Title of Strategy: Finger Spelling
Description: This is a key technique for moving children from Phase 2 to Phase 3 for beginning reading. It helps the child identify all phonemes in a word and should be introduced after the child is proficient at Hand “Spelling”. (Taken from The New Science of Beginning Reading and Writing by Richard Gentry)
The reference made to the phases of spelling are based on Gentry’s work:
Phase 0 – No letters
Phase 1 – Letters without sound representation
Phase 2 – Beginning and ending sound represented
Phase 3 – Finger spelling/Representing a letter for a sound
Phase 4 – Spelling in chunks of phonics patterns
Procedure:
1. Model Finger Spelling to your students. Beginning with the thumb, each consecutive phoneme in a word is “put on a finger” in the order of thumb (first sound), index finger (second sound), third finger (third sound), and so forth. Keep in mind that the fingers represent the number of sounds in a word, not the number of letters. (“Bee” is represented by two fingers and so is “eight”.)
2. Practice Finger Spelling with your students.
Description: This is a key technique for moving children from Phase 2 to Phase 3 for beginning reading. It helps the child identify all phonemes in a word and should be introduced after the child is proficient at Hand “Spelling”. (Taken from The New Science of Beginning Reading and Writing by Richard Gentry)
The reference made to the phases of spelling are based on Gentry’s work:
Phase 0 – No letters
Phase 1 – Letters without sound representation
Phase 2 – Beginning and ending sound represented
Phase 3 – Finger spelling/Representing a letter for a sound
Phase 4 – Spelling in chunks of phonics patterns
Procedure:
1. Model Finger Spelling to your students. Beginning with the thumb, each consecutive phoneme in a word is “put on a finger” in the order of thumb (first sound), index finger (second sound), third finger (third sound), and so forth. Keep in mind that the fingers represent the number of sounds in a word, not the number of letters. (“Bee” is represented by two fingers and so is “eight”.)
2. Practice Finger Spelling with your students.