As your student reads and spells through future lessons, you may find that Lesson 9 is a good lesson to revisit. A Lesson 9 review is especially helpful if your student:

• Has missed several weeks or months of instruction (spring break, illness, schedule conflicts, etc.);
• Cannot seem to focus on the letters in the words and instead relies on guessing;
• Is struggling to read, to define, or to spell the words on his current lesson and needs a boost in confidence; or
• Would benefit from refreshing his knowledge of the patterns.

Isolate Problems and Instill Confidence Through Review

It is common for students to confuse the letters b and d. Words containing the letter b have been provided at Roman numeral VI of this lesson. For other letters or letter patterns for which your student needs practice, look for words in the word lists that feature these letters and have your student read and spell them. Practice makes perfect, and review builds confidence.

Your student should reread and respell words until he knows them perfectly. If he has to stop at times and slowly sound out the individual letters in a word (for example, “|r| – |ă| – |m|” or “|ră| – |m|,” rather than “|răm|,” this should be considered a word read with hesitation. Practice until your student reads words automatically, without any hesitation whatsoever.

Differentiating the Sounds of Short-Vowel e and i

Short-vowel e is pronounced with more of an open mouth than is short-vowel i. If your student is confusing these two sounds, do the following exercise. Have him touch his index finger to his front teeth and say |ĕ|. Tell him to notice that his lips and teeth are configured in such a way that he can slide his finger into his mouth. Next, have him pronounce the short-vowel sound |ĭ| and mention that with this sound his finger cannot pass beyond his teeth because his teeth are too close together.

With this lesson your student will have been introduced to all five short vowels. Half of the words in the English language are pronounced with these short-vowel sounds. He also has been introduced to 17 of the 21 consonants. These vowels and consonants will appear on almost every page that your student will read, now and in the future. Be a stickler about helping your student overcome troublesome words. Mastery (complete automaticity) is a higher priority than speed. (We will keep reminding you of this!)

The Letter g

For now, your student knows that the letter g says |g|. The additional sounds of g will be introduced in Lesson 71.