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← How School Teaches Reading Now

How School Teaches Reading Now

Three short lessons for grown-ups on how many schools teach reading today: sounds before letters, blending, "magic e", and the small set of words learned by heart.

Spark & Whetstone · sparkwhetstone.org/learn/how-school-teaches-reading · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Answers are at the end, so you can try each question first.

Lesson 1. Sounds and blending

Most schools now teach phonics: each letter or letter group stands for a sound, and children learn them in a set order. They then blend the sounds to read a word: /s/ /a/ /t/, sat.

Children are asked to sound out a new word rather than guess it from a picture. Guessing works on easy books but stops working as books get harder.

Question. Your child meets the word "ship" and does not know it. What does school usually ask them to do?

  1. Guess from the picture.
  2. Say the sounds, /sh/ /i/ /p/, and blend them.
  3. Skip it and keep going.

Say it back. In your own words: what is blending?

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Lesson 2. "Magic e"

An e at the end of a short word often changes the vowel before it: cap becomes cape, kit becomes kite, hop becomes hope. Many schools call this "magic e"; some call it a split vowel.

It is one of a handful of patterns children learn after the single sounds. Each new pattern unlocks a set of words.

Question. Add a "magic e" to "pin". What word do you get?

  1. pine
  2. pen
  3. pinn

Say it back. Say it back: what does a "magic e" do?

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Lesson 3. Heart words and decodable books

Some common words have a part that does not follow the patterns yet taught: said, was, the. Schools often call these heart words, because the tricky part is learned by heart while the rest is sounded out.

Early reading books are often decodable: they use only the sounds and patterns the child has learned so far. A book that feels very simple to a grown-up may be exactly the right practice.

Question. What is a decodable book?

  1. A book with no words.
  2. A book that uses only the sounds a child has learned so far.
  3. A book for grown-ups to read aloud.

Say it back. In your own words: what is a heart word?

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At the table: Sound buttons

Players: a grown-up and a child, 4 to 7. You'll need: paper and a pencil.

  1. Write a short word, like "chip".
  2. Draw a dot under each sound: one under ch, one under i, one under p.
  3. The child touches each dot and says its sound, then sweeps a finger under the word to blend it.
  4. Swap: the child writes a word and draws the dots for you.

Answers

  1. Say the sounds, /sh/ /i/ /p/, and blend them. — They say each sound, including the two-letter /sh/, and blend them into "ship".
  2. pine — pin + e = pine: the e changes the short i into the long i.
  3. A book that uses only the sounds a child has learned so far. — A decodable book is made of sounds and patterns the child already knows, so they can read it by sounding out.