What can I do? My child child is not making progress in reading?More and more parents are finding their child in this situation. You are far from alone. The teaching of reading has been made so complicated, so that you can be made to feel helpless, unless you have hundreds of pounds (literally) to get your child assessed and help obtained. Sadly, even then, your child may only receive a label with little or no help to actually solve the problem. Help is at hand. I have taught hundreds of children to read over the course of over 30 years - of all ages and abilities. I know that it does not need to be complicated. For many children, they only need more structure to their learning than has been given to them at school - plus a programme that can go at their pace, not one set by a classteacher/school/governmnet department/etc.. On my FREE reading programme, Reading Made Simple, I show you how easy it can be to help your child I do not mean that it will not involve much patience, or learning on your part - learning how your child learns, how best to teach in a way that encourages rather then discourages, and so on, but one that lays out a simple programme that you can use to go at your child's pace and that gives you a simple lesson outline that you can follow each day, for just a few minutes before or after school as as part of your home-school lessons. FREE Reading books for reading interventionAs well as our FREE decodable reading books for children who are just starting out, or who have a special need, I also have a series of books for older children who may need to go back and revisit the early stages to build reading accuracy and fluency. These books were written for my older pupils, some of whom had started secondary school before they cam to me for help. Assess what your child can doBefore we find help for your child, the first thing to do is to assess where the problem has arisen. I do this through a simple testing activity that even you can do. When you know where your child has come unstuck, then you can work to rebuild and strengthen the 'wall'. See learning to read as building a house. First a child must learn the initial sounds - the sounds that each letter of the alphabet stand for. Then they must learn to put those sounds together to make words: c-a-t: cat! Once this skill is mastered, they must be able to blend four sounds - word with a consonant blend, like s-w-i-m. These stages form the foundation for reading and it here, in the foundations that I usually find 'cracks' or even 'holes' in the wall that are causing a child to fail to make reading progress. This post will tell you more. A little daily structured help may be all that your child needs. And you can become the expert - and saver £££££'s! Other may need a little more digging and help is provided here. Decodable reading books for reading interventionI have a growing series of decodable reading books for reading intervention.
What is special about these reading intervention books?In my work with older reading 'delayed' children I find a commons symptom, once the intial foudnations have been checked thoroughly, to ensure for example that a child knows the initial sounds and how to blend them to make words. GUESSING has most often become the child's main strategy. This becomes obvious when you find a child confusing words that look very similar, e.g. tip and trip. These books deliberately include these words multiple times to force the child to think about the whole word, not just a part. In short, these books have been written as I have helped REAL children - not by an academic with a literacy degree, but no real working knowledge of how children learn. CVC Words
Consonant blendsBasic common sounds with 2 or 3 letters togetherThe following books have been written to match Level 2 of Reading Made Simple. If these are too hard for your child - do not fear, simply do Level 1 instead, and find a complete set of reading books for you to use with your child.
Keep moving through the Reading Made Simple programme and your child will make progress. Purchase the bundle for a low price: click belowTeaching the oo sound When you see two 'o's together we do not say 'o o', but rather we make one sound: 'oo' as in moon. For many of us they actually make two new sounds. Listen to these words and hear the sound made by the letters 'oo'. If your dialect pronounces these words with the same 'oo' sound, you do not need to teach two sounds, only one and your task will be easier! Many of us will make a different sound for 'oo' as we say these two words. look moon So we have 'oo' in 'look' that sounds like the first part of the word cuckoo. And we have 'oo' in 'moon' that sounds like the second part of the word: cuckoo. I always use flashcards that are reviewed daily to teach phonics. It is a time honoured method that always produces exceptional results, enabling pupils to easily store the new sounds into their long-term memory for the quick recall so necessary for fluent reading and spelling. You can find a flashcard for the 'oo' sound in our pack of Reading Made Simple Flashcards, ready for printing. I suggest laminating your flashcards for durability. See how to use them here (scroll down the page). When I introduce the flashcard 'oo' I teach children to say 'oo-oo' as if they were saying 'cu-koo'. Listen to this demonstrated on the video below. Note: If this approach confuses your child (especially if they have a special need), then teach as above, as this makes the child aware that 'oo' can stand for two different sounds, but when the child sounds out I have them say 'oo' as in moon. So if the child sounds 'l oo k' (luke), we make a joke about it and I say, " We do not say 'Luke' at the bird, do we? What do we say?" "Yes, we say look." Then I remind the child that 'oo' sometimes makes the sound as in 'cuck'. They soon understand. Make sure that you teach your child to both blend sound to read oo words, and separate them apart (segment) to spell them. As always, encourage them to 'Sound-it-out'! A sample 'oo' Phonic lesson |
In this post I will be sharing with you three phonics games for you to download and print for free, for helping children to read and spell words with the sounds 'oo' and 'ee'.
Two letters making one sound: oo and ee
As always, the key to learning these new sounds, is to help the child to see two letters together, making one new sound.
So 'when we see the word: 'feet', we say:
NOT
ee Phonic Games
I have written this game for pupils with special needs who find it hard to learn that one 'e' says 'e' as in bed, and two e's says 'ee' as in feet.
The 'e' or 'ee' Phonic game helps pupils to differentiate between the two sounds, so that they become familiar with the new sound before attempting to read and spell words containing it. I suggest that you introduce the sound 'ee'. Then practice it on a flashcard with the sound 'e' and then play this game.
'OO' makes two sounds
boot
and then the word
look
you will hear that although they are both written with 'oo', they do not both have the same 'oo' sound.
boot has a long ooo sound, while look just has a short 'oo' sound.
One easy way of helping children to remember is to say it is like a cuckoo
'oo' says cu (for look) and coo for moon.
oo Phonic Games
o or oo? Game
oo Board Game
Build a Tower Game
Like 'Jenga', read the oo words, pile the 'bricks', but be careful your pile does not topple!
oo/ee games
Once both oo and ee have been learnt these games can be played.
oo/ee Missing Sound Game
Read and Match oo/ee
It has two boards and a set of matching word cards.
Teaching Tips
- Use flashcards of the phonic sounds and drill pupils daily (mon-fri) and have the child say
- Look for words with oo and ee in books.
- Help children to become familiar with the 'oo' and 'ee' sound (not worrying about reading and spelling for this - just listening) by coming up with rhyming words:
look: took book shook rook cook hook
hoot: boot toot coot
feet: meet street beat fleet greet seat meat
Pupils will learn the other ways to make these sounds later on - what matters is that they can hear the sounds in words.
Look after your games
Have you seen our other games?
Find oo/ee worksheets here to support learning:
Download the free oo/ee phonics games here:
Welcome
Hello, I'm Lilibette, qualified teacher (B.Ed Hons). I have taught phonics in mainstream education, followed by have home-educated my two sons to 18, and am now a private tutor.
Reading Made Simple (a completely free systematic phonic reading programme) and Sound-it-out are the results!
I aim to bring advice and resources aimed at enabling parents and teachers to EASILY teach phonics effectively. That is: to help children become life-long readers, forming a bedrock on which all further education can be built. My mother helps to draw the pictures and between us we have many years experience of teaching KS1, special needs and ESL. We hope you enjoy browsing our site!
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