Hello, this is Samuel Blumenfeld, author of Alphaphonics. Many of you who are about to use Alphaphonics to teach your children to read, were yourselves never taught intensive phonics in school. You've probably heard a lot about phonics, but you're not sure what it is. So let me explain what phonics is all about, how it is taught in Alphaphonics, and how you can teach it to a child a reading-disabled adolescent, or a functionally illiterate adult. Incidentally, if you yourself never had phonics instruction, this course will help improve your own reading. You were probably taught to read by the Dick and Jane method, that is, the look, say, whole word or sight method. Most adults in America were taught that way. You were taught a sight vocabulary. That is, to look at our written English words as whole configurations or symbols of meaning, little pictures like Chinese ideographs. You were taught configuration clues, picture clues, context clues, and even phonetic clues. Phonetic clues is not true phonics. It is simply a way of reducing guessing errors by teaching a pupil initial consonant letter sounds. In all, you were taught to look at written English words as Chinese ideographs. But ours is an alphabetic writing system, not an ideographic one like Chinese. Our written words are composed of letters which are symbols for sounds. And unless you know our sound-symbol system, that is, our alphabetic system, you will not only have difficulty becoming a proficient reader, but you will find reading tedious and unenjoyable. Perhaps the best way to convey to you the important difference between ideographic writing and alphabetic writing is to give you a short, quick history of how our writing system developed. The earliest form of writing is known as pictography. The early cavemen drew pictures on the walls of their caves, usually a battle or a hunting scene. In these drawings, human beings look like human beings. Animals look like animals. Weapons look like weapons. In other words, in pictography, the graphic symbols look like the things they represent. You didn't have to go to school to learn how to read pictographs. But as civilization became more complex, The scribes had to begin depicting things that did not lend themselves to depiction. For example, it is easy enough to draw pictures of objects, but how do you draw pictures of ideas and concepts? How do you draw pictures of such concepts as good and evil, right and wrong, or system, method, belief? How do you draw a picture of a concept such as determined, You can't. So what you do is draw a picture, a graphic symbol, and tell people, this symbol stands for determined. It doesn't look like determined, but it's determined. We call that kind of symbol an ideograph. The scribes created thousands and thousands of ideographs, none of which looked like the ideas they represented. And now you did have to go to school to learn to read. Someone had to tell you what all of these ideographs meant. And it wasn't easy learning the meanings of thousands of these strange-looking configurations. The result is that literacy was confined to a small body of scribes, scholars, and priests who devoted their lives to mastering ideographic writing and reading. As ideographic writing became more and more complex, the need for a simpler writing system became obvious. The answer to that need came somewhere between 2000 and 1500 BC, when someone, presumably a Phoenician living in the area of what is now southern Lebanon or northern Israel, made a remarkable discovery, one of the most remarkable discoveries in all of human history. He discovered that all of human language, everything we say, is composed of a small number of irreducible speech sounds. And he proceeded to invent a writing system based on that discovery. He thought, instead of using a writing system comprised of thousands of graphic symbols, none of which looked like the things they were supposed to represent, why not create a set of written symbols to stand for the irreducible speech sounds of the language. In that way, we would have an easy means of transcribing the spoken word directly into written form and an equally easy way of translating the written word back into its spoken form. And thus alphabetic writing was invented. All alphabets are based on this same principle. the Greek alphabet stands for the sounds of the Greek language, the Russian alphabet stands for the sounds of Russian, the Hebrew alphabet stands for the sounds of Hebrew, and the English alphabet stands for the sounds of English. Incidentally, the word alphabet comes from the names of the first two letters of the Greek alphabet, alpha and beta. Now, as I've said, All of human language is composed of a small number of irreducible speech sounds. How many irreducible speech sounds do you think there are in English? No, not 26. There are actually 44 sounds in the English language. Then why do we have a 26-letter alphabet, you might ask? Why don't we have a 44-letter alphabet? These are perfectly good questions. Well, this is what happens. When the Romans conquered the British Islands, they imposed the Latin alphabet on the people who lived there, and the local scribes adapted it to their language. The result is something of a mismatch. After all, if you are going to use 26 letters to