Souns®, Rhymes and Reading

This video is a compilation of a year's worth of literacy work in our home. 

My children now have a firm set of foundational literacy skills 

thanks to Souns for Literacy and 

 traditional nursery rhymes.

SensAble Literacy Camp 1

Objective of SensAble Literacy Camp:  Uncover and identify sound holes. Fill in these holes to improve reading fluency and comprehension.

What are Sound Holes?  Sound holes are missing phonemes and/or digraphs needed to decode.

Sound Hole Anecdotes:

Student in fourth grade easily reads instant words containing the digraph /th/ memorized by sight: this, the, they, with, etc.  This student did not recognize /th/ sound in a Sound Check.  She then read, “Thud, thud, thud” as “Tud, tud, tud,” changing the entire meaning of the reading passage.  At the fourth grade level, she is now beginning to slip in her reading.

Student in fourth grade called “e” /ee/ when doing a Sound Check.  He goes on to read the word “stem” as “steam.”  

SensAble Literacy Camp 

Three students attended the first camp. One child was entering fourth grade and the others were entering fifth grade.  Two attended private schools. One attended a public school.  All three were beginning to slip in reading according to grade-level expectations.

To begin the camp, two assessments were administered per student: a Running Record and a Sound Check using Souns®. The Running Record is a record of a piece of text equivalent to a 4th/5th grade reading level.  A percentage of accuracy is calculated along with the words read per minute and it also notes the total number of self corrections.  The Sound Check is a diagnostic assessment that guides intervention.  Simply put, does this child know all of his/her letter sounds and six basic digraphs?

The holes uncovered during the Sound Check, illustrated by the Running Record and daily anecdotal notes, identify the missing foundational elements of the Alphabetic Principle.  The camp’s design was to fill these holes using a variety of games and fun activities like the engaging Souns® Mat.  Next, sound-specific reading passages were used to ensure the gaps were filled.

One mother wrote about the camp, “My daughter recently had the chance to work with Della at one of her literacy camps.  My daughter has an audio processing disorder, and I wondered how 5 days could possibly help her – but, the program is different from anything else we have tried.  Della mostly worked with the kids with letter sounds – yes, I know, I thought she learned this in K and 1st grade, right? Well, to my surprise, my daughter only had mastered 16 of the 26 letter sounds.  Now, along with some other things, I understand why when sounding out her words when reading, she just made words up.  Not because she was lazy, but because she did not know certain letter sounds.  By the end of camp, she has learned how to slow down and focus on the sounds she struggles with.  With this, hopefully she will retain more of what she reads.”

The results speak for themselves.

If these results could be achieved in two hours of playful instruction every day for a week, imagine what can be accomplished over the course of a school year!

Aha Moment: The Story of /th/

The Story of /th/

When I learned Souns® from Brenda Erickson for my children, I had the thought, “So many kids need this.”  By this I mean alphabetics, the most basic skills connecting reading, writing, listening and speaking.  So many children are missing this basic building block.

Elle is a fourth grade student.  Her reading skills are slipping, but she is not reading significantly below grade level.  When I did a running record with her, she read with 94% accuracy.  Her rate was slow and choppy, but her accuracy was that of an instructional fourth grade reading level according to the running record.

Next, I did the Sound Check with Elle.  What I learned taught me worlds more about what Elle needed for success in fluency than the running record would have.  After going through the single letter sounds, I found she was missing 9.  How was she reading so well knowing 17/26 sounds?  I was stunned.

The next week, I checked basic digraphs, staying true to the Souns® program.  She  knew half of them.  One of the digraphs she did not know was /th/.  When I asked her the sound these two letters together made, she said, “/t/”.  So, after doing some Souns® play with Elle (helping me in the teacher role with her sister), I asked her to read the Itty Bitty Phonics Readers, Bud in the Mud, short u.  When I did the Sound Check the week before, she didn’t remember what sound u made, so I wanted to make sure it was in place.  I am so glad I did this.  She read the /u/ words with ease, but I learned two very important things.  First, she is still using picture clues when reading.  On page five she read tub as bath because of the picture displayed on the page.  This further enforces something Brenda taught me.  When children are beginning to read, all they need are words on a page.  Pictures are a distraction and slow them down.

Then, she read the page that said, “Jump in the mud with a thud, thud, thud!”  But, what she said what “Jump in the mud with a tud, tud, tud.”  When I had asked her what the /th/ digraph said during the diagnostic assessment (the Sound Check)  she said /t/.  Another observation made while Elle read is that she clearly said and read “the” along with other sight words containing /th/ several times.  She knows HOW to say the /th/ sound.  She probably memorized “the” as a sight word.  Other /th/ sight words she'd memorized include this, with, there, this, etc.   Clearly, she knows how to say /th/.  It is in her oral vocabulary.  However, she does not know how to decode or read /th/ in an unfamiliar word.  She demonstrated this when I went and printed out a variety of words with /th/ at the beginning, middle and end of the word.  

