Letter Sound Activities
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Revision as of 18:42, 30 March 2008 (edit) (undo) Lholt (Talk | contribs) (→Tips and tricks for teaching letter sounds) Next diff → |
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| *'''When you point to a letter, wait before touching it''' and train students to respond only when you touch the letter. That gives all students time to think of the answer, so that slower students don't just copy faster students. | *'''When you point to a letter, wait before touching it''' and train students to respond only when you touch the letter. That gives all students time to think of the answer, so that slower students don't just copy faster students. | ||
| *Test your students on the following letters and provide extra practice if necessary (e.g., [[Letter sound fluency]]) since they are the letter sounds at-risk students most often confuse: '''d b e u i v y'''. Students may additionally struggle with: '''a o p f c g j'''. | *Test your students on the following letters and provide extra practice if necessary (e.g., [[Letter sound fluency]]) since they are the letter sounds at-risk students most often confuse: '''d b e u i v y'''. Students may additionally struggle with: '''a o p f c g j'''. | ||
| + | *It is quite common for students to '''confuse letters ''b'' and ''d'''''. One mnemonic you can introduce your students to is to write ''b d'' in large letters and turn them into a bed (whereas writing ''d b'' won't work because the "mattress" falls down). If students can remember that this is a ''bed'' not a ''deb'', they can figure out which letter is which. | ||
| + | :[[Image: Bed deb.JPG]] | ||
| *For each activity, '''keep a record of items a student had problems with'''. Review this [[Activity Log | activity log]] before the next activity so you pay special attention to those students. | *For each activity, '''keep a record of items a student had problems with'''. Review this [[Activity Log | activity log]] before the next activity so you pay special attention to those students. | ||
| *Note that we only teach capital letters where they are different from the lower-case letters. So we teach ''M'' but not ''x''. Students will automatically generalize ''x'' to ''X''. | *Note that we only teach capital letters where they are different from the lower-case letters. So we teach ''M'' but not ''x''. Students will automatically generalize ''x'' to ''X''. | ||
Revision as of 18:42, 30 March 2008
This page contains all the Free-Reading activities for Letter Sounds. They are divided into Sequenced Activities and Supplemental Activities. You can click here to add your own supplemental activity.
Contents |
About the letter sound activities
Teaching letter sound correspondence means teaching the ability to produce the most common sound for each letter of the alphabet. Being able to automatically say the sound for a printed letter is a fundamental skill to sound out words, build word-form recognition, and ultimately read and comprehend connected text.
The objective of the letter sound sequence of activities is to teach students to recognize printed letters and say the most common sound for each letter.
This strand of instruction was constructed on the following principles:
- We use the amsti sequence to introduce letter sounds (an order that minimizes confusion over similar sounding or looking letters).
- Each letter sound introduced is reintroduced in the very next lesson to provide adequate daily practice.
- Once multiple letter sounds have been introduced, we use an accuracy-building activity to teach students to discriminate between letters.
- We use fluency-building activities to help students become automatic in this skill--i.e., to become so fast they don't have to think about it.
In Free-Reading, whenever a letter is enclosed in slashes, such as /m/ or /M/, it means: say the most common sound for the letter. For the most commons sounds, click here.
Note: This strand assumes that students can already discriminate between letter forms--e.g., they know the ABC song and can pick out each letter as they name it. If students do not know letter forms, these should be taught first.
Tips and tricks for teaching letter sounds
- Although we give a specific rate of introduction of new letter sounds, in general you should avoid introducing new letters if students are having difficulty with more than one previously taught letter sound--unless the new letter sound is visually and auditorily dissimilar to the letter being introduced. For example, if students have not mastered /f/ and /o/, do not introduce /u/, since it is similar to /o/; instead, re-run an accuracy building activity that includes /o/.
- When you give the sound for a letter, avoid adding /uh/. If you teach /ruh/ instead of /rrr/, you will have students sounding out /run/ as /ruh-un/ later, and the leap from /ruh-un/ to /run/ is tougher than the hop from /rrr-un/ to /run/. To help you get the correct sound, practice this in front of a mirror:
- For continuous sound letters, take a word beginning with the target letter and prolong the sound: /rrr-un/, /vvv-an/.
- For stop sound letters, take a word ending with the target letter and isolate the last sound: /mo-b/, /ma-d/.
- Pay close attention to whether the description of how to make a sound says your voice box should be 'on' (e.g., /b/) or not (e.g., /p/).
- When you point to a letter, wait before touching it and train students to respond only when you touch the letter. That gives all students time to think of the answer, so that slower students don't just copy faster students.
- Test your students on the following letters and provide extra practice if necessary (e.g., Letter sound fluency) since they are the letter sounds at-risk students most often confuse: d b e u i v y. Students may additionally struggle with: a o p f c g j.
- It is quite common for students to confuse letters b and d. One mnemonic you can introduce your students to is to write b d in large letters and turn them into a bed (whereas writing d b won't work because the "mattress" falls down). If students can remember that this is a bed not a deb, they can figure out which letter is which.
- For each activity, keep a record of items a student had problems with. Review this activity log before the next activity so you pay special attention to those students.
- Note that we only teach capital letters where they are different from the lower-case letters. So we teach M but not x. Students will automatically generalize x to X.
Letter sound resources
- Letter cards: Various sets and sizes of free downloadable letter cards
- Regular and irregular words: An explanation of regular and irregular words
- Most common sounds: The most common sounds for letters and letter combinations
Sequenced letter sound activities
A Note on Lesson Deltas. If you're using an integrated instructional program such as IPID 101 that comes with a map, follow the lesson numbers in the map and ignore the deltas below. If you're using this sequence outside of a program map (e.g., you're creating your own program), take whatever lesson number you are at when you start this sequence, call that Lesson N, and add the deltas below to N to calculate the lesson number for each subsequent lesson -- i.e., if you are on Lesson 10 when you start this sequence, then the activities below labeled +14 should be included in your Lesson 24.
(Note: /a/ .. /f/ means all the letter sounds in the taught sequence from /a/ to /f/--i.e., in this example, /a/ /m/ /s/ /t/ /i/ /f/.)
Supplemental letter sound activities
- Letter Sound Accuracy, Beginning Sound Spin
- Letter Sound Accuracy, Connect 4 Words
- Letter Sound Accuracy, Egg Carton Game
- Letter Sound Accuracy, Musical Chairs
- Letter Sound Accuracy, Sound Spaghetti
- Letter Sound Accuracy, Sound Toss
- Letter Sound Accuracy, You're a Liar!
- Letter Sound Fluency, Letter Baseball
- Letter sound fluency, Word Race
- Letter sound fluency, student-led
- Program 101-1, Week 10
- Program 101-1, Week 11
- Program 101-1, Week 12
- Program 101-1, Week 13
- Program 101-1, Week 14
- Program 101-1, Week 15
- Program 101-1, Week 16
- Program 101-1, Week 17
- Program 101-1, Week 18
- Program 101-1, Week 19
- Program 101-1, Week 20
- Program 101-1, Week 4
- Program 101-1, Week 5
- Program 101-1, Week 6
- Program 101-1, Week 7
- Program 101-1, Week 8
- Program 101-1, Week 9
- See It Say It
- Sounds in a cup