English / Reading
Selecting an effective phonics program for your school is much more complex than buying a TV dinner or a can of soup. Brand name or cost may not get you the most effective program. Unfortunately, you seldom see the ingredients of a program, or the lack of, until after you have made a heavy fiscal commitment. Don’t be so quick to embrace the phonics component within your reading program. This is often a prime example of overselling the package.
Effective phonics programs contain some very essential ingredients. The amounts of each ingredient vary, but all need to be taught for mastery. The following ingredients will look quite familiar to Orton-Gillingham (O-G) based teachers. O-G methods have been with us since the 1920s. There is a reason why phonics programs based on O-G methods are so effective. Research repeatedly tells us that O-G based phonics programs are proven to be most effective. After almost a century of consistent results, O-G has proven it’s not just another educational fad.
The phonics program should help teachers instruct students how to relate letters and sounds, how to break spoken words into (syllables), and how to blend those sound syllables to form words. Most importantly, this needs to be done in an explicit and systematic manner
The phonics program should teach the mechanics and construction of the language. It needs to teach how and why words are pronounced and spelled a certain way. This necessary cognitive component helps students understand the reasons for what they are learning. The program should build a student’s confidence that he can think his way through language problems instead of counting only on memory.
The program should help students apply their knowledge of phonics as they read words, sentences and various texts. The phonics program should be sequential and cumulative, building from simple, well-learned material to that which is more complex. Each step of the way is based on those skills already learned.
Consider the needs of individual students. Based on assessment of those needs, determine what specific skills are to be taught.
The program must contain alphabetic knowledge, phonemic awareness, vocabulary development and the reading of text. The program needs to consist of systematic phonics instruction.
A strong systematic and explicit phonics program will contain strong multi-sensory components, identifying and teaching to the auditory, visual and kinesthetic child.
Again, these phonics components follow an Orton-Gillingham mode of thinking. The O-G philosophy is how and what a teacher teaches – not just phonics, but all subject matter. O-G is what you do and how you do it, not what you have. It is this very thinking that allows teachers to use effective methods of phonics instruction to teach all of their students.
CLOVER
One of the essential skills to beginning and emergent readers is decoding. Decoding is the ability to figure out how to read unknown or unfamiliar words by using knowledge of letters, sounds and letter/word patterns. Having this skill is necessary to becoming a fluent reader.
In order to decode, the reader must know that a printed word reproduces the spoken word as a written sequence of phonemes. The reader must realize that individual phonemes the printed word represents, and then blend those phonemes to form the sound of the word. Words are made up of phonemes, the smallest sounds in language. Print, composed of all the letters of the alphabet, serves the function of conveying thoughts, ideas and experiences
That being said, it is safe to say that in order to read proficiently, one must be able to decode accurately and with fluency. Research has proven that repeatedly.
Students that do not struggle with decoding typically use a process or procedure that is automatic for them. They are unconsciously competent is their use of the process. In other words, they “know” and they know that they know. Struggling students are often consciously competent. They “know” but they have to think about it. Their word-recognition ability is not automatic.
The advantage of building automatic word recognition skills removes the laborious process of reading. As a student gets older, their reading load will increase, and subject matter will become more difficult. It will be easier for a student to keep up with peers if the word recognition process can be automated.
Having a large vocabulary through instant word recognition will greatly increase fluency and reading comprehension. In order for the word recognition process to be automated, there needs to be a decoding process in place as beginning reading skills are developed. When students learn to chunk or break words apart into syllables and put them back together, their ability to decode unfamiliar words will be vastly improved.
Phonics skills are best learned when using a scientifically sound approach. O-G methods use CLOVER as one of the processes to teach decoding. There are some professional differences in using O-G methods, but all O-G approaches have the following in common. They are multi-sensory. They teach to a child’s auditory, visual and kinesthetic modalities. The material taught is systematic, so it is logical and fits the nature of our language. It is sequential, delivered from simple to complex ideas. This step building allows for mastery of the language. These methods take advantage of the letter/sound plan on which the English language is based. It is an alphabetic-phonic system. It uses the synthetic-analytic process of blending sounds of letters into words for reading and dividing words into sounds they are made of for spelling. The methods are cumulative to ensure that each step of the way is based on those steps already learned. And finally, it is a cognitive approach. Students are taught to understand the reasons for what they are learning.
CLOVER is an O-G decoding process struggling (and nonstruggling) students can use to help them build the missing skills in becoming an automatic, more fluent and proficient reader. CLOVER is an acronym representing the six most commonly used vowel patterns. For the most part, it is the vowels in a word that give us problems, not the consonants. Helping a reader focus on the vowels in a word, where the vowel is and what surrounds it, will help them identify specific trouble spots on their way to decoding.
The six most commonly used vowel patterns/syllables, taught in the order of frequency of use as the English language is developed are: Open, Closed, Vowel-consonant-silent E, Vowel teams, R-control, and Consonant-le.
Open and closed syllables are used frequently in the beginning stages. One may argue about which is more frequent. Both are used at a relatively comparable rate. An open syllable has a long vowel sound. It ends with a vowel. Closed syllables make a short vowel sound. The syllable ends with a letter or letters forcing the vowel to take a short sound.
Vowel-consonant-silent E is a syllable pattern often referred to as the magic “e” or silent “e” rule. It doesn’t matter what it is called as long as it is recognized as the third most commonly used vowel pattern. This syllable pattern contains one vowel followed by a consonant and silent “e.”
The fourth most commonly used vowel pattern is called vowel teams. This pattern is simply two or more letters together that make one sound. Vowel teams become very confusing for new readers due in part to cute sayings often used, such as, “When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking.” Since this cute little saying holds true for only a little more than a quarter of the English language, it is not recommended. Additional difficulties arise with this vowel pattern because of the many different vowel team patterns used that are often inconsistent. Keep in mind that there are regular vowel teams and irregular vowel teams. Regular vowel teams are more consistent and are easier to remember. Irregular vowel teams use a variety of other letters and are used frequently enough to cause us to throw out the “When two vowels go walking…” phrase.
R-control syllables are the fifth most common syllable pattern. They contain a vowel followed by an “r. The “r” after the vowel changes the sound of the vowel.
The sixth most commonly used vowel pattern in the English language is called consonant-le. This syllable is always a final syllable. The “e” is not sounded but must be in the syllable since every syllable must have at least one vowel.
The great thing about the CLOVER rules is their consistency throughout the entire English language. Teaching to the consistencies rather than the inconsistencies will help young readers master their language for a lifetime.
Mastering CLOVER will help students grasp the mechanics and construction of the English language--how and why words are pronounced and spelled a certain way. Children are often taught how to spell a word, taught how to do something, taught how to process something. As they get older they often ask, “Why?” Unfortunately, the only answers we often provide is, “That’s just the way it is” or “Because” or “It’s always been that way.”
Understanding the “how and why” of the English language will allow for mastery of the language. In this competitive world of communication, mastery of the language is key to success.
John Pfeifer is the president of VoWac Publishing Company.
