PARENT TO PARENT

Q: My daughter started this year in school very excited about learning to read, but now she is beginning to avoid it. Her problem seems to be confusion with vowel sounds and I don't know how to help her with all the different rules. Do you have any suggestions?

A: I can certainly understand your daughter's problem. The vowels do have a lot of different sounds, and every time you think you've got it figured out, along comes another set of rules.

The phonics rules are designed with a specific hierarchy, and cannot be taught in any old order. They have many levels, and some rules override other rules. In addition, modern English is made of words from all over the world, so there are many imported rules, which is why different word groups have different spellings. It can, indeed be confusing, even to fairly experienced readers.

Another difficulty is the shotgun approach to teaching that is used in some classrooms. There are many different learning styles as well as many teaching styles. The idea, then, is to introduce a concept in several different ways to the classroom, then the children will learn according to whichever style they are most comfortable with. The idea makes sense, but the results are often a large group of confused students.

A third problem has developed due to the introduction of the whole language approach to teaching reading. Now, I am not opposed to the whole language approach, which is the educational theory that language should be taught in all its forms - reading, writing, and speaking - at the same time. The problem is that many concepts that were taught verbally to young students are now added to the reading and writing aspect of the curriculum. This has resulted in the introduction of some very advanced words that cause tremendous confusion for new readers. For example, kindergarten and first grade students learn about their communities. Words like neighbor, community, government, etc. were always used, but they were discussed, not written. Now children must learn to spell, write and read these words, but their reading skills are not yet developed enough to make sense out of them. This is very difficult for many children.

When a student is frustrated with advanced words, I calm them down, explain that the word has advanced rules that will make sense later. They can memorize the word for now, and we'll add the rules later, at which time they will become comfortable. I then remind them that learning to read is an orderly process, and return to the Valder Systems lesson for the day.

Here is the order in which I teach vowel rules: First, teach the short vowel sounds (a as in bat, e as in bed, I as in sing, o as in top, u as in cup). These are the basic sounds, and need to be taught first and alone. Once your child is comfortable reading words with these sounds, introduce the "special blends". These include ou and ow as in cow; au and aw as in paw; oi and oy as in toy; oo as in book or food; and finally ee as in tree.

Once these sounds are mastered and you daughter is comfortable reading them in words, introduce the vowels plus r. These include ar as in car; or as in for; er, ir, ur as in her, sir, and fur.

Notice the number of phonemes (sound groups) that have been introduced so far, and we haven't even mentioned long vowels. This is very important in keeping the amount of confusion to a minimum!

Finally, once these sounds are mastered, it is time to introduce long vowel sounds. I tell my students that the vowels are like managers. They have many different jobs to do, including telling other letters (the consonants) what sounds to make, or when to be quiet. Now, like all managers, there has to be someone who is ultimately in charge, and that is the letter e. The e is like CEO, the big boss in charge of the whole alphabet, and the other vowels are like his assistants. This is part of a story I made up, called "The Land of Let". You can find it on our website at www.ValderLearnS.com.

First, when a vowel is all by itself and makes a word, like "I" and "a", the vowel says its name. This is the long vowel sound.

Next, when e is the only vowel in a word, and it is at the end of the word, it says its name, as in he, she, be, etc.

The double vowel rule is often taught to children with the rhyme, "When two vowels go walkin', the first one does the talkin'." I always wondered where they were going and what they were saying. I tell the children that, when two vowels get together, other than the special blends learned already (listed above), the first vowel introduces himself (says his name) and the second one, being polite, listens quietly (is silent).

Finally, after all these rules, it is time to introduce the silent e at the end of a word. When e is at the end of the word, and there is another vowel in the word, the first vowel introduces himself (says his name) and the e is silent because he is listening politely.

There are many other vowel rules and seemingly endless special word groups with unique spellings, but these basics should make reading much easier for your daughter. I also know that there are many words that "break" these rules, but I still teach the rules as absolutes in the beginning. As I've said many times, English is a very confusing language and difficult to learn. If you teach your child the basic rules, in the proper order, you can remove much of the confusion. Once the basic language skills are mastered, the special cases can be added with little effort.

I hope this helps,
Michele

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