Companion Reading

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Home : 2002 : May : 5

Companion Reading
By Cathy-Dee

I have used a program in the past that I like especially for teaching blending. It's a Canadian program (Alberta).

The beginning of the year we look at simple blending of sounds to make words

For example
We first
learn
a f s m n
I would teach these sounds like this
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
ffffffffffffffffffff
sssssssssssssssssss
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn
I would draw a pointer under the sound and the children say the sound until I get to the end.
Then we combine two sounds
aaaaaaaaaaaammmmmmmmmmmmmm
ssssssssssaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
And finally 3 letters
mmmmmmmmmmmaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnn

man
fffffffffffaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnn fan

Once they get the hang of this I do not write out the letters but just point under the word as it is written reminding them to sound out the words like we did when there were more letters.

Later in the program it introduces blends and digraphs and other letter combinations in the same fashion

ing ang ong
ink ank onk

etc.,

I'm sure I have the info on the program at school so if you are interested just send me an email.

But you can easily use and modify the approach to fit any program. What I liked was it taught the students not to stop and pause when the letters changed but to just "blend" them smoothly together.

As far as longer words, etc., I also use the approach of them finding smaller words inside the word.