I once believed that teaching someone to learn to read must be a difficult and mysterious task otherwise why would America have such a poor literacy rate? Why can’t Johnny learn to read? I still can’t fully answer those two questions, though I do have some definite ideas which I’ll save for another article. But, I can tell you that there is nothing mysterious about it.

Does the thought of teaching someone to read scare you?

It did me when I first started home-schooling. Teaching reading was a far cry from biology, which was my major in college. Since I had taught high school biology for several years, I knew I could handle any of the math and science courses, but reading? The thought terrified me. Somehow I had come to believe that the whole “learning to read” process must be some mystical endeavor beyond the grasp of everyone except the chosen few (aka certified reading teachers).

Since, according to my husband, I do things “cookbook style”, I began to passionately research the various reading methods to formulate a plan for a task I previously believed to be a murky and obscure process. Yes, I’m one of those people who reads the instructions first before putting something together.

To condense all my research into a nutshell I decided that using a phonics based approach would be best for our family. Through trial and error I hit upon a system that was highly effective (and cheap! – we couldn’t afford some of the great programs with all the bells and whistles). By introducing a few letters and their sounds each week along with blending together real words with just those few sounds as well as learning some sight words, I was able to put together a highly effective beginning phonics program for my kids.

According to Merriam-Webster, phonics is “the study of sound.” Its second meaning, the one we are interested in is “a method of teaching beginners to read and pronounce words by learning the phonetic value of letters, letter groups, and especially syllables.” Now, my definition in English: Phonics is the simple relationship between sounds and the letter or group of letters they represent. For example, in English we have no letter or letter combination to represent the flapped r that Spanish has. They write the sound of a flapped r as an r with a tiny v over the top.

However, in English, we do use the same flapped r sound when we talk, it’s just that we don’t have a unique letter(s) to represent it. For example, the word auto in English actually has the flapped r sound in it. It is the sound between the au and the o. We use a t to represent the sound. There are approximately forty different sounds in English, but only twenty-six letters to represent them. A single letter, double, or triple letter combination that represents one of those sounds is a phoneme.

The following are a few of the basic sounds and the most common letters that represent them.

a, “a” as in at or to the phonetician /a/

e, “e” as in egg /e/

i, “i” as in it /i/

o, “o” as in lot /o/

u, “u” as in up /u/

t, “t” as in tent /t/

m, “m” as in mom /m/

s, “s” as in see /s/

p, “p” as in pup /p/

n, “n” as in net /n/

j, “j” as in jam /dz/

The way the “j” is pronounced is actually two sounds that are said almost as one. A “d” and a “z” are said together quickly. English speakers only think of it as one sound.

Other weird sounds:

The x is really only a ks blended quickly together.

The q is really a kw blended quickly together.

When learning to read by phonics, the sounds represented by letters are learned individually and then students practice blending them together. So, the sound of “c” followed by the sound of “a’ which is then followed by the sound of “t” becomes c-a-t or cat. Some words, especially ones that we use frequently that do not follow basic phonic rules are usually taught as sight words. These words are memorized by the way they look or their shape. This is not a phonics strategy but it is a strategy that works well when using phonics to help students learn to read more effectively.

Lynda Delo is currently a teacher-librarian with a passion for literacy. She believes that with the literacy rate as low as it is in America, something needs to change in the way we are educating our kids. By making more connections between community groups, neighbors, schools, libraries, and other individuals, ties can be formed that will strengthen our society. By providing free resources on her website, not only is she helping to improve the literacy rate in America but is also reaching out to others in need. Visit her website for more information and to access her free basic phonics program at http://www.shelterwoodbooks-teacherresources.com.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lynda_Delo