TeachingTips™

December 2003, By Cindy Cupp
©2003 Cupp Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.

Classroom teachers are welcome to copy these activities for use in their classroom. If more than one copy is needed, please email me or contact my office at cindycupp@mindspring.com.

The first section of TeachingTips™ provides answers to the general question of how to help students learn to sound-blend words. The second section will provide answers that are program specific to Dr. Cupp Readers®.

Section 1 - General question about teaching sound-blending

Question - I teach 20 kindergarten students. Seventeen students easily sound-out unknown three letter words. The other three students still struggle to blend the sounds together to make a word. What can I do to help these three students successfully learn to sound-out words?

Answer from Cindy: There are many “fixes” for this problem, but students will need to have the following skills mastered before they can successfully sound-blend words:

Skill 1 – Students must understand that the little squiggly marks (letters) on the page represent letters, letters represent sounds, and these sounds blend together to make words that have meaning.

If your students are automatically making the correct sounds for the letters, but they blend these sounds and say a word that is nothing like the letter-sounds, these students may not understand that these sounds represent a word. For example: The student automatically makes the correct sounds for c at and then says something “off the wall” like the word mother.

During inservice training, I say these students “have not come to the well.” I use this phrase because it calls to mind a scene from the movie The Miracle Worker. This movie tells the story of Helen Keller’s life. Patty Duke plays the part of Helen Keller. In The Miracle Worker, Helen finally makes the connection between the word water and the hand-sign for water when water is being pumped on her hand. After Helen makes this one connection with the word water, she transfers this understanding to many other words. After “coming to the well,” Helen understands that objects may be represented by hand-signs.

In order to help students make the connection between letters on a page and words they understand, I only ask students to sound-out real objects they can see. I use either the object or a picture of the object. For example: If the student is trying to sound-out

c at, then I will have three pictures in front of the student, one of these pictures will be a cat.

Before beginning practice in sound blending, I ask all students to name the pictures I have placed on the table in front of them. I repeatedly explain to the students that they will be sounding-out words, but the words they are sounding-out must have a picture on the table. If they then say c at, they must show me a picture of a cat.

Until students understand that the letters and sounds go together to make a word and the word has meaning, they are merely going through the motions of doing what the teacher asks them to do. Without understanding that print on the page represents something else, students will have great difficulty benefiting from further phonics instruction.

Skill 2 – Students must automatically know the sounds in the word he or she is trying to sound-out. For example: If students are trying to sound-out the word cat, and they can’t automatically make the c and the at sound, then students need to work on the sounds for c and the rime at. I teach sound blending using onset and rime. My Readiness Manual in Dr. Cupp Readers® gives details on using onset and rime.

Once students can automatically make the sounds for the letters, and they understand that they are making words, then we are ready to address other problems that students often have in learning to sound-blend words.

Little tricks to help students sound-blend words

Hit the Word – If a student is sounding out the word correctly and the sounds are automatic, but then the student flips the letters so that the last sound in the word is flipped to the front of the word, I ask students to take their index finger and “hit” the front of the word before they say the word. For example: The student sounds out t ap and then says pat. When students are asked to “hit” the first letter in the word with their index finger, this draws the students’ eye back to the front of the word and in many cases the students correctly say the word.
A Pinch of “A” – In order to teach sound blending, I use only three letter real words with the short a sound in the middle. For example: I use words like rat, cat, man, pan, hat, rag, lap, sat, bag, etc.

When students have mastered Skills #1 and #2 described above, and they still have problems blending the words together, I will ask them to keep saying the onset and rime for the word. As they say the onset and rime, I will quietly give just a “pinch” of the first two sounds. For example: If the student is saying c at,

c at, but they can’t seem to be able to blend the word, I will quietly say ca.

I don’t say the ending t sound. This helps some students make the connection between the onset and rime.

Section 2 – Dr. Cupp Readers® Program Specific Questions

Question 1 - My students are in Story 8 in Dr. Cupp Readers®. They could move faster on the phonics. Is it ok to move ahead in phonics, but stay on Story 8 for work with sight words?

Answer from Cindy – Yes. The stories in Dr. Cupp Readers® are written with a stand-alone sight word program and a stand-alone phonics program. If students can move faster in phonics, then move to a new phonics lesson. Pace your students so they stay in the Story Booklet based on their knowledge of sight words. Students move to new Story Booklets when they have caught Hop’n Pop. Students may move to a new phonics lesson without moving to a higher Story Booklet.

Question 2 – How do I divide my reading small group time?

Answer from Cindy – Think of reading time as 1/3 sight words, 1/3 phonics, and 1/3 comprehension and fluency practice in text. If you have 30 minutes for small group instruction, then you would spend 10 minutes in each area. If you have 60 minutes of small group time, then you would spend 20 minutes in each area.

Question 3 – Why should I move as quickly as possible in phonics if my students aren’t ready to move in sight words?

Answer from Cindy – Once your students know how to sound-out words with short and long vowels, they will be able to sound-out a large number of the basic sight words.

If a student can sound-out the sight words first, then they will usually learn the sight words at a faster pace. Example: If the students can sound the new word out first and then practice the word until they are automatic, it will take fewer repetitions to learn the new word. Phonics is a tremendous hook or mnemonic device for learning new words. I often say, “Give me a child that can sound-out words using short and long vowels, and I will give you a child that can easily learn the 220 basic sight words.”

Question 4 – If phonics is such a tremendous mnemonic device for learning new sight words, why don’t you teach them phonics skills first and then begin work with sight words?

Answer from Cindy – If you only begin with phonics and the text is written to match the phonics instruction, then some children will not begin to read without problems. Many of these children will learn to read if you start with sight words. For some children, sight words make sense immediately, and they learn them easily. Some of these children do not learn easily if you begin with phonics instruction.

While most of the children I have taught have learned by phonics, I want 100% literacy. All children do not learn best by beginning with phonics instruction. This is why I start with both methods.