Stepping Ahead! Part 2

Takes the new reader through blended sounds and major language concepts.

The Reader promotes the following:

Recognising Consonants
The contents of FAT CAT SAM have been compiled to provide practice in consonant recognition and in the process of blending two phonemes consisting of one consonant and the short vowel "'a". These are prerequisites for success in Reading for Sure.

Blending two 'Phonemes' (sounds)
The blending of two phonemes is an even more important achievement than consonant recognition.

No Pictures!
The purpose of FAT CAT SAM is to exercise the more important and difficult process of sound blending in pupils who require structured help. Without this skill the pupil will try to rely on whole word memory, which is limited and fatiguing, or on guessing the word from looking at the picture. Neither of these strategies assists the pupil to focus on the components of the printed word. Unless the pupil feels secure in actually looking at print and in working at the process of analysis and synthesis, independent of memory and illustration, there is a significant risk of reading failure.

Set of cardboard word screeners.

Screeners are used to restrict the pupil's vision to the part of the word they need to concentrate on. This set of cardboard screeners come perforated in a sheet.

Plastic word screener to focus attention on parts of words.

Screeners are used to restrict the pupil's vision to the part of the word they need to concentrate on. This handy plastic screener comes in a variety of colours.