Teachers are constantly looking for ways of helping their pupils, particularly to increase their independence and skill in aiding their own learning and in being able to read alone. A great deal of personal contact with the teacher is required before a child can read instructions and produce written answers. Should this be given by addressing the whole class and directing them all in the same piece of work? Should the children be grouped, with only one section at a time enjoying the teacher’s whole attention, or should this contact be as far a possible on an individual basis? Whatever means are used, a great deal more learning takes place when children can work on their own and are motivated to do so.
As a teacher of infants, I constantly exercised all my ingenuity to provide self-checking activities for the ‘other group’ while teaching something new to some of the children. As a teacher of mixed ability Junior classes and rural classes with a wide age-range, I was most worried by the slower children as it was difficult to keep them well occupied in useful learning while others received my main attention.
In training students to teach infants, I am frequently asked how to ‘give children words’ for writing without long queues forming or children wasting time. Another common problem is how to hear each child read frequently while dealing with all the other activities of the classroom. Bright children with good home support frequently work well on their own because they have early success and are encouraged by it. Lack of success puts children off and they lose interest in the task for its own sake.
English spelling is known to be a source of difficulty in learning to read. For a start, there are about forty-four main sounds in the language, but only twenty-six letters in the alphabet. Berkiansky (1969) worked with a group studying phonics. They identified sixty-nine letters representing single sounds and seventy-nine different ways of spelling the six vowels ‘a’, ‘e’, ‘i’, ‘o’, ‘u’ and ‘y’. More than one in ten common words were exceptions to any rule and 166 rules had to be devised to cover the remaining 5431 words in their sample taken from early reading books. No wonder some teachers have thought that whole-word learning was better than attempting phonics! Yet some ability to attack words not learnt as wholes is absolutely necessary, or we are faced with the even more formidable task of memorising thousands of whole words before we can read very much.
Minimal phonic cues (MPC) solves this initial, basic problem by providing a simple and easily-learnt method of word attack. This book presents a variety of ideas for using MPC, which aims to lighten the task of learning to read by giving early success and independence, two conditions vital to further progress.
NB Throughout this
book the teacher is referred to as ‘she’ and the pupil as ‘he’.
This purely for convenience. Everything said is of course addressed to teachers
of both sexes and refers to both girls and boys.
1 MPC
explained, with examples of its use
The irregularity of English spelling
Minimal Phonic Cues aims to provide an accurate means of representing the written word and its pronunciation at the same time. Many attempts have been made to do this, since spelling irregularities cause so much extra trouble to those learning to read English. The names of the letters have never been a great deal of help and nearly all teachers now use phonic sounds. The problem is that although simple sounds help in decoding many words, there are still difficulties with sounds made from two letters, like ‘ch’ and even more with the combinations like ‘igh’ and ‘tion’, and with the variable vowels such as the letter ‘a’ in hat, make, call calm, paw, pail and so on.
Bernard Shaw tried to persuade us to adopt a new, simplified alphabet. As he said, you might say the imaginary word ‘ghoti’ spells ‘fish’-‘gh’ as in tough, ‘o’ as in women, and ‘ti’ as in action. More recently the initial teaching alphabet (i.t.a) was devised. This includes most of the lower-case English letters, together with a large number of new forms. While apparently giving help to many children and teachers, the great i.t.a. experiment has been criticised for the need to change to a slightly different script later and for not starting with normal English spelling. Various other ideas have been tried, including colour codes and diacritical marks over letters. In all these quite a lot has to be learnt before the system can be fully used, and no system gives a guide which is reliable for every word.
MPC, on the other hand, gives a reliable guide to every single word. It is not dependent on colour, it does not interfere with normal print and it is extremely simple and easy to use. There is no single, prescribed way of applying the scheme. Its use is determined by the methods of the teacher and the needs of the children. This flexibility is one of its greatest advantages, allowing MPC to be effectively used with a wide variety of ages and situations.
How MPC deals with spelling irregularities
MPC starts by analysing all the main English sounds and providing one symbol for each, without using any new letter-shapes (see Figure1). Although both ‘c’ and ‘x’ can be represented by ‘k’ and ‘s’, and so are not really needed, they are included so that the whole alphabet is shown. Double letters (or digraphs) like ‘sh’ and ‘ng’ are linked by a slur e.g. ‘ ’, ‘’. The ‘hard’ vowel sounds are shown by a bar over the top e.g. ‘’, ‘’. The sound ‘ ’ has been included, because there is only one ‘r’ sound. The ‘si’, as in television, could be shown by ‘zy’ above it. The ‘cue-card’ below gives a picture as a guide or mnemonic for each of the forty-five sounds.
Figure 1
Once these basic sounds and symbols can be recognised and the skill of blending
into words is acquired, there are only two other small signs to learn. Any English
word can be decoded without difficulty. A cross is placed over silent letters,
and a subsitution sound over any which cannot be regularised otherwise, e.g.
‘’. Though
so simple, this works for every word.
The only other question is how to teach capitals. Many of them can be recognised
by their similarity to the lower-case letters, and a substitution can be used
to deal with the others, as in ‘’.
Dialect and MPC
Dialect may cause some problems, mainly with the pronunciation of ‘a’ but MPC’s flexibility can allow for this.
Teachers in some places, for example, Scotland, may find that some of the vowels
are marked in a way which does not correspond to Scottish children’s pronunciation.
The ‘oo’ sound, for example in the word ‘good’, is more
like ‘’ in Southern
English and ‘you’ is also pronounced differentially. The sounds
‘ur’, ‘or’, ‘au’ and ‘o’ may
also cause some difficulty, probably because the ‘r’ is sounded
so much more strongly in Scottish accents. Where such teachers are adapting
MPC to suit their own needs, as advised here, they should use whatever parts
of the scheme are helpful and modify those which are note. A slightly different
cue-card, omitting a sound like ‘’
and perhaps altering ‘’
and ‘’,
might thus be appropriate. When words are being marked in books, MPC can be
used to make them sound as similar to the normal pronunciation as possible.
The main difference found in other English accents is between ‘a’
and ‘ah’ in words like dance, park and ask.
Here the teacher should omit ‘ah’ from the cue-card if it is never
used and, of course leave the ‘a’ uncued in words like dance.
In the south one would cue ‘’
and ‘’
and son on if this were found to help reading. No change in cues is necessary
for other vowel forms, for example, if a Cockney child sounds ‘nice’
as ‘noice’ because the child’s response to ‘’
will always be rat like ‘’,
as it would be in normal script. Similarly, in the Midlands the common pronunciation
of ‘but’ is more like the Southern ‘’.
It need not be cued, however, because the response to ‘u’ will always
be ‘’.
The same applies to ‘mother’ which could be cued either as ‘’
or ‘’
if necessary.
Today accents are usually left alone so long as speech is clear and understandable.
