When I was a literacy tutor for adults, I had wanted a go to phonics guide that I could easily refer to - to find out what the common letter patterns for any certain letter sound. I had wanted to know what all the different patterns were that I should cover for my students. My students that were advancing also started asking about particular letter patterns and in which cases did they applied. There wasn't any book like it around at the time, so I started writing it all down, alphabetically.
After I wrote it, I realized that it could be a resource book for literacy students as well as a reference book for tutors. Students could look up letter patterns and combinations, alphabetically, to help them review what they were learning. Tutors could look up common patterns to make sure that they covered them all in their lessons.
For both the tutor and the student, it serves as a reference guide, though it may be used differently by both.
For the tutor:
It serves as a teaching resource or reference guide. For instance; how many l blends are there and what are they. They can easily find this under the letter L. The same goes for R blends, etc.? Many teachers may already know this, but for a literacy tutor that did not have a teaching background, this could be a great help. I had started out as a Literacy Volunteer, and this type of training was not given.
For the student:
It serves as reinforcement, like a dictionary would. It is there as a resource for students not sure of a particular pattern; they can easily find it alphabetically. The illustrations will help to them jog their memory. They can also use the book to help them review. They can refer to a particular section, and create words and or sentences based on a particular blend, etc. They can also start to create new words, on their own, that aren't listed in the book.
This is a resource that can be used by both.
Cheryl Paton
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