U.S. patent application number 10/102429 was filed with the patent office on 2002-07-18 for method and apparatus for teaching rapid decoding (reading) and encoding (spelling).
Invention is credited to Li, Ruyun.
Application Number | 20020094511 10/102429 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 26734638 |
Filed Date | 2002-07-18 |
United States Patent
Application |
20020094511 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Li, Ruyun |
July 18, 2002 |
Method and apparatus for teaching rapid decoding (reading) and
encoding (spelling)
Abstract
The present invention discloses a method and tools for teaching
rapid and accurate decoding and encoding words. In decoding
(reading), the invention delineates the concept of sound units (a
combination of blendable letter sounds) and their use to accurately
decode words systematically and efficiently. In encoding (writing
or making words), the invention utilize a combination of wheels to
help children with limited motor skills to easily and accurately
encode thousands of words and word like combinations so as to learn
and familiarize themselves with words and their structures. The
same wheels can also be used to create math wheels and sorting
wheels that can train children's early math skills in adding,
deducting, multiplication, subdivision, and other important
abilities.
Inventors: |
Li, Ruyun; (Charlottesville,
VA) |
Correspondence
Address: |
Parker & DeStefano
Suite 300
300 Preston Avenue
Charlottesville
VA
22902
US
|
Family ID: |
26734638 |
Appl. No.: |
10/102429 |
Filed: |
March 19, 2002 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
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10102429 |
Mar 19, 2002 |
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09616450 |
Jul 14, 2000 |
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6358059 |
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09616450 |
Jul 14, 2000 |
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09134443 |
Aug 14, 1998 |
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60055803 |
Aug 15, 1997 |
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60103285 |
Oct 6, 1998 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
434/167 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G09B 17/00 20130101;
E02D 31/00 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
434/167 |
International
Class: |
G09B 001/00 |
Claims
In the claims:
1. A method of instructing a child to encode and decode words
comprising the steps of: a. providing a first group of pictures,
and a second group of pictures, each picture of said first group of
pictures and said second group of pictures representing a word
whose first sound is a consonant letter sound, and each picture of
said second group of pictures representing a word whose first or
second sound is a vowel letter sound. b. showing a first picture
from said first group of pictures, to a child, wherein said first
pictures represents a work whose first sound is a consonant; c.
instructing said child to pronounce the beginning consonant sound
of said first picture of said first group of pictures, adding a
schwa sound to said beginning sound; d. repeating step b-d for each
consonant letters; e. showing a first picture from said second
group of pictures, to said child, wherein said first picture
represents a word whose first sound or second is a vowel; f.
instructing said child to pronounce the first vowel sound of said
first picture of said second group of pictures; g. repeating steps
b-d for each vowel letters; h. selecting a word; i. instructing
said child to blend the sound of each vowel in said word with the
sound of the consonant which precedes each vowel to create sound
units; whereby combining said vowel sound with said preceding
consonant sound to form said sound units creates a pronounceable,
blend sound within the word, thereby making words easier to
decode.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein and ending consonant is added to a
first said sound unit of a word.
3. The method of claim 1 wherein a beginning consonant is added to
a first sound unit of a word.
4. The method of claim 2 wherein a beginning consonant is added to
said first sound unit of a word, to form a complete word.
5. The method of claim 1 wherein multiple sound units within a word
create multiple syllable words.
6. The method of claim 1 wherein said second group of pictures, are
grouped in multiple sub-groups, a first sub-group of said multiple
subgroups, having 5 short vowels, a second sub-group containing 5
long vowels, and a third sub-group containing low frequency
vowels.
7. A method of decoding and encoding words by creating sound units
comprising steps of: a. identifying a first vowel within a word; b.
identifying a consonant immediately preceding said vowel, and
forming a sound unit which is a combination of said consonant
letter sound and said vowel letter sound; c. pronouncing said sound
unit; wherein the pronunciation of said combination of said
consonant and said vowel forming a sound unit helps to decode a
word.
8. The method of claim 7 wherein a consonant letter sound within
said workd are pronounced after the pronouncing of said second
unit.
9. The method of claim 8 wherein multiple sound units and consonant
letter sound are pronounced in combination to form multi-syllable
words.
10. The method of claim 9 wherein said sound units and consonant
letter sounds are combined on an electronic device, said electronic
device having a display screen, displaying said units on said
display screen and said consonant letter sounds in columns, and
actuating buttons to advance said columns to create words.
Description
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED PATENT APPLICATION
[0001] This application is a continuation of U.S. application No.
09/616,450 filed Jul. 14, 2000 which is a continuation in part of
U.S. application 09/134,443 filed Aug. 14, 1998, which application
claims the benefits under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) of provisional patent
application Ser. No. 60/055,803, filed Aug. 15, 1997. This
application incorporates by reference, as though recited in full,
the disclosure of provisional application 60/103,285 and co-pending
application 09/134,443 and 09/616,450.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] 1. Field of the Invention
[0003] The present invention generally relates to a method using
Sound Units (blendable letter sounds) and a combination of wheels
to teach children or adults to quickly learn to read (decode) and
write (encode) in English. The same wheels can also be used to help
children master basic math skills and other important
abilities.
