The Long Vowels The work on long vowels is taught in several parts. The long vowels should be taught well before you plan to introduce the Units on Syllables.
Children need to learn both sounds. Fortunately, the long vowels are easy to remember because they all sound the same as the letter names - A, E, I, O, U. An understanding of long vowels is useful because these vowels occur so frequently in words. We find them in the magic 'e' words: made, time, hope, tune. They also play an important part in words that have several syllables: amazing, evening, tiger, October, computer. So the next thing to do is make sure your child's knowledge of the short vowels is balanced by his knowledge of the long vowels and that both are equally secure. The work on long vowels comes in two Units. In Unit 1, the sounds are practised in the form of a drill, similar to the vowel drill you've previously used in SoundWorks. In Unit 2, the long vowel sounds are practised in words for reading and spelling. Before we start, a few practical points need to be made:
Preparation You will need
You need to prepare a set of cards with the short vowel on one side and the long vowel on the other. To do this, photocopy Copymaster LV1 onto white paper, cut out the images just inside the dotted lines and paste onto the back of your short vowel cards. The same images, printed on label material, can be sent to you free of charge if you wish. They will still have to be cut out by hand but will save you the trouble of pasting. To obtain a set, simply click on the email box below and enter your postal address and request in the box on the email form.
You will need
1. Spread the 5 short vowels on the table and run through the sounds together, just as you did in Unit 9 of SoundWorks (page 170 in the Handbook). 2. Explain that these are called the SHORT vowels. Then show how short they are by saying them through and stressing the vowels in a short clipped way: "apple-a" (with the /a/ stressed, short and clipped). 3. Your child now says them through several times in the same short clipped way. You can do this together if you like or let your child say them alone. When it becomes easy, move to this more formal dialogue so that the term 'short vowel' is linked to the activity:
Do this several times and then move on. 4. Now explain that each of these vowels also has a long sound - /A/, /E/, /I/, /O/, /U/. These are called the LONG vowels. Explain that they are easy to remember because they sound the same as the letter names, and repeat them once more so that he sees what you mean: " /A/, /E/, /I/, /O/, /U/." 5. Put the apple-a card on the table and explain that the two sounds are 'apple-a' and also (turning the card over) /A/ as in acorn. 6. Then practise the two sounds using this formal drill:
Run through this drill several times until it's easy. Notice that we drop the use of hook-words here. All the child says is "/a/" and "/A/" in quick succession. There's a reason for this. In reading, children need to be able to flip from one sound to the other without having to think about it: if /a/ doesn't work in a word, then maybe it's /A/. Both are possible. This drill is designed to bind the two sounds closely together as a pair, and the hook-words would distract from this. Also, your questions place the key words 'LONG' and 'SHORT' close to the sounds, forming another useful association. 7. Continue in this way with all 5 vowels, running through the pack taking each vowel in turn. Practise them thoroughly. Notice that you're building on the original drill from page 170 in the Handbook, and that it has now become more complex. 8. When this is easy, follow on with a simpler version of the same drill, leaving out the questions, and go faster and faster as your child gets better at it:
The Long Vowel Drill Children need to practise both these drills. The first establishes the terms 'LONG' and 'SHORT', the second trains children to switch easily from one vowel to the other. A firmly established bond between the long and short vowels will become important later on. It forms the basis of the magic 'e' rule and is essential for understanding double-letter patterns in words like hopping and hoping. We shall call this drill the Long Vowel Drill. It comes in two parts: first with the questions and then without. Notice that we haven't put the long vowels in the Sounds Book - this is because developing a strong link between the long and short vowels by means of the drill will be more useful for children in the long run.
Unit 2
What to do You will need
1. To start off, run through the Long Vowel Drill, described in Unit 1, several times as a reminder. 2. Put the LV2 sheet on the table and explain that all the words have long vowels in them - you are going to see how many he can read. 3. Then say, "Let's go over the long vowels again so that it's easy." With the long-vowel side of the cards uppermost, run through the sounds together once or twice. You might like to use the hook-words as well for this in order to show how the long vowels sound in words. If you do, the order that works best is this: "/A/ - acorn" rather than the other way round. It brings the sounds closer together. 4. When you've done this, work through the sheet together, ticking off the words as your child manages to read them. Give as much help as you feel is necessary. Keep reminding him that all these words have long vowels in them, and if he's finding it difficult, stop and run through the Long Vowel cards again from time to time. No need to do this if it's easy. 5. The next thing to do is match up the words in rhyming groups using the highlighters - i.e. colour all the 'old' words green, all the 'ild' words blue, as so on. 6. Read them through as rhyming groups, several times if you can, so that your child has a chance to appreciate the sounds and absorb them thoroughly. 7. Now turn to the new sheet in his exercise book. Colour the rhyming groups, just as before, so that you have a neat sheet for your child to refer to from time to time. 8. Finally, divide the words into two groups centred around the two vowels. Stick the i-iron image in the top half of the page and ask your child to write the words with the i-iron sound in groups next to it. Do the same for o-open in the lower half of the page. Each group needs to be written as a list with the words one under the other. This makes the similarity in sound and spelling pattern easier to appreciate. 9. Last of all, read them through once more.
What next Move straight on to Magic 'e'. We explained earlier that a knowledge of long and short vowels will be extremely useful for children later on so it's worth spending some time on them. The Long Vowel Drill, described here, is very quick to do and should be practised regularly in all your lessons for a while. This is important.
|
