How I “Got” the Phonograms Way Back in 1996

I’ve told the story many times about how I discovered the world of the phonograms. In this blog post I’ve gone back to 1996 and pulled out some evidence of what drove me to start using the phonograms. This is a long post because I am sharing a long post from the misc.education newsgroup. I’m sure many of you have no idea what a newgroup is but suffice it to say it was early social media that was totally text based. At least misc.education was.

Just like in today’s social media there was a lot of arguing. And much of it in misc.education was about how to teach reading.

I came out of college a starry-eyed believer in whole language because that is what they taught us. And then the professional education class I took after college was a class on whole language. The lady teaching it was awesome and seemed to be very successful.

However, after teaching for a couple of years and then reading posts like the one below over and over in the newsgroup, I decided my teaching would be more effective if I used explicit phonics.

This post is by Stephanie Manning. I’ve always thought of her as an evangelist. If you read her entire post, you’ll probably see why. She regularly jumped into the reading discussions with variations of this post, although this is more in-depth than most. There were many posts before this one so we are jumping into the discussion midstream.

Let me know if after reading this you get it. It is definitely what caused me to get it back in 1996.

——————————————–

Steph

May 1, 1996

In article <4lpofd$f…@news-2.csn.net>, Er…@microhouse.com (Eric Fowler) says:

>One learns to spell, IMHO, by learning first to read.<

ONE might, Eric. But MANY won’t. You can bank on it. Good spellers make good readers; but the reverse is often untrue. If I were the teacher, I would teach students to spell BEFORE I taught them to read. In fact, I would teach spelling as a MEANS to teaching them to read. And the first words they read would be the first words they wrote by themselves.

I would start this systematic process by quickly, explicitly, and effectively teaching the “Orton” alphabet [see table below and visit our web site <http:www.riggsinst.org> for more information]. Then I would get them writing common English words by applying what they have just learned. As my students worked at this task, they would understand exactly what they were doing and why they were doing it. I would guide them through the process of saying the words that they can already understand; I would teach them to break these words into basic units of English speech; I would help them choose the correct phonogram to represent each speech sound; and I would guide them through the process of writing these sounds down (via phonograms) in a delimited way and place.

After each word was written, I would guide students through the process of analyzing it (teaching them to check for excellence of work, and mastery/application of facts) and reading it aloud (teaching blending). I would help them to apply spelling generalizations to the writing of their words (/c/ before e, i, or y says, “ssss”); and I would teach them a simple mnemonic marking system to use in their future work. For example:

I would train them to underline any multi-letter phonograms. (Underline the “ch”, “ur” and “ch” in “church”. Why? Because the word has only three sounds and three phonograms.) I would teach them to double-underline any silent letters (after identifying, and noting, their purpose–if any); and I would teach them to put a 2 or a 3 above any phonogram which was not representing its first and most common sound. (We underline the “ea” in “break”, and put a 3 above it. Why? Because ea is a two- letter phonogram and it is representing its third sound in this word).

Within a few weeks, my students would have encountered many facts enough times to have mastered them, and they would have absolute faith in their own learning capacities. For example:

WRITING ROAD TO READING first graders can produce the following skills (and many more) after the first 5.5 weeks of instruction. They…

*Listen intently
*Form all letters of the alphabet, correctly, from dictation of their common sounds
*Space letters properly
*Adhere to margins
*Write from dictation
*See, hear, say and write 54 (of the 70) Orton phonograms (phonetic system for correct spelling)
*Know 3 (of 28) spelling rules
*Know 5 ways silent final e’s are used at the end of English words
*Understand the concept of syllabication
*Know the 3 ways vowels “say” their name (long sound) in words
*Use 51 words in correct oral sentences
*Stand and speak in front of the class
*Follow explicit oral instruction AS THEY ARE GIVEN
*Distinguish between what “we must think to spell” and what we sometimes HEAR and SAY in normal pronunciation
*Love good literature and appreciate authorship
*Learn the necessary 1) auditory 2) visual 3) speech, and 4) visual, visual/motor cognitive subskills to prevent learning disorders
*Look forward to writing full sentences which become their first reading (in context).
*Look forward to reading literature which meets interest and vocabulary levels

Please visit our web site for more information on the remarkable writing road to reading.

http://www.riggsinst.org

I include below a phonetic code known as “the Orton phonograms.” The use of this system has been shown to enable most K-4 students to correctly encode (spell) the vast majority of words which they can speak and understand.

A student’s ability to “encode” is the missing prerequisite for success in the early composition work required of whole language students. Correct spelling, from the outset, without sacrificing creativity, takes on even greater significance for teaching phonetics, with rules, when one realizes that primary-level spoken/understandable vocabularies range from 4000 to 24,000 words (Chall, J. 1967, Seashore, R., 1940). We must enable children to encode words they understand as quickly as possible. These skills free them for real creativity, and this road to reading leads to success for all.

