Unbecoming Levity :: The First One Shouts Its Name -- Unless it Doesn't

NOTE:
Please create a "reader account"! At present you can post comments anonymously but I may have to turn that feature off if comment spam gets out of control.

I reserve the right to delete offensive comments or spam, and ban repeat offenders.

Recent Photos

Month Archive

Yearly Archives

Topics

About the Author

BADGES AND DOODADS

My blog is worth $14,113.50.
How much is your blog worth?

RSS Newsfeeds

Main Page RSS

Interesting Articles I've Read

Main Page

Previous:	11, 101, 100111001, 110111011, ...
Next:	Name That Movie #15

The First One Shouts Its Name -- Unless it Doesn't

by Abacquer on Mon 29 Nov 2004 07:06 PM EST | Permanent Link | Cosmos

My kid Lynnea is having real trouble in second grade with reading and writing. They don't really teach read and writing the way they did when I was a kid. For example when I was a kid we had a rule that went "Vowel-Consonant-Silent E makes the vowel long." It worked most of the time, and really helped me a lot when I was reading as a kid...

They don't have that rule anymore, but they have a very similar one: "Vowel, consonant, silent e, and the vowel shouts its name." I guess modern phonics has moved away from the concept of "long" vowels and "short" vowels. That's probably for the best, since vowels in English have only one "long" sound and scads of short sounds.

I have no problem with this, but there's another rule they have today that I am quite sure I was not taught as a child: "If you see two vowels together, the first one shouts its name." I hate this rule, and every time I see my daughter getting tripped up by double-vowels, it's because she is trying to use this rule.

I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that this rule should not be taught or should be taught as "If you see two vowels together, the first might shout its name."

Quick quiz, can anyone come up with a word in which OU sounds like "OH"? I can think of a couple, the alternate pronounciation of the word "BOUGH", and maybe the words THOROUGH and BURROUGH... not exactly common words for a kid. Now how many words can you think of in which OU sounds like OW? How about SHOUT, SOUND, ABOUT, ROUND, POUND, HOUND, PROUD, FLOUR, or SCOUR. Many of these are basic words for a kid, and one of them ("shout") appears in the "two vowels" rule they are teaching nowadays. In fact OU appears twice in that rule, the other time it is in the word "you", and the O doesn't shout its name in that word either.

When I was a kid, I remember being taught specific double-vowels, and other letter groups. They stuck to the most common sounds for letter groups, and we gradually learned the exceptions over time.

When I was a kid they taught me "ou" sometimes sounds like "ow" and sometimes like "oo", and that was that. Sure "ou" makes other sounds, like "uh" in "rough", "tough", and "enough", and "aw" in "thought" and "brought", but once past the major sounds, the list of exceptions becomes pretty small.

Today (at least in Neya's school) they don't seem to want to teach about letters, they want to teach about sounds. I have no problem with teaching phonics, but there's got to be some way of getting the kids around some of the uglier letter patterns that are very common. Like for example: GH in ghost, light, and tough.

Today Lynnea was tripped up by these words:

"Maria" which she pronounced MAR-EYE (there's the shouts-its-name rule failing again) she asked if that was another way to spell "Mary" which she knows is supposed to end in Y.
"science" which she pronounced SKYNK (the rule strikes again, and the absence of the "C sounds like S when followed by E, I, or Y" rule also leaves her stumped)
"doesn't" which she pronounced DOH-ZNT (the rule at work again... OE sounds like "OH"... unless it doesn't.)

Sometimes, vowels leave Lynnea so baffled that she just leaves them out altogether. Today I asked her to guess how to spell turkey... her guess was TRKEE. I feel for her, if you want the sound "ER" you can get it with ER (tern), IR (bird), or UR (turn).

Poor kid. I hope that with continued support at home, she'll figure it all out. I would like to teach her about letter groups, but her teacher discourages me from doing so.

Posted to:

Comments

Re: The First One Shouts Its Name -- Unless it Doesn't

by briwei on Tue 30 Nov 2004 11:55 AM EST | Profile | Permanent Link

Screw her teacher. Not literally of course. Clearly, their approach isn't working for Lynnea. If you ask me, these "rules" are just a further dumbing down of education. We have to come up with simple rules so kids can remember. I'd suggest researching different techniques and find one that suits her. Then get the teacher to go along with it for Neya. One size fits all education is good only if everyone learns the same way.

Re: Re: The First One Shouts Its Name -- Unless it Doesn't

by plracing on Tue 30 Nov 2004 07:30 PM EST | Profile | Permanent Link

Taylors' teacher told us at our parent/teacher conference that she likes it when a kid learns multiple ways to approach things, she told us to try every method we could think of, and to use the one that works the best for her...works for me :)

Tom

Re: Re: Re: The First One Shouts Its Name -- Unless it Doesn't

by briwei on Wed 01 Dec 2004 12:17 PM EST | Profile | Permanent Link

What an insightful teacher! And this was PUBLIC school? Perhaps there is hope after all.

Re: The First One Shouts Its Name -- Unless it Doesn't

by JPB on Tue 30 Nov 2004 07:37 PM EST | Profile | Permanent Link

I don't think our kids ever encountered a "shouts" it's name. They sometimes say a vowel "says" its name (which happens to be the long sound). I just asked my daughters to tell me what long vowel sounds are and short sounds are, and they were both able to tell me what they were, separately. So they are teaching long and short here in Somerset.

Also, their rule was always "if two vowels go a-walking the first one does the talking." No reference to shouting. And basically, that is true.

For words like "you" they don't need a rule. It's a sight word, and it's such a common one that they'll learn it by repetition. Many of these problems will simply be resolved through practice. No rule gets you past that.

I don't see any problem working with Neya to find rules that work for her, as Brian suggests. Just let her know that the teacher is going to keep using her rules.

Alternately, just identify the words she trips up on and make those into sight words (obviously, they are going to be sight words for her). Make flash cards and go over them every night. That's what our kids teachers did. We were instructed to put the cards in the sock drawer (or similar frequently-referenced place) and to go over them at least once per day. You'd be surprised how quickly the girls learned these words they couldn't handle -- first reading them and then spelling them.

They still use "kids spelling" when writing their sentences. But reading is a much higher priority than spelling, so I wouldn't worry about any trouble she has spelling. Don't feel bad for her because she can't spell "turkey." Hell, some languages don't write their vowel sounds down at all. As long as she can "read" turkey, she'll get the spelling eventually.

BTW, Two of the examples you give are what would be called "sight words" (one is a contraction) and the other is a name in a foreign language. That's what we call a "stacked deck" ;)

Post comment:

Format Type:
	Convert newlines
	Receive comment notifications for this article
Subject:

Comment:

Comment verification:

Please enter the text you see inside the graphic to post your comment:

You are not currently logged in. If you would like your user information to be displayed with your comment, please enter your login information below.

Username:
Password:

If you would like to post contact information on your comment, please enter your information into the optional fields below:

Contact information:

Name:
URL:		example: http://yourdomain.com
Email:

Please note: email will not be displayed on the site, only for the blog owner. If logged in, URL will only be used.