Cheryl Paton shares tips about literacy, mainly helping adult reading students.
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This blog explains how to use the book, The Phonics Guide: A Guide to Reading and Spelling Patterns, by Cheryl Paton.
What is The Phonics Guide?
The Phonics Guide is a book that lists common spelling patterns used in the English language, along with information about each individual letter of the alphabet. The chapters are arranged alphabetically for ease of locating the information.
How do I use The Phonics Guide?
If you want to look up information about any letter, you would go to the chapter labeled with that letter. There you will find information about the letter itself, as well as common letter patterns in which the letter is used.
For instance, if you go to the chapter on the letter c, you will find out that C is a consonant and that it represents two main sounds and can also be silent. C is used in the cl blend. Examples of words using the cl blend are shown, and sometimes a pictorial drawing is included to demonstrate the general sound. You can also go to the chapter on L, and see that the letter l is used with a variety of letters to represent various L blends.
Here is a video that I made that explains it a bit more.
I have been a literacy tutor for adults, first as a volunteer, and then I was in private practice, for a total of over twelve years. I have learned more about what various adult students actually want, and what helped them the most.
First, there are many different levels of literacy. Some students may know quite a bit of sight words, others may know some sounding out skills, and some may be total beginners.
Some students may have specific goals in mind. One of my clients planned to hike from one state to another, and only wanted to learn enough about plants to know which ones were safe to eat.
Whatever their skill level, or goal, I found hands on activities to be very helpful. The clients/students need something to help reinforce what they are learning and their goals.
As with any type of learner, whether child or adult, people can have different learning styles. Some may be more visual learners, others more auditory, etc. If you are tutoring your adult student one on one, you can tailor the lessons more to their individual learning style. However, I have found that it is a good idea to offer a variety of activities that can enhance a different type of focus. The different types of focus can help to reinforce and build learning across the board.
Word Search and Crossword Puzzles can be Custom Made for Specific Letter Patterns
Searching for words in a mixed up group of letters can help with both individual letter recognition, and also recognition of words that are out of context. I used to shop around trying to find word search books that were more appropriate for adults. I did find some that were more suitable at a Teacher Resource store.
However, once I found out that I could make my own tailored puzzles to a specific letter pattern, and or specific words, it was so much more helpful and convenient. I could tailor the word searches to each specific student's needs and wants.
However, if you would prefer to purchase a word puzzle book, I recommend getting a large print one. Check inside to view sample words before purchasing. This word search puzzle book link will take you to Amazon.
My adult students liked doing the word search puzzles and also fill in the blanks. I had my students do these in between the one on one lessons as well, as homework. I made up sentences on my computer and printed them out for my students.
Learning for adults can also involve fun and games.
Every lesson doesn't have to be at a desk or table.
I had a client who wanted more responsibility in his work. I provided him with a clip board for his paper, so that he could write down basic notes while touring the training facility. That really enhanced his interest.
Both phonics and sight words are important.
Phonics is using the known sounds that the individual letters represent in sounding/figuring out what the word is.
Sight words are simply taught as recognition words. For instance, for most students, their name is usually taught as a sight word, before any instruction of phonics is given. The word STOP on the stop sign is a great word to teach as a sight word without the student having to know what sounds the letters represent. I had a an adult literacy student who didn't drive, but did ride a bike. Recognizing various signs and going over right of way laws were very helpful to him.
Sight words can be a good place to start. It helps to build a sense of mastery, quickly. Flash cards are a great way to teach and reinforce word recognition. - Learning phonics helps the students decipher new words.
Make your own flashcards.
Older students are probably interested in different activities, than the younger student, i.e. driving, movies for the older crowd, novels, etc.
Using themes that your student is interested in, will aid in their learning. You and/or you and your student can make custom flash cards. Either one can draw or cut out pictures from magazines to add on index cards.
You can also purchase custom flash cards at my CustomFlashCards store on Zazzle: www.zazzle.com/store/CustomFlashCards. You can also submit design requests there. There are quantity discounts, even with ordering a variety of different designs.
