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The brain uses different areas to do different things involved in reading.

Broca's area functions in language production and organization.

The Parieto-Temporal area functions to decode words but it takes conscious effort to do so.

The Occipital-Temporal area enables rapid word recognition and storage.

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This section includes similarities between the English and Spanish languages. It has charts of Spanish vowels, consonants, cognates, and blended sounds. This section also includes guidelines on how to teach Spanish phonemes.

Spanish is an easier language than English regarding phonetics. While there are more letters in the Spanish alphabet, they also have more one-to-one correspondences. This means most Spanish letters have one consistent sound. This is a reason why Spanish is easier to learn, students quickly learn the letter's sounds and their are less exceptions. One similarity between English and Spanish is they both have the "soft" and "hard" g and c. Some sounds have more than one spelling and some consonant phonemes vary based on the following vowel sound.

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The Science of Reading Basics, Part 1: The Reading Brain

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*Basics:

Category 1: Decoding

Phonological Awareness

Phonics

Category 2: Comprehension

Fluency

Vocabulary

Comprehension

* Additional Components:

Print Awareness

Letter Knowledge

Irregular Words

Multisyllabic Words

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Types:

Screening

Progress Monitoring

Diagnostic

Oucome

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From this information, I learned about what parts of the brain are involved in reading. People must make a conscious effort to learn to read unlike standing or walking. As students learn how to read the parts of the brain start understanding and work together. Students must learn, decoding and comprehension basics to be able to read. I also learned different ways to asses students as they are learning how to read.

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Questions to ask:

How do you hold a book?

Where is the front cover?

Where do we start reading?

Can you show me a letter?

Can you show me a word?

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Read-Alouds

Showing children the front and back covers, explaining what the author/illustrator does, and pointing to the print while reading it can teach print awareness to students.

Environmental Prints

Connecting words and pictures to demonstrate meaning

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Learning Literacy: Activities to Build Print Awareness

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Print awareness is knowing/how to do the following:

Hold a book

Parts of a book

Print has meaning

Where to start reading

Direction of reading

Letters vs. Words

Print represents spoken language

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1. Recognition of book cover

2. Word beginning/ending recognition

3. Locates starting point of text

4. Tracks lines of text (left to right)

5. Goes from end of one line to beginning of next

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From this information, I have learned what print awareness is and how to teach it. Print awareness is important for all children of different backgrounds to learn. It is the beginning step for children who are learning to read. Before they can be taught to read they must understand that words correlate to spoken language. This can be taught by pointing to words when reading them. Then children must connect words to pictures, know what a book is, and how to read a book.

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Iconicity of a letter means the name of the letter is also the sound it makes. For example f = /e/ /f/.

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Why are certain letters frequently confused?

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Why are certain letters frequently confused?

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Letter that have the same shapes can be frequently confused by students. Some visually alike letters are B-R, M-N, and U-V.

Another reason letters can be confusing is because they are phonologically similar. Some phonologically similar letters are l and f, this is because they share the phoneme /e/ at the beginning of their sound.

The final reason that letters can be confused frequently is because they are visually and phonologically similar. An example of this is M-N, which look alike and share the initial phoneme /e/.

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Learning handwriting can increase reading and spelling proficiency. The best manuscript letter form to teach students is continuous stroke.

To set students up for success, make sure to teach them proper handwriting posture, grip, and paper position.

Teach them the arrow cues(shown above) to help them understand where to start and end letter forms.

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All lowercase letters can be written in a continuous stroke except for f, i, j, k, t, x, and y!

Reading depends first and foremost on visual letter recognition. -Adams, 1990

E is the most frequently used letter.

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Letter shapes that are visually similar makes it difficult for early readers to differentiate between them. The letters B and D are similar phonologically, visually, and have similar letter names. The chart above shows how different elements of letters make it easy and hard to learn. It is hardest to learn h and w because their letter sounds are not in the name. When learning handwriting, I remember my teacher focusing on the motor patterns of letters before we wrote on paper. She would have us trace letters in the air so our hands could get used to the shape. I do not remember being taught similarly formed letters in a sequence, if I was then I might have differentiated between letters earlier.

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To most effectively teach writing uppercase letters, "students should learn a highly consistent way to form a given letter every time they write it." This means students should write the letter the same way every time. To help students with uppercase letters have them practice letters that start in the same place, ex. P, B, R, N, E. Students must always have correct hand position, posture, and paper position.

