LESSONS - BEGINNING
INTRODUCTION
The LESSONS page is organized by letter category , with each section being a separate lesson. Each lesson has its own set of flashcards, or you can download the Complete Set of Flashcards. Use the MY WORDS worksheet for the Word Drills. This handy Flashcards of Alphabet page will help your student learn the shape of letters.
SHORT VOWELS
The lessons begin with the short-vowel sounds (ǎ, ǐ, ǒ, ǔ, ĕ). (Note that this order is different from the way the vowels are usually listed. That’s because the short-vowel sounds for ĭ and ĕ are so similar that taking them up one right after the other could be confusing to the student.) You, the tutor, show the flash card for ă, then place the card where the student can clearly see it. Apple is the key word for short ǎ, and the flash card shows a picture of an apple, the word apple, and both the capital and lower-case letter a (A and ǎ). Download short vowel flashcards.
Place the card for ă where the student can clearly see it. Pointing to A, speak the name of the letter, then point to ă and speak the short-vowel sound. Point to the key word apple and say that word aloud. The child repeats: name of letter, short sound of letter, and keyword.
Tell the student, “I’m going to say some sounds, and you tell me what word they make.” Speak these letters: c(sounded as k)-ǎ-t, slowly and distinctly, as many times as the student needs to hear them. (Don’t try to teach about the letters c and t now; just say their sounds.) You can explain, “The letter A has other sounds that we will talk about later. We’re just doing words with the short sound ă now.” When the student says triumphantly, cat!” be sure to give praise: “Cat! That’s right! Good for you! Now let’s try another one.”
Follow the same process with other words containing short ǎ: rat, hat, bat, sat, fat, etc. (These words all rhyme, of course, which makes it easier for the student.) Then change the words slightly: ran, can, fan, pan, etc. [Lists of similar words are available here.]
Repetition reinforces the lesson about short ǎ and lets the student know that, by learning this one sound-letter combination, he can decode many other words. At this point, the student begins to realize that he really can learn to read.
Only use simple words of one syllable at first. After doing lots of three-letter ǎ words, then introduce more complex words such as mash, ranch, black, etc. Tell the student that sometimes we use more than one letter to make a sound, and say (for example), “when you have a word ending in ck, it is just a k sound. There are lots of these words.”
When the student has gotten pretty good at decoding the short ă words, write a simple sentence for him to read: That man has no gas. Say, “Let’s read this sentence. You can read a whole sentence now.” (Being able to read a whole sentence makes a child feel very grown-up, and he sees that the hard work of decoding words pays off.)
After the short-vowel lesson on ǎ, lessons should present other short-vowel sounds, following the same procedure as for ǎ. For ī, the flash card has the key word inchworm; for ŏ, octopus; for ŭ, umbrella; and for ӗ, egg. Be sure to use enough similar words for each of the short vowels to make sure the student learns each of them thoroughly.
BEGINNING TO WRITE
When the student becomes adept at naming words that he hears you sound out, he is ready for writing, still combined with hearing and reading. On a sheet of paper like this example (Ruled Worksheet), draw a vertical line down the middle. Number the lines on each side of that vertical line, 1 through 10, skipping every other line.
In working with dyslexic people, white space is very important. The more that words are crowded together, the harder it is for the student to read them. First-grade books, for example, use plenty of white space. Note the difference in these:
Ben is at the park.
Ben is at the park.
The second line is much more easily read by a small child or a dyslexic person.
At first, the tutor writes letters and words and the student responds. Say the letters in a simple word, c-(pronounced k)ă-t. Ask, “What word is that?” When the student answers cat, write the word in the left-hand column of the prepared paper. Then sound out b-a-t, have the student tell what word it is, and write it on the paper.
The student may have to have a word sounded out several times before he gets it. The tutor does this with 10 words, all one-syllable words using the ă sound.
If the student is very disabled with dyslexia, it’s wise to stop each 3 words and have him read again the ones you have written. He may have to sound them out many times, but he learns that the way to sound out a word is to begin at the left and proceed right. This may be hard work for the student, so keep that in mind.
Tell the student, “Now, pick up your pencil. I’m going to spell a word, and you write it.” Spell another one-syllable, short ă word (such as man or fat), and have him write it on a line in the right-hand column of the prepared paper. (At first, unless the student has already learned cursive writing in school, have him print the letters. Later, he will learn cursive.) It helps students for tutoring to begin with what each student already knows.
Simple names (such as Pat or Ted) can be used as words to dictate. When using these, tell the student, “This is somebody’s name, so we have to use a capital letter.” When spelling “Pat,” tell the student, “Now, look at me,” and speak the letters. (The “p” sound is a hard one for students to get unless they are looking at the speaker.)
WRITING A SENTENCE
When a student seems fairly good at writing words in the ă family, have him take a sheet of paper and put the number 1 on a line. Then read aloud a sentence for him to write on that line: That man has no gas. Read the sentence at normal speed, not very slowly, one word at a time. But repeat the sentence as many times as the student needs it.
In dictating sentences, you may sometimes use a word that the student hasn’t learned yet (such as the, a, or of). For such words, just tell the student how to spell them.
CORRECTING MISTAKES
If the student makes mistakes (perhaps writes Tat man has on gas), point them out and have him correct them. You can say (for example), “I said that, but you wrote tat. How do we make it that? The student adds the h. Write -1 in the margin beside the sentence and tell the student that means he has one mistake. Follow the same procedure with on, writing another -1 in the margin.
Unless the student seems very frustrated after having done the one sentence, have him write the number 2 on the sheet of paper and dictate another sentence: The fat man had a sack of bats. Follow the same procedure in having the student correct any mistakes in writing.
When finished with having the student write sentences you have dictated, add the numbers of mistakes you’ve noted with -1 in the margin and subtract that number from 100. For example, if the student made 5 mistakes in total, write 95 on the paper and tell the student, “Your grade is 95. That’s a pretty good grade.” (This method of grading does not prevent students from becoming perfectionists. All students want that perfect 100 grade. But it tells students that they are doing well in their work and helps them know that they can succeed.)
READING A STORY
When the student has become fairly good at reading words and sentences aloud, start him on reading a story. The sentences should still be easy reading, but should have some interest for the student. If he comes to a word he doesn’t know, ask him, “What’s the first sound?” But don’t make him sound out the whole word, because he should enjoy reading the sentences. If he has to sound out every word, he won’t enjoy it. When you help a student by asking the first sound, he often is able to get the whole word. The idea is to give any student as little help as they need, then let then work out as much as they can by themself.)