Do you have any other ideas? You can share them in a comment below.
I was a literacy tutor for adults for twelve plus years and I'll be sharing some some of my tips for both literacy tutors and students. May you find something helpful and useful here.
Literacy and phonics go together. Although many words cannot be decoded using phonics alone, most words can.
Knowing common sight words lays a great foundation and should be included in any literacy program.
Knowing common rules for letter sounds and common letter patterns is a good basis for sounding out new words.
Most letters only represent one sound. Some letters represent two or more sounds. For example, the letter X represents four sounds. Sometimes a letter is actually silent, or changes the sound it represents when it's combined with different letters. The letter C represents the hard sound in the word car, and the soft sound in the word cent. Here is some basic info to help you out.
It's okay to start with little words.
Small words, such as cat, may be considered baby words by some people. However, by understanding that the letters CA in cat represent the same sound that starts the word Cathy can be a big help in sounding out the word Cathy.
Also knowing that the letter C, when immediately followed by the letter A in the same syllable, will represent the same sound that the letter K represents, is an extra plus.
Whereas the letter C immediately followed by the letter I in the same syllable, as in city, represents the same sound as the letter S does in the word silly.
Any size word is made up of common letter combinations. Multiple letter groups added together make bigger words, called multi-syllable words.
Understanding and recognizing smaller letter patterns can be helpful in decoding and sounding out larger multi-syllable words.
Some basics on vowels and syllables and when W and Y act like vowels:
There are five letters in the English language that are always vowels: A, E, I, O, and U. Vowels can be long, which means that they say their name; be short and represent a more breathy sound; or they can be paired with other vowels to represent a new sound.
The letters W and Y can also act like vowels depending on the word that they are in, and their location in the word. Y acts like a silent E in the word play; like a long E, as in the word silly; and as a long I, as in the word byte. W acts like a silent E, as in the word grow.
In the English language, the majority of syllables, at least 99.9% of them, have a vowel in them. One exception that I know of is the word rhythm, in which there are two syllables and only one vowel.
Other than the word rhythm, there will normally be at least one vowel in each syllable and up to three. Your jaw will drop with the voicing of each new syllable. (Place your hand under your chin and say a word. How many times did your jaw lower? That will tell you how many syllables are in that word.)
Some Basics on Consonants:
There are 19 letters that are always consonants, B, C, D, F, G, H, J, K, L, M, N, P, Q, R, S, T, V, X, and Z. There are 21 when counting the letters W and Y, which sometimes act like consonants and sometimes act like vowels.
Most consonants are usually known for a specific sound: B, D, F, H, J, K, L, M, N, P, Q, R, T, V, and Z, with only a few exceptions.
Three consonants can also represent a hard or soft sound; they are C, G, and S. The C can be hard as in the word cat or soft as in the word city. The G can represent its hard sound as in the word go, or its' soft sound as in the word gel. The S can represent its hard sound as in the word seal, or its soft sound as in the word rise, in which the S sounds like the Z sound. See more below under General Spelling/Phonics Rules.
The X represents four sounds. X sometimes represents the Z sound as in xylophone, says its name as in x-ray, sounds like the K sound as in tuxedo, or the CKS sound as in fox.
B, K, and W are also sometimes silent, like in the words: climb, knew, and wrap.
Alphabet Sounds:
Here are the basic consonant and short vowel sounds. Please note that some of the consonant sounds here include a short vowel sound after the consonant sound. As best you can, leave the vowel sound off when making the consonant sound by itself. The vowel sound will change depending on the actual vowel that follows the consonant in a word. For example, the vowel sound in the word cup sounds different than in the word cap. But they both start with the sound of /k/.
I do think that it is easier to learn phonics when you have something or someone to listen to as the various sounds are given when the letter is being shown.
If you are a tutor, or a literacy student who already knows quite a bit of the basics, then I recommend The Phonics Guide: A Guide to Reading and Spelling Patterns, to use as a reference book. Any letter and or letter pattern can be looked up alphabetically, and examples and rules are given for each one.