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A part in the traditional version of the alphabet song is confusing for students. It rushes through the letters L-M-N-O-P. To prevent this from happening it is better to sing the alphabet to a tune like 'Mary Had a Little Lamb' or 'Old McDonald Had a Farm'.

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The ABCs to Mary Had a Little Lamb by Alina Celeste - Nursery Rhymes - Learn English

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Students should form letters using the same movements every time. Group letter that start in the same place together, ex. P, R, N, B, E. Have students trace the letter forms with their fingers first and then with their pencils

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Students should form letters using the same movement every time. They should not start E's at the top to begin and then start them at the bottom. Consistency is key to learning letter forms. Have students first trace letter forms with their fingers or in the air, then have them trace them with their pencils. Group letters that start in the same place together, ex. B, R, P, N, E, D.

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To teach lowercase letters, group forms that use the same stroke together, ex. a, d, g, p, r, n. Some lowercase letters are identical to their uppercase forms, ex. P-p, O-o, M-m, W-w, S-s. A good tip for introducing how to write lowercase letters is writing one on the board while describing the strokes. For example, the lowercase letter t would be described as down, cross.

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To teach letter automaticity, teach uppercase letters before teaching lowercase letters. Teach/Model the letters by writing them on the board and repeating their name, then described how they are written. One activity to help students learn letter names is a guess what game. In the game pair off students and give them 3-D uppercase letters in a darker container. Then have one student reach in and feel a letter, by feeling the letter they will practice the shape and name of the letter.

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Student can associate letter sounds with letter names.

Student exhibits correct handwriting habits.

Students can write legible uppercase/lowercase letters using the correct formations.

Student can recognize uppercase/lowercase names and shapes even in random order with a time limit.

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In this section I learned useful tips on how to teach letters to elementary students. Students must learn letter names, shapes, and letter sounds. Teachers should teach uppercase letters first. First, they should teach letter names, and shapes. Next, teachers should let students practice writing the letters they have learned the shapes and names of. Finally, students should be taught letter sounds. However, as suggested by Ehri and Roberts(2006) letter names and sounds can be taught at the same time. Have student associate the letter b with the /b/ sound.

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ABC Phonics Song with Sounds for Children - Alphabet Song with Two Words for Each Letter

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Students can recognize uppercase/lowercase letters and shapes.

Students can recognize uppercase/lowercase letters in random order and later in a set time limit.

Student exhibits correct and consistent handwriting habits.

Student can write acceptable uppercase/lowercase letters utilizing correct formation.

Student can associate a letter sound with a letter name.

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Phonological awareness means being aware of the larger parts of spoken language. This includes words, syllables, onset-rime, and smaller parts like phonemes.

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Phonemic awareness is the ability to identify different sounds in a word, this includes phonemes, syllables, and words. Phonemic awareness is a level of phonological awareness.

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There are four levels of phonological development:

1. Word Level

Skills used include blending, deletion, segmentation, and sentence segmentation.

2. Syllable Level

Skills used include deletion, blending, and segmentation.

3. Onset-Rime Level

Skills used include categorization, blending, segmentation, generating rhymes, and recognizing rhymes.

4. Phoneme Level(Smallest of Sounds)

Skills used include blending, identity, categorization, deletion, addition, substitution, isolation and segmentation.

Blending and segmentation are the most important skills for students learning to read and spell.

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Kindergarteners should receive 10-15 minutes a day of phonics instruction. Those who need further instruction should receive an additional 15 minutes in a small group. 1st graders should receive 10 minutes. For 2nd graders, phonics instruction is not usually necessary unless students are behind the reading level.

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When it comes to phonics instruction, kindergarteners should receive 10-15 minutes a day and 1st graders should receive 10 minutes a day. Struggling students should receive and extra 15 minutes a day in a small group setting. 2nd graders usually don't need phonics instruction unless they are behind grade level.

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In the middle of Kindergarten teachers should be assessing phonics progress. Once a student has the ability to decode they generally have had enough phonics teaching. Sometimes older students struggle with phonics which will require intense intervention and more time dedicated to learning phonics.

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Blending is putting two smaller parts to form one, ex. dog...house = doghouse.

Segmentation is separating a large part into smaller parts, ex. pocket (pock-et).

Deletion is deleting a small part of a large part, ex. spark without the s = park.

Recognize Rhyme is determining whether two words rhyme, ex. dad, bad (yes).

Generate Rhyme is coming up with one word that rhymes with another, ex. what is a word that rhymes with pig? Fig, rig, big, jig, gig.

Categorization is finding the odd one in a set, ex. ball, tall, mall, pot, the answer is pot.