[0004] 2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
[0005] To learn to read, children have to be able to do both
decoding (reading) and encoding (writing). In decoding, children
have to understand what each combination of letters in a word
represents so as to understand what that word is. In encoding,
children have to be able to use the same combination of letters to
formulate words so as to communicate their meaning to others.
[0006] There are problems in both encoding and decoding in the
current methods used to teach reading. In decoding, after children
have learned letter sounds in English, they have to use their
learned letter sounds to decode words. In teaching children to use
letter sounds to decode words, one critical problem remains
unresolved, resulting in over 30% of children having difficulty in
learning to read. That is how to help every child learn to blend
letter sounds together efficiently and accurately without causing
such a high percentage of children experiencing learning
difficulties.
[0007] This problem is reflected in publications and books which
address the problem. Under the title of "Educators Still Disagree
on How to Teach Reading (May 11, 1997), a New York Times reporter
wrote: "When 15,000 reading teachers and education professors
gathered last week against the backdrop of the increasingly
politicized debate over reading instruction, there was little
consensus about the crucial issue of the best way to teach children
to read." "For the most part, though, the hundreds of seminars and
lectures offered last week focused on how reading teachers could do
their jobs better. Virtually all the presentations drew
standing-room-only audiences, underscoring the fact that 40 percent
of the nation's third-graders cannot read independently and that no
educator has quite figured out how to solve the problem."
[0008] In "30 Years of Research: What We Now Know About How
Children Learn to Read" by Bonita Grossen, a research associate
with The National Center to Improve the Tools of Educators, the
author gives this instruction on how to help children learn to
decode words: "After children have learned two or three
sound-spelling correspondences, begin teaching them how to blend
the sounds into words. Show them how to move sequentially from left
to right through spellings as they `sound out,` or say the sound
for each spelling."
[0009] The disclosed system overcomes the problems with the prior
art approaches. First, a basic distinction between blendable and
unblendable letter sounds is not made among teachers and
professionals--a key step in deciding the failure and success of
virtually every child in their efforts to learn to read. Children
are just given the ambiguous instruction to blend all letter sounds
together in order to decode a word rather than being taught which
letter sounds are blendable and which ones are not. Without this
knowledge, children are left by themselves to figure that out.
Those who can go on learning to read with great success, those who
cannot get stuck at the mercy relying on sight words to
survive.
[0010] Second, it is extremely inefficient to decode words by
"saying the sound for each spelling", especially when it comes to
multi-syllable words. It simply overwhelms children's short-term
memory by saying the sound of each spelling.
[0011] Third, a weakness in "saying the sound for each spelling" in
order to decode a word is that it does not sound like a word when
trying to say each sound. That is why so many teachers complain
that even though their children have learned phonics they still
cannot read words.
[0012] In encoding, a major difficulty for beginning learners,
especially very young children, is the limited development of their
motor skills in handling pens, pencils or even keyboards. Thus,
they are deprived of many opportunities and experiences in
manipulating letters to explore the vast and complex structures of
the language. Without such opportunities and experiences, the time
they need to understand and master the structure and formation of
words is greatly extended.
[0013] Solving these two problems--blending letter sounds together
effectively and efficiently to decode words and giving children the
ability to easily and efficiently encode words--will have a
tremendous impact on their abilities to learn to read.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0014] The disclosed system teaches the use of sound units which
have successfully solved the most difficult part of reading--the
blending of letter sounds in decoding words. Further, the system
teaches the use of a combination of wheels to help children encode
words easily and efficiently before their motor skills catch up.
The same combination of wheels can also be used to teach basic math
skills including adding, deducting, multiplying, and
subdividing.
[0015] The use of sound units to decode words comprises three major
steps. Children are taught how to distinguish between blendable and
unblendable letter sounds. They are then taught how to blend the
blendable letter sounds into sound units. Finally, children are
taught how to add beginning and ending consonants to sound units to
decode or encode words.
[0016] The word wheels disclosed herein provide a physical means
for children to create words. Each Word wheel has three to five
wheels with letters on each wheel. A child can create thousands of
single syllable and multi-syllable words by simply turning each
wheel.