The influences of radio and television mean that extremes of accent making a
person from say, Devon unintelligible in Yorkshire are rare. However if a child
could only communicate with local people he would be at a disadvantage for educational
purposes. However musical and interesting such an accent might be, the case
for preserving it intact is not strong. Many children learn one accent for school
and another for home.
MPC can help to define the sounds to be considered in any informed discussion
of accent, though it provides no absolute pronunciation for them as does the
International
Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). This is thus a better system for dealing with details
of accent.
Of a number of teachers who tried MPC throughout the British Isles very few
reported any snags. The main comments were from Scotland, as outlined above.
If there were too many difficulties of accent you might decide that MPC was
inappropriate for your pupils. However, the flexibility of the system means
that it can easily be adapted to suit individual requirements, or used only
in part. MPC is above all, a practical aid, designed to be of the maximum possible
use with the minimum amount of detail. Any cue can be used, so long as it enables
the child to make a better attempt at recognising the word and pronouncing it
in the way which is natural to him (Unless his normal speech is very defective).
Dealing with difficult vowels
One of MPC’s most useful features is the way in which it deals with combinations of two vowel symbols which can be sounded in various ways. Usually one of the letters represents the right sound in either its phonic or letter-name form. A cross or a mark and, occasionally, a substitution regularise all cases.
Figure 2
There are also many ways of pronouncing the same letter, e.g. ‘a’ and ‘o’ in Figure 3 ‘o’ is used in six different words with different effects. MPC makes it possible to regularise the pronunciation by showing how ‘o’ is sounded, either alone or combined with another letter.
Figure 3
Five different pronunciations of ‘ie’ are clearly shown in Figure 4.
Figure 4
Further teaching points
Figure 5 illustrates a variety of words and marks.
Figure 5
Several points can
be dealt with using Figure 5.
1. Although this example is fully and logically cued throughout it is unlikely
that any reader would need ‘the’ cued every time. Too many marks
look confusing. However, if it is thought necessary to use cues on
every word they should be faintly marked, so that they can be used if needed
but ignored if not.
2. The cross which shows a letter is unsounded has been put over one of the
repeated letters in ‘hill’ and ‘hurried’. Some teachers
consider that this is unnecessary, as it probably is for word recognition. However,
since using single instead of double letters is a common spelling fault, it
is worth using the cross to help children remember which words contain double
letters. It is also useful sometimes when marking passages for word study.
3. The cross for unsounded letters is also used to deal with the sound ‘schwa’
in the International Phonetic Alphabet. It cannot be designated using normal
letter symbols, on which MPC is based, except possibly by ‘uh’.
It occurs with several vowel spellings, but is more or less the same sound in
children, to, the, correct, majestic
and succeed, for example. The sounds ‘o’, ‘a’
and ‘u’ in correct, majestic and succeed
do not really need to be cued because they are recognisable when the word is
pronounced slowly and carefully and only change to ‘uh’ at speed.
Because the sounds ‘e’ in the and ‘o’ in to
are not like those in pen and top, they logically need cues (though
these are among the first words to be learnt and should not need making for
long, if at all). If consistency is necessary for word study the required effect
will be achieved by putting a cross above the letter which is not to be sounded.
‘Th’,‘t’ and ‘children’ are how we really
pronounce ‘the’, ‘to’ and ‘children’.
This is a practical help to those children who would otherwise pronounce every
bit of a word and end up with something less like its real pronunciation. It
has been shown to work well in practice, especially in longer words.
4. There are two regular spellings for the same sound in ‘ow’ and
‘ou’, ‘aw’ and ‘au’, ‘oi’ and
‘oy’. ‘Ah’ and ‘ar’ are alike in some accents
and ‘er’, ‘ir’ and ‘ur’ are alike in most
(except Scottish). Finer differences, not important for decoding meaning, are
ignored in MPC. Because the system aims to simplify the initial stages of reading
the cue-card shows only one symbol for each of these sounds. This should be
learnt first and used to substitute over the others so that they can be learnt
incidentally in the course of reading. ‘Er; and ’oi’ are definitely
more common that ‘ir’ and ‘oy’. I decided to use ‘ow’
rather than ‘ou’ and ‘au’ rather than ‘aw’
on the cue-card, though since the word house is often used at an early
stage some teachers might prefer to use ‘ou’ and ‘aw’.
This isn’t really important. What is important is that one or
the other should be chosen initially. The teacher can point out the similarity
at a very early stage and stop using a substitution.
Substitutions may not be necessary for bright children who can soon learn several
possibilities, but those who are slow or young will probably need them. MPC
gives such pupils the smallest possible initial learning load so that the rest
of the phonic work is encountered in the course of reading and can be learnt
incidentally as far as possible. The MPC Spelling
Workbook is designed to reinforce and consolidate these rules. Once
they are known, the aid can be discarded. There is not a set scheme for dispensing
with certain things at each stage because needs will vary from child to child
and class to class. Completely individual discarding of cues would be difficult
within a class, but children will neglect them when they no longer need them
and so provide their own grading to some extent.
2 Ideas for adapting and using
MPC
How can you, the teacher, use MPC? There is no set scheme for its use because so many teachers have found its flexibility to be one of MPC’s great advantages. However, this book is accompanied by the MPC Word List, which contains over 6000 cued words, the MPC Reading Workbook and the MPC Spelling Workbook (see Appendix 2). As their titles suggest, these are designed for individual use by the pupils to aid and reinforce their learning. These two workbooks and simple dictionary provide a phonic scheme which can be used to extend and accompany other work in reading. The skills learnt from using these books will aid both the sight learning of common words and the attack and spelling of new ones.
An aid to spelling and pronunciation
In contrast to the limited choice of reading material found in set reading schemes, any passages can be marked with MPC. The boundless range thus offered means that learners can absorb the relationships between spelling and pronunciation, using MPC to aid in the decoding of new words, while reading really interesting material. No formal phonic instruction is necessary once the forty-five sounds and the skill of blending have been learnt. Spelling-pronunciation relationships can then be learnt as are grammatical forms, mainly through unconscious absorption. For example if ‘’, ‘’, ‘’, ‘’ are continually encountered when reading, the deduction that ‘igh’ is pronounced ‘’ seems inevitable. At the same time the pupil is taking an interest in what he is reading, other context cues are present and, because there is not hold-up over difficult words, fluency is being developed. Moreover, MPC continually highlights the relationships between sound and spelling.
An aid to finding out new words
What does the pupil
usually do when stuck on a word? He can ask, “What’s that word?”
and be told. Sometimes, instead of saying the word, the teacher might encourage
a guess from the context: “What could it be? What is she doing?”
or, “Well, what is that in the picture?” The pupil might be told
to read on and then might also say, “Try and build it up. Say the sounds.”
Unless the reading book is carefully graded for phonic difficulty, insistence
on a thorough attempt at building may easily result in ‘t-h-o-r-o-u-g-h’.
This is not much help unless many rules and blends are already known, because
the single letter-sounds are not always a good guide.
