How Can I Help?

These notes are designed for new teachers and others that want to help their student do well.

The first step is to teach the student the alphabet. Not just how to say it in order.

The names of the letters. How to write them.

And the sounds they make. I'm starting at the beginning because A Beka

has its own way of teaching things.

No One Should be Afraid to HelpTheir Student

I know that you are not an expert at this. I keep track of each student and as head

teacher I add myself to the helpers as needed. Each student will have what we call a “needs assess-

ment” before teaching starts that will be shared. This helps us know where to start and what

we need to spend more time on. Every student gets individual help in problem

areas or their special interests. We start with learning holes or areas needed

to progress to a higher level of instruction.

The A Beka System Has Clue Words

First we teach the short vowels and their clue words:

“a” as in apple “e” as in elephant “i” as in indian “o” as in ostrich “u” as in umbrella

We teach the clue words to give students a sample of the sound.

What if I Need Help?

We have small flash cards to learn all of the clue words with and a CD with the sounds on it.

If you have any questions while using these notes, please contact me at my email or by phone:

jkjackson94704@comcast.net (510)827-5136 This wiki is fine for general questions.

Clue Words for Consonants

'b as in bell

'c as in cat

'd as in dog

'f as in fox

'g as in goat

'h as in horse

'j as in jam

'k as in kite

Clue Words for Consonants

l as in lamp

m as in milk

n as in nest

p as in pig

qu as in queen

r as in ring

s as in sun

t as in table

v as in violin

Clue Words for Consonants

w as in wagon

x as in ax, box, or fox

y as in yarn

z as in zebra

Later we will introduce combinations of 2 or more letters that have a special sound when combined. Each set of sounds also has a key word to use as a memory aide.

There are 2 kinds of letters

Five letters of the alphabet are very special. We call these five letters vowels. Every word has to have at least one vowel

sound. All of the letters of the alphabet that are not

vowels, are consonants. They are used with vowels to form words.

A Beka has blends

A blend is made up of one or more consonants and a vowel.

Some reading systems teach with word families. Word families are all of the words with the same

last letters. If needed we will do that but most students don't need that.

Beginning students are taught blends to combine a consonant and vowel smoothly.

We teach them with blend ladders. There are cards to help with this skill.

Examples of Blends

Blend ladders look like this: 'ma 'me 'mi 'mo 'mu

You can put them on 3”x5” cards and show them in any order for practice as needed.

Words come next

By lesson 4 we are adding another letter at the end to make words.

'tu 'tub 'ra 'rat 'fe 'fell

When students are ready, we teach the one-vowel rule:

When there is one vowel in a word, it usually says its short sound. We mark short vowels with a shape that looks like a smile.

How to Help a Student Sound Out a Word

Given the word “cat”, How many vowels do you see? Which vowel sound does it have? Remember the 1-vowel rule. Cover up the last letter and tell me the blend. Add the last sound.

If the child gets stuck along the way, you know that more practice is needed for that step.

The Other Vowel Sound

The vowels have another sound called the long sound.

The long vowel sound is the same as the vowel's name.

We mark the long vowels with a straight stick. (The long u sound can say its name or the oo

sound as in boo. Lots of practice with both sounds may be

needed for some.

Long Vowel Clue Words

'a acorn 'e eagle 'I ice cream 'o open 'u uniform

Two Vowel Rule

When there are two vowels in a word, the first vowel says its long sound, and the second vowel is silent. We draw a slanted line like this “\” through a silent vowel.

If you go through the questions this time, its like this:

How many vowels do you see? Which vowel sound does it have? Remember the 2-vowel rule. Add the last sound.

Some Letters are Special

We teach that 'l, 'f, and 's are doubled in many words.

Next we teach that when you hear the “k” sound at the end of a word, remember:

“ck” follows a short vowel and “ke” follows a long vowel.

And then we add that in English, “Q” always has the helper “u”.

We don't say more because some Arabic words don't have the “u” helper.

This Brings us to Test 1

We try to help students understand that a Test is a way for the teacher to see how they're doing and not to be feared.

Tests are mostly used to tell us if more practice is needed in some skills.

Sometimes we try another reading program for more practice without repeating the same material.

Each step in phonics builds on the previous one. Reading smoothly is our goal. Some students need more practice than others.