stand for 44 sounds, you are going to have to make some accommodations. Thus, some of our letters stand for more than one sound. and some of our sounds are represented by more than one letter. For example, our typically English consonant sound th is represented by th. The sound sh is represented by sh. And ch is represented by ch. The letter a stands for at least four different vowel sounds. Long a, as in April or apron, The short a or a, as in cat or bat, it stands for the a sound, as in car or father, and it stands for the or sound, as in ball, fall, tall, etc. Now how does a child know which sound is called for when he sees the letter a in a word? Well, in an intensive systematic phonics program, He has taught the letter sounds in their spelling families. And that's how we do it in alphaphonics. Now, how do you teach a child to read an alphabetic writing system? For hundreds of years, it was done in the simplest, most mechanical way. First, the child was taught to recognize the letters of the alphabet. This was easily done with the alphabet song, or blocks, or other devices. The second step was to teach the child the sounds of the letters stand for. This was done through rote drill. The child was first taught the sounds of the consonant letters, which were then joined with vowel letters. The child was then drilled in those consonant-vowel combinations in column form, such as de-di-bi-bo-bu, de-di-di-do-du, ba-de-di-ba-bu, da-de-di-da-du, etc. The purpose of the drill was to make sure that the child developed an automatic association between letters and sounds, so that when the child sees the letters, he will automatically say the sounds. Developing this automatic association is the essential task in mastering an alphabetic writing system. When that task was completed, the child was then given words, sentences, and little stories which he was expected to sound out. Alphaphonics is a modern variant of that centuries-old method of instruction which produced such good readers in days gone by. I have actually simplified the method even further, taking into account the special aspects of our alphabetic system. Unlike some alphabets, which are completely regular and consistent, The English alphabet is somewhat complex. However, the English alphabetic system is not nearly as irregular or inconsistent as some people say it is. Our consonant letters are almost totally regular. It is our vowels that pose a problem. English is rich in its range of vowel sounds. We have as many as 20 vowel sounds, but only six vowel letters. A, E, I, O, U, and Y. Why, of course, doubles as both a consonant and a vowel. Some people say that because of this, English spelling or orthography is a mess. Again, it is not nearly as difficult or messy as some people think. The problem is that many people simply do not take the time or make the effort to learn our spelling system. English is a rich language which has incorporated many foreign words and spellings. It is a constantly growing language, adding new words all the time. Also, pronunciations and regional accents have changed over the centuries, but not the spellings, and therefore we have a lot of archaic spellings. Some people have proposed simplifying our spelling by getting rid of all these archaic, eccentric spellings. They want written English to be totally regular and phonetic in its spelling forms. Now this may be a laudable goal, but if we did that, then all of the tradition and history and etymology that is contained in our spelling would be lost. I think it is worth the extra effort in learning our alphabetic system to keep that tremendous depository of information about the origins and history of our language intact. In any case, learning to read English is not difficult. Children have been doing it successfully for centuries. And the reason why so many children in our schools today have so much trouble learning to read is because of the faulty teaching methods used. Back in the days when alphabetic phonics was the prevalent method of teaching, virtually every child learned to read. We must remember that the invention of the alphabet not only made ideographic writing obsolete, it permitted a tremendous expansion of vocabulary, because now there was a writing system that could easily accommodate new words and new ideas. Alphabetic writing made it easy for the multitude to become literate. Instead of having to remember the configurations of thousands of ideographs, All one had to do was learn the sounds of a small number of letters. And so we must regard the alphabet with great awe, respect, and even love. It permitted human beings to do so much more with so much less. It is civilization's prized possession. It stands to reason that a thorough knowledge and understanding of the English alphabetic system will enable a pupil not only to read well, but also to spell well. We often forget that our writing system is a two-way process to be used both for reading and writing, decoding and encoding. And a pupil must become proficient in both in order to be truly literate. Knowledge alone, however, does not lead to reading fluency. To gain fluency requires all of the techniques used in developing a skill to the point where it seems effortless. Practice, frequent use, drill, review, etc. Alphaphonics makes full use