Teachers, Tutors, etc. - Phonemic Awareness

[PollyannaMom]

Someone asked me a "teacher question" that I'm sure I should be able to help with, but I don't really know how to explain the best answer. It's for beginning readers, about breaking words into sounds:

I know we tell them that vowel sounds count as 1, even if 2 letters make it up - like in "look", and that digraphs - like the ch in "chip", also count as 1. But what about blends? For instance, is "blue" 2 sounds (bl-oo) or 3 (b-l-oo)?

Thanks!

 

[paintnolish]

Do you mean "phoneme"? Have you tried searching it? A quick look for blended phonemes lead me to: http://www.auburn.edu/~murraba/phon.html

 

[Zerosinthecloset]

Did a Google search for "dictionary blue" and it's pronounced as one sylable(sp) bloo.

 

[Lanshark]

Blue is three sounds. A digraph is 2 or 3 letters together that make 1 sound; ch, ck, sh, th, wh, ph, qu (some debate this but Wilson teaches it as a digraph), tch dge.

A blend is different because it is two or three letters together and each make their own sound. UE is a vowel team ( vowel digraph some say). It makes one sound

 

[PollyannaMom]

Do you mean "phoneme"? Have you tried searching it? A quick look for blended phonemes lead me to: http://www.auburn.edu/~murraba/phon.html

I tried searching several ways, but wasn't getting what I wanted. (Thank you for catching the typo in the title, though - I corrected it.)

Did a Google search for "dictionary blue" and it's pronounced as one sylable(sp) bloo.

Oh yes, it's definitely one syllable. This was for a different exercise that's supposed to help kids with phonics, spelling, etc. - They have to "strech the word out", and pick out the different sounds in each syllable. Thank you for taking the time to look up, though.

Blue is three sounds. A digraph is 2 or 3 letters together that make 1 sound; ch, ck, sh, th, wh, ph, qu (some debate this but Wilson teaches it as a digraph), tch dge.

A blend is different because it is two or three letters together and each make their own sound. UE is a vowel team ( vowel digraph some say). It makes one sound

Oh, the UE wasn't the problem. It was the BL - thank you for clearing up that the blend counts as 2.

 

[IDoDis]

When stretching a word out the blends should be separated, and the digraphs and trigraphs stay together. Blends can be two or three letters (sp ---> spr). Digraphs are only two letters (ch, sh) and trigraphs are three letters (tch, sch).

So, the word "blue" would be tapped or said as b-l-ue. Three sounds. The word "shop" would be sh-o-p. Three sounds. Once the child gains fluency with reading blends, he/she can put them together and not have to separate them. Initially though, they are separated.