How to Teach Phonics

Short "o" Phonograms.

Phonograms Containing Short "u".

From the beginning review daily the phonograms taught.

Thus by means of these daily drills in pronunciation, the pupil gains power in mastering new words. He constantly makes intelligent and practical application of the knowledge he has gained in pronouncing a letter or a combination of letters in a certain way, under certain conditions.

Diacritical Marks

The child has no need of diacritical marks at this time; indeed he has little need for them until the fourth year, when the use of the dictionary is taught. The new dictionaries greatly simplify the matter of mastering the diacritical marks, and lessen the number needed, by re-writing unphonetic words in simple phonetic spelling.

During the first three years do not retard the child's progress, and weaken his power to apply the knowledge which his previous experience has given him, by marking words to aid him in pronunciation. At best, the marks are artificial and questionable aids.

PHONIC PLAYS

Much necessary drill can be made interesting by infusing the spirit of play into an exercise that would otherwise be formal.

1. "Hide and Seek"

"Hide and Seek" at once suggests a game. The teacher introduces it simply by saying: "We'll play these sounds are hiding from us. Who can find them?"

Place the consonant cards on the blackboard ledge. The teacher writes any consonant on the board and immediately erases it. A pupil finds the card containing the same consonant, sounds it, and replaces the card.

Teacher writes several sounds on the board, then erases them. Pupil finds corresponding sounds on cards, in the order written.

2. "Fishing"

(Fish in pond.) Cards placed in a row on black board ledge. (Catching fish.) Pupil takes as many as he can sound correctly.

Single and blended consonants, and digraphs written on cardboard cut in form of fish, and put into the mirror lake on the sand table. Children "catch fish" in turn.

3. "Guess."

A pupil thinks of a word containing a known phonogram, which is communicated to the teacher. The child standing before the class then says, "I am thinking of a word belonging to the "an" family." The word, we will say, is "fan." A child who is called on asks, "Is it c an?" The first child replies, "It is not can." Another asks, "Is it m an?" etc., until the correct word is discovered.

4. "Run Home."

For reviewing phonograms and fixing the vowel sounds as well, the following game is used.

Draw pictures of several houses on the board, writing a different phonogram in each, explaining that these are the names of the families living there, as, "ed," "eg," "est," "en," etc. Distribute to the class cards containing a word with one of these endings, and let "the children run home." Those holding the words ten, pen, men and hen, will run to the house where "en" lives. The children holding rest, best, nest, etc., will group themselves at the house of "est."

Again let several children represent mothers and stand before the class holding phonograms. As Mother "ed" calls her children, those holding cards containing red, led, fed, Fred, and bed, will run to her. If a child belonging to the "est" family should come, she will send back the stray child, saying pleasantly, "You do not belong in my family." A little voice drill as practiced in the music lesson may be used here. The mother calls "Children" on 1 and 8 of the scale (low and high do thus:

1-8           8-1

child-dren), the children replying as they come, "We're here."

For individual tests let the mother call out all her children from the other families, the children coming to her as she calls their card names.

RHYME STORIES

Enliven the phonic drills occasionally by originating little rhymes, using the words of the series to be reviewed. Write the words on the board in columns, or upon cards. As the teacher repeats a line of the jingle, she pauses for the children to supply the rhyme words.

Grandma was taking a cozy nap
Her hands were folded in her (lap)
When she wakened she heard a (tap)
In the maple tree that was full of (sap.)
She soon spied the tapper—he wore a red (cap)
White vest and black coat, and his wings gave a (flap)
As he hopped about with a rap-a-tap-(tap)
What did he want—was he looking for (sap)?
Ah no, but for grubs, which he ate quick as (snap)
Can you name this gay drummer who wears a red (cap)?

II.

As soon as possible introduce a number of phonograms into the same story.

I have a little pet
Who is as black as (jet)
She sits upon a mat
And watches for a (rat.)
Her coat is smooth as silk,
She likes to drink sweet (milk)
She grows so fast and fat
That soon she'll be a (cat)
Can't you guess? Now what a pity
'Tis the dearest little (     ).

SPELLING BY SOUND

An easy step now, which the children will enjoy is the writing of the words of given families as a dictation exercise, followed by sentences as soon as the use of the capital and period have been taught. Such sentences as the following may be given after a number of short "a" phonograms are mastered:

The cat sat on a mat.
Nan has a fan.
The cat is fat.
The cat can see the pan.
The man has a hat.
Dan has a bat.
Dan has a hat and a cap.
The bag is in the cab.

