Here's an idea for getting a client to practice paying attention to a specific orthographic pattern in text. This is also great phonological awareness practice since it is not just a visual task (e.g., spotting the vowel team grapheme) but requires auditory processing, too.
Say, for example, you are working on the vowel team <ai>. The only phonetically regular sound for this vowel team is the 'long a' sound. I want to give my client some practice spotting this vowel team and deciding if it has its regular ‘long a’ sound or not.
Find some text (an article or story) from the client’s independent or instructional reading level.¹ Paste this text to a Word document, an email or just give the client the URL for the Web page.
Directions to the client:
1) Bring the page up on your computer screen.
2) On your keyboard simultaneously press two keys: [Ctrl] + [F]. That will bring up a little search box. In that box type the letter combination (i.e., vowel team) you are looking for (in this case: ai )
3) Keep selecting "next" and each instance of <ai> will be found.
4) Write down each of these words. Decide if the <ai> in each word is making its regular sound, “long a”…or if it is making a different (irregular) sound.
For example, my 17 year old client (whose passion is horses) found the following in an article I sent her from The Equestrian Times:
- 4 words in which <ai> has its regular, 'long a' sound: maintain, availability, remain, explain
- 3 words in which <ai> is irregular: mountain, said, against
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¹ For a quick estimate of a child’s reading level (independent, instructional, frustration) use the San Diego Quick Assessment of Reading. For a more detailed discussion, see Language-Literacy Assessment: Focused and Process-Oriented.