[0017] The math wheels disclosed herein provide a physical means
for children to solve basic math problems. Each Math wheel has
three wheels with numbers on each one. A child can solve each
problem by turning the wheels. The sorting wheels disclosed herein
provide a physical means for children to sort and categorize
shapes, letters, numbers, animals, plants, people, and many other
things into different groups according to their internal and
external features and characteristics.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0018] The advantage of the instant disclosure will become more
apparent when read with the specification and the drawings,
wherein:
[0019] FIG. 1 illustrates the controlling role of vowels in
words;
[0020] FIG. 2 illustrates the critical role the consonant in front
of the vowel plays in words;
[0021] FIG. 3 illustrates the relationship between the vowel in a
single syllable word and its preceding consonant;
[0022] FIG. 4 illustrates how sound units and individual letter
sounds make up multi-syllable words;
[0023] FIG. 5 is a sample of how to process vowels and their
preceding consonants into sound units;
[0024] FIG. 6 is a top view of a three tiered, rotating wheel for
creating short vowel word wheels;
[0025] FIG. 7 is a top view of a set of three tiered, rotating
wheels that can be used to create long vowel word wheels;
[0026] FIG. 8 is a top view of a set of three tiered, rotating
wheels that can be used to create regular vowel word wheels;
[0027] FIG. 9 is a perspective view of a 3-D, smooth surfaced,
circular three part wheel that can be used to create word, math,
and sorting wheels;
[0028] FIG. 10 illustrates the three columns of letters on a
simplified three-wheel word wheel for the five short vowels;
[0029] FIG. 11 illustrates the letter placement on a standard
three-wheel word wheel for the five short vowels;
[0030] FIG. 12 illustrates four columns of letters for a four-part
word wheel for the five short vowels;
[0031] FIG. 13 illustrates four columns of letters for a four-part
word wheel for the five long vowels;
[0032] FIG. 14 illustrates four columns of letters for a four-part
word wheel for the eight regular vowels;
[0033] FIG. 15 illustrates five columns of letters for a five-part
word wheel for the five short vowels;
[0034] FIG. 16 illustrates five columns of letters for a five-part
word wheel for the five long vowels; and
[0035] FIG. 17 illustrates to top view of a word wheel having a
word shield; and
[0036] FIG. 18 is a flat, five-part word wheel.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
[0037] The disclosed system has been divided into four parts to
simplify explanation and to coordinate with the actual teaching
style. Part I is how to teach the 44 letter sounds and is necessary
as an integral part of the invention to complete the whole process
of teaching accurate and effective decoding and encoding abilities
to children. Part II gives the detailed description on how the
discovery of sound units makes decoding easy and effective by
solving the difficulty in blending individual letter sounds in
order to decode a word. Part III describes how to use a combination
of wheels to give children the power to easily and efficiently
encode hundreds and thousands of words by simply turning a few
wheels. Part IV describes how to use a combination of wheels to
give children an easy and fun way to solve basic math problems.
PART I--LETTER SOUNDS
[0038] The traditional way of teaching letter sounds is to teach
them in the order of the alphabet: a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k,
l, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, w, x, y, z. That is very
inefficient because these 26 letter sounds and the 26 phonograms
that represent these 26 letter sounds do not give a child necessary
tools to quickly become an independent decoder and speller. After
learning these 26 letter sounds, there are still too many unknown
variables in their efforts to decode and encode words.
[0039] In general, in English there are around 44 sounds and over
70 ways to represent these 44 sounds. In the disclosed system these
44 letter sounds are divided into consonant letter sounds and vowel
letter sounds. The term consonant letter sounds and vowel letter
sounds are used to differentiate between the sound the letter and
the correct pronunciation of the letter within a word. This is also
enables the system to easily include double consonants providing a
single sound, such as "sh". The disclosed system has selected 26
consonant letter sounds and letter-sound symbols as the first group
of letter sounds and letter sound symbols to teach. They are: b, c,
d, f, g, h, j, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, y, z, ch, sh, tr,
dr, th or th. Children can use these 26 consonant letter sounds
directly to decode and encode words.
[0040] Out of these 26 consonant letter sounds and letter-sound
symbols, 20 of them are single-letter letter sounds: b, c, d, f, g,
h, j, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, y, z. The other 6 consonant
letter sounds and letter-sound symbols are formed with two letters:
ch, sh, tr, dr, th(ank), and th(e). Among these 6 double-letter
consonant letter sounds and symbols, "ch" and "sh" cannot be
separated. Even though "tr" and "dr" can be separated, since they
are used together to make one sound, they are taught as one sound.
"Th" is one form with two different pronunciations, and is
therefore counted as 2 sounds.
[0041] Out of these 26 consonant letter sounds, there are nine (9)
sounds that have more than one symbol to represent their sounds.
They are c, f, g, j, n, r, s, w, sh. "C" can also be written as k
(key), ck (sick), and ch (Christmas). "F" can also be written as ph
(phone). "G" can be written as gu (guest, guess), as gh (ghost).
"J" can be written as dge (badge), and as g if g happens to be in
front of e, i, and y (gender, giant, gypsy). "N" can be written as
kn (knee), as gn (gnaw). "R" can be written as wr (write). "S" can
be written as ps (psychology), as c if c happens to be followed by
e, i, y (cell, city, cycle) "W" can be written as wh (when). "Sh"
can be written as ti, si ci (tion, sion, cian).