Common sight words containing /th/ she easily read.  

More complicated words that contained /th/, she read as /t/ losing meaning to many words that she may or may not know in conversation.

Imagine how many  words containing the letters /th/ there are in the English language and how many words Elle may not be able to decode.  

Now, imagine how much comprehension slips due to this inability to decode this basic sound.

I told her mother on the way out the door to tell her thank you for me because she is teaching me so much.

This may not be a fix for all struggling readers, but it is certainly a place to start.

A Child Living with Autism

Jesse is a fifth grade student. She is diagnosed with a profound version of autism and is not included in the mainstream classroom. She makes sounds and so far, I have heard her say, “ya, na, and bye.” Her mother said often she often says’ “ya’ while shaking her head no and vice versa. She may have more language than I know at this point but I do know that communication is a major issue. My primary goal in working with Souns with Jesse is to make communication between her, her parents and her teachers more clear so that others know what she needs and what she is thinking.  

10/27/2011

I just worked with Jesse. She repeated o right away and began chewing on the letter, much like a baby would I suppose. Her mother tried to stop her. I told her to let her. Her mother explained that all her therapists have quit. :( She also said when working on speech it was 25 minutes and very drill-like. I told her this was intended only as exploration and play and we want to keep it fun. I also introduced the m & s but that was about it. She did not repeat those, although she did differentiate them. I suspect she will repeat them eventually.  I'm keeping the time at 5 minutes  a day. That was about the extent of time that I think will not frustrate her or turn her off. She seemed interested in the symbols and also touched me quite a bit while I was there. (She has not responded to me in this way before.)

10/28/2011

Jesse took the o right away saying o. I also brought out the s  and the t  She did not repeat the s but did the t. I passed them back and forth with her several times and she clearly proved she knew the distinction between each of the three letters and the sounds. Both of her parents sat there in awe. Bob, her father, said that what she just did was a lot.  They are both very hopeful and so am I! Jesse is engaged and interacting very well touching the Souns symbols.

10/29/2011

Jesse was not feeling well today. Her allergies were acting up and her mother said that she does not give her the allergy medicine on the weekends like she does during the week. I put out the round blue mat for her to join me on. Up until today we had worked mainly with her on the couch. I think the couch is her safe harbor for when she sat with me on the floor she became very animated with her arms.  She seemed to want to say something but nothing was coming out. I suggested that she move back to the couch and she settled down once she was there again.  She did take the letters and feel them. She also said the o and the t very well. She ignored the s  and the t and did not respond to handing them back. Her mother commented that s is the first letter in her name and she is forced in school to say it which is why she may be resisting it. I told her I was still happy to see her say two of the sounds and we would try again tomorrow.   She obviously did not feel well.

10/30/2011

Jesse felt much better. She sat with me for the first time. She clearly said o. Also, I heard the /mm/ sound repeated in between a few other sounds. She also proudly said the t. Once again, she did not attempt the s at all. I also got out the two sets of sounds pieces a, m, s, and t.  She did not hand them back, but I was thrilled that I heard three sounds from Jesse.

I am still learning what Jesse does know. She clearly said, “ya” to me when I asked her a question. She also did say “bye.”  She does have a few words. I would love to see her able to communicate her needs and thoughts better with her mother. That would make this all worthwhile.

11/3/2011

Today Jesse came right up to sit in the circle with me and gave me what I would consider a kiss on the cheek. I’m pretty confident it was a welcoming gesture. We began with the o, m ,s and t. She has shown and continues to show evidence that she can say them all. I am going to add a new notation to the record sheet for Jesse. She can say the sound. She can choose the sound. That way, I can keep track a little better of what she knows. Often, she repeats things, but I want to make sure all of the connections of which sound, to what letter are happening before moving on too much further.  Again, she sad the t, the m and the a. But I still have not heard an s.   She was reluctant to pick up to differentiate today so I had Isabella come over to “hand Jesse the m.” Then, I would ask Jesse for it.  So, Isabella did the modeling.

Tomorrow, I’m going to try to write on the hands. Isabella and Ofelia haven’t had their hands written on yet, so I think it will be a great thing for all of them to explore together. Jesse’s mom said she thought she’d let me.