The wise teacher will probably suggest a guess from context, checked by the
main consonant sounds, as a useful compromise. For instance, if a pupil reads
‘He wanted a bike’ when the text is ‘He roda a bike’,
the ‘r’ and ‘d’ in ‘rode’ could be pointed
out and another guess suggested. However, this approach requires good language
experience in the pupil and good teaching ability in the teacher, as well as
time and individual attention. A pupil soon loses interest if he has to keep
stopping, and in many cases will not be able to read at all unless the teacher
is hearing him.
The situation will be very different if the pupil knows the sounds and cues
of MPC. He will not use the cues for words he knows, but coming to ‘’
will be able to say it straight away, without asking anybody, or losing the
meaning of the sentence by stopping. It is just as effective as if the teacher
was beside him saying, “You don’t sound the ‘e’ but
it makes the ‘o’ sound ‘’”,
and is certainly quicker. I have heard children using MPC get the word almost
immediately without even having to say the sounds aloud.
Experiments show that MPC not only aids fluency and independence, but also,
because it leaves the word-shape unaltered (unlike
i.t.a.), constantly presents the sound-symbol relationship to the child.
Methods of presenting MPC without printed materials
Of course, good teachers
have all sorts of ways to prevent children getting stuck or discouraged. Some
see that all or most of the new words to be met are learnt beforehand through
flashcards, games and drill in which interest is provided by the competition
or puzzle element. These may be individual or group activities (see Appendix
1). Cues can be used in preliminary work of this kind if books cannot be marked.
One way of doing this is to write the same word on both sides of a flashcard
and add cues to one side. The cued words can be shown first and their structure
pointed out, e.g. ‘should’ is made up from ‘’,
not ‘s-h’, and ‘ould’, pronounced ‘’.
This is easily seen when cued. The structure could be made more obvious by asking
the pupils to find smaller words within the word, e.g. in ‘become’.
They may already know ‘be’ and ‘come’, but if not, the
marks will help them to remember how they sound, e.g. ‘’.
In marking a word like ‘become’ it might be more accurate to put
‘’, but
it is best to use the letters which are already there as far as possible if
this gives a sufficient guide, e.g. ‘’.
It must be stressed once again that there is no absolutely right or wrong way
of marking any word. The teacher must use MPC as it is most helpful to her pupils,
discarding and adapting as necessary. Separating words or syllables with strokes
also helps to make the structure more obvious, but would probably prove rather
distracting if done on books.
Having gone through a few cued words in this way, the children will enjoy trying
to remember them when shown the uncued side of each flashcard. I have found
from experience that this really amuses and interests them. Moreover, because
they have built up and can reconstruct the words for themselves, the children
will remember them far better than if they had simply been told them by the
teacher.
Another variation on this idea is to give children the words of a new book written
on small cards, again cued on one side and not on the other. I found this most
effective with a group of backward seven-year-olds. They put their words in
a tin and, after going through them once at school, took them home. The MPC
marks are so simple parents learn them very quickly and can then help their
children with them. If the sounds are already thoroughly learnt the children
can work out what the new words are. They then really enjoy the puzzle of trying
to read the uncued words and only looking at the other side if they are stuck.
Some children using MPC in this way were overheard saying:” No, don’t
turn it over yet. I think I can get it.” I think I know what it is but
I’m not telling yet. I’ll turn it over first and see if I’m
right (Turns it.) Yes, I’m right. It’s --------.” One child,
whom I met in the street during the holidays, said, “ I don’t half
like them words. I do ‘em every night.”
Of course, the way one teaches and the relationship one builds up with pupils
will affect the result, but there does seem to be something about using MPC
which appeals as a kind of game. The child is motivated not just by wanting
to win a competitive game, but also by an individual challenge which stimulates
thought. Moreover, MPC is not separate from reading.
Having studied individual words in this way, the child is delighted to find
that the next book in the reading scheme can be read fluently. This achievement
provides further encouragement.
Work with infants
One experiment was
carried out with a middle and top Infants group over the nine months from the
autumn half-term till July. Bookmarks, made from thin strips of a card on which
new words were written with cues, were duplicated to provide a thorough and
systematic progress through a whole reading scheme. Most published readers give
lists of new words encountered. The words in these lists were arranged to fit
the size of bookmark, so the first one covered pages 1-10, the second pages
11-24, etc., according to the number of words needed. Large print was used for
the letters, so that they could be cued easily and be seen clearly by the children.
A set of wall pockets was made to hold the bookmarks in sets, there being three
or four bookmarks for each book. When a child finished a bookmark, it was put
back in the right pocket and the child could sign his name on a list attached,
which acted as a simple and effective means of recording progress. When he had
a new book mark the teacher went through it with him, seeing that he could work
out the words. There was no difficulty if the sounds were thoroughly known;
the child could look up the cued version of a new word on his bookmark instead
of having to ask the teacher. However, because normal reading methods were being
used alongside MPC, some children were reading books before they had learnt
the sounds properly, and so needed help. This is also a good way of using cues
without marking books.
From this experiment, I feel that most children under six are better using whole-word
learning and making sure of the sounds in various ways so that they can analyse
later. Some are still at the intuitive stage and not ready for exact analysis,
but are in various stages of pre-reading. They may use MPC in an unanalytical
way. For example, when confusing ‘’
with ‘’,
as so may do, they may say to themselves “’here’ has a cross
at the end. I’ll remember it by that. “This does no harm, whereas
forcing the child to use the cues properly is more likely to confuse than help.
Children are bothered by ‘funny marks they can’t understand’,
so professional judgement is needed as to when to start.
My own experience leads me to think that, while the child can start learning
individual sounds very young, analysing and synthesising are linked with the
ability to perceive the relationships between a whole and its parts. This ability
can be assessed using Piaget’s tests with something like wooden beads
of two colours. See what answers a child gives when asked, “Are all the
red beads made of wood? Are all the wooden beads red?” Or do the experiment
with two equal-sized pens. Put them one above the other and say, “Are
they the same length?” Then move one part to the side and say, “Are
they still the same?” Children who can only take one side into account,
or one factor at a time, are going to be more confused than helped by phonic
analysis. Yet knowing letter-sounds, and so with what sounds a word begins or
ends, will help their reading by giving them extra clues to the words.
The teacher should thus concentrate on plenty of spoken language, some whole-word
and sentence reading, paying attention to pre-reading skills and to learning
of sounds and letters representing them. When the sounds are known and understood
MPC can be used for rapid progress and independence.
Work with older slow-learners
For the majority
of poor readers of seven or over, sight-learning of whole words is not the answer.
They must acquire some skills of word-attack. They are often discouraged and
difficult to interest or to persuade to concentrate, and will, of course, have
all sorts of problems and reasons for backwardness, which may need investigation.
This aspect will not be examined here, as it is thoroughly dealt with in so
many other books. It should be stressed that if any teacher is so inexperienced
as to think that one method or idea is going to wipe out all problems she will
be disappointed, and I would be the last to suggest that MPC or any other idea
will do this. However, they may help in some cases and the teacher should therefore
be aware of all possible approaches. Of course, much training and skill is still
necessary to know what to do and when and how to do it.