of all of these proven techniques of learning. Moreover, it teaches in a logical, systematic way, facts about our alphabetic system, which are usually taught rather haphazardly, if at all. And it makes these facts Operating knowledge for the student who wishes to learn to spell accurately and enlarge his or her vocabulary. Our alphabetic system. The English alphabetic system may be complex, but it can be taught and it ought to be taught. We have an alphabetic system of great range and flexibility. Our spellings reveal much about the history and development of our language. And once the eccentricities of the system are learned, they are learned. They do not change. The reward for learning this system is to have for one's personal use and enrichment the entire body of our published literature. Such a literary treasure is indeed the priceless inheritance of everyone who can read. Our English alphabetic system is complex for a variety of reasons. One, It uses 26 letters to stand for 44 sounds. 2. It uses 5 vowel letters to stand for 21 vowel sounds. 3. Many consonant letters stand for more than one sound. 4. Some sounds, particularly the long vowel sounds, are represented by more than one spelling. 5. The invasions of foreign languages have enriched English but complicated its spellings. Sixth, pronunciations have changed over the centuries, but the spellings have not, creating many irregularities. Despite all of this, our system is more than 85% consistent or regular, with most of the irregularities consisting of variant vowel spellings. In devising this instruction program, we have taken all of the above into account, Therefore, we start out by teaching the pupils the short vowels, which are the most regular in spelling, in conjunction with the consonants. Then we teach the consonant blends, final blends first, then the initial blends. Last, we teach the long vowels in their great variety of spelling forms. Thus, we proceed from the simple to the complex in easy stages, giving the pupil plenty of practice and drill along the way. The pupil learns to read and spell in an orderly, systematic, logical way, as well as to pronounce the language with greater accuracy. It should be pointed out that promised instruction helps in the development of good diction. To some teachers, this will seem like an overly academic way to teach reading. And it is, on purpose. because we want the pupil to learn to enjoy using his or her mind. Teaching the alphabet. The fastest and most efficient way to teach the alphabet is to have the child repeat it after you in alphabetical order while you point to the letters. Thus the child learns the alphabet both orally and visually at the same time. Usually the oral learning will be faster than the visual since the oral alphabet when repeated often enough is learned almost like a melody or a poem. The alphabet lends itself easily to this kind of learning since it can be broken up into rhythmical and rhyming lines as follows. A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S P-U-V-W-X-Y-Z. It will take some time before the child's visual learning catches up with his or her oral knowledge. Indeed, some children learn to recite the alphabet perfectly long before they are able to identify all of the letters at random. This is perfectly normal since the child has had much oral practice learning to speak the language. However, now he or she is required to do highly precise visual learning, which may take some getting used to, especially if the child has had little exposure to print. Children with photographic memories will learn visually much faster than those not so favorably endowed. The slowest learners will be those with weak visual memory. These children will benefit most from simple alphabetic exercises, such as repeating the letters at random, several at a time, as in the pre-reading alphabet exercises on page 159 of Alphaphonics. Both oral and visual learning of the alphabet should be accompanied by kinesthetic learning. That is, by having the pupil draw the letters in both capital and lowercase forms. Drawing the letters will help the child learn their different shapes more thoroughly. A lined notebook should be used by the pupil for doing this work. Another effective way for the child to learn to identify letters at random is to ask him or her to pick out specific letters from advertisements in newspapers and magazines. In this way, the pupil learns to recognize the letters in different sizes and typefaces. This is also a good way to check on the child's vision. Pictures are not necessary in teaching the alphabet if you do it in the systematic manner prescribed in this program. The picture the child should be looking at is the letter itself, not an apple or a bumblebee or an elephant. Pictures are a distraction that can only delay learning the alphabet directly as a set of graphic symbols. We make this point because shortly after the letters are learned, the pupil will be taught to associate them with speech sound, and this is very crucial. A letter is a symbol of a sound. It is not the symbol of anything else. The letter is supposed to simulate the mouth, lips, and tongue to make particular sounds. It is not supposed to make the pupil think of an apple or an elephant. He or she must translate groups of letters