I have the seat work text and the teachers key. It is talking about special sounds. Page 37 has a list of words, and it says circle the special sounds: gnat anoint knight about kneeling washing knocking spoil strong away wanting known I don't see any "common" denominators in these words and there is no list that says what "special sounds" she is using. I think I'm using the program the wrong way. We don't have a teachers curriculum for it, just the workbook and the teachers key. On the website I have looked for a "teachers guide" or something, can't find anything. I don't know what I'm teaching when I'm only using these worksheets!!! Is there a book that tells me what to teach? How do we circle the special sounds in these words if we have no clue what "special sounds" they are talking about?? HELP!
I found a list of them and printed them off but it doesn't answer the question of which special sounds to teach and when.????
I really hope you get an answer to this, because I would be just as confused as you are! My best guess would be that it's anything unusual about the word- silent letters (like in "gnat") or combination sounds ("ing" or the "oi" sound in"spoil" and "anoint"). "Away" kind of gets me though... maybe it's the way the "ay" makes the long a sound? That's just my best guess!!
I haven't actually used Abeka, but I'm going to hazard a guess. gnat; knight; kneeling; knocking; known Probably the silent consonants at the beginnings. anoint; about; away Could be the "schwa" sound at the beginning (sounds like short u, the sound of any vowel in an unaccented syllable). anoint; spoil Probably the oi sound in the middle. washing; wanting Likely the "ah" sound of "a" after the w. It's neither long nor short. kneeling; washing; knocking; strong; wanting Could be the "ng" nasal sound at the end. But as for when or how to teach them, I'm clueless.
The information you need is in the curriculum/lesson plans. The daily lesson plans lay out a phonics lesson each day...it tells which charts to use, which special sounds to focus on each day. There are two(maybe three)things you really need to teach Abeka Phonics in the lower grades (1-3): the curriculum plans, the handbook for reading, and possibly the Basic Phonics Sounds CD. The handbook has all the charts and practice, the cd will help with proper pronunciation, the curriculum plans has all the lesson plans, tips and hints etc. Phonics is taught for 10-15 minutes segments. The list you are talking about on page 37 is kind of a review of the special sounds that have been worked on in the daily phonics lessons. I suggest checking amazon.com for used items, homeschoolclassifieds, or even ebay. Maybe someone here on this forum will have used items to sell.
You really need the teachers curriculum! We use Abeka and it teaches about 3 special sounds a day. These pages from Letters and sounds 2 are just review from the actual lesson. We are on the same lesson and they are wanting gn in gnat, a(u) and oi in anoint, kn and igh(long i) in knight, a and ou in about, kn and ing in kneeling, wa sh and ing in washing, kn ck and ing in knocking, sp oi in spoil, str ong in strong, a and ay in away, wa ing in wanting, and kn ow in known. I really recommend having the curriculum and not even worrying about the teachers keys. They really give you a great foundation to teach buy. You can get it on eBay for less than $20 used and an older version is fine(it hadn't changed much).
I used Abeka for my K student last year. I had ALL the books and TGs and still thought it was really hard to follow. We switched curriculum this year, but honestly what has helped my DD learn to read the most was www.starfall.com. She LOVES it. She plays it for fun all.the.time. and has turned into a reading champ. If you want to stick with it, you could prob get the teacher books on ebay for pretty cheap--I think you may need them as Abeka is very teacher-heavy. Good luck!