MPC’s advantage for slow or backward Junior or Secondary children is mainly
that phonic experience can develop through reading in context, with only the
forty-five sounds-symbols to be memorised. Memory, which is so often faulty
in these children, can be supplemented by reasoning when MPC is used. The infallibility
of the scheme is a great relief to such pupils, and boost their confidence immensely.
Years ago, when I was trying to help slow Juniors, I had to keep apologising
to them for the irregularities of our spelling. I tried to teach them to think,
and then they would say, for example, “ You told us the ‘e’
at the end makes a vowel ‘say its name’. Why doesn’t it in
‘gone’ and ‘have’?! All I could say was, “ I’m
sorry, but it doesn’t always work.” Some children can remember a
certain number of exceptions to rules, but after a certain pint they just give
up. An E.S.N school reported to me that the whole atmosphere there had changed
since they started using i.t.a.
May boys who had given up trying and become disruptive found that they now had
a chance to succeed, and changed their attitude completely. For children such
as these to have to learn changed spellings later is an unnecessary burden when
MPC can have the same regularising benefits without altering normal spelling.
A teacher who had just explained MPC marks to a boy who already knew most of
the phonic sounds reports that, after trying it, he came running out to her
shouting, “It works” Another teacher remembers a boy in a similar
circumstances saying to her, “Why ever didn’t you tell me about
this before?”
In The Improvement of Reading (McGraw Hill, 1967) Strang quotes a youth
at a clinic, who said, “There’s one thing I don’t like , when
you’re reading out loud and you come to a word and you can’t pronounce
it and the teacher tells me what it is.” The older and , possibly, the
more intelligent the slow reader is, the more he resents his inferiority and
lack of independence. Once he has learnt the MPC sounds and symbols and can
use them, he can read marked material without reference to the teacher, because
he can find out words for himself. This boosts confidence and also means he
can work without constant attention and help, which usually results in a lot
more being done and experience gained.
Slow readers who have poor sight memory but are not too weak on reasoning or
sound discrimination are most likely to be helped by MPC. Once they have learnt
the system they can read marked workcards, which will sometimes enable them
to do the same work as better readers. It may also be helpful to mark difficult
words as they are encountered, either in the book or on a piece of fairly stiff
plastic which can be held over the page and marked in felt-tipped pen. This
is a good idea if you want to use MPC in books but cannot mark them.
Teachers who can mark books may be unable to do so through lack of
time. This problem can be solved by adding cues to any word which children need
help when hearing them read. If this done continually, books will soon have
cues marked where necessary without any extra time having been spent doing it.
Writing
One of the advantages
cited by advocates of i.t.a.
is that it enables young children to write freely, as they spell entirely by
sound. There is not doubt that such free writing is inhibited by the irregular
spelling of traditional orthography. One of the greatest problems when teaching
writing in t.o. is thus helping children with words. Usually they have to be
written by the teacher in individual wordbooks, and it is difficult to avoid
a queue waiting for this to be done. It is some help not to have too many children
writing at once, but if others are doing maths, need conversation or help with
making something, there is still a question of priorities. Teachers try to make
children be as independent as possible by encouraging them to try their own
version, to look up words on lists or in simple dictionaries, or by writing
up words likely to be needed beforehand. Another good idea is to give each child
a plain sheet of paper and a paperclip to attach it to his wordbook, and only
to help with a word when he has made an attempt on the paper. If the word is
right it is quicker just to say so, or there may be only one letter to alter.
A child could also write using MPC sounds on the loose sheet in his wordbook
to be altered if necessary by the teacher, or ticked if correct, e.g. ‘’.
If a child can remember and spell words like ‘tea’ and ‘came’
it is not necessary for him to put a cross over the unsounded letters when writing
(though this is a help when reading). I do not think it would be wise to encourage
children to write using MPC sounds alone when they did not know the correct
spelling. Fluency would certainly be increased, but this would result in ‘It
was my birthday yesterday and eight friends came to tea’ being written
‘’,
which I would not advocate. If a child had no means of finding the right spelling,
MPC would enable him to record the sound accurately, but spelling should be
as normally correct as possible from the start, even if it is a bit harder for
children to achieve.
In writing, MPC can be used to aid in looking up the correct spelling. Learning
the alphabet order is important at this stage, but a child may still look up,
for example, ‘quiet’ under ‘c’ or ‘a’, or
not be sure if it is the word he wants because of irregular spelling. The MPC
Word List which accompanies this book contains over 600 of the words most commonly
used in early spelling together with cues. They are indexed under initial sound
as well as initial letter, so that, for example ‘phone’ is found
under both ‘p’ and ‘f’. Spelling and MPC is discussed
more fully in Chapter 4.
Language-experience approaches
Many teachers prefer
not to use a set reading scheme for beginners, but to let them make up their
own reading material in some way; Breakthrough to Literacy (Longman)
materials may be used, or children’s pictures with captions and simple
sentences written at their dictation and made into books. Wall-story techniques,
as explained by Goddard in Reading in the Modern Infants School (ULP,
1958), use a similar idea for group teaching. MPC can be used with any of these
approaches.
My own experience here has been mainly with adult illiterates, for whom I found
it impossible to provide printed material at a level which did not insult their
intelligence, yet which was simple enough to read. They therefore dictated sentences
about their jobs, their cars, their families or anything else they liked, which
I wrote down on strips of card. They copied these into their books or had them
typed on a jumbo typewriter when available. Then they cut up the cards into
words, which they used for matching and making other sentences. Some record
of words known was needed. One good way to do this was to tick them off in a
500-word book or on a Ladybird Key Words list, adding them if they
were not on the list. Then, when the pupils were judged ready, cues were added
to the books or words to show the sound-symbol relationship.
In some cases, cues were quickly understood and could then be widely used. In
others, much work of an intuitive nature without analysis was needed. The older
the pupils, the more diverse their problems and needs. Some, whose reasoning
is very poor, need much preliminary work before word attack is possible. Yet
I taught one man who was quite intelligent, with a reading age of about seven
and no idea of the sounds. He raced ahead using MPC, which he understood at
once.
Conclusion
The range of ideas
suggested here will have given some idea of the great scope and flexibility
of MPC. To try it, there is no need to invest in any new or expensive materials.
It can be used in full or in part as needed. It could be used for only some
children in a class, without disruption. If a child started it and then changed
to a school or class where it was not used, the child might miss it, but would
not be at a disadvantage. It makes spelling better, not worse. There is no need
for a sudden changeover from using it, just a gradual disuse. By the time a
reading age of a about eight is attained MPC should not be needed, except for
some spelling practice and analysis of spelling rules (see Chapter
4). It allows phonic practice using reading matter which is not graded for
phonic simplicity and which can therefore be in completely natural language.
