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Learning Gym: Alphabetics Skills: Consonant Sounds

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Alphabetics Skills: Consonant Sounds

Explain

When you are learning to read, you will come across words you don’t know right away. We call trying to figure out these words based on the patterns of the letters decoding. Knowing the sounds of the consonants will be the first tool in your decoding toolbox. If you see “cat” and you know the letter ‘C’ says /k/ and the letter ‘T’ says /t/ then you have a good starting point to figuring out the word.

Click here to download the Consonant Sounds Unit Test Word Flashcards.
Click here to download the Pretest Instructions for consonant sounds.

  Model

Check out these examples.

  1. Learn the sounds by listening to YouTube videos:
    1. Shaw English Online- Phonics Series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnfPDkT01bw&list=PL2IkMHFHWdEr8_OO2K_oIUl6RDs1kMW1B, Videos 1-12
    2. FirstStepReading- English Letter Sounds Video - Lower Case Letters: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqP0giHc6qA
    3. FirstStepReading- English Letter Sounds Video - Upper Case Letters: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLQylDr_Awk
    4. 54321carlos- Consonant Sounds 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIPOGkyx-7I
    5. 54321carlos- Consonant Sounds 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSYJ2jNhaMs
    6. clubenglish- Sounds of the Alphabet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b08tyfNfL7M
  2. Have a coach demonstrate the sounds of the letters for you in groups of 4-6 for you to practice. 

Practice

These activities will help you complete the unit.  They are listed in the order of how helpful they are.

Resource

 What to do
Rewatch Videos a., b. and c. Listen and watch. Say the sounds along with the video. Rewind and repeat sections as necessary.
Test Flashcards 1. Practice groups of 4-6 letters until you can say the sound right away when you see the card.
2. Have someone say the sound and you write the letter for the same group of 4-6 letters.
Focus on Phonics Book 1: The sounds and names of letters and Laubach Way to Reading Book 1 Focus on the keywords and picture shapes. In the Laubach book, focus the most on the first sounds of the key words.
Laubach Way to Reading Skill Book 1 The stories in this book use the same keywords for each consonant sound as the Focus on Phonics books.

Apply

Apply your knowledge: Once you pass the test you should be able to say the first and last sound of most words, and know the first and last letter needed to spell most words. When you come across words you don’t know, try to figure out the first and the last sound.

Don’t forget: Go back through your flashcards once a week for the next month!