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ELR Software Pty Ltd | ||
eLr - What's New 2019 | |||
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Other years | ||
Sixty three new tasks have been added to the "Systematics synthetic phonics" section within "Reading & Spelling - Early Skills". These new tasks continue our current goal to develop tasks to teach early word reading skills using a systematic synthetic phonics approach. The tasks are organised according to the Jolly Phonics scope and sequence. We have now covered the first seven sets which include the most frequent way of spelling the 42 main sounds of English:
Each of these sets is divided into two subsections. One subsection provides a range of tasks to introduce each grapheme (letter/s), and the second subsection targets all grapheme-phoneme relationships in the sets up to that level. A range of models (activities) are used within each subsection. The WordSound Buttons and WordSearch models encourage the student to sound out and blend the sounds to read each word; LookThenCover and SmileyMan support the student's ability to recall spelling patterns; and MemoryWords provides a fun activity to consolidate automatic recognition of previously decoded words (sight words). A further model, Typing with Phrases, provides sets of decodable sentences which encourage accurate decoding within context, and an activity (rearranging either phrases or words) to consolidate meaning and grammatical knowledge.
Fifty-two new tasks have been added to the "Systematic synthetic phonics" section within "Reading & Spelling - Early Skills". These new tasks continue one of our current goals, which is developing tasks to teach early word reading skills using a systematic synthetic phonics approach. The tasks are organised according to the Jolly Phonics scope and sequence. Currently we have covered the first five sets of sounds - [s, a, t, p, i, n], [c/k/ck, e, h, r, m, d], [g, o, u, l, f, b], [ai, j, oa, ie, ee, or], and [z, w, ng, v, oo (book), oo (moon)]. This edition adds materials for the sixth set - [y, x, sh, ch, th (thin), th (then)].
Each of these sets is divided into two subsections. One subsection provides a range of tasks to introduce each grapheme (letter/s), and the second subsection targets all grapheme-phoneme relationships in the sets up to that level. A range of models (activities) are used within each subsection. The WordSound Buttons and WordSearch models encourage the student to sound out and blend the sounds to read each word; LookThenCover and SmileyMan support the student's ability to recall spelling patterns; and MemoryWords and ConnectWords provide fun activities to consolidate automatic recognition of previously decoded words (sight words). A further model, Typing with Phrases, provides sets of decodable sentences which encourage accurate decoding within context, and an activity (rearranging either phrases or words) to consolidate meaning and grammatical knowledge.
There are no actual new tasks this month. Instead, we've revised, and simplified the Directory for "Reading & Spelling - Early Skills", and completed an update of the quality of all images used throughout eLr.
Following the construction over the last 6 month months of more than 1,000 new "Consonant sounds" activities (to complement the previous "Vowel sounds" section), we've now structured the entire "Reading & Spelling - Early Skills" to have just 5 major sections: "Systematic synthetic phonics", "Vowel sounds", "Consonant sounds", "Other useful groupings", and "Most frequent words". This should provide easy and specific selection of targets for instructors seeking material to specifically target letter-sound training for all the sounds of English.
The update of our images has also been a lengthy process. There are now over 14,000 activities in eLr and some 3,000 separate images. Just over a third of the images are "Picture Communication Symbols" (PCS as used in Boardmaker), and they were upgraded to have "cleaner lines and less ambiguity" in November 2017. We've now done a similar revision for the rest of our "in house" images. When eLr was launched almost 20 years ago, most people used "dial-up" for internet access and we were very aware of the need to minimise image complexity to improve download speed. Our new images have higher resolution and a cleaner look, and for most users with modern browsers there'll be no noticable impact on page loading times.
Sixty new tasks have been added to "Reading and Spelling", in the "Consonant Sounds" subsection targeting spelling options for the /g/ sound ("g" eg get, "gg" eg baggage), the /v/ sound ("v" eg vet, "ve" eg give), and the /zh/ sound ("s" eg closure).
The /g/ sound is a short, voiced, consonant sound: the back of the tongue is placed against the uvular (at the back of the mouth) completely obstructing the sound which is released as a small "explosion" of voiced sound. The /v/ sound is a long, voiced consonant sound: the top teeth are placed on the bottom lip, partially obstructing the outgoing voice. The /zh/ sound is also a long, voiced consonant sound with the tongue, teeth, and lips in the same position as for the voiceless /sh/ sound (top teeth over bottom teeth, tongue behind the top teeth, and lips partly pursed), allowing the voiced sound to be produced on the outgoing breath.
The addition of these activities finally completes one of our current goals, which is to provide activities that may be useful when teaching the letter-sound relationships of the all the consonant sounds of English. There are now activities in the "Consonant Sounds" section targeting all these sounds:
Forty seven new tasks have been added to "Reading and Spelling", in the "Consonant Sounds" subsection targeting spelling options for the /h/ sound ("h" eg hat), the voiced /th/ sound ("th" eg than, and "the" eg bathe), and the /y/ sound (eg "yes"). Within the /y/ sound, we have also included tasks targeting words which start with a /y/ sound but have no spelling representing the sound, eg the word "use" has three sounds "y-oo-z" but the /y/ sound is not represented by a spelling option. Other similar words include "union, unit, unite, usual".
The /h/ sound is a consonant sound which is produced by a partial restriction of the vocal cords resulting in a quick burst of voiceless sound. The /y/ sound also involves a partial restriction within the mouth - the middle of the tongue is positioned close to the roof of the mouth and released, resulting in a voiced sound. The voiced /th/ sound is a long sound in which the tip of the tongue is placed on the top teeth allowing a long voiced sound.