However, it should be remembered that children can cope much better with two-syllable
words than with words of three syllables or more. Vocabulary should be largely
within the child’s spoken vocabulary; words may be pronounced but not
understood when they are easy to read.
MPC is most readily used to aid reading independence when there is some mental
maturity and ability to analyse. It would thus be ideal for reasonably intelligent
adults who speak, but cannot read English, as in some of the developing countries.
For such pupils cued books would be very useful, enabling independent reading
to take place quickly. Chapter 5 deals more fully with the
use of MPC in various situations and with different age-groups.
It must be emphasised that MPC cannot be used effectively until the sounds have
been properly learnt. After that, rapid progress is possible. Preliminary attention
to learning the sounds and cues is therefore vital, and is dealt with in the
next chapter.
3 Teaching the sounds and the skills of
bending and using cues
It should now be apparent that a thorough learning of individual sounds and symbols and the ability to blend are essential before MPC can be properly and effectively used. It would be interesting to see whether simply drilling the sounds, teaching how to blend and use cues and then starting on cued reading material would work. After only a short period of drilling there would be complete freedom to read anything. However, this would be very unsophisticated and is not advised.
Teaching the basic phonic sounds
In Infant classes
the normal or current programme of early reading should not be interfered with,
but learning sounds and their symbols should take place at the same time, perhaps
as a separate activity. Children should be shown how to form letters properly,
not just left to copy sentences written by the teacher. This is a good time
to teach the concepts represented by the symbols which they are learning to
write’ to show that a number of words begin with ‘b’
and not just one on a chart, that although the second at the beginning of a
word is a good guide to it, the sound may also occur in the middle or at the
end of a word. Traditionally, children of three and four have had alphabet books
which taught them to say one letter at a time while looking at a picture connected
with it. If they learnt the phonic sounds in this way it would certainly do
no harm. But other considerations must be remembered: interest, meaning, concentration,
left-right sequence, language development, and the need to imporve visual and
aural discrimination and memory. Exercises may help any skill, but it is far
better if the skill can be combined with other activities or learnt, at least
in part, incidentally. It is like comparing the old method of learning music
by practising scales first with modern methods. The scales may be good thing
later, but could put the child off music altogether if done without meaning.
One way of teaching sounds with the maximum amount of meaning is to write labels
for the classroom which contain all the MPC sounds, making matching sentences,
matching words and also matching sounds of the same size. There is thus meaning
in every part. For example, I made labels on which the following sentences were
written with cues:
In line with the theory that the two main aspects of literacy are fact and fiction,
a wall-story was the next idea which I treated in this way. The children had
heard and enjoyed The Gingerbread Boy so a wall-story was made (rather
a long one, as some children were seven). A picture accompanied each sentence.
This was a popular
piece of equipment. The children enjoyed reading it, some more or less learning
it by heart and then learning to pick out the words. Once children also got
the idea of finding sounds, they became very interested in trying to match them
and would often do it on their own. With MPC every sound can be matched accurately,
and there is no confusion between ‘a’, ‘’,
‘ah’, ‘au’, etc. Children can see for themselves if
there is a discrepancy between sound and spelling. Given suitable stimulus and
encouragement, much can be learnt from these matching activities, each sound
being in context both in a word and in a meaningful sentence.
Because they take some time to make, it is tempting to leave one wall story
up for too long. It is advisable to change the story every week or so, since
once the freshness has gone it can easily be ignored and lose its value. We
replaced The Gingerbread Boy with Jack and the Beanstalk,
treated in the same way, with matching sentences, then words, then sounds. The
sentences were:
1) Jack sold the
poor cow.
2) He got some magic beans.
3) They grew into a great beanstalk.
4) Jack climbed up to the giant’s house.
5) Fee, fi, fo, fum, yelled the giant.
6) Quick! Hide! Said the giant’s wife.
7) Where is my goose? Fetch her.
8) She laid a very large egg.
9) Oi, mother. Bring me my axe.
10) Down fell the giant with a crash.
This also contains all the forty-five MPC sounds. When working out sentences
of this kind a few sounds are difficult to fit in, usually ‘x’,
‘j’ ‘oi’ and ‘qu’, which are not so commonly
used. A little alteration may be necessary to include these. Here we change
‘Hi, mother’, to ‘Oi, mother’ because ‘oi’
did not appear anywhere else. It is better, though, to teach the less-used sounds
in some other way than by contriving unnatural sounding phrases.
Even with quite a lot of matching practice most children still need daily repetition
for symbols to be thoroughly known. It is rather like learning multiplication
tables. All kinds of activities ensure the concepts are understood, but there
is still the need to repeat and memorise later. Once the concepts of what sounds
are, and what they do, are known, the cue-card should be gone though daily,
with picture mnemonics, until the pictures can be discarded. Any other means
liked by the teacher, such as card games, Breakthrough phonic folders
(Longman) or Stott apparatus (Holmes-McDougall) can easily be adapted for MPC.
The same wall-story technique could be used without MPC, but would have to use
matching letters, even if their sounds did not correspond, or be confined to
those that did correspond, perhaps just consonants. This does not have the same
value as MPC in pointing out the relationship between sound and spelling in,
for instance, the word ‘’,
where the vowel sound is irregular.
The way in which MPC includes the digraphs ‘ch’, ‘sh’,
etc. in the early learning is also an important advantage. They are not more
difficult to learn if taught as one sound, and not knowing them is a source
of trouble. In one school which I was comparing with my experimental class I
found only single sounds had been learnt, and was told they ‘hadn’t
come to the others yet’. The linking of digraphs with a slur aids their
assimilation as one sound, but it is important that younger children should
realise that the slur is not part of the symbol. It should therefore be drawn
more faintly or in a different colour. Though colour makes cues more attractive
to the younger ones. It takes longer to do and is not really necessary. There
is no reason, however why a teacher should not use different colours if she
wants to do so in marking apparatus or books for those starting to learn to
read with MPC.
Adaptations for older slow-learners
These examples of the matching labels and wall-stories were made for older slow-learners and adults, and also include all the sounds.
1) A crow sat on a high branch.
2) She had just found some cheese.
3) The fox looked up at her there.
4) Why are you so quiet? He said.
5) I am sure you can sing very well.
6) So the crow made a big noise.
7) The cheese fell out of her mouth.
8) The fox soon ate it and ran away.
The next one was made up for an adult class using a small, rather bare room.
1) The window is made of glass.
2) Our tables are wooden ones.
3) The walls are plastered now.
4) These are light metal chairs.
5) This is a square shape.
6) These tables have been joined together.
7) You can keep things in here.
8) We sit where we choose.
9) Cards go in this box.
The labels could be arranged in place
at the start of a session. they may sound dull, but their down-to-earth, everyday
nature appealed to these slow-learners as something that made sense. The labels
could be fixed with Blu-tack and removed to be put away again. This is one way
of coping when using a room once or twice a week, which is also used by other
classes.
