bearing blog: How I teach my kids to read, an empirical approach: VI. Script for two lessons.

Fifth post in a series. See here for:

Introduction:
- Part I.

Materials:
- Part II. "Sandpaper phonemes," a basic set of flashcards
- Part III. Lists, slates, and readers
- Part IV. Advanced set of flashcards.
Method:
- Part V. Beginning with a one-to-one code.

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In the first lesson with the child, we sit down with the two sandpaper phonemes "m" and "a." Here's the script I wrote for myself to use seven or eight years ago, and have used three times since.

In the second lesson, we start with a word made from those two sounds, and then we go on to learn two new sounds.

A note on notation: Recall that I enclose sounds in slashes, like this: /m/

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LESSON 1

/m/ spelled m as in mouse

/a/ spelled a as in hat

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"You're going to learn two sounds and the shapes that we use to spell them."

"The first sound is this: /mmmmm/. Say /mmmmm/."

"Are my lips closed or open when I say /mmmm/?"

"We use our voice to say /mmm/. Put your hand on your throat and you can feel your throat vibrating."

Have the child say /mmmm/ while feeling his throat vibrate. Make sure he notices it before continuing.

"Your throat vibrates when you use your voice to make a sound. It stops vibrating when you stop using your voice."

Show the textured letter m.

"We spell the sound /mmmmm/ with this shape."

"Practice tracing the letter that spells /mmmm/ with your finger."

Help the child trace the letter m with the index finger of his writing hand. Encourage the child to say "/mmmm/" while tracing the letter. Trace it correctly three or four times.

"Another sound we will use is /aaaaa/. Say /aaaaa/."

Pronounce the vowel as in "hat" or "bat."

"Is my mouth open or closed when I say /aaaaaa/?"

"Do you use your voice when you say /aaaa/?"

"Put your hand on your throat and see if you can feel it."

Show the textured letter a.

"We spell the sound /aaaa/ with this letter."

"Practice tracing the letter that spells /aaaaa/ with your finger."

Help the child trace the letter a with the index finger of his writing hand. Encourage the child to say "/aaaa/" while tracing the letter. Trace it correctly three or four times.
Help the child complete a worksheet with letters a and m to trace. (See note)

Note on the worksheet I mentioned: You can literally just grab a piece of paper, write a big a and m on it, and ask the child to trace the letters with his finger or go over it with a marker or crayon. Or you can download something.

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LESSON 2

Word building exercise with a and m

/s/ spelled s as in sock

/o/ spelled o as in sock

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"Last time you learned how to spell two sounds."

Show the textured letter a.

"Read this card. What sound does this shape spell?"

Show the textured letter m.

"Read this card. What sound does this shape spell?"

"We are going to use these letters to build a word that has two sounds in it."

"We are going to build the word am on your work mat."

"What is the first sound you hear in the word am?" (/a/)

"Find the letter that spells the sound /a/."

Allow time for the child to find the letter a. Place the card on the work mat.

"What sound comes after the sound /a/ in the word am?"

Prompt and assist the child to listen for the sound until the answer /m/ is elicited.

"Find the letter that spells the sound /m/."

Place the letter card m on the work mat to form a m.
Read the word am indicating each letter as its sound is vocalized: "/aaaaaaa/ /mmmmm/."
Give the child a worksheet with a m on it and help the child to trace and say "am."

"Now you're going to learn two new sounds and the shapes that spell them."

"The first sound is this: /sssss/. Say /ssssss/."

"Are my lips closed or open when I say /sssss/?"

"Can you feel where you put your tongue to say /sssss/?"

"Put your hand on your throat to feel it. Do you use your voice to make the sound /sssss/?"

"You do not use your voice to make the sound /ssss/, so your throat does not vibrate. You only use your breath."

Show the textured letter s.

"We spell the sound /sssss/ with this shape."

"Practice tracing the letter that spells /ssss/ with your finger."

Help the child trace the letter s with the index finger of his writing hand. Encourage the child to say "/ssss/" while tracing the letter. Trace it correctly three or four times.

"Another sound we will use is /o/. Say /o/."

Pronounce the vowel as in "hot" or "bot." Extend it so it's more like "ahhhhh."

"Is my mouth open or closed when I say /o/?"

"Do you use your voice when you say /o/?"

"Put your hand on your throat and see if you can feel it."

Show the textured letter o.

"We spell the sound /o/ with this letter."

"Practice tracing the letter that spells /o/ with your finger."

Help the child trace the letter o with the index finger of his writing hand. Encourage the child to say "/o/" while tracing the letter. Trace it correctly three or four times.
Help the child complete a worksheet with letters o and s to trace.

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So, that's the pattern for my first couple of lessons. In lesson 3 we review the four sounds learned, and introduce /k/ spelled c and /t/ spelled t. The next lesson has a simple flashcard game and the exercise of reading am, mat, and sac. I'll write those out in a later post.