Method of teaching reading and spelling with a progressive interlocking correlative system
The invention teaches students all of the graphic representations of phonemes and orthography using a series of word charts (covering over 18,000 independent words) and integrated program materials. The graphic representations of phonemes are presented to a student according to the frequency of use in words and in the language, and the progressive dependence of one set of graphic representations of phonemes on another. The teaching methods of this invention provide a system for learning how to decode and encode as interchangeable skills. Thus, the student learns to reason out the sounds and spelling of thousands of words. Integrated program learning materials provide mnemonic devices to reinforce the learning in a systematic way.
1. A word decoding and encoding system, comprising:
a non-transitory medium having word charts disposed thereon, said word charts comprising graphic representations of phonemes and phoneme clusters containing vowel-consonant relationships therein in a hierarchical order based on progressive levels of difficulty of function and frequency of use of said graphic representations of phonemes and phoneme clusters, said word chart order including increasing levels of complexity of one sound-to-many orthographic patterns or many sounds-to-one orthographic pattern; and
information-laden mnemonic devices including at least one of a picture, an icon, a card, a puppet, a model, an audio cassette, a compact disk, and an interactive computer device determined by the hierarchical order of said word charts,
whereby said information-laden mnemonic devices are configured to introduce said phonemes and phoneme clusters to students according to said increasing levels of complexity of said vowel-consonant relationships of said phonemes and phoneme clusters in said word charts, and
whereby each new phoneme or phoneme cluster, after an initial phoneme or phoneme cluster, is introduced to students using, in a building block fashion, word charts including words comprising the vowel-consonant relationships of phonemes or phoneme clusters that have already been taught to the students.
2. A system as in claim 1 , wherein each word chart is arranged to include words comprising the vowel-consonant relationships of phonemes or phoneme clusters that have already been taught to the students in a previous word chart and one new phoneme or phoneme cluster.
3. A system as in claim 1 , wherein at least one word in said word chart includes specific markings labeling a function(s) of a letter(s) in a context of a group of letters in a word.
4. A system as in claim 1 , wherein the word charts identify a changing position of a schwa in relation to accented syllables.
5. A system as in claim 1 , wherein said word charts present the application of suffixes according to a root word in a systematic fashion.
6. A system as in claim 1 , wherein said word charts compare a phonemic system in English of short vowels, long vowels, digraphs, and schwa with another language.
7. A system as in claim 1 , wherein at least one of said word charts includes at least one of a one sound-to-one orthographic pattern, many sounds-to-one orthographic pattern, and one sound-to-many orthographic patterns.
8. A system as in claim 1 , wherein said information-laden mnemonic devices are arranged to assess a student's awareness of the vowel-consonant relationships of graphic representations of phonemes and phoneme clusters.