Isolation is recognizing individual sounds in a word, ex. first sound in ban is /b/.

Identity is selecting the common sound from a given list, ex. cat: ball, mouse, car, mall (car).

Addition is making a new word from a base word with a phoneme, ex. mart plus /s/ is smart.

Substitution is creating a new word by replacing one phoneme for another, ex. change the /h/ in house to /m/ which makes it mouse.

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In this chapter I learned the difference between phonological and phonemic awareness. While they are similar one is a subcategory of the other. I also learned about how much time a day students should be learning about phonics. Generally, students don't need phonics by the 2nd grade, which was a little surprising to me. Teachers start assessing how well students are doing with phonemes at the middle of kindergarten. This continues until they have mastered it. I added a resource to help teach phonics above.

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HOW TO TEACH PHONICS TO YOUR CHILDREN THE FUN WAY - The Sounds of Alphabet

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Research shows that students who receive systematic and explicit phonics instruction become better readers overall.

Types of Phonics Instruction

*Systematic: Phonics instruction that is clearly taught, defined, and introduced in the right sequence to help students learn letter and sound relationships.

*Explicit: Phonics instruction that comprehensibly defines Phonics skills and ideas.

"Instruction is Explicit when the teacher clearly, overtly, and thoroughly, communicates to students how to do something." (Carnine, 2006)

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Phonics instruction has a few different paths teachers can choose when it comes to teaching Phonics. The four ways are embedded phonics, analytic phonics, synthetic phonics, and analogy phonics.

*Embedded phonics: Teachers teach phonics according to their own judgement. This approach does not really teach phonics because it is based on context clues. When a student does not know a word, the teacher uses this moment to teach. The students are taught to look for similar words/letters they know that look like the problem word. This strategy uses word and letter recognition.

*Analytic phonics: When teaching this method, teachers have students identify words that sound alike to figure out a hard word. This does not require blending because it is searching for one familiar sound.

*Systematic phonics: In this method, teachers explain the sounds of letter and letter combinations. Then, they teach them how to blend letters and letter combinations, allowing students to read.

*Analogy phonics: This method uses rime to identify words. Students look for rime in similar words that they know and then blend one sound from each word together to identify the new word.

The Systematic phonics instruction is proven to be the best instruction there is because it allows students to learn blending and segmenting words.

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5 Principles of Good Phonics Instruction

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5 Principles of Good Phonics Instruction

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Steven Stahl determined that there are 5 Principles that make quality phonics instruction. The principles are listed below.

*One part of a comprehensive reading program:

Students should not be expected to solely learn phonics instruction and be able to read. Phonics should not even be the main thing taught in a reading program. Other instruction students should receive vocabulary and comprehension instruction.

*Incorporates phonemic awareness:

Phonemic awareness instruction improves phonics skills and should be included when teaching phonics. These two types of instruction build on each other.

*Develops understanding of the alphabetic principle:

To have good phonics instruction, students must have an understanding of letter/sound relationships.

*Leads to automatic word recognition:

Automaticity should be achieved by teachers giving students chances to practice the skill of reading words by themselves and in text.

*Provides sufficient practice in reading words:

Phonics instruction should include a lot of practice time for actually reading words. This includes reading words by themselves, in text, and writing words by the teacher saying them out loud.

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This is a common sequence for teaching phonics starting with easy to hard levels.

1. Single consonants and short vowels

2. Consonant digraphs

3. Long vowels with silent e (CVCe pattern)

4. Long vowels at the end of words or syllables

5. Y as a vowel

6. R-controlled vowels

7. Silent consonants

8. vowel digraphs(vowel teams)

9. Variant vowel digraphs and diphthongs

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Word work is activities that allow for students to practice sound and spelling patterns utilizing tactics like building, manipulating, and sorting. The general categories of word work activities are Elkonin boxes with letters, word building, dictation, and word sorting.

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Elkonin boxes are 3(or more) boxes that are in a row. Each box represents a sound. The common way to use them, is for students to place counters in each box while sounding out words. For example, 'hat' would have one counter down for /h/, one for /a/, and one for /t/. Once students have mastered this they can write down the sounds they hear in the boxes. This activity helps blending and segmentation skills.

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Blachman, B. A., Ball, E. W., Black, R., & Tangel, D. M. (2000). Road to the code: A phonological awareness program for young children. Baltimore: Brookes.