[0042] The disclosed system has also selected 18 vowel letter
sounds and letter-sound relationships as the second group of letter
sounds and letter-sound symbols to teach. They are 5 short vowels:
a (at), e (egg), i (itch), o (octopus), u (usher); 5 long vowels: a
(aid), e (eat), i (idle), o (old), u (use); and 8 low frequency
vowels: ar (arch), or (order), ur (urge), ow ( owl), oo (oose), air
(air), ear (ear), oi (oil).
[0043] Out of these 18 letter sounds and letter-sound
relationships, all of them have more than one way to represent
their letter sounds except short vowel "a". For the 4 short vowels,
"e" can also be written as "ai" (said), and as ea (bread); "i" can
be written as y (city); "o" can be written as a (what, want); "u"
can be written as o (love), as ou (tough), and as oo (blood,
flood).
[0044] For the 5 long vowels, "a" can be written as ai (aide), as
ay (day), as ey (they), as ea (great, break), as eigh (eight); "e"
can be written as ea (eat), as ee (eel), as ey (key), as ei
(deceit), as ie (field); "i" can be written as y (sky, why), as igh
(light, high), as ie (die, lie), as eigh (height); "o" can be
written as o (no, go, so), as oa (oat), as oe (toe), as ow (flow,
tow), as ough (dough); "u" can be written as ue (due), as ew
(few).
[0045] For the rest of the low frequency vowels, ar can be written
as a (bath, path, past); "or" can be written as a (ball, tall), as
aw (law), as au (Paul), as our (four), as augh (taught), as ough
(thought, ought); "ur" can be written as ur (bird), as er (her), as
ear (earth), as or (word, work); "ow" can be written as ou (out,
our); "oo" can be written as ui (fruit), as u (put), as ew (flew),
and as ue (clue); "air" can be written as ear (bear), as are (bare,
care); "ear" can be written as eer (deer); "oi" can be written as
oy (boy, toy).
[0046] The first group of sounds taught are the 26 consonant letter
sounds. The traditional way of saying these letter sounds is hard
for children to learn because there is not a clear auditory pattern
among these letter sounds. To solve this problem, the disclosed
invention teaches children these 26 consonant letter sounds by
attaching a schwa sound to each of them to make pronunciation much
easier. (e.g. "buh, cuh, duh, fuh, guh").
[0047] The success of this method was verified in tests involving
volunteering parents and their children to test if children really
find it easier to say these consonant letter sounds with a schwa
sound attached. In these tests, all children were around 5 and 6
years old. These children could all say letter names but not letter
sounds. When they were presented 26 pictures representing these 26
consonant letter sounds, and were challenged to tell the first
letter sounds that they hear in these words, children all naturally
added a schwa sound to the 26 consonant letter sounds in English.
(e.g. "buh, cuh, duh, fuh, guh, huh, juh, luh, muh, nuh, etc).
[0048] More than 48 first graders, near the end of the school term,
were asked to say the 26 consonant letter sounds, none of them
added the schwa sound. All of the children struggled to pronounce
these letter sounds in the way that they were taught. However, when
these same students were taught to say the 26 consonant letter
sounds with the schwa sound attached, they all learned to say them
without any difficulty in two 15 minute sessions in two days.
[0049] The above illustrates that using this invention in
conjunction with a child's innate language ability, most children
can learn to read English with great confidence and efficiency. The
disclosed invention dramatically reduces two of the most difficult
obstacles that prevent 30% to 40% of English speaking children to
learn to read--saying letter sounds and sounding words out.
[0050] Every child who does not have speech problems already knows
how to say all the letter sounds. The oral vocabulary children use
when they go to school is between 4000 and 24000. They do not need
to be taught to say these sounds, only to be challenged to say
these sounds to increase their awareness to use them consciously in
decoding.
[0051] To teach children letter sounds with the schwa sound added,
the disclosed system generally classifies children into two groups.
One being preschool children who have not been taught to say letter
sounds in the traditional manner. The children who have been in
school and have already been taught to say the letter sounds in the
traditional manner.
[0052] To teach preschoolers, the disclosed system selected 26
pictures that would be familiar to preschoolers. These pictures,
representing the 26 beginning consonant sounds, were organized them
into 5 groups: (1) balloon, cat, dog, fan, girl; (2) hammer, jet,
lion, money, nurse; (3) pencil, queen, rose, saw, turtle; (4) van,
wall, fox(x), yo-yo, zigzag; (5) church, ship, tree, dragon,
thermometer. These pictures can also be substituted by other age
appropriate pictures representative of the 26 sounds. First, the
children are asked to go through these pictures and indicate
whether they know the names of all these pictures. If they do, they
are asked to say the name of the first picture, i.e. balloon. After
the children say the word, they are asked to say the first letter
sound that they hear in the word "balloon". This approach is then
repeated with the other four letter sounds in the same group. The
children are then asked to say the 5 consonant letter sounds within
this group without saying the names of these pictures. Once they
can say the five consonant letter sounds they are asked to repeat
these sounds a little faster and faster. Once one group is
successfully learned, the method is repeated using the next group
of 5 letter sounds. This procedures is repeated until all 26 letter
sounds are learned.
