Transcript Unit 2: What Does That Mean?

Chapter 5: Rhymes
Words Skills: Language and Activities
for Talking About Words
Before we begin . . .
Beware of heard,
A dreadful word,
It looks like beard,
But sounds like bird
What is the point of this poem? What are they
poking fun at?
Here is the full stanza from
Pronunciation Tips for Foreigners
Beware of heard, a dreadful word
That looks like beard, and sounds like bird,
And dead: it's said like bed, not bead—
For goodness' sake don't call it "deed"!
Watch out for meat and great and threat
(they rhyme with suite and straight and debt).
Last Class
We began looking at rhymes.
We did an in class experiment where we
tested rhyme awareness among education
majors with a high level of competence in
English (you!).
In particular, we looked at a scene from the
movie Shrek and asked if students could
understand the rhyme-based joke.
Last Class
We demonstrated that rhyme awareness was
quite low (which was surprising to me
considering how competent in English this
class is on average).
I have since done this experiment on my UE
classes and with the exception of two
students who went to high school abroad,
none of the students were able to see the
joke.
Why rhyme?
But, as one student asked, “Why is rhyme
important? And why should we teach it?”
(1)Cultural Awareness: More Access to media such as songs, poems,
children’s literature, and proverbs.
(2) Phonemic Awareness and Skills: The awareness that words are made
up of sounds that can be segmented and manipulated to make new
words.
(3) The ability to organize, memorize and predict in texts that use rhyme.
(4) A Tool for teaching decoding skills: When texts rhyme kids see
patterns from words and are able learn phonetics inductively. As well,
difficult words can be decoded if they rhyme with words that have regular
phonetic patterns.
(5) As a teacher, the ability to clarify pronunciation based on
pronunciation of well-known words. Rhyme also highlights weaknesses in
pronunciation. (World and word do not rhyme for example).
(6) Intrinsic motivation: rhyming is an instance of language at play and
therefore intrinsically motivating.
Reasons to Rhyme #1:
Access to Media
• Though not all songs, poems and children's
stories rhyme, many do. It is one more
dimension for understanding and appreciating
literature and music.
• In Class Task 1:
We are going to listen to the song “The Lemon
Tree” stopping to point out the rhyming
words.
Reasons to Rhyme #2
Phonemic Awareness/
Phonological Awareness
(2) Phonemic Awareness and Skills: The
awareness that words are made up of sounds
that can be segmented and manipulated to
make new words. What are some phonemic
awareness skills?
• A child can hear separate words in sentences.
• A child can hear separate words in sentences
• A child hears syllables in words (ba-na-na)
• A child can hear separate words in sentences
• A child hears syllables in words (ba-na-na)
• A child hears onset, or the first part of a word
(f-ox, sh-eep)
• A child can hear separate words in sentences
• A child hears syllables in words (ba-na-na)
• A child hears onset, or the first part of a word
(f-ox, sh-eep)
• A child hears rime, or the ending of a word (fox, sh-eep)
• A child can hear separate words in sentences
• A child hears syllables in words (ba-na-na)
• A child hears onset, or the first part of a word
(f-ox, sh-eep)
• A child hears rime, or the ending of a word (fox, sh-eep)
• A child hears individual phonemes, or
individual sounds in words
(/c/ + /a/+/ t/ = cat)
A child can identify words beginning with the
same letter sound, such as bear, bat, ball and
bean. This is called alliteration.
A child can identify words beginning with the
same letter sound, such as bear, bat, ball and
bean. This is called alliteration.
A child can reconstruct words by blending
sounds such as /f/ /r/ /o/ /g/ in frog.
• Cleary rhyming is a complex phonological
awareness skill because it involves
segmentation (stripping the rime out of a
word) and then blending with a new onset.
#4 A Tool for Teaching Decoding
Skills
• When rhyme is incorporated into children’s
texts, children are able to see patterns of
similar letter combinations and link them to
patterns of similar sounds. For example, in the
Cat in the Hat, by Dr. Seuss kids can learn that
an A-T has an /AT/ sound.
• Rhyme can also serve as a clue for decoding
words with unfamiliar spellings.
From the Cat and the Hat:
Then that cat went right in.
He was up to no good!
So I ran in after
As fast as I could!
A child who had a good sense of rhyme but
was uncertain of how to decode could might
be able to use good as a clue.
In class task 2
• With a partner, read a children’s book and find
rhyming words in it.
End of Section 1
• The first section of this course, What’s in
word? is finished.
• We have looked at ways to talk about words
with our students and how to develop word
skills in our students.
Review: SHOUT
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Shout is a five-letter word.
It begins with S.
It ends in T. T as in tiger.
You spell it S-H-O-U-T.
It’s another word for scream or yell.
It’s the opposite of whisper.
It rhymes with pout.
It has one syllable.
Review: SHOUT
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It has three consonant letters.
It has two consonant sounds.
It has two vowel letters.
It has one vowel sound.
It has one consonant digraph, S-H, that makes
a /ʃ/ sound, like the /ʃ/ sound in /sheep/.
• It has one vowel digraph.
• It doesn’t have any consonant blends.
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Letters and Sounds
• When talking about the sounds that letters
make use these expressions:
(The) B makes a /b/ sound.
(The) S-H makes a /ʃ/ sound.
Note: make and sound collocate strongly.
Exercise 5-1
• What sound do the letters in bold make?
century
later
knight
philosophy
ocean
Talking About Silent Letters
• Use these expressions when talking about
silent letters.
Lamb has a silent B.
The T in watch is silent.
Exercise 5-2
• What are the silent letters in these words?
debt
island
raspberry
sign
autumn
Clarifying Pronunciation
• Similar to clarifying letters.
That's /b/ as in boy.
That's /k/ like the /k/ in cat
Choose a well-known noun with a well-known
pronunciation.
Exercise 5-3
• Clarify the pronunciation of the letters in bold:
brother
peach
machine
west
saw
laugh