National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. (2000). Report of the National Reading Panel. Teaching children to read: An evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction (NIH Publication No. 00-4769). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

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Elkonin boxes are used to build phonological awareness skills by having children segment spoken words into their individual sounds (phonemes). To use Elkonin boxes, a child listens to a word and moves a token into a box for each sound or phoneme.

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Word building activities consist of deletion, substitution, and insertion. For example, changing a word by one letter is substitution, mad, bad, bed, fed, fab, etc. The example above includes an example lesson of word building using Elkonin boxes!

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The two dictation methods are sound-by-sound and whole word dictation. Sound-by-sound breaks down the word by saying one word at a time allowing students to put the sounds together. Whole word dictation is saying the word allowing students to sound it out.

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Easy Encoding & Dictation Activities for Your Kindergarten, First, and Second Grade Students!

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Word sorting is putting words into categories based on similar/different elements. The 5 types of word sorting are speed, writing, closed, open, and blind.

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Inside: My 10 favorite word sort activities. Use these in your classroom or for distance learning to build up spelling and phonics skills.
n Thursday nights when I was in 2nd grade, my mom turned into a spelling cheerleader.

"B clap, U-R clap, R-I clap -E-D!" she'd chant.

It wasn't that my mom loved spelling like teachers love a snow day.

But there was a reason she got involved.

I did the typical practice, copy the word a few times, try it from memory, question what in the world is wrong with me when my attempt doesn't match the narrow paper list... again!

That's when my mom stepped in with something loud and theatrical to sear the word into my memory (and also to get my perfectionistic butt to bed!)

The question is: why, for a decent reader and writer like me, was it so hard to memorize the words on my spelling list?

The Problem Was This:

In the early 90s the weekly spelling lists were a random collection of words that someone, in some office, somewhere, thought kids needed to know how to spell.

With no rhyme or reason to the word lists, it WAS a tedious effort to memorize those spellings.

But that's just the way spelling had to be... or was it?

Enter: The word sort

Words in a sort are chosen because they fit in specific categories.

Word sorts work like this:

Kids learn the sound or rule for each category

They sort cards with words that each fit into each of the categories

They practice with the spelling sort in a variety of ways

So the critical question is...

Do Sorting Activities Actually Improve Spelling?

I was excited to learn that researchers find word sort activities improve not only spelling, but also reading skills!

Studies show that students who receive word sort instruction perform better in phonemic segmentation, word identification, and spelling than students who receive traditional spelling instruction.(Joseph, 2000)

Word sorts help you explicitly teach phonics skills and tap into the power of word families, both research-based strategies for teaching.

You might be thinking: Ok, word sorts improve spelling, but don't kids get bored with lining up word cards? How do I keep the task fresh so kids stay engaged?

9 Word Sort Activities for Busy Teachers

With simple supplies that you probably already have, you can easily switch up your word study routine to keep it interesting. These tasks work well as part of a daily whole-class word study time, a spelling center, or as homework.

1. Highlight the pattern - When kids notice familiar letter patterns in words, suddenly they go from tediously sounding out "c - a - t" to fluently putting together chunks in bigger words, like "c - au - tion." Have students use highlighters (and even color-coding) to mark the patterns they find.

Keep in mind: this might be a "sometimes" activity because finding and marking the patterns is beneficial but students could then rely too heavily on color matching instead of pattern recognition when using the word sort repeatedly.

2. Speed Sort - Lots of kids are motivated by competition. Here are my favorite ways to speed sort:

Students start sorting their words when you say "go." They stand up when they're done.

Students race against a partner to see who can sort faster.

Students work on their own with a timer and try to improve their time.

3. Sort and Write - Students sort their word cards and then record their work by writing it in a notebook or on a whiteboard.

**Definitely do this one!** Students seem to retain the words much better if they have practiced writing them, not just sorting the pieces.

4. Find My Mistake - Challenge students to solve the puzzle and prove that they can't be tricked!

Each student completes their own word sort.

Then the move a few words into the wrong columns.

Switch with a partner and see if each student can find the other's mistakes and fix them.

5. Digital Sort - Take word sorts to Google Classroom, SeeSaw or another digital platform. Set up a background and word boxes yourself or go for a premade set of digital word sorts. This option is great as a word work center in class or as an option for distance learning.
Digital Sorts for Google Classroom Digital Sorts for Seesaw
6. Sort the Room - Cut apart a word sort and tape the words around the room. Kids write the headings in their notebook. Then they walk around the classroom and write the words in the correct column as they find them.

Worried about finding the time to cut and tape up the words? Make it a special job that a student or two can help out with.

