H E L P l N G C H l L D R E N H E A R 5 O U N D 5 l N WO R D 5

You wanl lhe child lo be lhe one lo say lhe wordlor example, ||||enslowly. |on´|
|a|e over |h|: joo |or |he ch||d! One reason lor lhis is lhal when a child lries lo malch a
sound lo a leller, lhe child relies nol only on lhe sound he or she hears bul also on lhe
place in his or her moulh lrom which lhe sound comes. Thal is, lhe child nol only lislens
lor sounds bul also leels sounds in his or her moulh.
ll's a sign ol greal progress il a child begins lo hear more sounds in a word even il lhe
child doesn'l yel know lhe lellers lhal malch lhose sounds. The abilily lo hear, isolale,
and manipulale sounds is lhe essence ol phonemic awareness. Don'l dismiss lhis as
insignilicanl jusl because lhe process may nol yel resull in beller spellings.
Lxpecl children lo hear and record consonanls belore vowels. The long vowels will
appear in your children's wriling belore lhe shorl vowels. Some consonanls are easier or
harder lo hear depending on where in a word lhey are placed. An m is easier lo hear al
lhe slarl and linish ol a word lhan in lhe middle ol lhe word, lor example.
You wanl children lo slrelch oul words, saying lhem slowly, bul lo do lhis wilhoul lurn-
ing every word inlo a line ol slaccalo sounds. We hope lhe child who wanls lo wrile
o|an|e| will say lhe whole wordo|an|e|and lhen maybe say o|, lhen an, lhen ke|.
You don'l wanl lhis child lo say o|an|e| like lhis.
b l an k e l
/bah/ /lah/ /anng/ /kah/ /eh/ /lah/
This leads a child lo spell a slew ol exlra sounds. You do, however, wanl a child lo be
able lo hear individual sounds (when asked lo do so) in o|an|e| (/b/ /l/ /a/ /n/ /k/ /e/ /l/).
ll's jusl lhal usually when we spell, we rely more on lhe chunks ol sounds we hear.
When you wanl lo help children hear and record vowels, leach inlo lhe chunk (you
could also call lhis "lhe vowel clusler" or "lhe rime"). Thal is, il you wanl lhe child lo
hear and record lhe o in :|oo, help lhe child hear /op/. The leller o can make sixleen dil-
lerenl sounds, bul il il is combined wilh a consonanl lo make lhe chunk oo, lhere are
many lewer oplions. There are lhirly-six rimes, or chunks, like lhis one lhal make up
mosl ol lhe words your children will read and wrile.
Mosl imporlanlly, keep in mind lhal good spellers do nol spell mosl words by sounding
lhem oul! lnslead, good spellers rely on a whole variely ol slralegies, including using
whal lhey know lrom olher known words lo help lhem spell unknown words. The slral-
egy you've highlighled loday is only one slralegy in a wriler's reperloire. Therelore,
when you help children wilh spelling, inslead ol making a habil ol only saying, "Slrelch
lhe word oul. Whal sounds do you hear?" you'll also wanl lo nudge wrilers lo use all
lhe slralegies available lo lhem. "Did you have a go al lhal word? Whal slralegy did
you use?" Don'l assume lhal children are slrelching oul every word, as you laughl lhem
lo do loday.
May be copied íor siugle classroou use. ©2003 by Lucy Calkius aud Belh Neville, írou Rcscurccs fcr Prirary Writirq, Urits cf Study fcr Prirary Writirq: A Ycar|crq Curricu|ur,
Lucy Calkius, heiueuauu. Porlsuoulh, Nh
W