Instructions for Lesson 52
Review the oo spelling pattern that is in moon, book, flood, and door.
The oo spelling has four different pronunciations.
Review: oo
I – IV REVIEW four sounds for oo. Ask your student to read the words in the lesson. Have him spell them. Continue to chat about their meaning. Is your student reading and spelling all of the words without hesitation? Do you sense that he is confident? If you have even the slightest doubt, take time for more review and practice.
Each new lesson includes previously learned patterns. Spelling will help to cement the reading skill. Ask your student if he would like to reread or respell any of the words. Often, a brief time of reading through a list (up, down, across, skipping around) will boost confidence. Pay attention to the words that cause hesitation. If a specific pattern is troublesome, return to Lesson 51 and select the appropriate Roman numeral word list to practice on (for example, I – III for |ü|, IV for |ů|, and V for |ŭ| or |ōr|).
Mastery of each pattern prepares your student for success in the next lessons. When he has gained an easy familiarity with the pronunciation patterns, he can concentrate even more on comprehension. In some cases, as with homophones and compound words, your student will have to determine which pronunciation has the most fitting meaning.
Reading Mechanics
Use your judgment to decide how much of the mechanics of reading and spelling to explain. Some students benefit from supplemental information, while others only get confused or panicked by it. An adult working through Lesson 1 froze up when her instructor mentioned that the vowel a has more than one sound. At that point in time, this student was not ready for this revelation. A few weeks later, her instructor happened to mention that the |k| sound has six spellings. The student wanted to know all six spellings! (She had been trying to locate a mechanic in the phone book and was receptive to learning that ch sometimes makes a |k| sound.) If your student asks questions, do provide answers. The instructions for each lesson will help you with most questions that may arise.
One young mother was having trouble explaining to her son about when to double a consonant. She asked me for advice. I said, “Tell him that you have to double the final consonant when adding ed or ing if you want to keep the vowel sound of the word short. For example, hop becomes hopped, not hoped.” She passed on this explanation to her son. He looked at her for a minute, looked at the list of words, and said, “OK, that makes sense.”
This curriculum is designed to teach the basics of reading and spelling and word meaning. Grammar and punctuation and certain language mechanics are best handled after the student has learned the basic reading and spelling patterns. Some students will benefit from a discussion about nouns, verbs, sentence structure, order of words, punctuation, verb tense, etc. Others simply will be overwhelmed. Use your judgment. There are some excellent grammar books and online websites that can be used as resources.
Review: oo
I.
book brood room hoof drool good stoop spoon cook proof hook zoom
II.
too wool tooth look brook root wood scoop moon bloom hoop roof
III.
foot zoo crook noon smooth soot boost door door mood loose blood
IV.
flood troop stood ooze do spoof tools booth who hood floor choose
V.
in bin fin sin win Jim pin tin rim him
Challenge Words: goodness midline grapefruit
[good • ness] [mid • line] [grape • fruit]