Dr. Peet’s Talk/Writer (Interest-Driven Learning) or Write Out Loud
(Don Johnston). These word processing programs will say words that have
been typed in. You might give students a list of three words that begin with
s to type in, and have them listen to hear what sound the letter s makes.
However, it is not necessary to give students assignments. Just introduce them
to the talking word processing program and let nature take its course. As they
explore the program, they will make valuable discoveries about letter–
sound relationships. Each program can also be used as a kind of sound dic-
tionary. When students want to find out what a word says, all they have to
do is type it in and the speech synthesizer will say it. A small number of
words are distorted by the synthesizer, so students may have to make some
minor adjustments in pronunciation. If the word does not make sense, even
after adjustments, the student should ask for a teacher’s help. Dr. Peet’s
Talk/Writer also has an ABC Discovery module that introduces the alphabet.
• Use CD-ROM software such as Letter Sounds (Sunburst). The student
matches, sorts, and manipulates consonants and composes tongue-twisters
and songs based on initial sounds. Curious George ABC Adventure (Sunburst)
reinforces letter names and letter sounds.
• As a review of initial consonant spelling–sound relationships, read the fol-
lowing jump-rope chant with students. Help students extend the chant
through all the letters of the alphabet. Adapt the chant for boys by substi-
tuting wife’s for husband’s.
A—my name is Alice, A good source of jump-rope
My husband’s name is Andy, chants and other rhymes is A
We live in Alabama, Rocket in My Pocket (Withers,
l948), which is still available in
And we sell apples. paperback.
• Traditional rhymes can also be used to reinforce initial consonant sounds.
Do a shared reading of the rhyme first. Stress the target consonant letter–
sound correspondence as you read the selection. During subsequent shared For additional sources for
readings of the selection, encourage the class to read the words beginning rhymes, see Building Literacy:
with the target letter. www.thomasgunning.org
Deedle, deedle, dumpling, my son John,
Went to bed with his stockings on;
One shoe off, and one shoe on,
Deedle, deedle, dumpling, my son John.
Jack, be nimble
Jack, be quick,
Jack, jump over the candlestick.
Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear.
Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair.
Fuzzy Wuzzy wasn’t fuzzy,
Was he?160 Chapter 4 Teaching Phonics, High-Frequency Words, and Syllabic Analysis
When students misread a Teaching Final Consonants
cluster—reading “fog” for
frog, for instance—you might
Final consonants are handled in much the same way as initial consonants. Relate
ask questions that lead them them to their initial counterparts. And do not neglect them. According to a classic
to see that they need to research study by Gibson, Osser, and Pick (1963), final consonants are a significant
process two initial sounds aid in the decoding of printed words. You might teach final consonants as you
rather than just one: What let- teach the word patterns that use them. For instance, teach final /t/ before or as you
ter does the word fog begin
with? What two letters does
are teaching the -at pattern and final /m/ before or as you are teaching the -am
the word in the sentence pattern. Be sure to develop phonemic awareness of final consonants. Use activities
begin with? What sound does suggested in the lesson for initial consonants.
f stand for? What sound does r
stand for? What sounds do f
and r make when said to-
gether? How would you say
Teaching Consonant Clusters
the word in the story? Clusters are more difficult to decode than single-consonant correspondences or
digraph correspondences. Students who know all the single-consonant and di-
graph correspondences may still have difficulty with clusters (Gunning, 2002).
Clusters, therefore, must be taught with care and with much reinforcement. You can-
not assume that because a child knows d = /d/ and r = /r/, she will be able to handle
dr = /dr/. Such clusters need to be taught as new elements. Many of the same activ-
ities that are used to reinforce single-consonant correspondences can be used.
However, when introducing consonant clusters, build on what students already know.
For instance, when presenting the cluster br, review b = /b/ and r = /r/ and have
students build clusters by adding initial b to known words beginning with r. Students
read ring, rush, and rake. Then, using a word-building approach, ask students what
you would have to add to ring to make the word bring, to rush to make the word
brush, and to rake to make the word brake. Lead them to see that bring, brush, and
brake all begin with two letters that cluster together to make two sounds /br/. Because
the phonemes in clusters are difficult to perceive, stress the separate sounds in the
clusters. Also, conduct sorting exercises in which students sort words beginning with
b and words beginning with br. This helps them to discover for themselves the dif-
ference between b and br.
■ Troublesome Correspondences
The most difficult consonant letters are c and g. Both regularly represent two
sounds: The letter c stands for /k/ and /s/, as in cake and city; the letter g repre-
sents /g/ and /j/, as in go and giant. The letter c represents /k/ far more often than
The g generalizations help it stands for /s/ (Gunning, 1975), and this is the sound students usually attach to
explain the gu spelling of /g/ it (Venezky, 1965); the letter g more often represents /g/. In teaching the conso-
as in guide and guilt. Without nant letters c and g, the more frequent sounds (c = /k/, g = /g/) should be pre-
the u following the g, there sented first. The other sound represented by each letter (c = /s/, g = /j/) should be
would be a tendency to pro-
nounce those words with the
taught sometime later. At that point, it would also be helpful to teach the follow-
/j/ sound (Venezky, 1965). ing generalizations:
Determining the sound of c
and g at the end of a word is
• The letter g usually stands for /j/ when followed by e, i, or y, as in gem, giant,
relatively easy. If a word ends or gym. (There are a number of exceptions: geese, get, girl, give.)
in e, c represents /s/ and g • The letter c usually stands for /k/ when it is followed by a, o, or u, as in cab,
stands for /j/ (lace, page). The cob, or cub.
letter e serves as a marker to
indicate that c and g have • The letter c usually stands for /s/ when followed by e, i, or y, as in cereal, circle,
their soft sounds. or cycle.You can also read