Comic strip stories can be adapted in the same way to provide the interest of
fiction. A sixteen-year-old slow reader, who showed very little interest in
the books available, frequently brought in comics, whose lurid picture stories
he followed avidly. I realised that what he needed was action. With his help
I produced the sentences below, made out on cards for the Language Master
(Bell & Howell) so that he could put them through and hear them in order.
Then I got him to match words and sounds, written on separate cards, and put
them in place on the sentence cards, using paperclips. When he could do this,
and had done other preliminary work, I gave him a tape of the cue-card to which
he could listen as he pointed to each sound.
This particular boy had previously managed to learn most of the alphabet sounds,
and capital (but not small) letters. If he had been taught MPC from the start
I have no doubt that he could have read, using cues, in spite of his very limited
memory.
1) This man went shooting tigers.
2) The tigers were very fierce.
3) They had gone far into the jungle.
4) The tigers were not frightened.
5) A tiger can kill a man.
6) Here is a big one coming now.
7) I’ll fix him, says the man.
8) He points his gun carefully.
9) Whizz! He has missed the tiger.
10) The tiger is chasing him now.
11) The man is climbing a tree.
12) But tigers know how to climb trees.
13) He has nearly got his paw to the man.
14) The man uses his gun quickly.
15) This time the tiger falls down dead.
It is not easy to get excitement and a sense of urgency into such simple writing, but it is worth the effort if it arouses interest. MPC gives the great advantage of allowing phonics to be studied using this kind of material, instead of ‘The dog sat on the log’ variety. To maintain interest, of course, a series of stories would be needed, so that not too much time is spent on one story and its analysis.
The following strip story is suitable for any age. This also includes all the MPC sounds.
1) Meet the Smith family.
2) Mrs Smith is cooking the dinner.
3) Mr Smith is washing the car.
4) Jimmy is going to school.
5) Mary is playing in the garden.
6) Baby is crying in the pram.
7) The dog is asleep in his box.
8) Mrs Smith says, Dinner is ready now.
9) Mr Smith says, Quick! What have you got for us?
10) Jimmy says, I though we were having chops.
11) Mary says, I thought it was a joint of beef!
12) The baby is having some milk.
13) The dog has got a bone.
Workcards were used to aid analysis of this story, for example:
Find these silent letters e
n m h y a k o gh
(They can be found in were, dinner, Jimmy, school, playing, ready, quick
and thought, as examples.)
Find these different sounds for letter a: o
(was, car, Mary); o
sounding u (some); o sounding oo (cooking)
The marks make these easy to see and provide and interesting puzzle element
for children ready to do some analysis.
Appendix 1 contains further simple games designed to give
practice in memorising the sounds and early sight vocabulary, so reinforcing
learning.

Consonant blends of digraphs may or may not be known, but should be checked:
qu, ng,
(as in they),
(as in think), sh, wh and ch.
The vowel blends are ah, er, ow, (as
in boot), (as in
foot, except in Scotland) and .
The bar is understood to show the letter-name, ,
, ,
and .
If MPC is used it is not necessary to know any other alternative sounds or blends,
like ‘oy’ or ‘aw’, ‘igh’ or ‘ai’.
These will follow later, but could be learnt by using substitutions over them
at first. Thus, if you decided to use MPC with slower Juniors and found they
already knew the usual simple phonic sounds, reference to the cue-card would
probably be all that was needed before they could begin decoding any marked
word for themselves. The cross indicating silent letters and the substitution
are quickly understood.
Limitations to MPC’s use are found in some cases where a child’s
sight memory for words is so good that analysis seems unnecessary and rules
seem to be deduced automatically. There is then no need to interfere with a
natural reading ability. The use of MPC for some spelling analysis might be
useful in such cases, and would probably be enjoyed and quickly understood to
improve insight into language. The other limitation is when children have such
poor reasoning power that analysis only makes things seem more impossible and
does not sustain their interest. MPC works extremely well with fairly mature
children who can reason but who do not memorise easily. Teaching skills such
as selection of the right time and place, how long to stay on one thing and
what will keep up interest as well as reinforce what must be learnt, must be
exercised with MPC as with any other teaching aid.
There are many useful aids for teaching phonics, such as those in Phonics
and the Teaching of Reading by J.M. Hughes (Evans Brothers, 1972),
and there is no need to repeat here what is readily available elsewhere. However,
the more complex forms, such as ‘ea’, ‘final e’, ‘-tion’,
can be left till later, and reading using MPC can be done without them. These
rules and exceptions could then be deduced in the course of reading in the same
way. It is hoped, as rules of grammar are absorbed in the course of learning
to speak. It is probable that better learning will take place if rules are pointed
out and reinforced, but this can be done once reading is already fluent using
MPC (see Chapter 4).
Learning to blend sounds
The other consideration is blending, which is a problem in MPC just as it is in any other phonic work. It is quite common to meet children who know the sounds and yet cannot put them together. Many writers stress that to add a vowel to consonants, which is difficult to avoid when trying to be heard across a classroom, creates unnecessary difficulty. ‘Ber-a-ter’ does not sound ‘bat’ and this should be remembered. One group with this fault was helped by the verses shown below. These were put up on the wall in large print and we read them through until they were known.

Some m-e-n men
Kept a h-e-n hen
And when it had chicks
They had t-e-n ten.
Young S-i-d Sid
Made a b-i-d bid
But he lost all his cash
So he h-i-d hid.

In the s-u-n sun
With a g-u-n gun
Bill shot at a target
For f-u-n fun.
Children should, of course, learn style and appreciation of literature once they been taught to read. This kind of idea is used as a step on the way and more or less in desperation when confronted with children who are hard to teach and difficult to interest.
Learning sounds in context
One cannot always
know enough about the experiences of such children to judge what has lead to
this kind of problem, or whether better methods would prevent it. However, it
is likely that learning sounds within words rather than in isolation, as suggested
earlier, would help. The method outlined here has proved very effective in achieving
this.
The principle is to provide a simple, illustrated sentence within the child’s
interest and experience, which is read first. Two letters are picked out below
it. The teacher sounds these and points out where they occur in the sentence.
In order to emphasise meaning the child is then asked a relevant question, which
necessitates making some prediction or association. Below this are a number
of random repetitions of the two symbols, from which the child has to pick out
the letters and discriminate between them, with help if necessary. For example:
Figure 6
In this case the
teacher might use the following approach: “ Do you know what those two
letters say? What words are they under? Read the sentence until you come to
the first one. What word is it? What does it begin with? That’s the sound
‘m’. What word is that letter under? (dog) What sound does that
start with? (‘d’) Now point to the ‘d’ sounds underneath.
Point to a ‘m’, now a ‘d’.”
Generally, the teacher should read the first sentence, or help the child to
do so, if he can, and then pint out hte soudns. After this preliminary work
the child can be left alone ot complete some follow-up activity, e.g. Colour
these pictures and write the letters under the pictures they belong to.
