This is a continuation of a parent series on WRTR.
Rules 7-8
7. There are five kinds of silent e’s.
If you are familiar with Sound Beginnings, this section is easy:
- “Time” illustrates “job 1, jump 1.”
- “Have” and “blue” illustrate “v, u, job 2.”
- “Chance” and “charge” illustrate “c, g, job 3.”
- *”Little” illustrates “job 4, needs more.”
- “Are” illustrates “#5, no job e.” Really, this isn’t always NO JOB. “se” is usually doing a job, but I’ll bug you with that later.
Also, we find the following rhyme helpful for Rule 6 and job 2 of Rule 7. This rhyme also governs why ai, ou, ui, ei, and oi have to change to ay (Rule #18), ow, ew, ey, and oy at the end of a word:
English words don’t end in i; please use y.
English words don’t end in u; that is true.
English words don’t end in v; that makes three!
English words don’t end in j; say no way!
The /er/’s
Rule 8 is all of the WOR words. We call it the Wormy Words. Our dyslexia therapist says “W screws up everything.” It makes OR say /er/ and AR say /or/ and A say /ah/.
8. Her first nurse works early. (W makes OR say /er/)
Obnoxious /ER/’s
If you have a poor speller, these can be a booger-bear. /ER/ phonograms supply VOWELS to the R sound. Remember crisp, not kerisp? It’s all about the number of syllables. That’s the clue to whether or not there’s an r-controlled phonogram in there or just a solitary R. Do you need a whole ‘nother vowel?
What hangs on your windows? crtains? Two syllables, two vowel sounds. c_r tains. Now the job is to figure out which one. Memory work. Again, if you have a poor speller, he may benefit from a story memory hook like the one above. My dyslexic daughter has a whole story revolving around “Lurch churning butter at the church” so she can remember the UR words.