final consonant blends

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final consonant blends

by Paula

Feb 12, 2010

Looking for activities that I can use with my resource students gr3-5 on ending blends and triple blends. For some the focus is on spelling, the others reading. I only have them for 30 minutes. My contact time is short, so the activities need to be focused, and able to be completed within that time frame. Can anyone suggest any books/websites. I have been looking on the web, but I am new to this so any help is appreciated.

Thanks Paula

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Grace/IL Hi Jenn,

I'm linking you to a page of assessments that cover all the blends and digraphs. You can run your students through these assessments to see where each one is breaking down and plug in instruction at that point. If you find this helpful, follow the link to my home page.

Grace

Feb 21, 2010

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Nicole/Missouri Hi! My name is Nicole and I've been a reading specialist for 10 years. I'd like to make a few points about blends that most general ed. teachers are completely unaware about.

This may shock you, but I don't teach blends at all. Why confuse the poor child who is already struggling with beginning reading. When you teach all these blends you...See MoreHi! My name is Nicole and I've been a reading specialist for 10 years. I'd like to make a few points about blends that most general ed. teachers are completely unaware about.

This may shock you, but I don't teach blends at all. Why confuse the poor child who is already struggling with beginning reading. When you teach all these blends you are making the child think that they are one sound. WRONG! The blend /str/ is actually three separate phonemes /s/, /t/, /r/ and that's it. A student who doesn't receive all that instruction on blends can easily read and spell words that begin with tr, st, bl, etc. Also, they shouldn't even call them blends since they don't really "blend" together to make one sound. You should be calling them "clusters", which are separate sounds in a cluster.

Time to shock you again, did you know there are really only THREE ENDING BLENDS. That's it. Most teachers have no clue of this or what those three blends are. The only three ending blends are /sp/, /sk/ and /st/.

If you think I'm delirious, then I can back up what I'm saying by giving you the research. I'd be happy to do so if you want to challenge that I'm totally wrong.

Forget teaching blends, they just slow down students in the progression towards reading independence. Spend more time on phonograms, spelling rules, morphemic analysis, syllables, and rules of language. Confusing students will only make them stuck and slow down. There is no reason why a student shouldn't be able to read by the end of kindergarten. That is, except if there teacher spent precious class time going over all those blends. If you know your sounds and are fairly competent at blending, then why bother teaching blends?

By the way, my students quickly progress as soon as they are taken out of the classroom (where toxic instruction such as spending so much time on blend instruction) and in my pull out literacy groups. The reading programs I utilize, of course, spend little or no time even mentioning blends. I use Reading Mastery and Phonics International. Time and time again, research is showing us that synthetic phonics is the quickest and most reliable way to help students achieve reading success.

Feb 21, 2010

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Mark Pennington I get the not teaching blends... but what do you call ct ft lb ld lf lk lm lp lt mp nd nt nst pt sm?

Mark Pennington

On 2/21/10, Nicole/Missouri wrote: > Hi! My name is Nicole and I've been a reading specialist for 10 > years. I'd like to make a few points about blends that most general > ed. teachers are completely una...See MoreI get the not teaching blends... but what do you call ct ft lb ld lf lk lm lp lt mp nd nt nst pt sm?