Figure 7
The MPC Reading
Workbook is based on thsis idea and provides pracitice in forming letters
as well as in recognising them. Follow-up activities designed to reinforce learning
are also suggested. Different sentences could of course be used according to
the age and ability of the children, while older slow-learners could use them
for individual work, with a tape.
Blending can also be taught by pointing to sounds on a large cue-card and moving
about to make words, first of two letters, then of three, e.g. at, in, up;
cat, win, pup. Children may then try this individually or in pairs and
see how many words they can make, if possible in sentences.
Other simple ideas to give variety and aid memory are jingles like this which could be put on the wall and illustrated. These contain all the MPC vowel sounds.
| Doors slam | a | Donkeys bray | |
| Hens peck | e | Pigs squeak | |
| Bells ring | i | Babies cry | |
| Corks pop | o | Cocks crow | |
| Knives cut | u | Cats mew | |
| Dogs bark | Trousers tear | ||
| Cows moo | Cooks cook | ||
| Wolves howl | Pots boil | ||
| People talk | Machines work |
Relating MPC to an existing reading scheme
The use of cues can
be revised using flashcards based on your existing reading scheme. Write the
same word on both sides of a card, cueing one side only. Help children to learn
the words using cues, then to try to remember them without cues. The cards can
be held up for work with a group, or given to pairs or individual children.
Knowing the first hundred most common words is a great help in making a start,
since these form a large proportion of all reading matter. It is vital to go
through them with the children and show them how the cues are cued before they
can be left to do it themselves. Words with more than two syllables should not
be used, since these require a skill in breaking down words which should be
taught later.
Once this decoding ability has been acquired it is possible for it to outstrip
understanding. This makes it even more essential that attention should be given
to general language, knowledge and experience of all kinds as well as to reading.
The teacher should encourage the use of dictionaries in which word meanings
are simply explained, and see that, even if children can read for themselves,
they are questioned about what they have read or allowed to discuss it, and
not just left to get on alone. Even when children become expert at word attack,
their reading matter needs to be graded for content difficultly and vocabulary.
It must be emphasised that no one stops learning to read. Even the most expert
can improve their speed, vocabulary, ability to skim, to find main points, to
summarise and evaluate, and so on. If children do make good progress in the
early skills, it is vital to build upon and continue this work, so that the
initial progress is not lost later.
4 How to withdraw the use of cues at the
right time and aid spelling
Minimal phonic cues are intended only as a temporary aid to learning. It is therefore necessary to consider how long they should be used and in what way they should be discarded. Because there is no changeover to another script, the way in which the cues are discarded depends largely on the way in which they have been used.
An MPC reading programme
This example is based on work which was tried in an Infant class of about thirty-five children with a range of five to seven years. Though set out in the form of a progression, individual children were at different points on the programme. Books were not marked but new words were on cued lists.
1. Pre-reading work
to develop language, visual and aural discrimination, interest in stories, understanding
the use of labels to convey meaning, etc.
2. Using means such as wall-stories, captions on the children’s own pictures,
class news books, the breakthrough stand and materials (Long-man), to aid word
matching and sentence matching and to give the idea that print conveys meaning.
3. Writing begun, letter formation and learning of sounds.
4. Any other reading pursued intuitively by whole-word learning until at least
consonant sounds are known, when they should be used as guide in conjunction
with context clues. Phonic work as suggested in Chapter 3 (page
21).
5. After the sound concepts are well established, repetition and some drilling
on sound symbols for about five minutes daily until, with the cue-card as an
aid to memory, MPC can be used for decoding new words. Children given individual
cue-cards to learn and use. Large wall cue-card provided.
6. MPC then used in one or more of the ways suggested in Chapter
2.
7. IF new words are marked on books, children can ignore any marks they don’t
need. Once a vocabulary of about 150 words is known, (usually by about the fourth
book of a reading scheme), work could begin on extracting the rules of spelling
and pronunciation using some system of word analysis. MPC dictionaries could
still be used, but group teaching using MPC Spelling Workbook will now speed
the process of internalising the sound-symbol relationships before children
go on to a Junior class.
In age-grouped classes the programme should be begun and proceed as far as possible,
with records kept on children’s progress so that it can be continued without
interruption according to individual needs. An ideal form for such records is
shown in Figure 8, using squared paper. The stages may be groups of sounds learnt,
books read or any graded set of skills. It is then easy to group children for
practice by lookng donw the record to see which are at the same stage.
Figure 8
|
To achieve the maximum benefit this programme should be agreed and co-ordinated throughout an Infant department. If some teachers wish to use MPC, while others do not, it should be used only incidentally to aid understanding and not be relied on too heavily. Partial use in this way is not confusing because no departure has been made from normal spelling. No harm will be done if MPC is incompletely mastered by the time of transfer to another school, provided that analysis was not over-emphasised at a stage when it was only confusing rather than helpful to a child who could have made some progress by whole word learning and use of context. Slow-learning children are greatly helped in later ‘remedial’ work (though this is a misnomer for children properly taught) if they really know the sounds and digraphs thoroughly, whether cues are to be used or not. If cues are used in later teaching of slow-learners, a basic knowledge of the sounds as shown on the cue-card will enable quick progress to be made once the child has attained the mental maturity necessary for satisfactory analysis and synthesis. Independent learning using cues will then also be helped.
Leaving cues behind
The transfer consists
of ‘internalising’ the cues; knowing that an ‘e’ at
the end of a word is not sounded, that ‘gh’ is similar, but may
modify the preceding vowel, that ‘-tion’ is sounded ‘shon’,
etc.; the things which good readers do unconsciously without cues. Cues aid
this normal process and, having made it more conscious, also help spelling.
The MPC spelling Workbook defines the main spelling
rules, using cues, and suggests children’s activities for each rule. In
this way, learning is reinforced. The book’s contents are briefly listed
below. Of course, these are all rules which have to be learnt whether MPC is
used or not. The progression is designed to ensure that children who have used
MPC in the early stages are finally able to discard it while getting as much
value as possible from it. Each page of the MPC Spelling
Workbook could serve as the source material for a group lesson or discussion.
Lesson 1
Unsounded letters: indicated by putting a cross above the letter. Children find
words with final e and copy them.
Double letters: explain how only one is sounded.
Lesson 2
e at the end of a word sometimes makes the preceding vowel
‘hard’.
Lesson 3
The two main ways of spelling .
and ,
which sound the same and are regular.
Lesson 4
and ,
including the sound in
all, talk, for, more, door, etc. Adding the marks will help to reinforce
the sound-symbol correspondence or discrepancy.
Lesson 5
c sounded either as k or as s.
Help pupils, by looking at the words they have found, to deduce that rule that
e and i following c make it produce
the soft sound s.
Lesson 6
g and j sounds.
Lesson 7
gh usually unsounded, but modifying other symbols. (It is better
not to deal with gh as the sound f here, but
leave it to go with ph as an alternative, later on.)
