Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 122.164.0.106 (talk) at 04:22, 29 August 2007. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Lesson One

Always Vowels: <a>, <e>, ${\displaystyle <i>}$, <o>

1 Our alphabet has twenty-six letters. Some are VOWELS and some are CONSONANTS. The four letters that are always vowels are <a>, <e>, ${\displaystyle <i>}$, and <o>.

2 Underline the vowel letters in each word:

itself√ magics√ rabbits√ favors√

join√ bridged√ asking√ theirs√ bettej√

          knee√	village√       often√ 

3 Now sort the words into these four groups and check them off the list as we have done with itself and join. Be careful: Most words go into more than one group:

Words with the ...

vowel <a>

vowel <e>

vowel ${\displaystyle <i>}$

vowel <o>

magic itself itself join

rabbit better join favor

asking bridge magic often

village knee bridge

favor village rabbit

their asking

often village

their

4 When we talk about letters, we put pointed brackets around them, like this: <a> <e> ${\displaystyle <i>}$ <o>

5 Fill in the blanks. (Don't forget the pointed brackets!) Four letters that are always vowels are <a>, <e>,${\displaystyle <i>}$,and <o>.

6 Underline each vowel letter:

above chance height behind

board whose believe phone

voted regjon important government

7 Now sort the words into these groups and check them off the list:

Words with the ...

vowel <a> vowel <e> vowel vowel <o> above above region above board voted height board chance chance believe voted important whose important whose region behind region

height important

believe phone

behind government

phone

government

8 Four letters that are always vowels are <a> , <e> , , and <o> . Did you remember the pointed brackets? Teaching Notes. 1. You may find the analysis of vowels and consonants here somewhat different from what you are used to. You may find some parents surprised, perhaps even concerned, by it. Generally, we treat a letter as a vowel when it spells a vowel sound and as a consonant when it spells a consonant sound. It is important to make the distinction as we do, also, because it helps make more rational some of the spelling rules. For instance, students will soon learn that when we add a suffix that starts with a vowel to a word that ends with a final single consonant letter preceded by a single vowel letter, the final consonant letter must be twinned: hop + p + ing = hopping. If we don't recognize

© D. W. Cummings January 22, 1998

1:1:2

that, for instance, and <w> can sometimes be consonants and sometimes vowels (as discussed in Lesson Three), then we have trouble with this twinning rule. For instance, if <w> is treated as always a consonant, then it should be twinned in a word like towing, which, of course, it is not. And if is treated as always a vowel, then a word like quiz wouldn't fill the requirements for the twinning rule (since it would have two vowels preceding the final <z>), and the <z> wouldn't be twinned, which, of course, it is. Perhaps the handiest source for more information about how over the centuries some of our letters have come to serve double duty as both vowels and consonants is the series of entries in the Oxford English Dictionary at each letter. See also AES, pp. 207-212. The following optional page provides a quick rationale for making the distinctions that we do in the next three lessons between the vowel and consonant functions of , <w>, and <y>. If you think the students would benefit from this kind of rationale for the distinction-making, you can distribute copies of it to them.

© D. W. Cummings January 22, 1998

1:1:3

Why Sometimes a Vowel, Sometimes a Consonant? Realizing that <y>, , and <w> are sometimes vowels, sometimes consonants helps us make sense of spelling. You will soon learn that when we add a suffix like -ing to a word that ends with a single consonant with a single vowel right in front of it, we must add a twin consonant letter: So if we start with the word hop and add -ing to it, we get the following: single vowel I hop + ing I single consonant which becomes added twin consonant I hop + p + ing

Thus, we get hopping, with twin