Action Reading Response: DVD 3

Action Reading Response: DVD 3 &

Several topics of significant interest were addressed in these two DVDs of the Action Reading program, from what are called "triplets" (where three different sets of letters can make the same sound) to the differences between "hard" and "soft" sounds. Of all of the individual topics that were addressed, however, the ones that piqued my interest the most were the formation of "sliding" sounds such as "ch" or "sh" and the manner for teaching these sounds as combinations of phonetic letters vs. distinct phonetic units in and of themselves, and the manner in which pictures are associated with words in the DVD programs. Both of these issues are matters of great current interest and research in literacy and phonetic studies, and the controversy surrounding the first issue makes it especially interesting.

While there are methods that attempt to treat sounds and letter combinations such as "sh," "ch," "th," and others as "sliding sounds," where the sound of one letter "slides" into the next to create a new sound, many phonetics and reading teachers teach these as distinct and separate phonetic units called "digraphs." There are seven of these digraphs commonly identified: "ch," "sh," the two "th's (voiced and unvoiced), "wh" (which is actually pronounced "hw"), "ng," and "nk" (Elam, 2010). The decision to teach these sounds as "sliding" sounds or as distinct symbols seems to be based largely on teacher preference according to many descriptions, however it is easy to see that one or the other technique might be advantageous with certain students (Elam, 2010). Familiarity with both techniques and approaches would definitely seem to be advantageous for phonetics teachers.

Using pictures to assist in teaching reading through phonetics is not a revolutionary or an especially controversial concept, but it is an interesting way to approach learning and education from a very different angle, applying other learning techniques and working towards learning strengths that other reading strategies cannot target as effectively (Fox, 2011). By attaching visual elements to specific words and even to specific sounds within those words, many learners that might struggle with simple auditory approaches attached only to visuals of the letter might be better able to commit letter/phoneme associations to memory (Fox, 2011). The use of pictures also seems more interactive and engaging with the learners than simply showing visuals of letters associated with sounds, as it speaks to the imagination of the learners and gives them something to respond to in addition to the simple reading facts being presented. In this way, both the educator and the learners can be drawn into the lesson more fully, it would seem, and there is definite evidence that pictures make both the lessons and the material more memorable when they are properly used (Fox, 2003).