into speech, and the pupil will be able to do this more readily the better he or she associates the letters with sound. A word of caution. When a pupil is having uncommon difficulty learning or mastering any phase of the instruction, do not become impatient and do not scold. Analyze and try to pinpoint the cause of the difficulty. You may simply have to take more time than you thought necessary. Some students take a year to master what others can master in a month. Remember, the goal is not to win a race, but to teach a person to read, no matter how much time it takes to do the job well. Teaching the letter sounds. Assuming that the pupil has learned the alphabet, we are now ready to teach the letter sounds. The pupil's knowledge of the alphabet does not have to be letter perfect, before we move on to this next phase for the simple reason that the students will learn the letters better as they are used. When you are ready to teach the letter sounds, you might explain to the students something about how and why the alphabet was invented. Older students are usually quite fascinated to learn that the entire English language is made up of only 44 irreducible speech sounds. Try as possible to appeal to the learner's intellectual curiosity. You never know what kind of a response you will get. Pupils are very sensitive about their ability to learn. This is particularly true of remedial students whose self-esteem has been badly battered by failure. A learning block or handicap is not a reflection of basic intelligence. We all know of highly intelligent people who have trouble doing simple arithmetic. We also know that many so-called dyslexics are very bright and articulate, therefore always appeal to a pupil's basic intelligence. When teaching younger pupils the letter sounds, you might simply say, now we are going to learn the sounds the letters stand for, so that you can put the letters to work for you. Each letter stands for a different sound. you will be able to read words by knowing the sounds the letters stand for. The essence of what you want to convey to the pupil is that letters have meaning, they stand for sounds, and that the letters in a written word tell the reader how to say it. In teaching the letter sounds, it is important to convey the idea that the distinct sounds of our language can be isolated and represented by written symbols. Obviously, the alphabet was invented by someone who spoke clearly and heard clearly and could distinguish between the fine differences of speech sounds, between the T and the D, between S and Z, M and N, short A and short E. But a pupil's attunement to speech sounds may not be very sharp. In fact, some pupils may articulate very poorly. and require a good deal of work to improve their pronunciation. Therefore, spend as much time as is needed to sharpen your pupil's attunement to the isolated, irreducible speech sounds of our language as you teach the letter sounds. Be sure to pronounce all words clearly. The alphabet is a tremendously exciting invention based on a great discovery. that all of human language is composed of a small number of irreducible speech sounds. In teaching the alphabet, you can convey to your pupil the excitement of this great discovery and the marvelous invention based on it. You say, did you know that every word you speak can be put down on paper? That's pretty exciting. And that's what you are going to learn to do, to put down on paper every sound of speech you make. Thus you've established the concept of a set of written symbols representing speech sounds. This is the association you want to establish in the pupil's mind, that letters on paper stand for sounds that he can make with his voice, and that the sounds he makes can be put down on paper by way of letters representing them. Some practical suggestions. This book has been designed to be used as both a tutoring and a classroom test. If the classroom teacher has only one copy of alpha phonics, then the pupil should be provided with lined notebooks in which to copy lessons from the board. Ideally, each pupil should have his own copy of alpha phonics, plus a notebook in order to facilitate the assignment of homework. This would also reduce the need for time-consuming board work by the teacher and costly duplicating. Tutored pupils should also, whenever possible, have their own copies of alphaphonics for homework and reference use. The pupil should also have a lined notebook for practicing cursive writing, for spelling exercises, vocabulary lists, and sentence writing. It is advisable to assign some written homework after each tutoring session. The purpose of homework is to speed up the acquisition, retention, and improvement of skills. The amount of homework should depend on the amount of time between sessions. Although the lesson instructions have been written from a classroom viewpoint, a tutor will find them easily adaptable for one-on-one teaching. Simply substitute pupil for class, and that's what I will be doing in this recording. Cursive writing. Now that you are about to teach the pupil the letter sound, that is to read, you should also start teaching the pupil to write in cursive. In other words, writing in cursive should be taught in conjunction with reading. There is no need to spend a year or two forcing a