Unit Overview:

In Unit 3, students will begin to make connections between sounds and symbols. They will continue to practice blending sounds into words and they will be taught several of the symbols used when reading and writing. Specifically, they will learn the most common way to spell eight of the sounds of English:

• /m/ spelled ‘m’ as in mat (/m/ > ‘m’)

• /a/ spelled ‘a’ as in mad (/a/ > ‘a’)

• /t/ spelled ‘t’ as in tag (/t/ > ‘t’)

• /d/ spelled ‘d’ as in dad (/d/ > ‘d’)

• /o/ spelled ‘o’ as in mom (/o/ > ‘o’)

• /k/ spelled ‘c’ as in cat (/k/ > ‘c’)

• /g/ spelled ‘g’ as in dog (/g/ > ‘g’)

• /i/ spelled ‘i’ as in dig (/i/ > ‘i’)

Vowel and consonant spellings can be combined to make simple Consonant Vowel Consonant (CVC) and Vowel Consonant (VC) words. Students will use the letter-sound correspondences they learn in this unit and the oral blending skills they learned in Unit 2 to blend and read printed words. In this way they begin the process of decoding the mute symbols on the page into speech sounds—or what is traditionally called reading.

The three vowel sounds taught in this unit are the most distinct of the five English short vowel sounds. The consonants include /m/, one of the first sounds babies make, as well as two sets of consonant pairs, /t/–/d/ and /k/–/g/. In English there are eight pairs of consonant sounds that consist of unvoiced and voiced versions of the same sound. In the pair /t/ and /d/, /t/ is the unvoiced sound and /d/ is the voiced sound. In the pair /k/ and /g/, /k/ is the unvoiced sound and /g/ is the voiced sound. To see and feel the similarities and the differences in a pair, look in the mirror and put your hand on your throat. Say the sound pair and you will notice that the position and shape of your mouth are the same, but for the voiced consonant sound the voice box is engaged and you will feel vibration. This knowledge about speech sounds is very important because many errors that students make in learning to read and spell are products of confusion about the oral layer of the language. When a student confuses /k/ and /g/, or /d/ and /t/, there is a good reason for it. The differences between the sounds in each pair are very subtle.

Unit Calendar:

Unit 3 is 14 instructional days with 3 pausing points. It is recommended that it be taught from October 1st to October 24th.