When phonograms containing the other short vowels are known, words may be pronounced miscellaneously from different series or families; as, run, cap, pet, ran, pin, top, followed by sentences made up of miscellaneous words, as,—

"Run red hen."
"Nan has a fan."
"Get the hat pin."
"Ned can spin a top."
"Nat set the trap."
"Jack run back and get the sack."
"A fat man got in the hack."
"Can Sam get the hat?"

THE ALPHABET AND ORAL SPELLING

The names of letters should not be formally taught until their sounds are thoroly fixed in mind; otherwise the names and sounds will be confused. Pupils who begin by "learning their letters" will be found spelling out a word (naming over the letters) in order to arrive at the pronunciation. Attention must be focused on the sounds only, at first. When the consonant sounds are mastered by every member of the class, and they have gained some proficiency in pronouncing words by blending these with the short and long vowel sounds, the names of the letters may be taught, and the alphabet committed to memory in order.

While as a rule, most children learn the majority of the letters incidentally by the end of the first year, it often happens that some remain ignorant of the alphabetical order until they come to use the dictionary, and are greatly handicapped.

To Associate the Name of the Letter With Its Sound.

(1) The teacher names the letter as she points to it and the children give the corresponding sound; (2) As the teacher sounds the letter, pupils name the letter sounded. (3) Repeat with the letters erased from the board.

Oral spelling may begin after the sounds have first been mastered—and as soon as the names of the letters are taught. Spell only the phonetic words at first. The lists of families of words which have been written from dictation may now be spelled orally.

The spelling recitation may be both oral and written, but written spelling should predominate the first year. Unphonetic words should be taught by visualizing—getting the form of the word as a whole. The teacher writes the word on the board in free rapid hand, pupils observe for a moment, getting a mental picture of the form; the word is erased by the teacher, and reproduced on the board by the pupil.

While oral spelling aids the "ear-minded" pupil and gives variety in the recitation, written spelling should predominate for the reasons that (1) in practical life, spelling is used almost wholly in expressing thought in writing; (2) the eye and hand should be trained equally with the ear. It is often true that good oral spellers will fail in writing the same words for want of practice. (3) In the written recitation each pupil can spell a greater number of words and in less time than is possible in oral spelling.

SEAT WORK

1. Distribute pages from magazines or old readers and let pupils underline words beginning with a certain consonant (the one being taught). If different colored pencils are used, the same pages can be used a number of times. When the "m" sound is being taught let all words beginning with that sound be marked with black; at another seat work period, words beginning with "b" are marked with "green;" and again, words beginning with "f" sound are marked with blue pencils, etc.

Underline digraphs, blended consonants, and phonograms.

2. The teacher writes a phonogram on the board and below it all the consonant sounds from which words may be built. Pupils write the entire words.

3. Phonograms are written on the board; pupils supply consonants and write out the words.

4. Have a number of phonograms and three or four sets of consonants in envelopes. Give an envelope to each child and let him build the words on his desk. Duplicate copies can be made on a hectograph, one set for each lesson; then if one envelope from each set is preserved, those miscellaneous lessons can be used in review for a long time, each child using a different set each time.

5. Write on the board lists of words ending in various phonograms and let the children re-write them, arranging in columns according to phonograms.

6. Write families from memory.

GENERAL SUGGESTIONS

1. At least two daily periods should be given to phonics. The first lessons will be short, but after some advance has been made, ten to fifteen minutes should be given.

2. As far as possible let the words for phonic drill be those that will occur in the new reading lessons.

3. Constantly review all familiar sounds, phonograms, digraphs, blends, etc., when met in new words, and so teach pupils to apply their knowledge of phonics.

4. Teaching them to "pantomime" the sounds—representing them mutely by movement of the lips, tongue and palate, will aid them in silent study at their seats.

5. By the end of the first year the pupil's phonetic knowledge, combined with his vocabulary of sight words and his power to discover a new word, either phonetically or by the context, ought to enable him to read independently any primer, and to read during the year from eight to twelve or more primers and first readers.

6. In reading, pupils should be taught to get the meaning chiefly by context—by the parts which precede or follow the difficult word and are so associated with it as to throw light upon its meaning.