7. Rhyme and Write - Students draw out a card from their word sort. They write the word and see how many other rhyming words they can come up with. This way they are generalizing the spelling pattern to more words.

8. Quiz a Partne r - Students work in pairs. Both write the sorting categories on their paper. One partner pulls a word card and reads it. The other partner tries to spell it in the correct column. They check the word together. Then they switch roles and continue.

9. Use in a Sentence - To push students to the next level of understanding, challenge them to use words from their sort in the context of a sentence.

10. Sort and Glue - Save this one for the last time you want to use each word sort. Kids sort out their word cards and then glue them down either in a notebook or on a piece of paper. The glued sort can be used later for reference during writing and for review.

A Simple Routine for the Win

One of the worst mistakes I made as a new teacher was thinking that kids could be exposed to a skill once and be good to go! Wouldn't that be nice? That would be like if I could follow my phone's navigation to get somewhere once and never need to look that place up again....pshh :::shades face with hand:::

Kids need to practice with the same sort a few times.

You don't want them to get bored with it but you also don't want to exhaust yourself by reinventing the spelling practice wheel every day or week.

There's a simple solution: Set up a weekly rotation of word sort activities from the choices above. After a few weeks, change out one of the activities for something new. Repeat all year!

It might look like this:

Monday - Introduce the spelling sort, kids all sort once

Tuesday - speed sort

Wednesday - sort and write

Thursday - sort and glue

Friday - spelling test on the sort words

Looking for More Support with Word Sorts?

References:

Joseph, L. (2000). Developing first graders' phonemic awareness, word identification and spelling: a comparison of two contemporary phonic instructional approaches. Reading Research and Instruction, 39(2), 160-9.

Author: Hannah Braun

https://www.theclassroomkey.com

Hannah Braun is a former teacher with 8 years of experience in the classroom and a master's degree in early childhood education. She designs engaging, organized classroom resources for 1st-3rd grade teachers.

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How to Improve Spelling With Simple Word Sort Activities

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Inside: My 10 favorite word sort activities. Use these in your classroom or for distance learning to build up spelling and phonics skills. n Thursday nights when I was in 2nd grade, my mom turned into a spelling cheerleader. "B clap, U-R clap, R-I clap -E-D!" she'd chant.

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From this section I learned about word work activities and practices to help students progress with their phonics skills. The four word work activities are Elkonin boxes, word sort, dictation, and word building. This week we made a lesson with one of these word work activities where we had to dive deeper into the activity we chose. After doing the lesson I learned that these four methods can improve student's interest in phonics. Another thing I learned from the phonics chapter is a general outline of phonics and the order phonics should be taught(easy to hard.) The last takeaway I got from this chapter was that the systemic and explicit instruction is the only way I should be teaching phonics. It sets up students to learn phonics the most efficient way and can affect their reading skills in the future. It is the most straightforward and clear instruction method when teaching phonics allowing students the best opportunity for success when learning phonics.

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Irregular words have one or more sound/spelling that are not decodable. This is why they are considered irregular. Students must learn irregular words by recognition since they will not be able to use the skill decoding to figure out the word. Some words are temporarily irregular and some are permanently irregular. Temporary irregular words are based off of certain sound/spellings that have not been introduced yet. Permanent words have sound/spellings that are unique to them.

Fun fact - Most high-frequency words are irregular. This is another reason why it is important to learn irregular words, readers will read them a lot.

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How to Map Irregularly Spelled High Frequency Words

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100 words total account for 50% of words in schools/college texts. 25% of those words are permanently irregular! This is why it is so important to teach irregular words. Students will struggle with reading if they cannot not read most of the words that will be in their texts.

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When learning irregular words, students must be exposed to them a lot. They should visually see them and constantly practice them. Teachers should focus on all the letters in the irregular word when instructing students. A big factor that determines the difficulty of an irregular word is the number of irregularities in the word. Instruction should consist of learning high frequency irregular words first and then low frequency irregular words.

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How to Teach Heart Words in K-2 // Tips for teaching high frequency or sight words

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The Order of Introducing Irregular Words

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The Order of Introducing Irregular Words

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Word frequency - prioritize high frequency words before low frequency.

Word similarity - frequently confused words should not be introduced together or close to each other. Mastery of one can lead to teaching the other irregular word. Examples of frequently confused words are, their and there.

Word relationship - some words have pairs and are pronounced similarly. These can be taught together. Examples of this are should, could, and would.