[0053] To teach school children who have already been taught letter
sounds in the traditional way, the child is told that they can add
a schwa sound to each of the 26 consonant letter sounds to make the
letter easier to say. For most children, there is no need to use
pictures with the key being to make sure that every child adds the
schwa sound.
[0054] When every child can say the above letter sounds in a very
relaxed mode, and recognize the 26 letters or letter combinations
that match each sound (phonograms), they can be taught to pay
special attention to the 9 phonograms. These phonograms (c, f, g,
j, n, r, s, w, and sh) have more than one way to represent that
sound. Out of the 17 extra ways to represent these 9 sounds, only
12 of them are necessary for beginner readers. They are k (key), ck
(pick), ph (phone), gu (guess), gh (ghost), g (e, i, y) (gender,
giant, gypsy), dge (pledge), kn (knee), gn (gnaw), wr (write), c
(e, i, y) (cell, city, cycle), wh (what).
[0055] Once children have learned all the necessary consonant
phonograms, they are ready to learn the vowel sounds and their
phonograms. Children can be taught to be familiar with the 18 vowel
sounds first through little rhymes. Then they can be taught to
learn the 18 vowel letter sounds and their phonograms using
pictures just like they learned the 26 consonant letter sounds and
their phonograms. Again, to teach children the 18 vowel letter
sounds and their matching phonograms, the disclosed system selected
18 pictures representing the 18 vowel letter sounds and their
phonograms: apple, elephant, igloo, operator, umbrella, ace, eagle,
island, open, unicorn, arch, orbit, earth, ouch, moose, airplane,
ear, and oil. Again, other age appropriate pictures can be
substituted. The 18 vowel sounds are taught using the same approach
as set forth above.
[0056] It is not necessary for children to learn all the 18 vowels
prior to decoding words using the disclosed system. Children can
begin to decode and read words as soon as they learn even just one
vowel letter sound and recognize the phonogram that represents that
sound. The disclosed system organizes more than 1800 words
according to the order of the 18 vowels. The first 10 vowels are
organized according to their position in the alphabet. Thus for
every vowel they learn, short vowel or long vowel, they are
guaranteed to be able to read all the single syllable words with
that vowel letter sound and all the syllables in the great majority
of multi-syllable words with that vowel letter sound.
PART II--SOUND UNITS AND DECODING
[0057] A. Problems of the Blending Approach
[0058] A weakness of the traditional way of teaching phonics is to
ask children to sound words out. Sounding words out has problems
that contribute directly to many children's reading
difficulties.
[0059] The biggest problem of the blending (sounding out) approach
is its failure in discriminating between blendable and unblendable
letter sounds. There is a great distance between repeating each
single letter sound and saying a word as it should be. Unless
children can figure out how to blend the blendable letter sounds
into uninterrupted sounds, saying the sound of each spelling will
not be much of a help in their efforts in decoding words.
[0060] It is also extremely inefficient and troublesome for a child
to repeat the letter sound of every letter several times in order
to decode a word. Young children do not have a long attention span
that by the time they come to the letter sound of the last letter
in a word, they may have already forgotten how they pronounced the
first one. Many children feel discouraged or simply give up when
they do not see immediate success in order to continue with reading
lessons.
[0061] Further, if that word is not in the child's oral vocabulary,
the child is never sure whether the word has been decoded
correctly. And finally, the sounding out approach quickly collapses
when it comes to more complicated multi-syllable words. For many
children their short-term memory simply cannot sustain that many
separated, single letter sounds, long enough in order to process
them to get to the correct pronunciation of a word.
[0062] B. Understanding the Internal Structure of Words
[0063] To solve these problems, the disclosed system teaches
children that not all letter sounds in a word are equally
important. In the disclosed embodiment, a crown 12 is used to
identify the vowels in a word, such as Dad in FIG. 1. The crown is
used to tie the vowel to being the king because they dictate the
sound a word or syllable takes. Other relationships can also be
used to emphasize the sound dominance of the vowel. Further, not
all consonants in a word are equally important. The consonant that
goes right before the vowel is the highest ranking consonant among
all the consonants in a single syllable word. These consonants can
be described as a vowel's right-hand man 14 of FIG. 2. Children are
also taught that not all letter sounds are blendable. Only a vowel
12 and the consonant 14 that goes right before it can be blended
into a uninterrupted new sound, as shown in FIG. 3. The combination
of the vowel 12 and preceding consonant letter sound 14 is called a
sound unit 16 and is taught as the "brain" of a single syllable
word. The child is also taught that if the sound unit 16 in a word
is pronounced correctly, he/she will pronounce the word
correctly.