11/3/2011

I wrote the letters on my hands and on Jesse’s hands. Isabella didn’t want hers written on and Ofelia was busy eating a cookie. So, Jesse and I began to explore with our hands, comparing them to the letters and touching one another’s hands. I was a little disappointed at first because I felt like I was doing so much, leading the way. After about 5 minutes, Jesse went Then, I differentiated my notes and was showing her mother how I know Jesse knows how to say the o,m, and t. She also knows the difference between the o,s and t. However, she wasn’t picking the m out although she could repeat it. She did say three letters, but still no s. However, we’re making progress, no doubt. Then, her mother took interest in the letters on her hands and said s to Jesse and she said it! We both heard the s sound. Hurray for Jesse. Her mother was so happy. I don’t know if she’ll say it for me, but she said it for her mom!

I’d say it was a very good day.

11/04/2011

Since we’ve been focusing on the first few letters so intently, I decided to try a little something different. First, I did introduce the next few sounds, p, e, i and h. She did say repeat all of them. Then, I brought out a hat with the sounds in the word hat. I know we haven’t done all the sounds yet, but Jesse is familiar with symbols in the world, so I thought I’d relate a few sounds to some things. I said hat several times. She didn’t quite say the word. But, she did pick up the sounds as requested and put them in the hat. She also did this for the word pan. I was just going to do the beginning sound, but I guess I got carried away. She did differentiate them all, though. So, I think she knows a little more than I think she does. We will continue the sounds order of introduction, but I was impressed by what she did today. Her dad joined in. (He travels during the week.) He uses a very authoritative tone with her. She does respond to him but I don’t think my using the tone would have the same effect.  

11/08/2011

Jesse and I worked each day of the weekend. We practiced throughout the first twelve letters. She is saying and differentiating many of the sounds. I think, though, I am going to take Brenda’s advice and slow down and focus for a while on just the first eight sounds, to watch for mastery with them from Jesse. I so want to build a mode of communication for her and her mother through literacy. I know if there is anything that can do it, it’s the program, but I need to be patient.

11/10/11

I need to listen to my own advice. I just read my last line about being patient. Today, I think I was so eager to try to figure out what constructs Jesse has, I got ahead of myself. I took a book with a bunch of /m/ sounds and read it with the m. I wanted to see what/ if any connections Jesse has between spoken language to written language. She followed me around the room pointing out /m/’s but didn’t engage. Then, I had a very important conversation with her mother. I guess I’d say in a way I’m glad I got off track, because this made me realize the importance of getting back on track with the simplicity of the program. I explained how I am trying to figure out what Jesse knows. Her mother then showed me what they know. She got out some cards with everyday items and asked her to hand them back. Give me the meat. Give me the glass. etc. She said they give her three choices, usually she chooses only from two. She said she usually picks what’s on the right. She also said that she knows how to match and do some tasks like that. (I’ve done a little bit of that as well.) But, she said what I’ve done that no one else has was get sounds out of her. I had no idea that she’d never uttered certain sounds. That’s exactly what’s working. That’s what we’re going to stay with. The simplicity of the sounds, one at a time. Spoken.  Our goal is to get simple words, in some way, spoken or written with chalk, a computer or symbols,  to let others know basic needs: pain, hot, etc. I know she’s been rushed to the hospital because she seems to be screaming in pain but Alba had no idea what do do or what was wrong. She’s also thrown fits at school outside, her mother says because she was hot but no one knew. So, we have a goal for sounds with Jesse. And, I need to be patient and go one sound at a time in the simplest way possible.

11/17/2011

I’ve been working with Jesse for a few minutes every day. I haven’t journaled every day, but I’ve gotten to her most days. She was sick for a couple, so we took a few days off. But, staying with the first 8 letters is really proving to work. I asked her parents if I could video yesterday while working with her. They said yes. I tried to first video me working with her. While she does respond well to me while I’m there, she was not responding well with her father right behind me videotaping. So, I asked if he would do the lesson with her. She responded soooo well to him. He learned from an OT to help her keep her back straight while learning. That is why you may see him tapping her on the back while working. She also said the s sound better than ever before! I should have kept the video rolling for the little celebration that took place after she repeated the sounds so well.

12/04/2011

Jesse said  /t/ without prompting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I keep going over for just a few minutes and going over the first eight sounds.  I haven’t had much to write about except to say that she is saying the first eight sounds. She is distinguishing between the sounds. This is the first time she has offered the sound to me without prompting.  I consider this pretty huge.

12/9/2011

I decided to do a little something in addition to just practicing the eight sounds that we’ve been going over. I brought over a very large white board with a marker. We practiced the circular motion as described in the book for beginning writing of lower case letters.