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Importance of Learning High Frequency Irregular Words Quote

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Importance of Learning High Frequency Irregular Words Quote

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"...if devolping readers cannot instantly identify (high-frequency) words, they are unlikely to become fluent because of the widespread presence of these words."

- Pikulski, 2006

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Irregular word reading is very important to teach students so they can become successful readers. 25% of high frequency words are irregular words. Irregular words cannot be decoded. This section has taught me why to teach irregular words and what order to teach them in. This section also provided example lessons of irregular words. There are two different strategies for teaching irregular words which are sound-out and spell-out. When students go to sound out an irregular word by decoding it they get stuck. With instruction students can be taught how the words are actually sounded out.

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Phonics instruction teaches basic instruction for decoding single-syllable words. It also teaches decoding for longer single-syllable words. Most students who understand how to decode syllable-single words cannot decode multi syllable words. At the fifth grade level students will encounter more multisyllabic words with more letters in their curriculum. With lots of practice and reading, students should work on their automaticity or word recognition. Eventually students will be able to recognize certain patterns like: -est, -ing, re-, or -able.

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Syllabication - Division of a word with two or more syllables so that each syllable contains one vowel sound. The syllables can contain multiple vowels but must have only one vowel sound. There are three strategies of syllabication. Each one varying in how the words are broken into syllables. There is utilizing syllable types and division principles, affixes as syllables, and flexible syllabication.

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Instruction should happen after students master one syllable words. The other requirement is knowledge of common pronunciations of sound/spelling combinations.

Grade Syllable Levels

Grade 1 - reads most one- and two-syllable words.

Grade 2 - mostly read two- and three-syllable words.

Grade 3 - Read longer multisyllabic words. These words appear often in text.

There change from reading one-syllable words to more syllables in a word can be very challenging for students. Teachers must assess students to monitor the new reading alterations.

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How to Teach Multisyllabic Word Reading Strategy

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The change for students from reading single to multi syllable words can be a struggle. There are different strategies that teachers can use to teach students. They each divide syllables differently which can be confusing for students. Decoding many syllables in a word can come naturally to high level readers. However, most readers need lots of study and practice to develop decoding skills. The biggest takeaway from this chapter is that there are different strategies that teachers can use to introduce multisyllabic words to the students.

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Spanish vowels fall into one of three different categories based on how the mouth is positioned when making the vowel sound.

"a" - open

"e" and "o" - semi-open

"i", "u", and "y" - closed

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There are three types of vowel combinations in the Spanish language; hiatos, diptongs, and triptongos. Hiatos are described as two vowels beside each other that produce two distinct sounds. Diptongos are two vowels beside each other that are blended together. Triptongos are three vowels together that produce one blended sound.

Hiatos:

ae, ao, ea, eo, ee, oa, oe, etc.

Diptongos:

ia, ie, io, ua, ue, uo, etc.

Triptongos:

iai, iei, iau, ioi, uai, etc.

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Learning Spanish can transfer skills when learning English. Spanish readers know each letter has different sounds and they can be blended together. Beginning Spanish readers have a foundation for learning English as well. English and Spanish have multiple cognates. Cognates are words in different languages that share certain properties. There are four different types of cognates.

Spelled identically:

accidental, metal, triple

Spelled nearly the same:

artist/artista, different/diferente, plate/plato

Pronounced similarly:

equal/igual, group/group, route/ruta

False cognates:

rare/raro(odd), soap/sopa(soup), red/red(net)

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The most efficient way to teach Spanish phonics is to use explicit instruction. This improves not only Spanish reading achievement, but English as well. Some guidelines for teaching Spanish are:

1. Start with the vowels

2. Go from simple to more complex sounds. Starting with consonant sounds and moving toward digraphs, hiatos, and diptongos.

3. Consonants should be taught with vowels so students can apply the sounds to text.

4. Consonant instruction should start with the ones that are most useful in decoding.

5. The consonant instructional sequence should vary the type of articulation.

Above I attached and example of how one teacher suggests teaching the Spanish alphabet.

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In this section I learned about a few similarities and differences between English and Spanish. While English and Spanish are two very different languages, they share some similarities. They have certain similar sounds and cognates. Just like in English, Spanish has dipthongs, consonant blends, and digraphs. Another similarity is Spanish phonemic instruction should be systematic and explicit. Learning Spanish can help with English comprehension and literary achievement. One thing I can bring to my future classroom is relating certain English features to Spanish. If I have a Spanish learner in my class, I will now know the false cognates they might struggle with when learning English. I will also know that they have reading skills that will transfer from Spanish to English.