[0064] In the disclosed system, children do not address reading
words until they have learned how to put sound units 16 together.
Once they have learned how to say sound units 16 as easily as they
can say each individual letter sound, they can add whatever
necessary ending and beginning letter sounds to those sound units
to decode or encode virtually any word they like.
[0065] Once the child is comfortable with reading single syllable
words, such as illustrated in FIGS. 1-3, multi-syllable words are
addressed. Children are taught that it is the same sound units 16
that they use in decoding single syllable words form multi-syllable
words (See FIG. 4).
[0066] Except for the below exception, when identifying and
teaching sound units, a key rule is not to attach any consonants to
the end of a sound unit. It is of absolute importance to keep a
sound unit clean. The exception is the 5 short vowels and the
consonant letter "n" and "ng". Physically, "n" and "ng" can be
attached to any of the 5 short vowels to form an, en, in, on, un,
and ang, ing, ong, ung, and still be combined with any of the 26
consonant letter sounds to form an uninterrupted sound.
[0067] C. The Uniqueness of Sound Units
[0068] Several factors make sound units unique. First, they are
limited in numbers. For example, with the short vowel letter sound
"a", there are only 24 consonant and vowel combinations which can
be classified as sound units (FIG. 5).
[0069] Second, they are constant in nature. It does not matter how
many thousands of words can be made by the short vowel letter sound
"a", these 24 sound units will always remain the same like "ba" in
bad, back, batter, battle, batch, etc.
[0070] Third, they provide children with a necessary transition
from being able to say each individual letter sound to actually
decoding words. From being able to say each letter sound to being
able to use these letter sounds to decode words can prove to be
insurmountable to many children. Yet from being able to say each
letter sound to being able to blend a vowel and its preceding
consonant together to create a sound unit, is a easy and logical
step that every child can take.
[0071] Fourth, when blendable letter sounds are processed into
ready-to-use sound units, beginning and ending consonant letter
sounds can simply be added to these sound units to decode and
encode all kinds of words. Automacity in decoding with such an
approach becomes a reachable reality for every child.
[0072] Finally, the disclosed process does not require children to
learn over 100 blends in order to learn to read due to the use of
sound units. The 9 consonant letter sounds (b, c, f, g, p, s, t,
sh, th) that are used as very beginning consonant letter sounds and
form blends with other consonant letter sounds are simply added to
sound units with their ending consonant letter sounds. For example,
in the word "splash", "s" and "p" are added to the sound unit "la"
just like the ending consonant "sh".
[0073] D. Using Sound Units to Decode Single Syllable Words
[0074] Two things can be done to further facilitate the disclosed
reading method. In terms of organization, first, words in each unit
should be organized around no more than one vowel letter sound, be
it short vowel or long vowel. Second, words in each lesson should
be organized around no more than a few word families (e.g. "-ag,
-ap, ad"). Third, each unit should begin with a sound unit page
where a child can process individual letter sounds into
ready-to-use sound units. Fourth, in the first part of each lesson,
all words should be separated on purpose in the sequence of: (a)
very beginning consonants if a word has one, (b) sound units, (c)
ending consonants. These three parts are separated by the sign "+"
(e.g. "g+la+d"). In the second part of each lesson, words should be
written as they are (e.g. "glad").
[0075] In terms of instruction, when starting a new unit, a child
should first work on the sound unit page where individual letter
sounds are processed into sound units. Second, when starting a
lesson, a child should do the first part of each lesson where words
are separated according to the sequence of (a) beginning
consonants, (b) sound units, and (c) ending consonants. In this
part of the lesson a child should simply say each beginning
consonant letter sound, sound unit, and ending consonant letters
sound to decode the words rather than elaborate on each individual
sound. Third, only when a child can decode the separated words
comfortably, should they proceed to the second part of the lesson.
If a child still struggles with the words, the sound unit page
should be reviewed until the child is totally automatic with the
pronunciation.
[0076] Thus, each step is built on a prior accomplishment, making
the progress appear incremental while achieving rapid advancement
in reading ability.
[0077] E. Using Sound Units to Decode Multiple Syllable Words
[0078] Once children have completed working with 18 vowel letter
sounds and their corresponding single syllable words they have
already laid a solid foundation for decoding multiple syllable
words. The procedures disclosed above is repeated, on a more rapid
basis, for the multi-syllable words to build the child's confidence
in tackling the larger words.
