1. Color Me Read

2. Agenda Am I short, long or silent? Which part of speech am I?
Blends versus Diagraphs
Prefixes and suffixes in word analysis instruction
Bonus – add color to math instruction

4. What about rules?
If two vowels go walking (in an English word) the first vowel gets to do the talking (meaning the first vowel makes its long vowel sound and the second vowel is silent) – old saying
According to Scholastic’s Phonics from A to Z: A practical guide by Wiley Blevins this rule is only accurate 45% of the time.

5. Say again…
45% of the two vowel combinations pronounce the long sound of the first vowel with the second vowel remaining silent
Other two vowel combinations examples
/ie/ in thief, piece, and brier
/oi/ in foil and moist
/oo/ in both good, book, and zoo
/ou/ in would, rough, pout, and soup
/au/ in taught
/ea/ in wealth and head
/ea/ in break and steak

6. The Many Jobs of Silent e

7. Favorite Info-graph

8. a t a t e Job #1 Silent e makes the vowel sound before it long
The v-c-e spelling pattern vowel-consonant-e
Why are the “a”s different colors? a t a t e

9. Any other examples?

10. Can
Cap
Cane
Cape

11. Bit
Cub
Bite
Cube

12. fin
hop
fine
hope

13. Okay, Enough with the yellow e’s

14. Other Words cut mat not mad kit tap spin rip tot rob pet cute mate
note
made
kite
tape
spine
ripe
tote
robe
Pete

15. Job #2 Silent e can make the c and g soft, as in dance and cage.
When the letter c is followed by the letter e or i, the /s/ (soft c) sound is likely to be heard 96% of the time. Sample exception: ocean
The letter g often has a sound similar to that of the letter j in jump when it comes before a letter i or e about 64% of the time. Exceptions: get and give

16. Job #3
Silent e keeps i, u, and v from being the last letter in a word, as in pie, true, and give

17. Job #4
Silent e can show that the word is not plural (usually the silent e is added after a single s).
To demonstrate how e does its job here are a few examples:
dense would become dens
tease would become teas
lapse would become laps

18. Job #5
Silent e adds a vowel to syllables with the consonant + l – e syllable pattern, as in bundle and puzzle.

19. Job #6
Silent e makes TH say its second sound, /th/, as in teethe and bathe.

20. Job # 7
Silent e clarifies the meaning of the word, as in by >> bye and aw >> awe.

21. Non-phonetic Remember
One reason some words are sight words is because those words break the rules.
come
are
where
shoe
were
one
Non-phonetic

22. What about consonants and vowels?
Black or blue is a great color choice for consonants, then choose two other colors – one for the short vowel sound and one for the long vowel sound (save yellow for the silent vowel).
Yellow can easily remind a learner that a letter is silent when teaching the silent k and w.
When a word begins with the letters kn, the letter k is silent 100% of the time.
When a word begins with the letters wr, the letter w is silent 100% of the time.

23. Silent consonants
Yellow can easily remind a learner that a letter is silent when teaching the silent k and w.
When a word begins with the letters kn, the letter k is silent 100% of the time.
When a word begins with the letters wr, the letter w is silent 100% of the time.
When the letters ght appear together in a word the gh are silent (another one of those 100% utility rules).

25. What part am I? Box of 8 crayons Parts of Speech Blue Red Green Yellow
Orange
Purple
Brown
black
Parts of Speech
Verb (lexical and auxiliary)
Noun
Adjective & determiner
Adverb
Pronoun
Preposition
Conjunction
Interjection
This screen can be used for the class vote.

26. Teachers prefer chocolate and wine as gifts over apples and roses.
You are wonderful.
runs kids skied | the bump the parks both terrain
and
Teachers prefer chocolate and wine as gifts over apples and roses.

27. Clusters Two little letters that blend two sounds.
They stick together wherever they are found.

28. Blends versus Diagraphs
Blends are two or three letters combined yet each sound can be heard
Beginning of words
bl, cl, fl, gl, pl, sl
br, cr, dr, fr, gr, pr, tr
sc, scr, sk, sm, sn, sp, spl, spr, squ, st, str, sw
thr, tw, wh
Diagraphs are two or more letters combining to represent one sound
Most common consonant diagraphs are sh ch th wh ph gh ng

29. Working with Blends
On a piece of paper write the letter clusters like a math problem.
b + l = bl
c + l = cl

30. To Emphasize the Difference
Cluster Blends
Consonant Diagraphs
f + l = fl
g + l = gl
p + l = pl
s + l = sl
s + h = sh
c + h = ch
t + h = th
w + h = wh

31. s + h = sh
To demonstrate the sh sound, I put my first finger to my lips to indicate ‘sh be quiet.’

32. c + h = ch
I demonstrate the ch sound by pretending to sneeze, exaggerating the ch in achoo.

33. t + h = th
The movement to help remember the th sound is to signal thumbs up while accentuating the th in thumb.

34. p + h = ph
Ph makes the /f/ sound
phone
alphabet
graph

35. Prefixes and suffixes
A prefix is a word part added to the beginning of a word.
Learners use the meaning of the root word and the meaning of the prefix to determine new meaning.
A suffix is a word part added to the end of a root word to change the meaning of the word.
Suffixes can make a noun plural, gauge degree, change verb tense, change the meaning of a root word to “one who”, and more.

36. What about the root? Root words and base words are the same.
Image retrieved from on 2/4/17
Base words and root words are the basic part of a word.

37. ing
dis re
s/es
ful ly un
color in ed
tie
help
pre
wind

38. Prefixes The most common prefixes are
un (opposite, not) 26% of prefixed words
re (do over, again) 14%
in (opposite, not) 11% (includes il-, im-, and ir-)
dis (opposite, not) 7%
Once students understand the meaning of these four prefixes, students can quickly define more than 1500 words.

39. Suffixes The most common suffixes are
s and es (to form the plural form of a noun)
er and est (degree – more of (er) or the most (est)
ful
less
er and or (one who)
ed (past tense – to have done)
ing (present tense – to be doing)

40. Add Color To Math Instruction
My first use of color to show a student the different steps of a math procedure was at the turn of the century. (Wow, that makes me sound old.)
Using different colors for the basic operations (+ - x /) helps learners remember which kind of process they are employing.

41. In Division Long Division 039 6 | 234 18 54
Dead blue Monkeys green Smell red Bad black

42. Fact Families
4 + 6 = = – 4 = 6 10 – 6 = 4 3 x 5 = 15 5 x 3 = / 3 = 5 15 / 5 = 3
A best practice is to use a different color for each operation.
Parentheses, exponents, multiplication and division, followed by addition and subtraction always performed from left to right.

43. Properties
Associative
Commutative
( ) = + = +
+ ( ) = =

44. Addition
What happens when we switch the order of the numbers in the addition number sentence?

45. 4 red apples
+ 2 yellow apples
= 6 apples

46. 2 red apples
+ 4 yellow apples
= 6 apples

47. Subtraction - - - -

48. Subtraction
Red is used in stop signs. Students should stop and think when the red minus sign shows up in a number sentence.
24 – – 2 = _______
Use the red minus sign for negative numbers. 6 – ( -3 ) = (my computer only prints black ink in the notes box).