First off, all the spelling and phonics rules are 'usually' true. There can be exceptions. The rules may also only apply to small words and/or individual syllables. Remember that small words and/or syllables are put together to make longer, multi-syllable words.
Short Vowels - A single vowel followed by a single consonant is usually short, as in bag.
Silent E or Long Vowels - A single vowel followed by a single consonant and the vowel E, is usually long, as in cake.
Two vowels together - When two vowels are between two consonants, the first vowel is usually long and the second vowel silent, as in boat.
Silent B - The letter B is silent when it is at the end of the word and following the letter m, as in crumb, pronounced crum with a short U. Note that the sound for B is heard in the word crumble, and that the letter B actually starts the syllable BLE at the end of the word.
Hard C Sound - C represent the same sound that the letter K does, sound when it is followed by the vowels A, O, or U, as in cat, cob, and cut.
Soft C Sound - C represents the same sound that the Hard S does when it is followed by the vowels E, I, or Y, as in cent, city, and cyan.
Hard G Sound - G represents its hard sound when it is followed by the vowels A, O, or U, as in gap, got, and gum. It can sometimes represent its hard sound when it is followed by E or I, as in get and give.
Soft G Sound - G usually represents its soft sound (sounds like a J) when it is followed by E, I, and Y, as in gem, gibe, and gym.
Silent K - The letter K is silent when it is paired with and precedes the letter N in a word or syllable, as in knee.
Hard S - S represents its hard sound when it is at the beginning of a word and not followed by H, as in seal.
Soft S - S usually represents its soft sound, sounds like the Z in haze, when it comes at the end of a word or syllable and when it comes between two vowels, as in has and praise. Some common exceptions to S on the end of the word are bus and this.
Silent W - The letter W is silent when it is paired with and precedes the letter R, is in write.
W is a crossover letter. - W can also act like a silent e when it follows a vowel as in grow.
X represents four sounds. - X says its name in the word x-ray. The sound of X sounds like a Z in the beginning of other words, as in xylophone. The sound of X at the end of most syllables and words sounds like the sound of CKS, as in fox. Now say the word docks. X also represents the sound of K as in the word tuxedo, pronounced tuk-see-doe, with a short u, long e, and long o.
Y is a crossover letter. - Y is a consonant when it is at the beginning of a word or syllable, as in yellow; but acts like a vowel when it's in the middle or at the end of a word or syllable as in symbol and ably.
Here is a video that goes over the various sounds that different letters represent. It goes over the letters that represent single sounds, as well as letters that represent multiple sounds. There are also lessons to help practice.
Sometimes a letter pattern will also represent different sounds. Such as EA. The E in the word lead is long; it says it name and the A is silent. Lead rhymes with seed. The E in the word bread is short; bread rhymes with bed.
This is not to overwhelm you, but just to let you know that sometimes you also might need to use context clues to help you decipher a new word until you become familiar with that particular word. It's good to have a reference book or notes to help you as you are learning.
For a book that goes over various spelling patterns and also has lesson plans, then I recommend The Spelling Teacher's Lesson a Day book. It features lessons on homophones (words that sound alike), silent letters, contractions, prefixes, and more. It can be used by teachers in classrooms, for homeschooling, for ESL students, tutors, and parents. It has 256 pages.
The Phonics Guide: A Guide to Reading and Spelling Patterns lists various common letter patterns, along with common spelling rules, alphabetically. It is a reference book to help reinforce the student's learning, and can also be used as a guide for what to cover for tutors. It has 104 pages.
Take it a step at a time.
Letters and letter patterns make up words.
The letters include vowels and consonants.
Vowels can be long, say their name, or short.
Phonics are the sounds that the letters represent.
Longer words are made up of syllables.
Understanding phonics helps the reader to decipher both short and long words.
Teaching phonics to adults is different, in most cases, than teaching phonics to children. Adults, for the most part, already have a wide vocabulary and know how to say what they want. Some may also have a great recognition of numerous sight words, and others, not so much.