1/6/2012

We took a two week break since school was out and I had a cough.  We started back earlier this week.  Jesse easily said all eight sounds earlier in the week.  She even said the “o” without prompting!!!!!!!  And, today, she said the “h” without prompting.  So, she knows, can say, can distinguish the first eight sounds.  And, she has said the “t”, “o” and “h” just with me holding it up, before I have said it.  I know, without a doubt she is learning.  Her parents are overjoyed that she is making these sounds.  We are getting somewhere.  I just have to keep reminding myself to not push or try this and try that when simply saying and touching the letter is enough for learning the sound.

1/14/2011

Jesse came and sat down with me on the floor. (Often before I would come in and work with her as she was lying on the couch.)  When I said, “Hello Jesse,” she said “Hi” to me.  Her mother was right behind her.  We looked at eachother and smiled with excitement.  We both knew that was something.  She continued to make eye contact much more than usual during our session.  She said each sound quite well.  I don’t recall her saying one again.  Her mother did come running out after I left to hand me the t.  She said it’s Jesse’s favorite and she had hung onto it.

A Gifted, Illiterate Child

*Marie is a student nearing middle school who had not attended school before. She is illiterate, hungry to learn and wants to be reading chapter books by middle school.

*This child’s name has been changed for confidentiality purposes.

10/26/2011

Marie is interacting with literacy well. I've been doing a lot of writing for her to start. (I'm still doing this along with the sounds.) I'm putting her beautiful ideas and interests onto the page so she can see how writing is one's ideas. The last time I was there we began talking about bullying. Today, she was bursting with poems, one about Justin Beiber, and one about bullying. We had a brief conversation about it last week and I said how bullies who act mean are probably bullied somewhere else. This really struck home for her. She told me today that she was thinking after I left that we should have been writing down what we were talking about. Right now, we have three things going one when I'm there for 1 1/2 twice a week. We are working on Souns. We are writing simple phonetic poems for her 2nd grade buddy and I am writing her ideas and reading them back to her. She likes hearing them and often comments how good her ideas are. :) I am doing Souns with her, just like I am with my children but she is jumping right into writing with the symbols. It's pretty wild working with a child who is so verbal and mature, yet illiterate. She's thinking in an abstract realm but needs the most concrete practice. I'm feeling my way along as working with a student who has never been to school is new to me.

11/01/11

Today, Marie had left the poetry books that we usually worked with at home. So, we spent the entire day on Souns. Marie went through the entire alphabet, in Souns order, and told me each sound. She still needs to work on the /z/ and needs more vowel practice, but she is doing a spectacular job. Since she does know most of her sounds, we practiced writing with them today.

 

I searched for a few items to write with sounds. She started with quit on her own. Then, 

she wrote pad and clip from items I collected.

She noticed that pen and pin sounded the same.  She couldn’t decide which one so she wrote both.

And she wrote block as blac. I did not correct her even though she keeps asking if she is right. We’ve discussed what matters for right now is that she can communicate in writing so her teacher can figure out what she is thinking and she is well on her way.

She asked me a question today. Will I be able to read a book like this in middle school? (It was a chapter book like she sees her peers reading.) I told her yes.

So, after she wrote her words, I pulled out a few of the simple phonetic books that go with a kindergarten program her teacher has out for reference. I grabbed a book called I am a bug. She read the title perfectly with no help from me and without me asking her to do so. I asked her how she read it. She said she remembered I am from the poem we wrote. And a bug she knew from the sounds.  She went on to read it with just a few stumbles.

Then, we did some choral reading, where I model the phonetic reading first and then we read phonetically exaggerated together with two other books.

She is so hungry to learn and wants to be able to do what her peers are doing. She is an inspiration.

11/04/2011

Our time was limited today.  We did get to do quite a bit, though. First, I pulled out several small toys to represent objects. This could be realia for second language purposes, but I chose the toys as simple phonetic words that I thought Marie would be successful with.  With the Souns program, writing with symbols is also encouraged to be done along side the noun.  

Marie is so concerned with being right. She keeps looking for me to answer her. I’m trying to

answer her only by repeating the sounds in an exaggerated way.

She heard the i sound after I repeated the sounds.

Then, she flipped the p and said, big!

I would not answer her on this one if it was correct. We went on to the next word, cat.

After she wrote cat, I then put dog, (dag) next to it. I said the two words in a very exaggerated phonetic way. She quickly swapped the a for an o in dog.

After we wrote with Souns symbols, Marie was eager to write some poems.

She wrote a poem for about her teacher. When she wants to write out her more complex thoughts, I am writing them for her to the paper. Then, I type them and we put them into her Poetry book.