PART III--WORD WHEELS AND ENCODING
[0079] In teaching children to learn to read, one difficulty has
been in providing young children with simple, efficient, and
frequent experiences and practices in manipulation of letters to
form words. A child is much more likely to practice putting letters
together to make words with easy to use tools. However, due to
children's limited development of fine motor skills in handling
pens, pencils or even keyboards, this other solutions were required
to solve the problem. To help children have the experience of
manipulating letters and words, there are many letter cards and
word cards in the market. Yet such approach is messy, inefficient,
and very disorienting to many children. In the Wilson Reading
Program, for example, to learn to decode multi-syllable words,
children not only have to deal with hundreds of word cards, they
also have to cut those word cards into more cards according to
their syllables. To solve such a problem, the disclosed system
created the word wheels.
[0080] In terms of the combination of wheels, in general, there are
three, four and five wheel word wheels. A flat, three tier word
wheel 18 is illustrated in FIG. 6 that incorporates a consonant
base wheel 20, a middle vowel wheel 22 and an ending consonant
inner wheel 24. The disclosed flat word wheels are unique in that
they use not only single, but combined consonant, sounds in both
the beginning and ending consonants. In the wheel 18 illustrated in
FIG. 6, the beginning consonant wheel 20 includes b, c, d, f, g,
gu, h, j, l, m, n, kn, p, qu, r, wr, s, t, v, w, wh, y, z, ch, sh,
tr, dr, th, bl, br, cl, cr, fl fr, gl, gr, pl, pr, sl, sm, sn, sp,
squ, st, and sw. The vowels a, an, e, en, I, in, o, on, n, and un
are placed on the center, vowel wheel 22. The ending consonant
wheel 24 includes the consonant and consonant combinations of b,
ck, k, d, g, m, n, p, s, t, x, sh, ch, tch, dge, ff, ll, ss, ct,
ft, lt, pt, st, lf, lk, sk, mb, lp, mp, sp, and xt. The beginning
consonant wheel 20, vowel wheel 22 and ending consonant wheel 24
are secured together at rotatable center point 25, enabling the
user to rotate the wheels in relation to one another to form
words.
[0081] A flat, three tiered word wheel 26 is illustrated in FIG. 7
that incorporates a beginning consonant base wheel 28, a vowel
wheel 30 and an ending consonant inner wheel 32. The beginning
consonant base wheel 28 uses b, c, k, d, f, g, gu, h, j, l, m, n,
kn, p, qu, r, wr, s, t, v, w, wh, y, z, ch, sh, ct, dr, th, bl, br,
cl, cr, fl, fr, gl, gr, pl, pr, sl, sm, sn, sp, squ, st, and sw.
The long vowel wheel 30 contains the vowels a, ai, ay, e, ea, ee,
i, igh, y, ie, o, oa, ow, oe, u, ew, and ue. The ending consonant
wheel 32 uses the ending consonant and consonant combinations be,
ce, de, fe, ge, ke, le, me, ne, pe, re, se, te, ve, ze, d, k, l, m,
n, p, t, ch, th, ld, nd, nt, and st. As described in conjunction
with FIG. 6, these wheels are rotatable in relation to one another,
enabling the user to easily for words.
[0082] A flat, three tiered word wheel 34 is illustrated in FIG. 8
for teaching words containing the regular vowel sounds. The outer
single and combination consonant wheel 36 has the letters b, c, k,
d, f, g, gu, h, j, l, m, n, kn, p, qu, r, wr, s, t, v, w, sh, y, z,
ch, sh, tr, dr, th, bl, br, cl, cr, fl, dr, gl, gr, pl, pr, sl, sm,
sn, sp, squ, st, and sw. The single and combined vowels in this
example are ar, or, ore, aw, au, aun, ough, augh, ir, ur, er, or,
ear, ou, oun, ow, oo, ew, ou, u, air, are, ear, eer, ear, ere, oy,
and oi. The inner consonant wheel 40 consists of b, d, f, k, l, m,
n, p, r, s, t, x, ch, sh, th, ll, ss, ld, lk, lt, st, ce, de, ge,
se, te, ue, ve, and ze.
[0083] It should be noted that in some instances vowel or vowel
combination can be repeated to enable more than one word to be
formed at a time.
[0084] Other examples of the placement of letters for a three-wheel
word wheel is illustrated in FIGS. 13 and 14. FIG. 13 is a
simplified version of letters on a three-wheel word wheel for the
five short vowels. The first column 58 contains letters to be
placed on the blendable consonant letter sound wheel. The second
column 60 contains letters to be placed on the vowel wheel. The
third column 62 contains letters to be placed on the ending
consonant letter sound wheel. FIG. 13 is an example of a simplified
version, with the vowel wheel containing only five short vowels
without letter "n" controlled shortcuts like "an", "en", "in", "on"
or "un". The letters on the ending consonant letter sound wheel are
also fewer than the ones shown in FIG. 14. It is intended for very
young children who are just beginning to learn to read.
