OnTrack Reading

The two curricula upon which the OnTrack Reading curriculum is modeled disagree on one point. Reading Reflex does not rely on teaching a child pronunciation rules, but The Spalding Method does teach rules.

One rule which will probably help your child governs the pronunciation of the letter c and he will probably end up using it if you first teach it and then emphasize its use when your child is attempting to decode longer words.

The rule is: The letter c represents /s/ before the letters e, i or y; otherwise it represents /c/.

Here are some examples to show you how broadly useful this rule actually is.

cent: /s/ because it is followed by e
city: /s/ because it is followed by i
cyst: /s/ because it is followed by y
cat: /c/ because it is not followed by e, i or y
cot: /c/ because it is not followed by e, i or y
cut: /c/ because it is not followed by e, i or y
class: /c/ because it is not followed by e, i or y
cross: /c/ because it is not followed by e, i or y
back: /c/ because it is not followed by e, i or y (so the ck acts like kk)
scent: /s/ because it is followed by e (so the sc acts like ss)
since: digraph ce is /s/ because the c is followed by e
accuse: both /c/ because neither is followed by e, i or y (akkuse)
accent: first is /c/ but second is /s/ (ak-sent)
static: /c/ because it is not followed by e, i or y

This is English, so there are some exceptions. In the United States, they are relatively few. Soccer would be pronounced sokser if it followed the rule and muscle would be muskle. And in British English, you will encounter many words like sceptic where we in the US have changed the spelling to skeptic to comport with the rule.

Also, to follow the rule we even add the letter k to words like picnic and panic when adding a suffix starting with e, i or y, so we have picnicking, panicked and panicky.

Here is a worksheet that you can use to help your child learn to apply the rule:

Download Reading the Letter C Worksheet

Also, because of the strong tendency in the United States to follow the rule, it can be useful as a spelling rule if you tell your child to spell the /c/ sound with a k whenever the rule would require a c to be /s/. Thus, kitten would be pronounced sitten if spelled with a c, so we fall back on k. Similarly kettle would be pronounced settle if spelled with a c, and kite would be site, so we fall back on the k spelling in both cases. This is discussed further in the Tidbit When to Spell with “k”.

The next Page in this Tidbits section, The Sounds of the Letter g, goes over a similar rule for the letter g, but also explains why it is less important to teach it.

Next: The Sounds of the Letter g, or return to the OnTrack Reading Home Page.