Then, we wrote a Silly Souns Poem together using some simple phonetic words. I first asked her to read all of the o words. She did so with ease. She was not sure what a cot was, so I showed her the picture that went with it. Then, we use these  simple, phonetic words to build easy to read poems for her reading buddy. This way, she has a good tool to use with her 2nd grade reading buddy that she can play teacher with since she wants to be a teacher.  She does the scribing of these poems.

11/8/2011

She is demonstrating mastery of nearly all of the sounds, with the exception of the vowels and a few others I have noted on the Souns progress chart. Next time, I will be explicitly teaching vowel sounds. We will then be moving into digraphs with th first.

We began by reading a poem that focused on the short a sound. We ran out of time to write a Silly Sound poem using the short a sound, but we’ll do that next time.

She was eager to share with me some of the early readers she has been practicing with. She easily read them, but did stumble a few times. Every time the digraph th came up, she wasn’t sure about it, so we will work on that sound along with the vowel sounds to help her reading along.

I also shared with her the poems that she wrote which I scribed and typed up for her. She is so pleased with them. We then practiced choral reading the poem.

11/10/2011

We got to work going over just the specific vowels and their sounds. She read for me several simple readers, demonstrating her continually developing decoding skills. Sometimes she forgets and guesses, usually from the first letter, but she is decoding nicely and fluency is definitely improving. I told her how amazed I am at how quickly she is reading. She asked if most kids don’t learn this fast, and I told her, no, they don’t. She’s doing amazingly well. This made her gush with pride.

So then I read a few poems out of a poetry book about peace I had checked out from the library. Then, we wrote. She started by describing yesterday, that she said  was a really bad day in class. Many kids were fighting. Then, we talked about how it could be turned around. She was thrilled with the finished product and was eager to share it.

.

The last line got cut off, “Peace is your choice.”

We finished off the day writing a Silly Poem with the short a sound for her reading buddy.

11/16/2011

Marie greeted me with a few poems she had written on her own. One appeared, to be partially copied from a book, but the other was her own. The one that was her own was delightful, about how she saw herself. She read it to me and I could *almost* read it myself. Most of the words were legible.

I brought Marie a mini Dictionary. It’s just a paper one stapled together with some very frequently spelled words with lots of blank spaces for adding words you don’t know under each letter. I showed Marie’s teacher how I would just write down the spelling of the word instead of spelling it out loud. She is always asking, so I gave them this tool. I used to use it in my own classroom.  Spelling a word out loud for a kid does nothing to help spelling stick in their brain. When you write it own, and they look and copy it from your writing, that sticks.

We then worked on vowel sounds. Marie matched nearly every picture without assistance pairing the three letter words with their pictures. We then practiced reading them. The ones she did need help with tended to be words she was not familiar with vocabulary-wise, like cot and yak. (She is a second language learner.) So the picture matching, again, serves a good purpose for meeting her needs as a second language learner.

I grabbed the Itty Bitty Phonics Reader o which she read flawlessly.  We also did some choral reading of some other phonetic poetry and rhymes.

Finally, we wrote our own poem. She wanted t write about wishes.  She is hungry to learn!

11/29/2011

According to a school assessment, Marie made a year's growth in two months. Go Marie.

1/6/2012

Wow!  It’s been a while since I’ve journaled about Marie.  .  I found some Sponge Bob phonics readers and figured they were high interest so I bought them to use for practice with her.  I was right. She loves them. I also like the pictures are not intertwined with the words.  Words are on an entirely separate page so I can fold it over so the pictures aren’t used for clues.  (This by the way is a reading strategy children are taught- to use picture cues.)  She read the short a book very, very well.  On Thursday, we read the short o book which she struggled with a bit more.  I got out the “elastic stretcher that I bought to build 3 and 4 letter words she was stumbling on.  We stretched it out and put it together.  (I learned this from Brenda as she would stretch out words in the air.  I like the actual visual stretch that a struggling reader with meta-cognitive awareness does.)  This really helped her understand the concept better

This journal will close with some poetry Marie and I wrote together for her to practice and teach younger children...

Sounds

I hear sounds in books.

Sounds become a word.

The sounds help you learn how to read a word.

The word tub is an easy word to start reading. It only has three letters and the letters only make the sound

/t/  /u/  /b/  says tub

/m/  /u/  /d/  says mud

/r/   /u/   /g/  says rug

Say each sound. You put it together

You make a word.

Sometimes you put two letters together and they make a new sound like

/sh/  /o/  /p/ says shop

/th/  /a/  /t/ says that

/ch/ /u/  /g/ says chug

/b/ /ee/  /p/ says beep

/b/ /ee/ says bee

Marie has every ability to make it.  I pray she overcomes the number in a system too easily lost...