In this task, students will learn to read the sound /t/ as in tie. This is the first new sound that is a stop phoneme. Be careful not to make any vowel sound after it. It should be /t/, not /tŭh/ or /tĭh/.
Slide your finger past the arrow symbol under the t, saying the sound quickly at the moment your finger passes over that symbol. In the second part of the task, instead of you touching under the sound while the sound is being read, students will touch under it.
This task introduces the idea that students should always say continuous phonemes slowly unless asked not to (even when they appear in the same task as stop phonemes).
This task also introduces students to touching under the sounds in a Sound Review task:
At the end of the task, don’t forget to have the student reread any sounds that required correction.
This task introduces students to segmenting words that consist of two continuous phonemes followed by a stop. Those words are set, net, sip, and lap. (Ran and four are the only exceptions in this task.)
Make sure to produce the initial /l/ sound in lap without a vowel sound before it: /lll/ not /ŭlll/. So, lap should be segmented as /lllăăăp/ not /ŭlllăăăp/). And, of course, make sure not to pause after that initial /l/ sound.
Here’s a note on the final word in this task: four. Consider the words star, stir, and store. Think about the sounds that come after the st-. Linguists often refer to those sounds as r-controlled vowels. They are usually considered to be single phonemes that are composed of two phones. While our program teaches ar and er (and later ir and ur) as single units, we will teach or (as in the word store) as being composed of the separate sounds /ō/ and /r/. This is not strictly precise, but we find that it is a helpful shortcut that allows students to read useful words like for far earlier in our program. Saying the word four slowly as /fffōōōrrr/ in this task lays the groundwork for students to be able to read words like for very soon. Watch the video linked above to hear how that should sound. (Some science-of-reading-based programs take a different approach, but we are not alone in taking this approach.)
Make sure to read the example sentences after each word.
At the end of the task, don’t forget to repeat any words that required correction.
This task introduces students to blending words that consist of two continuous phonemes followed by a stop. Those words are nap, fit, lot, and wrap. Eight is an exception (one continuous phoneme followed by a stop), and full is an exception (three continuous phonemes).
The vowel sound in full is neither the usual short /ŭ/ sound nor the long /ū/ sound. It is the same vowel sound as in pull and push. When we wrote this sound phonetically in the script for this task, we used the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) symbol for that sound which looks like an upside-down omega: ʊ.
Make sure to read the example sentences after each word.
At the end of the task, don’t forget to repeat any words that required correction.
Remember not to say letters' names (or even the word letter) during these tasks but to emphasize the sound being associated with that symbol instead.