child to perfect his or her print script or manuscript, as it is called, before switching to cursive. Actually, cursive is easier to learn than ball-and-stick print script. In addition, if a child is forced to perfect print script in the first two years of formal learning, he or she will develop habits of holding the pen and printing the words in ways that may make it impossible to develop a good cursive handwriting later on. Back in the days when I attended primary school in the early 1930s, everyone learned cursive in the first grade. No one was taught to print as handwriting. Printing was taught years later in art class for poster making. It was never taught as handwriting. Cursive is quite easy. There are only three movements in all of cursive. The undercurve, the overcurve, and the up and down. The undercurve and overcurve are merely the two halves of an oval. Cursive is easier than print script because less muscular effort is needed. It is also a faster and less tiring form of writing. Also the end of one letter tells you how to begin the next. In short, cursive is easier to learn than print script. Besides, if you can write cursive, you will be able to read someone else's cursive as well. The development of good penmanship should be an integral part of your primary program. On page 158 of Alphaphonics, you will find a sample cursive alphabet. My book, How to Tutor, has a complete section on cursive writing instruction. I suggest that you get a copy of the book and use it in conjunction with Alphaphonics. It is important to help your child learn to write correctly from the very beginning. For it is far easier to inculcate a good habit than it is to break a bad one. Teach the child how to hold the pen correctly, how to tilt the paper correctly, and how to form the letters correctly. Children want to know how to do these things correctly because they want to master whatever it is they are learning. They want to succeed. Always instruct in a kindly, soft-spoken, direct way. Above all, always be patient. It is always possible that your instruction is not clear or easy to understand. You cannot teach something which you yourself don't know. If you have any doubts about how to teach something, consult with an expert. Get sound guidance. If you would like my advice, simply write to the publisher of Alphaphonics, the Paradigm Company, whose address is on the copyright page of the book. And now we are ready to start teaching the lessons. Lesson one. We start by introducing the pupil to the short a, the a sound, in conjunction with five consonants, m, n, s, t, and x. Have the pupil say, ah, and tell him or her that this is the short a, and that the letter a stands for the ah sound. Then introduce the consonant letter m, and tell the pupil that m stands for mm. Then explain that if you put the ah together with the mm, you get the word am. The letter sounds by themselves have no meaning, but when they are put together they make a word. Use the word am in a sentence so that the pupil will realize that the word being read is a word he or she uses very often. Then introduce the letter n and tell the pupil that it stands for nn. Then show how the two letters, when put together, Make the word an. A plus n equal an. Again, show how the word is used in a spoken sentence. Next, introduce the letter s and the sound it stands for. Actually, the letter s stands for two sounds, hard s and soft s, which is more like z. The pupil will have no difficulty knowing which S sound is called for, since the words being learned are already in his or her speaking vocabulary. The pupil has heard the word as many times, and you can use the word in a sentence to demonstrate this. Next, introduce the letter T and its sound. If you want to make sure that you've isolated the sound sufficiently, Simply repeat it as it sounds at the end of the word at. Again, demonstrate how you create this word by putting these two sounds together. At. Show how the word at is used in everyday speech. Finally, introduce the letter x and its sound k. Actually, x stands for the same sound as ks. If you listen closely, you will hear the KS together. At this point, we are only interested in getting the pupil to articulate the sound that X stands for. Later on, he or she will learn about the similarity between X and KS. Explain what an axe is and use it in a sentence. Now have the pupil read the five words. am, an, as, at, x. Explain that each word has two letters standing for two sounds. Have the pupil spell each word and articulate the two sounds in each word. In this way, he or she will understand that we use the letter names to spell the words, but we articulate the sounds the letters stand for when we sound out. a word. In other words, there is a difference between the letter names and the sounds the letters stand for. Most of the letter names suggest the sounds the letters represent. This is very helpful when learning to spell. When you're satisfied that the pupil knows these letter sounds sufficiently well, explain that there are two kinds of letters in the alphabet, vowels and consonants. A is a vowel, and M, N, S, T, and X are consonants. The other vowel letters are E, I, O, and U. Tell the pupil that the letter Y doubles as a consonant and a vowel, but that he or she will learn more about