'Letter sounds' tutor notes
The aim of the 'Letter sounds' topic area is to understand some of the basic rules of spelling, differentiating between vowels and consonants, as well as long and short vowels. Learners are then shown the effect of the final 'e' and the use of double letters to keep vowel sounds short.
Different consonant sounds are explained, such as the hard and soft 'c' and 'g' and silent letters. There are also tips for learners to improve their spelling, including an introduction to syllables, prefixes and suffixes.
How does this tie in with the curriculums?
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England
Ww/E3.2 -
1. use developing knowledge of sound-symbol relationships and phonological patterns to help spell a greater range of words and longer words, as appropriate for the needs of the learner
2. understand that knowing spelling patterns (e.g. common letter strings, visual patterns, analogies) reduces the chance of random errors
3. understand that there is not always a strict sound-symbol association in spelling, e.g. silent letters
4. understand how segmenting words into phonemes and breaking them into syllables (beats) or components (compounds) helps work out spelling
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Wales
As England
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Northern Ireland
As England
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Scotland
See www.aloscotland.com for details of the Scottish curriculum.
Please note that the BBC is not responsible for the content of other websites.
In this Skillswise module you'll find...
Letter sounds - games
There are two games available here.
'Listen and spin' requires players to listen to the spoken word and then spin each letter wheel to the correct position so they spell the word. There is an easy and a hard option to try.
'Building words' is the same game format, but with a vocational Brick-laying twist to it.
Please do tell us what you think of these games.
Letter sounds - quiz
The learner can choose their level. Level A is the easiest and level C the hardest. The student can print out a certificate if they score 50% or more in the quiz. This will appear as a link on the results page - click on the link and the certificate will appear in a new window. Learners can write their name in once the certificate is printed.
Letter sounds - factsheets
There are four factsheets in this section. The first introduces vowels and consonants and the difference between long and short vowels. The second shows that some consonants, like 'c' and 'g', also have different sounds - hard and soft.
The third factsheet gives tips on how learners can improve their spelling, including 'Look, say, cover, write, check', and chopping up longer words into syllables, prefixes and suffixes. The fourth factsheet covers common spelling patterns and silent letters.
Letter sounds - worksheets
There are three printable worksheets with answersheets in this section. The first looks at differentiating words between vowels and consonants in the alphabet. The second gives learners practice at spotting the vowels and consonants in one- and two-syllable words. The third provides practice in spelling words that use the soft 'c' and 'g'.
Technical help:
To get the most out of this topic area you need the following 'plug-ins':
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Flash 7
The game in this topic section uses Flash 7. This is free to download and should only take a few minutes. You can follow the BBC WebWise instructions to download it to your machine.
Find out more.
If you don't have Flash 7 the same learning points are covered in the quiz, worksheets and factsheets.
Please note: the flash game in this section is quite graphical. Please allow about 1 minute for the game to download. Download times will vary according to your connection speed and how busy the network is.
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Adobe PDF documents
Note that you will need the free Adobe Acrobat software on your machine to view PDF documents.
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FlashPapers
We have provided the worksheets and factsheets as both PDF files and FlashPaper files. For screenreader users you should choose the FlashPaper version as these are designed to be screenreader accessible. If you don't need a screenreader it doesn't matter which type you use.
If you want to print the factsheets we recommend you use the PDF version provided. However, if you do want to print a FlashPaper, you must use the print button within the FlashPaper window (top right). Your internet browser can't tell what size to print these kind of documents, so if you use the print option in the 'file' menu it may print out completely the wrong size.
If you are new to the web, why not take a look at WebWise. You can try the WebWise online course or be shown the basics by our Computer Tutor. It's free and it will take you through everything you need to know to use the web successfully in your teaching. Get WebWise.
If you would like to get more help using Skillswise, check out the Help pages.
Taking it further:
With Skillswise:
Don't forget to check out the Skillswise Lesson plans and Teaching inspirations areas for more ideas about teaching letter sounds.
Visit more Skillswise spelling resources aimed at Level 1 learners: Root words, Prefixes
and Suffixes, Letter patterns
and
homophones.
On the web:
Here are a few suggestions of other places on the web that you might find useful resources that you can adapt for teaching letter sounds.
Suffix exercises:
Pairs exercises:
Rewrite root word, adding suffix:
Spelling:
Please note that the BBC is not responsible for the content of other websites.
Do you know of any great online resources for practising letter sounds? Tell us about them!