[0085] FIG. 14 contains the letters for a regular three-wheel word
wheel for the five short vowels. The second column 64 contains not
only the five short vowels but also the letter "n" controlled
shortcuts like "an", "en", "in", "on" or "un". The third column 66
contains letters to be placed on the ending consonant letter sound
wheel. This wheel can be used for children in preschool or
kindergartens. An exploded view of the three part wheel is
illustrated in FIG. 25.
[0086] Examples of the placement of the letters for a four-wheel
word wheel are illustrated in FIGS. 12, 13, and 14. In FIGS. 12 and
13, the second half of the two ending consonant columns contain
some consonant blends (e.g. sk, st, ld, etc). FIG. 12 contains four
columns of letters for a full scale four wheel word wheel for the
five short vowels. The first column 68 contains letters to be
placed on the beginning consonants wheel. The second column 70
contains letters to be placed on the blendable consonants wheel.
The third column 72 contains letters to be placed on the vowel
wheel. The fourth column 74 contains letters to be placed on the
ending consonant wheel.
[0087] FIG. 13 contains four columns of letters for a full scale
four part word wheel for the five long vowels. The first column 68
contains letters to be placed on the beginning consonants part of
the wheel. The second column 76 contains letters to be placed on
the blendable consonants part of the wheel. The third column 78
contains letters to be placed on the vowel portion of the wheel.
The fourth column 80 contains letters to be placed on the ending
consonant section of the wheel.
[0088] FIG. 14 contains four columns of letters for a full scale
four part word wheel for 8 regular vowels. The first column 68
contains letters to be placed on the beginning consonant wheel. The
second column 82 contains letters to be placed on the blendable
consonant wheel. The third column 84 contains letters to be placed
on the vowel wheel. The fourth column 86 contains letters to be
placed on the ending consonant wheel. An addition example of letter
placement is illustrated in the flat, five part wheel 180 of FIG.
18.
[0089] The placement of the letters for the five part word wheels
is illustrated in FIGS. 15 and 16. Letters that make up words
containing the five short vowels or the five long vowels also can
be laid out on the five part wheels, in which case, there will be
no consonant blends on either of the two ending consonant wheels
(e.g. sk, st, ld, etc).
[0090] FIG. 15 contains five columns of letters for an example full
scale five part word wheel for the five short vowels. The letters
in the first three columns 68, 88, and 90 are no different from the
first three columns in regular four part word wheels for the five
short vowels. The fourth column 92 contains letters to be placed on
the first ending consonant wheel, except that there are no
consonant blends. The last column 94 contains letters to be placed
on the second ending consonant wheel.
[0091] FIG. 16 contains five columns of letters for an example,
full scale five part word wheel for the five long vowels. The
letters in the first three columns 68, 96, and 98 are no different
from the first three columns in regular four part word wheels for
the five long vowels. The fourth column 100 contains letters to be
placed on the first ending consonants wheel, except that there are
no consonant blends. The last column 102 contains letters to be
placed on the second ending consonant wheel.
[0092] The flat word wheels as illustrated in FIGS. 6, 7, 8, 17 and
18 can be manufactured from a heavy-duty paper, coated paper or
plastic. Each of the wheels must be decreasing in size to enable
clear viewing of the periphery of the prior wheel. It should be
noted that the combinations of consonants and vowels illustrated is
not all inclusive and additional combinations will be evident to
those skilled in the art. The uniqueness to the disclosed word
wheels is the use of combined vowel and consonant sound units. The
use of sound units enables the user to divide out and read the word
as it is pronounced.
[0093] FIG. 9 is the drawing of a 3-D circular three wheel word
wheel 34. The first wheel 36 contains the blendable consonants 36,
the middle is the vowel wheel 38 and the consonant wheel 40 has the
ending consonants.
[0094] FIG. 17 illustrates the word wheel 100 that incorporates a
word shield 102. The word shield 102 is a portion of an inner
fourth wheel 108 that has a shielding portion 106 that block a
portion of the letters on either side of the viewing strip 104.
This enables the user to isolate the letters forming the words,
thereby removing some of the confusion with reading across or
lining up the wheels.
PART IV--MATH WHEELS AND SORTING WHEELS
[0095] The same concepts that govern the word wheels also work with
math wheels and sorting wheels. For young children, to be able to
do simple adding, subtracting, multiplication, and division quickly
and automatically will lay the foundation for their later success
with math. A current problem for teaching math to young children is
how to keep a balance between giving them enough practice and while
not requiring them to do so many drills. Math wheels can help
achieve such a goal. A typical math wheel is not only easy and fun
to play with, it also gives a child easy way to do the basic
adding, subtracting, multiplication, and division problems over and
over again. For example, a simple 18 number adding math wheel will
give a child over 300 different ways to arrive at 36 answers.
[0096] Further Applications
[0097] The disclosed system can also be used in the multimedia
arena, through on-line computer services, CD Roms, handheld
electronic games, etc. Multimedia provides the advantages of visual
and sound to simultaneously reinforce both the appearance and sound
of a word.
* * * * *