Author: Elaine Kirn-Rubin
Suitable for: 3-8, Secondary, Young Adult, Adult
What They Are: 78 pages of instructional presentations, 46 letter and word puzzles to solve, Solutions, Reference Lists, and even Game Boards that elicit words with regular, targeted phonics patterns in stressed syllables rather than random vocabulary
Why You Need Them: Even in lessons in word-level reading (decoding), phonics, pronunciation, and vocabulary, new readers and beginning language students are eager for the motivation and engagement of "learning through doing." There's a natural impetus to solve puzzles through letter identification, deletion, addition, and manipulation; these tasks work in language teaching and learning!
Get learners to continue practicing the names, order, and writing of the 26 alphabet letters with activities called "Letter Lines," "Letter Spaces," "Letter Finds & Counts," "Letter Words," and "Initial Letter Sounds." There are also Letter-Cards to cut out and arrange, as well as printing (manuscript) practice.
Reinforce the essential concept of sounds spelled by letters with explanatory info, explicit directions on what to do, Letter-Sound equivalents with Examples in SideBar Charts, and "Beyond-the-Puzzle Challenge" activities. On four individual pages each, the subject matter of Consonants, Vowels, Syllables is further divided into these subtopics:
• Initial Consonants • Final Consonants • Consonant Combinations • Simple Vowel Sounds • Complex Vowel Sounds • All Vowel Sounds • Closed Syllables • Open vs. Closed Syllables • Two-Syllable Words
Deliver skills-based knowledge--and inspire application--of regular Sound-Letter Correlations through Word Play of 12 Puzzle Types:
• Word Find • Criss-Cross • Linked Words • Letter Choices • Word Maze • Switched Letters • So What's Different? • Meaning Categories • Letter Connect • Letter Jumble • Letter Blocks • Rebus Crossword
What They Can Help You Do:
Further develop students' reading & speaking skills by leading them to "right answers" through discovery of patterns; augment their sense of comfortable confidence when they apply these to the previously frustrating "complexity" of American English sound vs. letters relationships; encourage them to show what they can do by simply following the instructions of pleasurably illustrated, relaxing puzzle formats
Accelerate learning with Reference Puzzle-Word, Syllable-Spelling, & Rhyming-Word Lists. These laboriously compiled, relatively complete, reproducible sound and word collections can supply material for an endless variety of educationally-productive lessons, activities, and games.
English
Français