that later on. Explain that the vowels are the most powerful sounds in our speech, and therefore the most powerful letters in our alphabet. because you can't have a word without one. Consonants need vowels in order to make words. They never stand alone. You needn't elaborate at this point. All you want to do is make the pupil aware of the two classes of letters, vowels and consonants. By now the pupil has learned a great deal. He or she will begin to hear words with a greater awareness of their different sounds. The pupil will realize that the letters on a printed page represent speech sounds and that they are printed in a left-to-right sequence because that is the same sequence in which the sounds are spoken. The five words can be printed on cards and flashed to the pupil in short drills to help develop quick recognition. You should also start teaching the pupil how to write these letters and words in cursive. and have the pupil fill a page or two with these letters and words for homework. Practice is important in developing good handwriting. Of course, make sure that the pupil holds the pen correctly, tilts the paper or notebook correctly, and forms the letters correctly. Refer to my book, How to Tutor, for more detailed instructions. Lesson two. Usually you can proceed into Lesson 2 in the same tutoring session as Lesson 1, for the latter is learned quite easily by most pupils. However, if there is a break between the lessons, do a quick review of Lesson 1 before proceeding into Lesson 2. When that is done, then take the word am and put a capital S in front of it. Explain that you've just made a new word, And ask the pupil if he or she can figure it out by sounding it out. The word is the name Sam. Ask the pupil how many sounds are in that word. Then have the pupil articulate the three sounds in the order they are printed. Explain that we use a capital S at the beginning of the word Sam because it is a proper name and all proper names begin with a capital letter. Repeat the procedure with the other words in the lesson. The M placed in front of an produces man. The S placed in front of at produces set. The T placed in front of acts produces tax. Explain what a tax is. Introduce the letter H. It stands for the sound at the beginning of hat. Place the letter H in front of as, and it gives us the word has. Lesson 3. In lesson 3, all of the words learned in lessons 1 and 2 have been arranged in their spelling families. Have the pupil read them. Note that we have added the word hat to the at family by simply placing the letter H in front of at. Also explain to the pupil that he or she now knows enough words to be able to read and write these two sentences. Sam sat and Sam has an axe. Explain that a sentence begins with a capital letter, whether or not the first word is a name. and that it ends with a period. Tell the pupil that a sentence is a complete thought and that we call the period at the end of the sentence punctuation. Teach the pupil how to write a cursive H and capital S. For homework, have the pupil write a page or two of the words and sentences in lesson three. Lesson four. Introduce the letter D and its sound, d. Show how we can make the word add. Expand add into dad by simply placing a D in front of add. Introduce the letter W and its sound, w. Place the W in front of and see if the pupil can sound out the word wax. Place a capital D in front of an to make Dan. Have the pupil read the two new sentences. Show the pupil how to write W, small d, and capital D in cursive. You may want to proceed directly into the next lesson if the pupil is making quick progress. It is up to you to decide how many lessons the pupil can absorb in the allotted tutoring session. If you are homeschooling and teaching daily, then the sessions can vary from one half hour to an hour a day, plus homework time. If you are tutoring a pupil once or twice a week, Then the session should run one and a half hours long. Enough homework should be given so that what is learned is retained from session to session. Lesson five. By now the pupil should begin to understand the principle behind alphabetic word building, how each letter is used in writing words. Have the pupil read the words in their columns. By using all of the letters already learned, The pupil's reading vocabulary has been expanded to 25 words. Point out that the word was, while in the as, has spelling family, is pronounced was or was depending on local pronunciation. This is what we call an irregular pronunciation. Thus, the pupil has been made aware that there are irregularities in the system. When it comes to irregular pronunciations, the spoken word must be your guide. In the case of was, it couldn't be anything but the way it is spoken. But there is no word in English spelled W-A-S that rhymes with as or has. And that is why children have virtually no difficulty learning the irregular pronunciations since they rely on the spoken language as their source of correct pronunciation. Also show the pupil how the words have been arranged in alphabetical order in the bottom half of the lesson. Discuss how alphabetical order is used in telephone books, enlisting towns on maps, enlisting book titles and authors in libraries to help us find what we are looking for more easily. Teach cursive capitals