Junior High Phonics - III
The final step in the phonics lesson plan for older students is to add three exceptions to the Main Rule of chunking after each vowel sound, followed by a summation. These Lessons are listed below. They can be accessed from the Table of Contents of the Junior High Phonics Course.
Lesson 7: Exception 1 - Markers
Lesson 8: Exception 2 - Double Consonants
Lesson 9: Exception 3 - “Hard to Say”
Lesson 10: Summing Up
I’ve tried to get all of the necessary steps added to the Junior High Phonics Course as quickly as I could, and as I said earlier, I’ll no doubt be making some changes later. In addition, if you decide that you want to try this with your students, bear in mind that you’ll have to judge for yourself how much additional time to set aside for reviewing the concepts taught earlier in the lessons.
I do believe that the best way to review this information, once you’ve taught it to your class, is to just continue to use it. this is quite easy to do if you introduce new vocabulary in an organized manner as it’s encountered. All you have to do is make sure and write the words on the board, define them, and then chunk them according to the procedures being laid out in the Junior High Phonics Course and your students will then be getting a continuous review of the chunking process that they can then apply to other unfamiliar words they encounter in their content-area reading.
This method is exceptionally effective, and it builds confidence because it is so straightforward and easy to use. Over time you will see your students’ code knowledge increase as well, since you will continually be pointing out the sounds represented by the various letters and digraphs in the vocabulary words.