I also love Words Their Way! I think it suggests reading
manipulatives activities like word sorts, etc, but there are
lots of different things you can do with reading manips.
(Sometimes manips really help the struggling kids get it).
There are commercial manips that have a special color-
coded "magic" silent e that you snap onto the end of a word
to change the short vowel's sound. Those are neat, but of
course you can always make your own. Just use cardstock &
make the color of the silent e card a different color than
the other letter cards...Voila!
I've also found that some kids can successfully use context
to learn pronunciation/phonics as long as they don't let
themselves get too intimidated by all the text. For example,
you can have kids search through a simple book to find words
that fit the C-V-C or C-V-C-e pattern and then sort them.
(For the search, have them use a magnifier or word swatter
to make it a little more fun). After they sort, have them
practice pronouncing each word and self-checking by going
back to the page of the story where the word was to see if
the pronunciation makes sense when re-reading just that
sentence.
Good luck!
Wendy
Learning Resources
On 3/12/08, Mindy wrote:
> Does anyone have any great ways to teach long vowels to
> students who haven't mastered it after a whole class
> lesson and several small group reviews?