GUIDELINES AND RULES FOR STEP TWO

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GUIDELINES AND RULES FOR STEP TWO

The rules stated here are for your advance study. You should prepare ahead of each lesson and make sure that any rule you need to know is sealed in your mind. You can only teach what you know. You only teach what you are competent to teach. Prepare!

PREPARE FOR DICTATION:

Have your student prepared with paper and pencil. If your student doesn't write with pencil yet, then use crayon.

If your student doesn't write with crayon either, then make lowercase Alphabet letters on individual index cards. Make several copies of the letters that are repeated most often, especially the vowels. Then when you dictate letter sounds, your student should use the cards in proper order to form the letter combinations which you will say.

PREPARE AHEAD OF TIME:

Make sure that you have gone over the following in advance. Your student cannot learn from you unless you know what you are teaching.

Ask your student to read the dictation pages of this course WITH you each time before you actually use the words, sentences and paragraphs for dictation. Ask your student to read the dictation pages a second time alone but provide what help is needed. Read together, the sounds of the individual letters, not the names of the Alphabet letters, when you are dictating random letters. When a consonant has one vowel following it, say that vowel with its short sound. Go back and review the short sounds if you have forgotten how to say them correctly. Correct each error as it occurs in the reading.

After the dictation pages have been read, use them for dictation. You read one line at a time and have your student write or form the words in proper order.

BUT FIRST
THERE ARE A FEW IMPORTANT RULES TO REMEMBER:

q doesn't make a sound by itself. It needs u to make the sound of qu as in the word: quick.

When two vowels are side by side, the FIRST vowel says its name and the second vowel is silent. It doesn't make any sound at all. It is not heard. Consider the words: coat, boat, road, stain, brain, tree, meat, feet, blue, cue.

It helps to remember when two vowels go walking, the first one does all the talking.

For right now, when you see double o, pronounce the two o's as you would in the following word: boo! Consider the words: moon, doom, croon, spoon.

When the consonant c comes before a, o, u, say it with its k sound. When the consonant c comes before e, i, y, say it with its s sound. Consider the words: cat, cab, catch, cob, cot, cop, cuff, cup, cent, censor, cement, cistern, civil, citizen, cyst, city.

When the consonant g comes before a, o, u, say it with its regular sound like grrr. When the consonant g comes before e, i, y, say it with its j sound. Consider the words: gas, gallop, game, got, gold, gobble, gum, gulf, guy, gem, gentle, ginger, gym.

When y follows a consonant in a word, say the sound of y as if it were long i. Consider the words: try, cry, my,

When y follows a vowel in a word, do NOT say the sound of y at all. Instead, pronounce the vowel before the y with the sound of its name. Make that vowel a long vowel. Carefully consider the words: say, may, hey, tie.

You will later learn about exceptions to the rule. Which word of the four words in the example above (say, may, hey, tie) is an exception to the rule? You guessed it! The word, hey, does not have a long e sound. Instead, the vowel sounds like long a but is spelled with e. The rule is followed by sound but is incomplete because the spelling is not accurate. In other words, the written vowel has a sound like another vowel, although the rule is followed by all appearances.

You will think of words that do not follow the rules above. Ignore them for right now. There are many more rules which govern the behavior of words. These are just a few.

BEFORE YOU READ THE REST OF THIS PAGE, GO BACK AND STUDY THE ABOVE. MAKE SURE YOU KNOW THOSE RULES. IT'S BEST FOR YOU TO LEARN A FEW RULES AT A TIME. YOU WILL FIND SOME RULES REPEATED OR WORDED DIFFERENTLY, AS YOU CONTINUE YOUR STUDIES. THIS IS TO SEE IF YOU ARE AWARE OF THE REPETITION AND IF YOU RECOGNIZE THE RULE AS BEING ONES YOU HAVE ALREADY PREVIEWED. WHEN YOU FEEL YOU ARE READY, PLEASE CONTINUE BELOW:

THERE ARE A FEW MORE RULES STATED BELOW THAN WHAT IS NECESSARY FOR STEP TWO. THEY ARE HERE TO BEGIN THE PREPARATION FOR THE STUDY OF STEP THREE. LEARN THEM AND PLACE THEM IN YOUR MIND IN READINESS FOR THE NEXT STEP.

DEFINITIONS AND RULES CONTINUED:

The vowels are a e i o u and sometimes y and w: (when y and w come at the end of a word).

The consonants are the remaining letters of the Alphabet with y and w.

Q always has u after it to make its sound, for by itself it produces none: i.e. quiet, quad.

The consonant digraphs are two consonants that come together to form one sound: wh, ch, sh, ck, th, ph, kn, gn, tch, gh.

A blend is when two consonants flow together and each makes its own sound: br, cr, dr, fr, gr, str, sn, sp, st, sw, sm, tr, tw, bl.

Short vowel rule: If a word, or syllable, has only one vowel that comes at the beginning of the word, or stands between two consonants, then that vowel usually has the short sound. i.e. fat, egg, if, hot, hug.

Long vowel rule No. 1: When two vowels stand together, the first vowel is usually long and the second one is silent. i.e. boat, wait, tree, glue, tied.

Long vowel rule No. 2: When the word, or syllable, has a vowel that comes at the end, it usually is long. i.e. she, go, hi.

Long vowel rule No. 3: When a word, or syllable, ends with vowel/consonant/vowel and the final vowel is an e, then the first vowel is usually long. i.e. fine, cane, mete, home, huge.

A vowel digraph is a double vowel that does not follow the long vowel rule: book, auto, bread, fawn, eight.

Y as a vowel rule No. 1: When y comes at the end of a word, and it is the only vowel, then it usually has the sound of long i. i.e. cry, fry, by, try.

Y as a vowel rule No. 2: When y comes at the end of a word that has more than one syllable, then it usually has the sound of long e. i.e. pretty, baby, funny.

Soft c and g rule No. 1: When c or g is followed by e, i, or y, then it usually has the soft sound. i.e city, scene, cyst, gem, gym, ginger.

Soft c and g rule No. 2: When c or g is followed by a, o, or u, then it usually has the hard sound. i.e. cat, cot, cut, game, got, gut.

A vowel dipthong is when two vowels come together but each is sounded in such a way that it blends into the other, making one sound. i.e. found, point, few.

A murmur diphthong is an r controlled vowel whereby the r takes over and dominates the sound. i.e. car, for, bird, turn, germ.

An L controlled vowel is a vowel that is controlled by l whereby the l takes over the vowel and dominates the sound. i.e. call, bell, fill.

S sounding like z rule No. 1: When some words end with a vowel and se, then the s sometimes sounds like z. i.e. these, raise, nose, noise, fuse.

S sounding like z rule No. 2: When s comes before other consonants or vowels, except p, t, or k, then s sometimes sounds like z. i.e. easy, thousand, president, cousin, Wednesday, husband.

When s or es ends a word, or syllable, following consonants or vowels other than p, t, k, or f, then s sometimes sounds like z. i.e. pays, flies, places, robs, logs, chews, ladies, potatoes, dogs.

The vowels are a e i o u and sometimes y and w: (when y and w come at the end of a word).

The consonants are the remaining letters of the Alphabet with y and w.

Q always has u after it to make its sound, for by itself it produces none: i.e. quiet, quad.

Q doesn't make a sound except with letter u. Then together they sound like KS. Mark the qu with a heart on top of it. The heart means that they're in love and they always like to kiss. That's why they make the ks sound.

When qu sounds like k (without the s) as in Dubuque, place a line through the middle of its face. It means the q is walking away from the u to go to work. See the line as a nose.