From my own experience of working with adult literacy students, adults who need and want to improve their literacy skills, usually also need to improve their decoding skills. They need help in learning letter patterns, and recognizing them, so that they can decode words on their own. Sometimes context isn't enough to help the learner figure out a new word; sometimes words are shown without any context.
Helping learners to recognize letter patterns can help them decode words by letter pattern recognition.
In The Phonics Guide, various common spelling patterns and letter combinations are listed alphabetically, enabling the student to more easily find a specific letter pattern, blend, etc., once they know the alphabet.
This guide can be used by both tutors and students. Tutors can refer to various letters patterns and general rules, to help formulate their lesson plans. Students can use this book to help them see examples, and to reinforce the patterns and common spelling rules that they are learning.
Below is a sample page:
Tutors will have examples at their fingertips to help explain the current letter pattern that they are teaching.
Learners will see examples of common letter patterns along with some illustrations to help them remember the sound that a particular pattern represents. They will be able to look up common letter patterns, i.e. blends, alphabetically. It's a great resource for students to use in between lessons.
It gives them answers to questions that they may be asking, such as, When does the letter Y sound like I? The instructor can easily answers these questions during a lesson, and the guide helps to reinforce it when the students need backup learning in between the lessons. It gives the students another aid in becoming independent readers and learners.
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.
No matter the age of your student, it's fun to intermix playing games with other literacy activities.
Bananagrams is a spelling game featuring a banana shaped zippered pouch and Scrabble type alphabet letter tiles. It is easy and convenient to carry along.
The basic game is to place letter tiles face down and participants pick a number of tiles and they take turns adding to the crossword puzzle that they are making. The instructions will give more details and various options for ways to play the game.
With the letter tiles, you can also come up with your own variations. For instance, you could have your student practice making words that start with a certain blend, or make rhyming words that have the same spelling on the end of the word.
I am sure that you can come up with other ideas as well.
Some ideas are:
1. Scramble the letters of a particular word, say the word, then have the student rearrange the letters to spell the word correctly.
2. Lay a variety of letter tiles to choose from, then start the word with a letter blend, say the word, then have the student complete the spelling of the word.
3. Lay the letter tiles out to represent various blends, i.e. bl, cl, fl, etc. Say a word and have the student select the correct spelling for the beginning blend.
4. Lay the letter tiles out to represent various blends, i.e. br, cr, dr, etc. Place letter tiles in place to spell the remainder of a word. Have the student select the correct blend and have them place the correct tiles in front of the letters that make a word.
A small set is plenty enough tiles for a couple of people to play a variety of spelling games.
5. Make a crossword puzzle. Lay various letter tiles out, and spell a word with the tiles. Have the student think of a word that includes a letter that you have already used, and they can add their tiles to the crossword puzzle. Alternating turns, keep using letters that are already in the puzzle to be part of the new word.
As you can see, there are a variety of ways to use letter tiles to help reinforce learning.
If you don't already have letter tiles from an old Scrabble game, then I recommend Bananagrams; it comes with a storage bag to easily carry your letters and it's small enough to fit in a purse or backpack.
If you have other spelling ideas to use letter tiles, please share them with us below.
Cheryl Paton
Cheryl Paton is an Amazon affiliate and earns income from qualifying purchases made through links on this page. The above text links go to Amazon.
There are several ways of spelling the long sound of A.
The letter A is a vowel. A by itself can be pronounced as long a, such as, I will go on a hike. The letter a is also a word. The only other letter that is also a vowel and a word, is the letter i.
AI
A common letter pattern for long a, is the letter a, followed by a consonant, followed by a silent e; such as cake, made, grapes, and mate.
The letter pattern AI is also another common spelling for long A; such as train, aim, paid, and grain.
The AI pattern is found in the middle of the syllable or single syllable word.
An exception for the sound is found in the word said, the AI pattern represents the sound of short E in the word said.
Keep in mind that when the AI pattern is immediately followed by the letter R, that the sound is R-controlled. The pattern AIR is also a word when used by itself. It also represents the same sound when used as part of other AIR words, as in hair and fair.