 70 “Orton” Phonograms for Correct Spelling

These consonant phonograms were formerly taught in most basal reading methods though not “explicitly” as compiled research recommends. Note that in this method, two sounds for the letters c, g and s are taught immediately and q is taught with u with which it is always used. Only the sound(s) are dictated as the letters (or symbols) for them are written. [The key word(s) shown here are for the teacher to determine the correct pronunciation only. Key words and pictures are not used to teach explicit phonics.]

 b (bat) c (cat, cent) d (dog) f (fed) g (got, gentle)

h (hot) j (jog) k (keg) l (lid) m (mop) n (no)

p (put) qu (quit) r (run) s (sit, days) t (top)

v (vase) w (wag) x (box) y (yet) z (zip)

TEACHING HINTS:

When teaching phonograms to children, teach the sound(s) as they are given in the key words, in the order shown, and with any instructions. It is not necessary to teach letter names at this point since they are not heard in English speech except for (sometimes) the vowels. At first, you are trying to establish the unknown symbols (letters) for the known sounds children have been using in conversation. We sound, “k” “a” “t” for “cat” – not “see-a-tee.” Be sure to use multi-sensory direct instruction at all times (see our web site <http://www.riggsinst.org> for teaching materials in this area).

Next teach the vowels. The multiple sounds as shown in the key word are taught immediately. All sounds are taught in the order of the frequency of their use in English in these and all of the following phonograms. The third sounds of a, o and u are needed early for both spelling and reading of simple words. Note: y takes the place of i for spelling and is used as both a vowel and a consonant:

a (at,ate,want)
e (end,we)
i (it,like)
o (dot,open,do)
u (up,music,put)
y (myth, my)

These following common combinations are not consistently taught in most methods though they are needed for correct spelling. Very often the letter, “r” is taught with the “er” or “ruh” which is incorrect. Spelling errors and poor auditory discrimination abilities are the result. The key words are taught with this grouping since it is the only way to designate the phonogram:

er [the er of] (her)
ir [the er of] (first)
ur [the er of] (nurse)
or [the er of] (works)
ear [the er of] (early)
oa [the o of] (boat)
oe [the o of] (toe)

This next grouping is taught in pairs to illustrate their uses in spelling:

ay (pay) [used at the end of English words]
ai (paid) [not used at the end of English words]

oy (boy) [used at the end of English words]
oi (boil) [not used at the end of English words]

aw (law) [used at the end of English words]
au (fault) [not used at the end of English words]

ew (few) [used at the end of English words]
ui (fruit) [not used at the end of English words]

The common spellings of sounds – “sh” and “zh” – are also taught before the tenth week of instruction in this method:

sh [used at the beginning of a word (shut), at the end of a syllable (push) but not at the beginning of any syllable after the first one (nation) except for the ending “ship.” (friendship).]

ti (nation)
si (session,vision)
ci (special)

[all used to spell “sh” or “zh” (session, equation) at the beginning of any syllable after the first one].

The next group are 2, 3 and 4-letter spellings of sounds more commonly represented by only one letter. Children can fail to learn to read or spell because they don’t know these very commonly-used alternate spelling patterns:

ck (neck) [2-letter “k”]
dge (badge) [3-letter “j”]
tch (catch) [3-letter “ch”]
[all used after a single short vowel]

kn (knee) [2-letter “n” used to begin a word]
gn (reign,gnaw) [used to begin & end a word]
ee (feel) [e – double e says “e”]
igh (high) [3-letter “i”]
eigh (eight) [4-letter “a”]
wr (write)
ph (phone)
gh (ghost)

The phonograms in this last set are rarely taught and practiced in most phonics programs but are essential phonetic information for accurate spelling and fluent reading.

ow (now,low)
ou (out,four,you,country)
ch (chin,school,chef)
ng (ring)
ea (eat,head,break)
ei (seize,veil,forfeit)
wh (when)
ed (started,loved,missed) [the past tense ending]
ie (field,pie,lilies)
ar (far)
oo (boot,foot,floor)
ey (they,key,valley)
or (for)
th (think,this)
ough (though,through,rough,cough,thought,bough)

The compiled research in BECOMING A NATION OF READERS (BNR) states that phonics instruction, preferably, “should be completed by the end of grade two.” Our experience, and considerable empirical evidence, has shown that it is both practical and possible to do this even sooner if a multi-sensory teaching technique is used to teach the sound/symbol relationships “explicitly” as BNR also favors. This can be done in a few short weeks in a “reading readiness” (or hand-writing, phonetics, spelling) phase.

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