OnTrack Reading

Preparation: Write the Main Rule on the board.
Write the Rule of c on the board
Write on the board: “Digraph: Two letters representing one sound.”
Select words from the word list in this Lesson Plan.

Class time elapsed: 0 minutes

Review the Rule of c by discussing it and having the students repeat it aloud.

Class time elapsed: 1 minute

Introduce the concept of a digraph by pointing to the definition and reading it.

Write the word ship on the board and underline the sh.

Ask someone to say the separated sounds in ship.

Tell the class that sh is one sound, represented by the digraph sh.

Write the word chip on the board.

Ask someone to say the separated sounds in chip.

Underline the ch in chip and tell the class that ch is one sound, represented by the digraph ch.

Write the word chance on the board.

Point to the letter c near the end of the word and ask what sound it is, /s/ or /k/. Refer the class to the Rule of c written on the board.

Ask someone to say the separated sounds in chance. Answer /ch/a/n/s/ (four sounds)

Underline the ce in chance and say that it is just another digraph, this time representing the /s/ sound because the letter c is followed by an e.

Class time elapsed: 6 minutes

Practice reading words from the list below. All of these words follow the Main Rule and have the letter c in them that must be decoded according to the Rule of c as well.

2-Syllable Words
cement (ce ment)
casket (ca sket)
clinic (cli nic)
civil (ci vil)
fabric (fa bric)
acid (a cid)
comic (co mic)
comet (co met)
citrus (ci trus)
havoc (ha voc)
second (se cond)
project (pro ject)
novice (no vice)
province (pro vince)
justice (ju stice)

3-Syllable Words
citizen (ci ti zen)
apricot (a pri cot)
decibel (de ci bel)
pacifist (pa ci fist)
pelican (pe li can)
specimen (spe ci men)
cabinet (ca bi net)
evidence (e vi dence)
criticism (cri ti cism)
precipice (pre ci pice)
crescent (cre scent)

Class time elapsed: 10 minutes

Note to the Teacher: In this lesson, you get a chance to observe your students segmenting sounds in words, that is, telling you the individual sounds in a word like ship. Some students in the upper grades cannot segment. This really just means that they don’t know the sounds in words because they’ve never learned to distinguish them. If you suspect certain students have this problem, consider administering the segmenting test described in the phonics section of this website. Segmenting is easy to teach if done right, and it is an absolutely essential reading skill if a student is to progress to reading more complex multisyllable words.

This lesson concentrated on 1) continued practicing of the Main Rule, 2) continued practicing of the Rule of c and 3) introducing the concept of a digraph. If a student misapplies the Main Rule, correct as explained in Lesson 3 after the word list on that page. If a student picks the wrong sound for any letter c in a word, refer to the Rule of c by asking if there is an e, i or y after the c.

Next mini-lesson: Testing the Vowel Sound

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