Fun Phonics Kit II
Fun Phonics Kit II includes a Teacher's Manual with suggestions for how to provide direct, explicit instruction in decoding and spelling. The Kit also contains carefully organized Word Lists for the children to read, which contain many words with the specific signal, or signals, that children must notice and respond to. To teach children to decode the words automatically, the Kit relies on reading many words on each organized list. While the children are told each rule as they are taught the pattern, it is not necessary for the child to memorize each rule. Careful presentation and practice of the patterns enables each child to internalize the rule. Kit II also contains charts for the teacher to post, and games and other activities that provide practice and reinforcement.
For Whom Is Kit II Appropriate?
Fun Phonics Kit II continues and expands the skills learned in Fun Phonics Kit I. Kit II is useful for teaching poor readers in second grade or beyond, who have learned the sounds for the letters and can read most one-syllable words with short vowels. Kit II is also appropriate for those who have already learned to decode additional types of one-syllable words, such as those with silent-E, vowel teams, or vowel-R. It reviews one-syllable words with each short vowel to prepare children to read the two-syllable words with that sound. Because of this built-in review, second graders who have not mastered reading words with short vowels can be included in groups using Kit II. Older poor readers, who often resent learning to sound out “baby” words, find Kit II a grown-up way to learn the skills they missed earlier. When children have completed Kit II, they will be able to read most reading material at the end-of-second grade or middle-of-third grade level.
Overview of the Skills Taught in Kit II
Kit I teaches the sounds for the letters, and how to sequence and blend these sounds to read and write one-syllable words, with particular emphasis on short vowel words. Kit II briefly reviews these Kit I skills, while adding a few less common digraphs, and words with longer and more difficult blends. Kit II also teaches children how to read and write most one-syllable words with vowel-R, silent-E, and vowel teams. Some of these skills may be a review for some of the children.
Finally, Kit II teaches children to read two-syllable words. First they read syllables with these sounds. Then they learn to read two-syllable words by sequencing these syllables. Before each set of lessons that teach two-syllable words with particular sounds and particular syllable structures, children review or learn one-syllable words with these sounds, and with the structure that signals these sounds.
Poor readers tend to rely heavily on meaning to help them recognize a word. In Kit II, students begin learning two-syllable words by reading initial syllables that have no meaning. These syllables are taken from the two-syllable words they will read next. This is a hard task for many children. Next, they read columns of ending syllables. Because the second syllable in a two-syllable word is usually unaccented, the sound of the vowel in these second syllables is often different from the sound it had in a one-syllable word.
This process of reading each set of syllables separately immediately before reading the words that combine these beginning and ending syllables helps children learn syllabification. They learn to divide longer words into syllables with their eyes, and to read the syllables in order before they search for a meaningful word.
Kit II includes writing activities that help children learn to sound out words. They include spelling lists and sentences for dictation to accompany the early, short vowel words, which can be spelled by following the sounds. When children begin to learn to decode words with long vowels and vowel-R sounds, they are taught that they must memorize how most words are spelled. Vowel Sound Books help with this task by organizing words by common spelling patterns, reinforcing the phonic lessons being taught. Writing words in these Vowel Sound Books helps children learn to remember which of several common patterns apply, rather than “spelling by sound,” and it helps them learn to picture the words visually.