Mark Pennington

On 2/21/10, Nicole/Missouri wrote: > Hi! My name is Nicole and I've been a reading specialist for 10 > years. I'd like to make a few points about blends that most general > ed. teachers are completely unaware about. > > This may shock you, but I don't teach blends at all. Why confuse the > poor child who is already struggling with beginning reading. When > you teach all these blends you are making the child think that they > are one sound. WRONG! The blend /str/ is actually three separate > phonemes /s/, /t/, /r/ and that's it. A student who doesn't receive > all that instruction on blends can easily read and spell words that > begin with tr, st, bl, etc. Also, they shouldn't even call them > blends since they don't really "blend" together to make one sound. > You should be calling them "clusters", which are separate sounds in a > cluster. > > Time to shock you again, did you know there are really only THREE > ENDING BLENDS. That's it. Most teachers have no clue of this or > what those three blends are. The only three ending blends are /sp/, > /sk/ and /st/. > > If you think I'm delirious, then I can back up what I'm saying by > giving you the research. I'd be happy to do so if you want to > challenge that I'm totally wrong. > > Forget teaching blends, they just slow down students in the > progression towards reading independence. Spend more time on > phonograms, spelling rules, morphemic analysis, syllables, and rules > of language. Confusing students will only make them stuck and slow > down. There is no reason why a student shouldn't be able to read by > the end of kindergarten. That is, except if there teacher spent > precious class time going over all those blends. If you know your > sounds and are fairly competent at blending, then why bother teaching > blends? > > By the way, my students quickly progress as soon as they are taken > out of the classroom (where toxic instruction such as spending so > much time on blend instruction) and in my pull out literacy groups. > The reading programs I utilize, of course, spend little or no time > even mentioning blends. I use Reading Mastery and Phonics > International. Time and time again, research is showing us that > synthetic phonics is the quickest and most reliable way to help > students achieve reading success.

Feb 23, 2010

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Rod Everson On 2/23/10, Mark Pennington wrote: > I get the not teaching blends... but what do you call ct ft lb ld lf lk > lm lp lt mp nd nt nst pt sm? > > Mark Pennington

I'm just guessing here, but I suspect Nicole meant to say that the only three BEGINNING blends that are also ending blends are the sk, sp, sp that she mentions. Of cour...See More

Feb 24, 2010

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Nicole/MO You made many good points in your last post. I especially agree the point at the end of the post about phonograms not being taught to mastery. Every year I have to reinforce phonograms in my small pull out groups because they were never taught to the mastery level in 1-2. The best instructional program I've observed to help students reach mastery w...See MoreYou made many good points in your last post. I especially agree the point at the end of the post about phonograms not being taught to mastery. Every year I have to reinforce phonograms in my small pull out groups because they were never taught to the mastery level in 1-2. The best instructional program I've observed to help students reach mastery with phonograms is Johnny Can Spell or as laid out in the book, "The Writing Road to Reading." It has also been called the Spalding reading program.

I wish my school would implement the program or integrate some of the underlying concepts. By the way, what are the main differences between Spalding, Johnny Can Spell, and the program put out by the Riggs Institute? The sites for those three are below:

Spalding: [link removed]

Anybody familier with any of the three?

Nicole

On 2/24/10, Rod Everson wrote: > On 2/23/10, Mark Pennington wrote: >> I get the not teaching blends... but what do you call ct ft lb ld lf lk >> lm lp lt mp nd nt nst pt sm? >> >> Mark Pennington > > I'm just guessing here, but I suspect Nicole meant to say that the only > three BEGINNING blends that are also ending blends are the sk, sp, sp that > she mentions. Of course, in the same post she claimed there are no blends > at all, but rather consonant clusters, but that's a separate issue. > > Basically, though, I agree with both you and Nicole about teaching blends > as an entity. Not only is it confusing to label TWO or even THREE sounds > as A blend, implying that there's now several more individual entities to > learn in this confusing mess we call English, but there's really no need > to do so. Instead, kids need to just learn to do the physical act of > blending, whether it be two or three consonant sounds at once (or even 4, > as in the ending of a word like "instiNCTS". > > I've come to the conclusion that it's the kids with vision problems who > generate all this curriculum confusion. Things that most kids easily learn > to do frustrate the visually challenged student and that drives teachers > to look for ways to explain things in a "different" manner. This results > in all sorts of wasted efforts ranging from games to teach the code, to > exercises in teaching blends, all because straightforward instruction just > isn't "sinking in." Along the way, the really important information, such > as the vowel digraphs ow, ou, ie, ough, etc., get glossed over or not > taught at all nor do the varying sounds attached to letters and digraphs > get efficiently taught. > > All second graders should be able to routinely cite the two sounds of > "ow", the two sounds of "ie" and the three sounds of "ea" as well as the > options for a couple of dozen more letters and digraphs, but in the end > these are rarely taught to mastery, in my opinion. Yet that's what needs > to be done if students are to master the English code. > > > >

Feb 25, 2010

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