AY
AY is another long A pattern, as in lay, play, stay. and gray.
AY is used mainly at the end of the word or syllable. An exception to this is the word crayon where the A is actually at the end of the first syllable and the Y is the first letter of the next syllable.
EA
EA represents a variety of sounds, one of them is long A, as in break, steak, and great. The EA pattern for long A is found in the middle of the syllable.
EI
The letters EI also represent the sound of long A, as in vein, weigh, weight, and neighbor.
The EI pattern is found in the middle of the syllable
EY
EY can also represent the sound of long A, as in prey and they. EY also represents long E, as in the word, key.
The EY pattern for long A is found at the end of the word or syllable.
You can find this type of information, and more, in The Phonics Guide. If you have found this information helpful, or know someone who would, then you and/or they would probably benefit from reading The Phonics Guide: A guide to reading and spelling patterns. The text link will take you to Amazon where you can order it.
It is not a lesson book, but a reference book, guide, that one can refer to, to look up common spelling patterns, alphabetically.
Cheryl Paton
Cheryl Paton was a literacy tutor for over 12 years. She wrote The Phonics Guide based on the types of questions her adult literacy students were asking her. Cheryl receives income for qualifying items purchased through links on this page.
Cc
C is the third letter of the alphabet. C is a consonant. C represents two main sounds; hard and soft, and can also be silent.
Hard C represents the same sound as the letter K does in the word kite. C represents its hard sound when it immediately precedes the vowels a, o, and u in the same syllable:
CA, CO, and CU as hard C
cat can cop cot cut cup
C also represents its hard sound before the consonants L, R, K, T, and sometimes H.
CL, CR, CK, CT, and sometimes CH as hard C
clang creek back act Christmas
(Note: The sound of hard C before the vowels e, i and y, is spelled with the letter K, as in keep, kite, and Kyoto.)
If the word is multi-syllable, and the hard C sound is heard at the end of a second or later syllable and it follows a vowel sound, that sound is usually spelled with IC:
IC
magic hectic optic fantastic music
Exceptions would be when a prefix is added, such as repack.
When the sound of hard C is heard right after a consonant, it is usually spelled with the letter K, as in bank. An exception is the work zinc. See more in Chapter Kk.
Soft C represents its soft sound, sounds like S as in sell, when it immediately precedes the vowels e, i, and y in the same syllable:
CE, CI, and CY as soft C
cent cedar cinema city cycle cylinder
When C is immediately followed by a silent e at the end of a single syllable, long vowel word, the C represents its soft sound.
Long Vowel + C + silent E, as soft C
face fleece slice twice juice
An exception is the word grocery where the C by itself sounds more like the /SH/ you hear in shall.
Note: For short vowel, single syllable words ending in a soft C sound, that sound is spelled with a double s, as in dress and grass. See more in Chapter Ss.
C is silent in the word czar.
C is paired with L and R for two common beginning consonant blends and the C is hard:
CL
class clean clip clock clue
CR
crab cream crisp crop crust
C is paired with the letters K and T for two common ending consonant blends:
CK
back deck brick dock duck
CT
fact perfect octopus duct
Note: C is usually paired with K at the end of a short vowel, single syllable word.
The CK pattern is also used at the end of the first syllable of a multi-syllable word when the vowel in the first syllable is short:
Short vowel + CK and in first syllable as hard C
package ticket locket trucker
Exceptions are the words tic and picnic. Note that there is also a word tick and that it has a different meaning than tic.
C is part of the CLE suffix which sounds like you’re saying cull at the end of the word.
CLE
cycle bicycle tricycle recycle
C is also part of the CAL suffix which sounds like you’re saying cull at the end of the word.
CAL
numerical geographical
C is commonly paired with H and the CH combination can represent one of four sounds.
CH can represent a single speech sound (a digraph) as in the word chew.
CH as a digraph
champ check chicken chop church
CH can also represent the /K/ sound as it does in Chris.
CH as /K/
Christmas choral chorus chrome
(Hint, when CH represents the /K/ sound, there is usually an R near by, but the R does not always mean the CH will sound like the /K/ sound, just that there is a good possibility.)