M, H, and T. Lesson six. All of the sentences in lesson six are made up of words the pupil has already learned. Have the pupil read the sentences. Explain that we place a question mark at the end of a sentence that asks a question. Use the sentences in dictation exercises. For homework, have the pupil write out the sentences in cursive. Lesson 7. Add a final D to the word an to make the word and. Expand and into hand, sand, land. Explain that ND is a blend of two consonant sounds. N and D. N-D. And make sure the pupil can hear and identify the two sounds as well as the four sounds in the four letter words. Introduce the sound of L. L. Then teach the word land. Ask the pupil if he or she can hear the difference between an and and. Show how the word and is used. Have the pupil read the sentences and write them with capital letters at the beginning. Teach the pupil to write the cursive capital L. Lesson 8. Teach the letter L as a final consonant and the capital A. as in the name Al. Introduce the letter C. It stands for the K as in cat. Later you will teach the pupil that C also stands for F when it appears before E or I. But for the moment simply teach the letter C as standing for K. Introduce the letter G. It stands for the D as in gas. Introduce the letter J. It stands for j, as in jam. Introduce F, f, as in fan. Introduce initial L, l, as in lab. And introduce initial N, n, as in nab. Teach the pupil to write all of these words in cursive. Whenever introducing a new letter in cursive, teach both its capital and small forms. Lesson 9. In this lesson, teach the pupil consonant P, as in PAL. Initial T, as in TAB. Consonant R, as in RAN. Consonant V, as in van. Consonant y, y, as in yam. And consonant z, z, as in zag. Have the pupil write all of these words in cursive for homework. Lesson 10. This is a review of all the words learned thus far. The words are arranged in their spelling families. Have the pupil read the words down each column to test the pupil's knowledge of the sounds of the consonant letters. If you wish, you might put these words on cards and flash them to the pupil in drills to help develop quick recognition in random order. For homework, have the pupil write these words in cursive. Lesson 11. Introduce the consonant digraph CK which stands for k. A consonant digraph is a single consonant sound represented by two consonant letters. Have the pupil read the words in the lesson. Also introduce the Q-U spelling form, which stands for qu, as in quack. Note that Q-U represents the same sound as K-W, qu. Have the pupil write these words in cursive for homework. Lesson 12. Introduce the word a, as in a cat, a hat, etc. The word is also pronounced a. It has the same meaning as an, but is used before a word that starts with a consonant. Like an, it is an indefinite article meaning one. Lesson 13. These are practice sentences. Have the pupil read the sentences and then write them in cursive for homework. Lesson 14. In this lesson we have drill columns consisting of words and nonsense syllables comprised of the consonants learned thus far in combination with short a. Many of the nonsense syllables will later turn up in multi-syllabic words. A syllable, incidentally, is a unit of speech with at least one vowel sound. Have the pupil read down these columns. If the pupil has difficulty reading a syllable, have him or her sound it out and then read it as a blended whole. For example, if the pupil has difficulty reading bath, B-A-F, have him or her sounded out as b-a-s, and then blended into b-a-s. The purpose of these drills is to help the pupil develop an automatic association between letters and sounds, and quick recognition of syllabic units. Also on page 19, introduce the letter K, which stands for the k-sound. Lesson 15. In this lesson, we take up the other short vowels. Short e, e, short i, i, short o, o, and short u, u. The five short vowels are a, e, i, a, u, a, e, i, a, u, a, e, i, a, u. Here we teach the five short vowels by arranging them in contrasting spelling columns so that the pupil can both see and hear the differences. Thus, we contrast such words as bad, bed, bid, bog, bud, bag, beg, big, bog, bug, tan, pen, pin, pop, pun. In this way, the pupil will hear the different vowel sounds and see how they are spelled. Teach the pupil to say the five short vowel sounds in isolation. Ah, eh, ih, ah, uh. The aim of the lesson is to get the pupil to associate the right vowel sound with the right vowel letter, to associate the spoken sound with its written equivalent. Lesson 16. This lesson concentrates on teaching the short E. The pupil's reading vocabulary is now expanded to include all of the words in this lesson. Discuss the meanings of words the pupil may not know. Teach the pupil that the letter C stands for the S sound when it appears before E as in cell, C-E-L-L. It also stands for the S sound before i and y. The letter g at times also stands for the j sound, j, before vowel letters e, i, and y, as in gem, g-e-m, and gel, g-e-l. Note that it stands for g in get, g-e-t. Have the pupil write these words in cursive for homework. Lesson 17. This lesson consists of sentences incorporating the newly learned short e-words. Have the pupil read the sentences and for homework write them out in cursive. Incidentally, all of the reading