step001.htm/21DEC2001

C-A-T = Cat : Mona McNee Teaches Reading, Writing, Spelling and Pronunciation Using Phonics

Step 1, 2, 3

Click here to hear the sound of cat.(Your Sound Player program window will appear and you can press the play button to hear the sound as often as you wish. If you are working with offline files and your PC tries to connect to the Internet then tell it to work offline as it is not necessary just to play the sounds.)

The class teacher will have a very clear aim for the first three tasks: to learn to read, write and sound three letters. She will begin by explaining that we can have a real cat, we can talk about it saying "cat" and that, thanks to a wonderful invention called letters, we can also write down what we say on paper. She will show how letters are made up of straight lines and parts of a circle:

Straight lines: l x v w z Circle (or part of): o c s and combinations of both.

A b is a line and circle. An s is most of a circle drawn backwards and then most of another circle going the other way. You can take letters to pieces: an h is a straight line down then up, a small semi‑circle over the top and then straight down to the line; and so on. On the blackboard we can draw a large square of 12 small squares, with a letter in each box, and then have ready the same letters on (blank playing cards) letter cards, and ask for a volunteer to find on the blackboard the letter she displays. This will attract the concentration of the class, and can go on until the children grasp the idea and have experienced success ‑ and PRAISE.

The next idea is to show the learners what is the point of letters, how they work. You can read headlines from a newspaper and show how there are spaces between words, or words in the classroom, EXIT, book titles.

At the same time that the pupil is learning that letters have sounds and shapes, that are written in a particular way, and how to hold a pencil, and that letters sit on lines, he is also going to learn the very valuable skill of hearing sounds in words. This is phonemic awareness. On small Is It cards the size of playing cards (You need bigger Is It cards for class teaching), write a 3‑letter word (with a vowel in the middle) on one side and stick or draw a picture on the other. Show the pupil the word, point to each letter (which he does not yet know) and sound it, and make sure he is LISTENING. It is a good idea to start with letters that can continue, like ffffoooooox, or Ssssaaaammmmm so that you can continue the sounds without a break while you point to the letters. I say, "Can you hear what word I am saying slowly?" For the first two or three, the learner may not grasp what he is supposed to do, and you will have to show him that when you sound out ffffoooox, there is a picture on the reverse of a 'fox'. Then you can introduce words like cat where the c is a sharp sound, and extending it would be artificial like stuttering. This is the training in listening to sounds that helps, not listening to “ environmental sounds" like beans or rice rattling in a tin.

Reading, writing and spelling are all learned at the same time.

In a class, at first one or two children (who perhaps can read a bit) will put their hands up, so the others will realise they have to look‑and‑listen in order to join in. When the right answer is given, the teacher turns the card and shows that the learner has got the right meaning from the letters, without seeing the picture and often the pupil looks pleased. I emphasise that in reading it is the letters that matter, not the pictures; pictures are only there to confirm that you have got it right. I work through 6 or 10 cards in this way, and then say the pupils are going to learn how to write words like that, for themselves.

Working with one individual child, a similar process is used with pencil and paper, and smaller cards.

There will be two lines ready drawn on the blackboard about 6" or 15 cm apart (or on a sheet of paper, for individual teaching), one to write on and the other to show the height of the small letters. Does the pupil know what "top" and "bottom" mean?

Direction

Show that the letters "sit on a line", and that you begin on the left side. If a young child has not yet learned LEFT and RIGHT, put a marker of some kind (a paper clip?) on the left side of the paper or a marker by the blackboard, and say, "You start at this side." If this left‑right direction is pointed out at the start, and a finger points out the letters or words as you work, it is usually no trouble. Prevention of confusion with saw/was, of/for/from depends on what you do at the beginning: the left‑right direction becomes automatic. Trouble arises from starting with "whole words" or "whole books".

To start with "cat", show how you draw back‑up to the top line then keep going round to the bottom line and then up a bit, 3/4 of a circle. Show on a round clock how C starts not at the top, not at 12 o'clock, but at 2 o'clock, and goes BACK‑UP and round to 6 and up to 4. Have all the class "draw a C in the air", swinging their arms from the shoulder. Have one or two pupils come out and go over the C with chalk, themselves, and then have the whole class draw a C in the air again and say "kuh". Ideally we would try to sound the k sound without the -uh bit, but it is not easy, and the extra sound does not bother most people.

For the a say "We start with a C, the same movement, again, but this time we keep going, right round and then straight up to the top guide‑line and down to the bottom line, and this is an a. " Have the pupils draw it in the air saying a", the short vowel sound as in cat.

For a t show how there are two beginnings, first a downward one, then a left‑right one, and the cross on the t is the same height as the top guide‑line. With two guide‑lines, the tall letters (except d) start above the top line, and the 'tails' go below the bottom line. When you use the dot‑to‑dot sheet, show how the letter starts at the big black dot, goes the way the arrow points (and explain how arrows work), and when the dots change to dashes the line goes there‑and‑back. If there is only one arrow, the whole letter is completed before lifting the pencil from the page, as in c and a, but t has two starts.

Parents can happily and usefully be involved in this. The guidance is so simple, ‑ that the first task is to learn to write and sound the three letters c..a..t, and to get used to blending them into the word cat.

Before the pupil starts to write, make sure that they have the correct pencil grip the first time they hold a crayon or pencil. The thumb and side of the long (middle) finger do the gripping, with the index finger sitting loosely on top. PREVENT bad habits. If pencil grip is a problem, you can get a good, cheap plastic, triangular pencil‑grip from N.E.S. Arnold of Nottingham or Taskmaster of Leicester. Left‑handed writers will probably need to have their paper more slanted (left side higher) than the right‑handed people.

You will see that the picture of the cat is black and white, and is NOT part of some fascinating story. The fascination is in learning to make letters talk. The picture is only there in case the learner forgets the three letters, and can then remind himself from the picture and not by asking the teacher. Pupils must ask us to explain what they do not understand, but we want to make them as independent as we can, from the start.

Let the pupil go over each letter many times, with his finger, with a pale‑coloured crayon or felt pen, then darker pen. Let him practise on scrap paper. He must go over a letter, look at it, sound it, hear it, all at the same time. He must learn the sound of c as in cat. If you wish him to learn "Cee says k", the name and the sound, you can. In the end he will have to know both name and sound, but at the beginning the sounds are essential.

Let the pupil go over and over the letters until he knows them, writing and sounding. He must also hear that c‑a‑t makes cat; he must be able to hear the bits and join them, and hear that cat starts with the c sound, then a, then t. This work lends itself to class teaching. You can set out the alphabet on the big card, pick out the three letters to make the word cat and then show how you put the letters back in their place. You can do this for all the letters as they are learned.

Get the pupil to sound the phonics c, a, t.

Have the pupil practice writing the letters c, a, t first, using the dot to dot guide above, then on lined paper,

Get the pupil to sound the sounds of the words act, and at.