Phonics #12

·         Structural analysis is a word identification skill that involves the use of prefixes, suffixes, root words the “words” in compound words, and the apostrophes in contractions to identify unfamiliar words.

·         A morpheme is the smallest unit of meaning.

·         Prefixes and suffixes are bound morphemes.

·         An inflectional suffix changes number, affects verb tense, indicates comparison, or denotes possession.

·         A derivational suffix affects meaning and may change grammatical category.

·         When adding an affix to a word, the spelling may or may not change.

This section of reading was all about the structural analysis of words.  All of these word changes have their own rules to abide by.  I already knew how to convert many words using analysis, but never knew the technical rules behind the changes.  These could be important to teach to students because students need to know the technical reasons for changing a word.

Phonics #11

·         Each syllable contains only one vowel phoneme. If you hear two vowel phonemes, you may be sure the word has two syllables.

·         In general, affixes form separate syllables. The accent usually falls on or within the root word.

·         If a syllable ends in a vowel, it is called an open syllable.

This section of reading was all about accenting syllables.  Most of this was just review for me, because I remember having to do this in elementary school.  Knowing all of the syllable accent rules will come in handy while teaching because giving students part of a word, instead of the whole word, can help with sounding out and spelling.  These rules could also be important to teach to kids because it will help them to read words correctly.  Also knowing where the accent falls, will help students read the context of the word.

Phonics #10

·         The consonant phoneme at the beginning of a word is called a onset, while the vowel and consonants that follow the onset are called rime.

·         Phonogram is another term for the rime in a syllable.

                This chunk of reading was all on Onsets and Rimes.  Onsets and Rimes are basically just the names for the different portions of a word. I remember learning about these as a kid, but had completely forgotten about them. These could come in handy while teaching students on how to split words into different sounds.  I will need to be conscious of this while teaching because I will want to make sure that my student’s split the words in the correct place.

Phonics #8

·         A diphthong is a single-vowel phoneme, represented by two letters, resembling a glide from one sound to another. Ex. Oil, house.

·         A vowel digraph is a two-letter grapheme that represents one phoneme. Ex. Food, School, Through, Hook.

·         Vowel pairs are when a word has 2 vowel graphemes. One vowel presents the long sound, while the other vowel is silent.

After reading this portion of the Phonics book, I realized how much Phonics is almost a language of itself.  After rereading all of the Phonics rules, I am beginning to realize why we do not use Phonics as the main basis for our reading instruction; kids would get too confused!  All of these vowel rules will be handy to know when I start teaching because it will help me understand how to help student’s read words with uncommon vowel rules.  With these uncommon vowel rules, I believe the best way to teach these words would be through “writing until it looks right”.

Phonics #7

·        The schwa is used to indicate the pronunciation of the vowel phoneme in many unaccented syllables (these syllables tend to make the “uh” sound).

·        Vowels can be affected by the consonants surrounding it.

This portion of reading taught the differences in vowel sounds.  These differences can be because of surrounding vowels, consonants, or the general nature of the word.  These could be very hard to teach students because all grammar rules seem to have “but not always” tagged to the end of them.   As a teacher I will have to work on finding strategies to help my students understand these vowel changes.