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Starting at Square One Rationale for AVKO’s Sequence of Letters to be Taught Beginning with ABCD (RST Y) EFGH (W) IJKLMNOPQ_ _ _ U V _ X _ Z. Because knowledge of alphabetic order is essential in using dictionaries, telephone books, and filing cabinets, we feel that the learning of alphabetical order and sequencing should be taught as we learn the alphabet. Mastering the lyrics to the alphabet song may be a fun activity but it isn’t much help if we must sing the song almost all the way through at least three times to have some idea where the name Smith is to be found in a phone book. We do take a few of the very common letters out of order deliberately. Those are RSTYW. This is to help increase the number of available common words to be read and written. If we followed strict alphabetical order, we couldn't have plurals of any word or the sh digraph or the words is or was until 19 letters have been taught. We couldn't have words like at and cat until 20 have been taught. And we wouldn't be able to write by or baby until we have taught 25 letters. The letter A gives us the word “uh” as in a house, a car, a home, a dog, a cat, etc. The letter B gives us the word “BAA” as in “Baa, baa, black sheep have you any wool?” The letter C gives us the words CAB and cab. The letter D gives us the words DAD, dad, BAD, bad, DAB, dab, CAD, and cad. The letter R gives us the words CAR, car, BAR, bar, BARD, bard, CARD, card CRAB, crab The letter S gives us the words CABS, cabs, SCAB, scabs, CARS, cars, SCARS, scars, DADS, dads, SAD, sad, CADS, cads, DABS, dabs, CRAB, crabs, BASS, bass, CASS, Cass, CAST, cast. The letter T gives us the words AT, at, TAT, tat, TATS, tats, TAB, tab, TABS, tabs, STABS, stabs, BAT, bat, BATS, bats, RAT, rat, RATS, rats, TAR, tars, STAR, stars, TART, tarts, START, start, STARTS, starts, CART, carts, BART, Bart, DART, dart, DARTS, darts, Have you noticed that all these letters and words involve left-hand keystrokes?! If you teach keyboarding as you teach handwriting as you teach spelling and reading you will be actively involving both hemispheres of the brain. Up until the letter y, the only right hand keyboarding is the space bar, comma, period, and enter. The letter Y gives us the words bay, day, ray, bray, tray, batty, catty, tarry, starry, Cary, carry, Bary, Barry, yard. Notice that all the words are phonically regular. All the initial consonants (onsets) are regular. All the word families (rimes) are regular. The students quickly learn that the letter a, however, has no sound of its own. The sound of the letter a depends upon its neighboring letters. If it has none (as in the case of the word a) its sound is “uh.” If the letter a is followed by the letters, b, d, s, or t, it is a SHORT A (CVC rule). If the letter a is followed by the letter y or its identical twin the letter i, it is a LONG A (Two vowels walking rule). If the letter a is followed by the letter r it is pronounced “ah” (The R Control rule). The word “carry” only appears to violate the R Control rule. Starry and carry do not rhyme. Why? Look at the base word in starry. It’s star. But there is no single syllable base word in carry so it’s an “airy” word as in marry, Harry, and Larry. See more about that later on. Or see the chapter "The Mechanics of English Spelling" in The Teaching of Reading and Spelling: a Continuum from Kindergarten through College. This book is available from the AVKO Foundation. The letter E opens up the suffixes -ed and -er plus words with the ea and ee vowel digraphs plus the -eb, -ed, -ert -ess, -est, -et families. The letter F gives us the words starting with F and FR and the -aff, -eff, -aft, -eft families. The letter G gives us words such as gas, gab, etc. along with the gr words grab and the -ag and eg families. The letter H gives us the words that start with H, CH, CHR, SH, SHR, TH, THR and the -atch, etch, -ath, -eth, -ash and -esh families. The letter W gives us the words that start with W and WH as well as the AW and EW vowel digraphs. It also gives us the W- Control over the letter A. Note: According to the CVC rule wad should rhyme with dad, but it doesn't. The W-Control also fights with the -R control over the letter A. War does not rhyme with car nor ward with card.
The letter I
gives us the -ib, -ibe -ick, -ice, -ide, -iff, -ife, -igh, ight, eight, -ir, -ird
-ire, -irt, -is,
Over 5,000 words are now available with only 14 letters, all
of which get daily reviews of their names, sounds, and patterns. And on we go. Each new letter now opens up new sounds which make new words while we review automatically the earlier letters and sounds that we can now use to make even more new words. The letter J gives us the words beginning with J which combines in one way or another with most of the previous letters.
The letter K
gives us the words beginning with k plus the -ack, -ake, -eck, -eek, -eak, -ick,
The letter L gives us the L, CL, FL onsets and the -al, -ald, -ale, -alf, -alk, -all,-alm, -alt, -awl, -el, -eal, -eel, -eil -eld, -elf -elk -ell, -elm, -elt, -ewel, -il, -ild, -ield, -ilf, -ilk, -ill rimes. The letter M gives us the words beginning with m plus the -aim, -alm, -am, -ame, -arm, -eam, -eem, -elm, -eme, im, -ime, ilm, rimes.
The letter N
gives us the n, gn, kn, and sn onsets plus the -ain, -an, -and, ander, -andle,
The letter O gives a review of all the rimes cited above but with the vowel o, oa, and the oo digraphs. It also gives us a review of the w-control which operates on the letter o as well as the letter as in won, wonder, wool, and wood. The -r control also comes into play with the letter o as in for, ford, cord. And we have the war between w and r over the o. Note that the only way we spell the sound "wur" (except in the word were!) is wor as in word, work, worth. Notice the normal -r control is affected. Word does not rhyme with ford, nor work with fork, or worth with north. The letter P opens the p-, sp-, pr-, spr-, pl-, spl- ph- phr- sph- onsets as well as the -p, -pe, -rp, -pt, rimes using the a, e, ea, ie, ee, ea, i vowels. The letter Q is taught simultaneously with the letter u as the consonant digraph with the "kw" blend sound as well as the squ- onset. Then the U is taught as part of the previous rimes with the addition of the eu, ue, and ui vowel digraphs and the un- prefix. The letter V gives us the v onset plus the -alve, -ave, -eave, eeve, -eve, ive, ieve, ceive, ove, oave rimes. The letter X gives us the silly x onset for the sound of “z” as in xylophone and the /ks/ sound in ax, ex, ix, ox, and ux rimes and the ex- prefix. The letter Z gives us the z- onset plus the ending z rimes -altz, -azz, -aze, -azzle, -eltzer, -ez, -ezz, -ezzle, -iz,-izz, -izzle, -oz, -ozzle, -uzz, -uzzle |