exercises in Alphaphonics require the pupil to read aloud so that the tutor can determine how well the pupil is progressing. One of the benefits of having the pupil write out the sentences is that the pupil becomes accustomed to writing complete thoughts with correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Also, take the time to teach the pupil the rest of the cursive alphabet in capitals and small forms. Lesson 18. Here we do with short E what we did with short A in lesson 14. Have the pupil read the words and nonsense syllables in their columns and at random. Note that many of the nonsense syllables will later appear in multi-syllabic words. Lesson 19. In this lesson, we concentrate on short I words, expanding the pupil's reading vocabulary. On page 32, introduce the PH spelling for the F sound, as in fill, P-H-I-L. Note that Philip is the first two-syllable word to appear in the lessons. Lesson 20. This lesson consists of short eye practice sentences. Have the pupil read them and for homework, write them in cursive. Teach the pupil the use of the comma as used in two of the sentences. The commas help us phrase the sentences correctly so that they emerge as fluent, understandable speech with the proper pauses and inflections. There is a rhythm to speech. and punctuation is one means of putting it in writing so that the written message can represent the spoken message as closely as possible. Lesson 21. Introduce the consonant-diagraph TH, which stands for the TH sound. Ask the pupil if he or she can hear the TH sound in such words as them, this, that, bath, death, with. Have the pupil go down the list of words in the lesson to see if he or she can sound them out without your help. Pupils often want to see if they can do it by themselves. Point out that TH is pronounced in two ways. A hard TH as in this and a soft TH as in them. The spoken word determines how the written word is pronounced. For homework, have the pupil write these new words in cursive. Lesson 22. This lesson is comprised of practice sentences incorporating the newly learned TH words. Have the pupil read the sentences and write them in cursive for homework. Lesson 23. Here we concentrate on short o, ah. Have the pupil articulate the short o, ah, in isolation, and then read the words in the columns. Note that the words off, dog, son, ton, and one have been put in boxes to indicate that they vary in pronunciation from the rest of the words in their spelling family. Again, the spoken word is the proper guide to pronunciation. Lesson 24. The sentences in this lesson incorporate the newly learned short O words. Have the pupil read them, and for homework, write them. Incidentally, when we say write, we always mean cursive. Lesson 25. Here we introduce the pupil to the use of s and es to designate plurals and the apostrophe s to designate possession or ownership. Explain that the apostrophe is used to make it clear what the writer means. Have the pupil read the words and write them for homework. Lesson 26. This lesson consists of sentences incorporating what was learned in Lesson 25. Have the pupil read the sentences and write them for homework. Lesson 27. In this lesson, we concentrate on the short U, uh. Have the pupil articulate the short U in isolation, uh, and then read down the columns of words. Note the words in the boxes. They vary in pronunciation from the other words in their spelling families. Again, the spoken word is your guide to pronunciation. For homework, have the pupil write the words. Lesson 28. The sentences in this lesson incorporate the short U words learned in Lesson 27. Have the pupil read them, and for homework, write them. Lesson 28A. The purpose of this lesson is to help pupils distinguish between Bs and Ds. This is particularly helpful for older pupils who were taught to read by look, say, or whole language and often confuse Bs and Ds. Have them practice reading the words and writing them in cursive. Note that in cursive, the B and the D are written quite differently, thus making it easy for the pupil to distinguish between the two letters. Lesson 29. In this lesson, we introduce the SH consonant digraph, which stands for SH. Have the pupil read the words, and for homework, write them. The words in the boxes, wash, bush, and push, vary in vowel pronunciation from the other words in their spelling families. Again, the spoken language is the proper guide to pronunciation in its written form. Lesson 30. Here we introduce the consonant digraph CH, which stands for CH. Expand the pupil's reading vocabulary to include the words in this lesson. Have the pupil write them for homework. Lesson 31. Introduce consonant-diagraph W-H, fuh. It's pronounced as if it were spelled H-W-U, fuh. Articulate it carefully to distinguish it from simple W, wuh. Generally, there is not much detectable difference in common speech between W-H and W. However, it is important for the pupil to know how to spell the WH words correctly. Have the pupil read the words and for homework, write them. The words are fat, when, whim, whip, and which. Most people, however, say what, when, whim, whip, and which. But don't you think that fat, when, whim, whip, and which sound just a little bit better In any case, English is a living language, and the trend toward pronouncing W-H as W