The addition of these activities almost completes one of our current goals, which is to provide activities that may be useful when teaching letter-sound relationships of the consonant sounds of English. There are now activities in the "Consonant Sounds" section targeting the following sounds:
Sixty new tasks have been added to "Reading and Spelling", in the "Consonant Sounds / Other consonant sounds" subsection targeting spelling options for the /l/ sound ("l" eg lid, and "ll" eg bell, collar) and the /ng/ sound ("ng" eg ring, and "n" eg sink).
The /l/ sound is a consonant sound in which the tip of the tongue is positioned behind the front teeth allowing the voiced sound to escape from the sides of the tongue - it is a "long, voiced" consonant sound. To produce the /ng/ sound, the back of the tongue is placed against the uvular, completely stopping the sound from escaping out of the mouth, ie this is described as a "nasal" sound - the sound comes out of the nose.
The addition of these activities continues one of our current goals, which is to provide activities that may be useful when teaching letter-sound relationships of the consonant sounds of English. There are now activities in the "Consonant Sounds" section targeting the following sounds:
Fifty three new tasks have been added to "Reading and Spelling", in the "Consonant Sounds / Other consonant sounds" subsection targeting spelling options for the /r/ sound ("r" eg rat; "wr" eg write; and "rr" eg arrow), and the /w/ sound ("w" eg web; "wh" eg whale; and "u" eg queen).
The /w/ and the /r/ sound are consonant sounds in which movements of the lips (/w/) or tongue (/r/) modify the sound. This contrasts with other consonant sounds which are completely stopped and followed followed by a small "explosion" (eg /p, b, t, d, k, g/), or partially stopped and released as a "long continuous" sound (eg /f, v, s, z, sh, th/). Compared to these sounds, /w/ and /r/ are more resonant, and are sometimes described as a semi-vowel (/w/) or a glide sound (/r/). The /w/ sound is produced by pursing and releasing the lips to partially obstruct the sound, and to produce an /r/ sound, the tongue curls up to partially obstruct and modify the resonance of the sound.
The addition of these activities continues one of our current goals, which is to provide activities that may be useful when teaching letter-sound relationships of the consonant sounds of English. There are now activities in the "Consonant Sounds" section targeting the following sounds:
Ninety new tasks have been added to "Reading and Spelling", in the "Consonant Sounds / Other consonant sounds" subsection. These task target spelling options for the /m/ sound ("m" eg mat, ham; "mm" eg common; and "mb" eg comb), and the /n/ sound ("n" eg net, pan; "nn" eg tunnel; and "kn" eg knot).
The addition of these activities continues one of our current goals, which is to provide activities that may be useful when teaching letter-sound relationships of the consonant sounds of English. There are now activities in the "Consonant Sounds" section targeting the following sounds:
Ninety-six new tasks have been added to "Reading and Spelling", in the "Consonant Sounds / Short consonant sounds" subsection targeting spelling options for the /t/ sound ("t" eg tan, bat, and "tt" eg butter), and the /d/ sound ("d" eg dot, lid, and "dd" eg ladder).
The addition of these activities continues one of our current goals, which is to provide activities that may be useful when teaching letter-sound relationships of the consonant sounds of English. There are now activities in the "Consonant Sounds" section targeting the following sounds:
Forty-nine new tasks have been added to the "Systematics synthetic phonics" section within "Reading & Spelling - Early Skills". These new tasks continue our current focus, which is developing tasks to teach early word reading skills using a systematic synthetic phonics approach. The tasks are organised according to the Jolly Phonics scope and sequence. In previous editions we covered the first three sets: 1: /s, a, t, p, i, n/; 2: /c/k/ck, e, h, r, m, d/; and 3: /g, o, u, l, f, b/. This edition adds materials for the fourth set - /ai, j, oa, ie, ee, or/.
Each of these sets is divided into two subsections. One subsection provides a range of tasks to introduce each grapheme (letter/s), and the second subsection targets all grapheme-phoneme relationships in the sets up to that level. A range of models (activities) are used within each subsection. The WordSound Buttons and WordSearch models encourage the student to sound out and blend the sounds to read each word; LookThenCover and SmileyMan support the student's ability to recall spelling patterns; and MemoryWords provides a fun activity to consolidate automatic recognition of previously decoded words (sight words). A further model, Typing with Phrases, provides sets of decodable sentences which encourage accurate decoding within context, and an activity (rearranging either phrases or words) to consolidate meaning and grammatical knowledge.
Fifty-nine new tasks have been added to the "Systematics synthetic phonics" section within "Reading & Spelling - Early Skills". We have been developing tasks to teach the main spelling patterns for 42 sounds in English using a Systematic Synthetic Phonics approach, and arranged according to the Jolly Phonics scope and sequence. In last month's update we covered the first two sets - /s, a, t, p, i, n/ and /c|k|ck, e, h, r, m, d/. This edition adds materials for the third set - /g, o, u, l, f, b/.
Each of these sets is divided into two subsections. One subsection provides a range of tasks to introduce each grapheme (letter/s), and the second subsection targets all grapheme-phoneme relationships in the sets to that point. A range of models (activities) are used within each subsection. The WordSound Buttons and WordSearch models encourage the student to sound out and blend the sounds to read each word; LookThenCover and SmileyMan support the student's ability to recall spelling patterns; and MemoryWords provides a fun activity to consolidate automatic recognition of previously decoded words (sight words). A further model, Typing with Phrases, provides sets of decodable sentences which encourage accurate decoding within context, and an activity (rearranging either phrases or words) to consolidate meaning and grammatical knowledge.
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