SPIRE Foundations: Sounds Sensible Modifications for Secondary Students

Introducing short vowel sounds

The Objective is to introduce students to the short ‘a’ vowel sound. At this point, students can now begin to read and write CVC words.

For middle/high school students, move this lesson up much earlier in the sequence so you can begin to work on CVC words right away. From there it is easy to get into compound words and even multisyllabic words. Though the other short vowels are not in the Scope and Sequence, teachers could introduce those as well and really get into even more CVC and compound word reading and writing.

Step 1: Listening (3-5 minutes)

The Objective of this step is to help students develop listening skills.

• Rather than the Same/Different Activity, read a book. It can be a picture book, a poem, a chapter book.

• Read aloud and verbally ask some comprehension questions as you go.Engage students in conversation.

Step 2: Rhyming (9-14 minutes)

The Objective of this step is to help students identify and manipulate rhyme. Step 2 is a series of rhyming activities using rhyming cards or phrases or target words.

• Focus not only on the pictures on the words on the back of the card, not on the pictures.

• Move from one activity to the next when it seems as if the students can name 85-90% of the rhymes and words.

Step 3: Segmentation (9-14 minutes)

The Objective is to help students develop the one-to-one correspondence between oral and written language.

Sentence Segmentation: Students need to recognize that a sentence is made up of individual words.

• Use the sentences from the book but add several words (adjectives and adverbs) to them to make them more challenging. Example: “The man ran.” Turn it into “The tall man ran quickly down the street.”

Syllable Segmentation: Students need to understand that a word may be composed of more than one part or syllable.

• Use the words from the lessons (you start with compound words then syllables, then phonemes) but you can begin with more difficult words or use multi-syllabic words from other content areas.

Word Segmentation: Students are working on the ability to recognize and identify individual sounds within words.

• Begin with some of the words in the Teacher’s Guide or right away, use more challenging words of your own, including words from other subjects. Use multi-colored chips to help students segment at the phoneme level.

Step 4: Phoneme-Grapheme Relationships (10-15 minutes)

The Objective is to teach the letter name and sound.

• Don’t use the Stoplight paper, opting instead for whatever type of paper students normally use.
• Revamp the script using other ‘anchors’ (formation directions) besides the red line, yellow line, and green line.

Step 5: Dictation (9-14 minutes)

The Objective is to develop a student’s ability to connect a phoneme to its symbol in written form.

• Sound and word dictation is important to make sure the students hear and recognize what letter is making which sound. To up the challenge, use words from other content areas that begin with that same letter (p, b, t, etc.).

• Students should still get at least 4 of the 5 sounds and words dictated correct in order to move to the next lesson.