TESOL Conference 2016 Presentation Handout; Heidi Hyte Sonnenberg

1. TESOL Conference — Baltimore, Maryland
Friday, April 8, 2016
Letter Group 1: A/a B/b F/f D/d G/g
Letter Group 2: H/h J/j L/l M/m E/e
Letter Group 3: N/n P/p R/r S/s O/o
Letter Group 4: T/t V/v W/w X/x Y/y U/u
Letter Group 5: Q/q Z/z C/c K/k I/i
Objective: To reinforce literacy skills taught and practiced; to promote phonemic awareness
by having students follow directions and identify rhyming words, vowel sounds, consonant
sounds, etc.
To play: Dictate vocabulary, letters, sounds, etc. for students to write on the board. Instruct
students not to erase words until they are told to do so as these words will be used to play
this game. Students erase words as they are instructed to do so based on the instructions you
give. Following are some ideas:
1. Say a word that rhymes with one that students have written on the board. Have students
erase the word that rhymes.
2. Have students erase the word that has the same vowel sound as a word you say.
3. Have students erase the word on the board that ends with the same letter as a word you
say.
4. Have students erase the word that starts with the same letter as a word you say.
5. Have students erase the word that is the opposite of a word you say (antonyms).
6. Use a word on the board in a sentence, and have students erase the word they hear.
7. Give a riddle or clue as to which word should be erased.
8. Give the definition of the word to be erased.
9. Have a student pick a word and use it in a sentence. Then everyone erases that word.
10. Have students erase letters or words in alphabetical order.
11. Have students erase the word that means the same thing as the word you say
(synonyms).
C K
a i
o e
u

2. 2
L — 6 bl cl fl gl pl sl
R — 7 br cr dr fr gr pr tr
S — 8 sc sk sl sm sn sp st sw
+5 scr spr str spl squ and 2 extra blends: tw dw
Objective: To promote rapid identification of sounds, letters, sight words, vocabulary, etc.
Materials: One flyswatter for each team.
Preparation: Write five or six words, letters, or sounds on the board.
To play: Divide the class into two teams. Call one player from each team to come to the
board and equip each player with a flyswatter. Call out one of the words, letters, or sounds
written on the board. The first player to swat that word, letter, or sound with their flyswatter
wins the round.
Phonetic Skill 1: The vowel is short because it has a guardian/consonant. A guardian is the
consonant that follows or comes after the vowel.
m e t r u n
Phonetic Skill 2: The vowel is short because it is followed by two guardians/consonants.
j u m p r e n t

3. 3
Phonetic Skill 3: When the vowel stands alone, it is long.
m e s o
Phonetic Skill 4: The vowel e is silent, making the first vowel long.
h o p e r i d e
Phonetic Skill 5: When two vowels are adjacent, the second vowel is silent and the first
vowel is long.
b o a t m e a t
c e n t n i c e a g e g i s t
Objective: To identify letter sounds and word patterns.
Materials: Alphabet letters. After Phonetic Skills 1 and 2 have been taught, the use of a star
to represent a guardian consonant may be helpful. After Phonetic Skills 3, 4, and/or 5 have
been taught, a light hand weight can represent a long/strong vowel. Masters for the alphabet
letters (42 Sounds cards), bridges s and j, and guardian stars can be found online at
www.readinghorizons.com/literacydevelopment.
To play: Determine three or four words that follow the phonetic skill being taught. Select
the letters necessary to build those words, and give an individual letter to each student. Call
out one of the selected words, and see how quickly the students holding the letter cards can
come to the front of the classroom and spell the word in its proper order. Then have
students “prove” their words. Have them act out the following:
 After learning Phonetic Skill 1, use a star to represent a guardian consonant. If the
word called out were sun, the student holding the ending consonant, n, would be
given the guardian star to hold. The student holding the vowel u could bend his
knees a bit, showing he is a “short” vowel. Have that student tell the class what his
short sound is, then have the class read the entire word.
 After teaching Phonetic Skill 2, two guardian stars will be needed.
 After teaching Phonetic Skills 3, 4, and 5, a light hand weight can be used to
demonstrate that the vowel is “long and strong.” The student representing the long
vowel can hold the weight.
 For Phonetic Skills 4 and 5, use the weight for the long, strong vowel, and have the
student holding the silent adjacent vowel and/or silent e hold his finger to his lips to
indicate he is a silent letter.

4. 4
 After students learn that c and g have a new sound when followed by i and e, a bridge
s or j is used to show the change of sound. Have the student holding the c or g hold
the bridge.
DIGRAPHS
ch sh wh th th
c h u r c h s h i n e w h i c h t h i s t h u m p
SPECIAL VOWEL SOUNDS
au ou oi
aw ow oy
h a u l o u c h o i l l o o k z o o
s a w h o w b o y
s h o w
Objective: Identify letters, vowels, word patterns, etc. within words in connected text.
Materials: Newspapers, magazine articles, books, or other reading material; markers,
colored pencils, or highlighters.
To play: Hand out the reading material to each student. Assign a particular sound or letter
combination for your students to find in the text. Tell students that they are to find as many
of these sounds or letter combinations as they can in a prescribed amount of time. For
example, tell students to find as many l-blends as possible in 60 seconds. You can have
students circle the l-blends or place an arc underneath them. After the time is up, have
students count how many l-blends they found. See which student found the most. Discuss
students’ answers.
Variation: Have students work in pairs, or have students mark and read the words they
found containing the assigned skill.
ō
oo oo

5. 5
One guardian/consonant after the vowel goes on to the next syllable. “One must run.”
m o t e l b e g i n l o c a t e p r o g r a m
Two guardians/consonants after the vowel will split.
c a m p u s s u b j e c t e x p l a i n
e q u i p m e n t a m b u l a n c e
Objective: To help students reinforce the marking system.
Materials: A white board, marker, and eraser for each student pair.
To play: Have students work in pairs. Have one student be the “speaker”, and one student
be the “scribe”. Dictate a word to the students. Have the “scribe” write the word. Then have
the “speaker” tell the scribe how to mark the words. Then have students switch roles.
Presented by:
Heidi Hyte Sonnenberg
heidi@readinghorizons.com
Visit the Reading Horizons Online Workshop at www.readinghorizons.com/workshop.

6. 6
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