Demonstrates difficulty with phonic skills when reading

(Once the students have identified the letter-sound relationships of a word, they must meld the sounds to produce a word. The blending of the sounds in a word is a critical component of learning sound-symbol correspondences. Fluid blending of letter sounds aids students in producing recognizable words.)

Strategies and Accommodations:

1. Before students begin reading words, they should have opportunities to blend sounds together orally with the use of manipulative (e.g., blocks, buttons, pennies).

2. Say it Slowly:

Using one set of letter cards or lettered tiles, the teacher sets out m, e, and t. The teacher demonstrates how to say the word met slowly by blending the sounds together in units-by saying /m/, then /me/, then /met/, not by say /m/-/e/-/t/.

3. Say it Faster, Move it Closer:

Using one set of letter cards or lettered tiles, the teacher sets out s and, separated by a wide space, a. The teacher points to the first letter. Students say /s/ and hold it until the teacher points to the second letter and students produce /a/. The letters are moved closer together and the procedure is repeated, with students blending the sounds together faster. The letters are moved closer together and sounds are produced together faster until students can produce the two sounds as a single unit, /sa/. A final consonant is added and blended with the unit to produce a word (e.g., sat, sad, sap).

4. Onsets and Rimes:

Using letter cards or lettered tiles, the teacher sets out a and t. Students blend the letter sounds to produce /at/. This /at/ unit is the rime, the combination of the vowel and the consonant(s) that comes after it in a syllable. The teacher places the letter m before the rime. This is the onset, the consonant(s) of a syllable before the vowel. Students blend /m/ and /a/ to produce /mat/. The teacher changes the onset to create new words that students blend and read (e.g., sat, rat, fat, bat). Other rimes for practice include the following: in, it, at, am, op, ang, ing, and link.

5. Playing with Sounds:

Using one set of letter cards or lettered tiles, the teacher set out a and t. The student blends the letter sounds to produce /at/. The teacher asks the student to change /at/ to /sat/. The student adds the card or tile with s and reads /sat/. The teacher asks the student to read new words by changing or adding new letter sounds (e.g., change sat to mat, mat to map, map to mop, mop to top, top to stop).

6. Tapping Out:

The teacher lays out or displays letter cards or lettered tiles to form a word such as mat. Using one hand, students quickly tap the pointer finger to the thumb and say the sound of the first letter, /m/. In quick succession, they tap the middle finger to the thumb and say the sound of the second letter, /a/. Finally, they tap the ring finger to the thumb and say the sound of the final letter, /t/. When all of the letter sounds have been tapped out, students say the word as they drag the thumb across their fingers, beginning with the index finger.

7. Tapping and Sweeping:

The teacher lays out letter cards or lettered tiles to form a word such as mat. Each student takes a turn. He or she makes a fist and taps under the m as he or she says the sound /m/, Next, he or she taps under the a and says /a/. Finally, he or she taps under the t and says /t/. After the student has said each sound, he or she sweeps a fist under the letters and says the word.

8. Three programs that are based on research and research-based principles and that stress the transitions from phonemes to graphemes, as well as mastery of sound blending and sound-symbol connections, are Road to the Code, Phonic Reading Lessons, and Phoneme-Grapheme Mapping.

9. Examples of Systematic Phonics Approaches

• Corrective Reading (www.sraonline.com)
• Explode the Code (www.epsbooks.com)
• Foundations (www.wilsonlanguaage.com)
• Phonics Reading Lessons (www.academictherapy.com)
• Touch Phonics (www.epsbooks.com)