Need grammar, spelling help

toypup wrote:
On Fri, 17 Aug 2007 11:29:42 -0500, Tori M wrote:

A friend of mine has found a gap in her oldest child's curriculum from
last year to this year. It has to do with the difference between words
like Bitter and Biter. I can not seem to find a good age appropriate
way to explain that other then to just say if it has a double letter you
go to the soft sound rather than the hard sound.

My son learned this in kindergarten and I remember learning it in first
grade. Vowel-consonant-vowel = long vowel. Vowel-consonant-consonant =
short vowel.


Thank you.. I was thinking this was about the best explanation I would
find. I don't know why they had not run into it in the past. I do not
like the curriculum they used previously. It seemed insufficient.

Tori

Tori M wrote:
toypup wrote:
On Fri, 17 Aug 2007 11:29:42 -0500, Tori M wrote:

A friend of mine has found a gap in her oldest child's curriculum
from last year to this year. It has to do with the difference
between words like Bitter and Biter. I can not seem to find a good
age appropriate way to explain that other then to just say if it has
a double letter you go to the soft sound rather than the hard sound.

My son learned this in kindergarten and I remember learning it in first
grade. Vowel-consonant-vowel = long vowel. Vowel-consonant-consonant =
short vowel.


Thank you.. I was thinking this was about the best explanation I would
find. I don't know why they had not run into it in the past. I do not
like the curriculum they used previously. It seemed insufficient.

Tori

What sugar? Where's the 'h'? Not only does it break that rule, but it
doesn't even have an 'h' to make the 'sh' sound.

Fortunately, there is no other word in English that doesn't have a 'h'
to make the 'sh' sound.

Sure is, you say.

Jeff

"Clisby" wrote in message
...


toypup wrote:
On Fri, 17 Aug 2007 11:29:42 -0500, Tori M wrote:


A friend of mine has found a gap in her oldest child's curriculum from
last year to this year. It has to do with the difference between words
like Bitter and Biter. I can not seem to find a good age appropriate
way to explain that other then to just say if it has a double letter you
go to the soft sound rather than the hard sound.


My son learned this in kindergarten and I remember learning it in first
grade. Vowel-consonant-vowel = long vowel. Vowel-consonant-consonant =
short vowel.

Desert? Metal? Visit?


don't we just love English and it's rational structure!

Aula wrote:
"Clisby" wrote in message
...

toypup wrote:
On Fri, 17 Aug 2007 11:29:42 -0500, Tori M wrote:


A friend of mine has found a gap in her oldest child's curriculum from
last year to this year. It has to do with the difference between words
like Bitter and Biter. I can not seem to find a good age appropriate
way to explain that other then to just say if it has a double letter you
go to the soft sound rather than the hard sound.

My son learned this in kindergarten and I remember learning it in first
grade. Vowel-consonant-vowel = long vowel. Vowel-consonant-consonant =
short vowel.
Desert? Metal? Visit?


don't we just love English and it's rational structure!

Actually, the structure is quite rational, if you know which language
each word came from.

Jeff

On Fri, 17 Aug 2007 19:43:09 -0400, Clisby
wrote:

toypup wrote:

My son learned this in kindergarten and I remember learning it in first
grade. Vowel-consonant-vowel = long vowel. Vowel-consonant-consonant =
short vowel.

Desert? Metal? Visit?

Clisby

The first rule in phonics: every rule has an exception. In teaching
actual phonics, the child gets a list of exception words to learn for
spelling.
Marie

On Fri, 17 Aug 2007 19:43:09 -0400, Clisby wrote:

toypup wrote:
On Fri, 17 Aug 2007 11:29:42 -0500, Tori M wrote:

My son learned this in kindergarten and I remember learning it in first
grade. Vowel-consonant-vowel = long vowel. Vowel-consonant-consonant =
short vowel.

Desert? Metal? Visit?

Clisby

There are exceptions to every rule.

The first rule in phonics: every rule has an exception. In teaching
actual phonics, the child gets a list of exception words to learn for
spelling.

I'm going to go out on a limb here, I'm just not convinced that at age 9
there is a place for still learning rules an exceptions to them, it
seems pretty widely agreed that phonics is the best way to start
learning to read, but it seems to me that there comes a point when you
don't want to be spending time on more advanced rules and more
exceptions, but to just spend plenty of time reading in all the
different permutations (reading to oneself, reading aloud, being read
to), with the material being a mixture of fiction and non fiction -
introducing/reinforcing the concept that reading is a learning tool
across all subject areas. A child is going to learn a far greater
functional vocabulary by using words in context rather than learning
from a list, their spelling may initially be weaker, but with
encouragement it will catch up and overall the achievements are likely
to be higher. Add in some good lessons on how to use a dictionary and
you're all set - remember, our written vocabulary differs from our
spoken vocabulary good dictionary usage can bridge the gap in both
directions.

Cheers
Anne

toypup wrote:
On Fri, 17 Aug 2007 19:43:09 -0400, Clisby wrote:


toypup wrote:

On Fri, 17 Aug 2007 11:29:42 -0500, Tori M wrote:


My son learned this in kindergarten and I remember learning it in first
grade. Vowel-consonant-vowel = long vowel. Vowel-consonant-consonant =
short vowel.

Desert? Metal? Visit?

Clisby


There are exceptions to every rule.

There are so many exceptions to the two you've stated above that
I'm not sure they should be considered rules - I certainly wouldn't call
them useful rules.

If by the second, you really mean "vowel-doubled consonant-vowel = short
vowel", I'd say that qualifies as a general rule - I can think of only a
few exceptions to that.

Clisby

Marie wrote:

On Fri, 17 Aug 2007 19:43:09 -0400, Clisby
wrote:

toypup wrote:


My son learned this in kindergarten and I remember learning it in first
grade. Vowel-consonant-vowel = long vowel. Vowel-consonant-consonant =
short vowel.

Desert? Metal? Visit?

Clisby


The first rule in phonics: every rule has an exception. In teaching
actual phonics, the child gets a list of exception words to learn for
spelling.
Marie

That would make the two rules above pretty useless, IMO - the list of
exceptions would be enormous.

Clisby

On Fri, 17 Aug 2007 23:28:48 -0700, Anne Rogers wrote:

The first rule in phonics: every rule has an exception. In teaching
actual phonics, the child gets a list of exception words to learn for
spelling.

I'm going to go out on a limb here, I'm just not convinced that at age 9
there is a place for still learning rules an exceptions to them,

I agree that by age 9, the child should be past learning all the phonics
rules, but if it is a rule that was missed that would help a child read
more fluently, I think it's worth going over. If the child did not have a
good reading program to begin with, maybe the child can spend some time
going over things that were missed before moving on.