• Nov 19, 2024

📚 Cracking the 'C' Code: Boosting Reading/Spelling Skills

  • Rosemary Gin

I noticed that my highschool student is challenged with words that have the letter C in them from the required Science textbook. For example these were the C words throughout the text today:  commercial vaccine cystic artificial conceive reproductive transgenic sequences certain particles deficiencies specifically producing and cloning.

Stumbling over the correct pronounciation is going to make it more challenging to read for meaning and also may affect comprehension of new material.

Do you see the gaps that needs to be addressed?  What would you zero in on? 

Did you think of the Soft C rule and the syllable division rules?

To address challenges, reading words with 'c', one could teach or review the following:

  1. Review the Soft C Rule: When a 'C' is followed by a 'stick vowel' E, I or Y, it makes it's /s/ sound - Examples: cent, city, cyclone, commercial, cystic, conceive centipede.

  2. Review the Hard C Rule: When a 'C' is followed by 'a', 'o', 'u' or a consonant, they make the /k/ sound. Examples: comorant, commercial, caterpillar cucumber.

  3. Review the syllable Division Rules for the 'C' words that were challenging:

    • VC/CV pattern (divide between two consonants) Examples: vaccine hiccup conceive.

    • V/CV and VC/V patterns (divide before or after a single consonant) Examples: V/VC: comatose incubate cuticle; Examples: VC/V: comet specifically comorant cicada cylinder.

    • VV pattern (divide between two vowels that don't form a team) commercial calcium diagram.

  4. Morphology: Break down words into roots, prefixes, and suffixes. Example: re/pro/duc/tive or com/mer/ci/al cyl/in/der di/ag/ram.

  5. Multisyllabic Word Reading Strategies: Teach students to identify familiar parts, apply rules, and blend syllables. This is where using the Multisensory Techniques come into play, using visual, auditory, and kinesthetic methods to reinforce learning.

  6. Practice with Decodable Text: I can have her reread a section, or copy those sentences for her to read again.

  7. Explicit Instruction: Directly teach and review these rules, providing ample opportunities for application.

By systematically addressing these areas, students can improve their ability to remember the rules related to a mix of words with the letter C that would trick them up.

Yes, this is exactly what I am going to review in the next lesson.