There are also some CH words where the CH represents the /K/ sound without any R nearby:
CH as Hard C without an R nearby
ache echo stomach
CH can represent a /KW/ sound as in choir. It sounds like the QU does in the word quarter.
CH as /KW/
choir
CH can also represent the /SH/ sound:
CH as /SH/
chef Chicago Cheryl Cher
C can be paired with I for two different sounds.
In the SCI pattern, the SC represents the soft C sound.
SCI as soft C
science
CI can also represent the /SH/ sound:
CI as /SH/
ancient efficient special proficient
A common spelling rule for C is I before E, except after C. This rule is true when the next vowel sound immediately after the C is long e, as in:
receive conceive ceiling
For other vowel sounds, the spelling is CI, as in:
ancient science efficient proficient special
Your feedback is welcome as this Phonetic Alphabet Book gets published in blog form. I will try to clarify anything you have questions about, and make it clearer. Thank you.
copyright Cheryl Paton
This book is being published a section at a time (by letter) on my blog, Phonetic Alphabet Book, and will eventually be published all together as a book.
Cheryl Paton
Cheryl Paton receives income from purchases made through links on this page.
A is the first letter of the alphabet. A is a vowel.
A represents its short sound as in at and tap. A represents its long sound as in ate and cape.
Short vowel patterns for A include:
A followed by a consonant
Sam mat bag tap
AI as short A
plaid
AU as short A
laugh
Long vowel patterns for A are:
A, consonant, silent e as long A
same make plate grape wade
AI as long A
aim aid rain train grain
Note: The AI pattern represents three different sounds. The AI represents the short A sound in plaid, and the long A sound in aim, and also the short E sound as in the word said.
AY as long A
say pray lay stay may
Note: The AI pattern is found at the beginning or the middle of the word. The AY pattern is predominantly found at the end of the word. An exception is the word crayon.
Other vowel patterns that represent the sound of long A are:
EA as long A
steak break great
Note: The EA pattern can represent the sound for long A, short E, and long E. See the Alphabet section Ee.
EI as long A
vein
EIGH as long A
weigh weight freight neighbor
Note: The EI in the above words stands for the long A sound and the letters GH are silent.
EY as long A
they prey
Note: the EY pattern can also represent the long E sound as in key. See the Alphabet section Ee.
When A is paired with and immediately precedes the letter R, the A appears to be silent, as it sounds like you are just saying the letter name R:
AR
are car far star
When the letter E immediately follows the letters AR, then the ARE pattern can also sound like you are saying the word air:
ARE as the AIR sound
care share stare dare
A is also paired with IR, (AIR) AIR
hair fair lair
A is also used in another pattern, representing a new sound; a dipthong, a blend of two vowel sounds in one syllable. Such a pattern is AU.
AU
cause pause August
Note that the AU represents the same sound that the AW represents in paws.
Your feedback is welcome as this Phonetic Alphabet Book gets published in blog form. I will try to clarify anything you have questions about, and make it clearer. Thank you.
copyright Cheryl Paton
Cheryl Paton
Cheryl Paton earns income from purchases made through links on this page.
When I was a literacy tutor for adults, I wanted to know what the rules were so that I could better answer my students' questions, such as, "Does a certain pattern always apply? If not, when doesn’t it." I found that as my students were learning more and more, that these were the kinds of questions that they wanted to know the answer to.
I found bits and pieces of information here and there, but nothing all in one place. So I decided to write The Phonetic Alphabet Book. I later decided on The Phonics Guide: A guide to reading and spelling patterns, as the title. The link will take you to Amazon where it can be purchased.
This book is set up alphabetically, giving many rules and common letter combinations for all the letters of the English alphabet.
For continuity and ease of location, when I am talking about a particular letter or combination of letters, I will use their capitals. When a letter is enclosed by the back slash marks, /B/, then that represents the sound of the letter and not its letter name.
Cheryl Paton
Cheryl Paton receives income from qualifying purchases made through links on this page.