7. When a word cannot be pronounced phonetically, the teacher should assist by giving the sound needed, but the pupil will soon discover that by using his wits in phonics as in other things, he can get the new word for himself by the sense of what he is reading, e.g., in the sentence, "The farmer came into the field" he meets the new word "field." Naturally a second year pupil, who has learned the reasons for sounding will apply the long sound of "i;"—as he reads it does not make sense, so he tries short "i." Still the sentence is meaningless, so he tries again with "e" and reads a sentence which satisfies him, because the meaning is clear.

If the first year pupil pronounces the word "coat" as co-at (recognizing the last combination as a member of the "at" family) the teacher will underline and call his attention to the digraph "oa" which he has already learned to pronounce as long "o." Most pupils however, meeting the word in a sentence—as, "The caterpillar's coat is green"—would, if reading thotfully recognize the word by the context.

8. Drill on obscure sounds should be omitted the first year. Unphonetic words should be taught as sight words: as: one, many, been, said, they, ought, eight.

9. Begin to combine words and syllables into longer words as soon as possible: door-step, in-deed, hand-some, be-fore, ham-mer-ing, in-no-cent, for-get-ful, car-pen-ter, side-walk, mis-take.

10. Give time increasingly to analytic-synthetic word study, e.g.—"eight" and "rain" are taught as sight words.

ARTICULATION

Exercises to correct faulty articulation and secure flexibility should be given frequently. Constant vigilance is necessary in overcoming the common errors shown in the following examples.

"I will eat you," said the troll. (not "e-chew")
Dear little baby, close your eye. (not "clo-zhure eye")
"I will then," said Red Hen, and she did. (not "an' she did.")
Put your right hand in. (not "put chure")
—you, and you, and you. (an' Jew.)
Father will meet you (meat chew) at the station.
The leaves turned to red and gold. (red Dan gold)
"No matter what you hear, (what chew) no matter what you see, Raggylug, don't you move." (don't chew)
Tender flowers come forth to greet her. (gree-ter)
It is not at all (a-tall) like the mother bird.

Have the pupils practice such exercises as:—

Did you? Don't you? Would you? Should you? Could you? (Not "did Jew," "don't chew" etc.)
Where shall I meet you? (not meat chew)
When shall I meet you?
She sells sea shells.

Pupils usually have difficulty with words ending in sts, dth, pth. Lists of such words should be drilled upon:—

Nests, vests, posts, hosts, boasts, fists, mists, frosts, length, breadth, depth.

"He thrusts his fists against the posts, And still insists he sees the ghosts."

(If necessary show the pupils how to adjust the vocal organs to make the different sounds.)

m, n, ng (nasal)

p, b, w, m (lips)
f, v (lips and teeth)
t, d, s, z, n (tongue and hard palate.)
j, ch, (tongue and hard palate-back)
k, g, ng (tongue and soft palate.)
y, l (tongue, hard palate and soft palate.)
p, b, d, t, j, k, h, g, ch (momentary)
w, f, v, s, l, r, y, th, sh (continuous)

The majority of children learn the sounds by imitation and repetition. The above is to help the teacher in giving the sounds correctly.

SECOND YEAR

We have found that the short vowels predominate in the English language. The long vowel sounds come next in frequency. When the child has mastered the letters and combinations representing these two sounds, he is able to recognize a large majority of the phonetic words in our language.

Phonetic words follow definite rules of pronunciation. These rules are not to be formally taught in the first and second years, but pointed out by examples, so that the visual and auditory image may be associated.

To illustrate: When there are two or more vowels in a word of one syllable, the first vowel is long, and the last silent, as: came, leaf, coat, rain.

"When there is one vowel in the word and it is the last, it is long," as: me, he, fly.

All vowels are short unless modified by position.

Have the children notice the effect of final "e" upon some of their short vowel words. These lists will furnish good pronunciation drills.

Call attention to the vowel digraphs in the same way: ea, ai, oa, ay.

While there are exceptions, as in the words "head" and "bread," the digraph "ea" has the sound of long "e" in nearly three-fourths of the words in which it occurs and should be so taught. The visual image "ea" should call up the auditory image of long "e." When the child meets the exceptions the context must be relied on to aid him.

Likewise in the following list, the new fact to be taught is the digraph "ai" having the long sound of "a." Blending the initial and final consonants with this, the pupil pronounces the new list of words without further aid.

The digraph "oa" and "ay" may be taught with equal ease the first year. There is no reason for deferring them; they should be taught as soon as the children have need for them.

LONG VOWEL PHONOGRAMS

(These lists are for rapid pronunciation drills.)