Lesson 8
ch when the h is unsounded.
Lesson 9
The er sound.
Lesson 10
Silent consonants: k, g, w. There is no harm in doing some
rote-leaning ot try to help children remember the spellings, but using the words
in various meaningful ways should also play a part.
Lesson 11
s sometimes sounding like z.
Lesson 12
The vowel sounds; a, e, i, o, u; a, e, i, o, u and ah,
er, oi, oo, oo, aw, ou. Point out that these sounds vary much more
than consonants in the ways they are spelt, partly because speech has changed
over the years and in different places.
Lessons 14,15
Ways of spelling the ‘hard’ vowels, e.g. ai, ay, a-e; ee,
e-e, ea, ie, ei; i-e, y, igh, ei; ow, oa, o-e; ue, eu, u-e; oo spelt
in various ways. The teacher must, of course, use professional judgement as
to how much of this children can do at a time, and when. If giving too many
alternatives only seems to confuse it may be better left until later.
Lessons 16, 18
mo sounding mu, ph as f,
f as v or changing to v, and gh
as f. Although these sounds could be quite difficult and confusing
without MPC, the marks make them clear and more interesting.
Lessons 25, 26
Breaking words into syllables. As well as being able to sound out c-a-t,
etc., the reader must be able to sound c-a-f or d-a-l, because
these are syllables within words. Attention to syllable-reading is often neglected
and is a cause of some difficulties. Obviously, this work is done as needed,
and not otherwise.
Lessons 27,28
The various sounds and spellings of –tion, -sion and –cian.
These are mainly longer words and children need to be advanced in their reading
to cope with them.
Lessons 29, 30
Alphabetical order, needed for looking up words and for listing things, is sometimes
neglected. See that children can recite the letters of the alphabet in order
at some point, and also give practice in thinking whether one letter comes before
another, to help in looking forward or back. Plenty of practice is needed in
various ways before children can use a dictionary quickly and, of course, small
wordbooks, followed by 500-word, 1000-word or 2000-word dictionaries may help
children to reach the stage of using a bigger one. The MPC
Word List will be found very useful here. Exercises on finding a word
its second or third letter are also needed, e.g. because, before, behind.
Lesson 31
Check that all small letters and capital letters are known. For bright and average
children this should be so by the time they transfer from Infant to Junior classes.
Once children can read and write with reasonable fluency it is better for them
to use the letter-names for spellings. For the less-able this should be postponed
until they can read without needing to build up sounds aloud, or they will get
confused. Eventually, both will be known. If MPC has been used systematically,
capital letters which differ from lower-case will have been marked with substitutions.
5 Using MPC with different ages
and stages
Nursery-reception, 4-5 years
Whatever the methods
or media used, the training and experience which the pupil brings to the task
will be a major factor in success. For example, in athletics a new style or
technique is likely to make a marginal improvement possible, but the athlete’s
enthusiasm and fitness, and the trainer’s skill are also very important.
The most important aspect of early teaching is concerned with the ‘fitness
of the athlete’. The skills of using spoken language freely and well,
being able to see and hear differences and similarities, and getting interested
in wanting to read are the most important things to attend to initially. There
is no need to repeat the information and help available in a number of other
books and courses, but it is important to attend to this aspect as well as to
choose materials which suit your purposes.
Today, great stress is laid on the importance of early language skills in preparation
for reading, as well as on all-round development. Of course they are important,
and as much as possible should be done to teach them. However, it is possible
that children whose language background is poor are at an increased disadvantage
if they are expected to rely almost entirely on context cues in reading. One
way to tackle this problem is to increase the learner’s language skill,
but another approach is to make better use of other clues to words, so that
reasoning may come into play more fully. Activities to train visual skills will
possibly help children with poor visual discrimination and memory, but they
are likely to make more progress using other skills as well, such as hearing
and even touch and movement. All the senses should be given stimulus and practice
in the pre-school child, for a multi-sensory approach gives a far better chance
of success.
Sound discrimination activities are vitally important if an aid like MPC is
going to be used, though they would also benefit children using other learning
methods. Picture-sorting, a common visual activity, is more useful if children
are helped to sort by the first letter sound, even before they know the symbol.
‘I-spy’ games, grouping things in scrapbooks according to first
letter sound or even vowel sound, calling out groups of children whose names
begin with the same sound, using music, rhythm and rhyme, all help to train
the ear. Children with mild speech defects may be helped by such activities
and should, of course, also receive whatever special help is available. Any
child who can speak must be able to hear sound in order to reproduce it’
he doesn’t ask for meat when he wants a sweet, though he may say ‘sleet’
or something near it. What has first been done unconsciously and intuitively
needs to become more conscious in preparation for using written symbols for
these sounds. Children are often unaware of separate words and may think of
phrases like ‘got-to-go’ or ‘in-a-minute’ as one unit.
To read and write they must break up the flow of speech. Activities with labels
and wall-stories, suggested in Chapter 2, are valuable ways
of showing children word relationships, even before they may be expected to
remember the details. Younger children in the 5- to 7-year-old range can learn
from watching older ones matching words and letters, and start doing it themselves
when they are ready.
Infant classes, 5-7 years
Although MPC is a
system which concentrates on individual sounds, fifty to a hundred words should
be learnt as wholes before analysis by sounds is introduced. During this period
children should be learning to write and recognise individual sounds, but only
in readiness for later word-building. This age-range should start with sight-recognition
of words and phrases. Word-attack skills should be introduced when they already
have a basic sight vocabulary, since using individual sounds form the first
might lead to the habit of stopping to build up each word more than should be
necessary. An approach using the children’s own language should employ
the same principle.
Since phonic work of one kind or another will inevitably be undertaken later,
whether formally or informally, the sound-symbol bonds must be thoroughly learnt.
What better time to learn these than while the letter-forms are being taught?
The MPC Reading Workbook is designed to do this, and provides individual practice
to consolidate learning. Informal ways of reaching the concepts of what sounds
do in words and sentences, what they are and how they can be used, are as vital,
at first, as learning number concepts before the use of their written forms.
Young children enjoy repetition, which is the natural way a baby learns to practise
vocal sounds. The same practice can be given, for a few minutes each day, using
a means such as the cue-card. It will be well repaid later in an increased facility
and freedom to decode new words. Some teachers think there is no place at all
for repeating something until it is thoroughly memorised. If all teaching were
of this kind they would have a case, but it is a mistake to ignore repetition
altogether. Once the MPC sounds are fairly well known children should have some
means of using them to help when they come to a new word in their reading, for
instance in one of the ways suggested in Chapter 2. The cues
will also be used for looking up words in small, marked dictionaries or the
MPC Word List to help with writing.
Once an average seven-year-old level of reading has been reached it may be time
to use cues for spelling rules and word study, rather than for reading, as explained
in Chapter 4. All the other skills of reading – understanding
the main point of a story, using the context – and, of course, writing
all the attention, since enlarged experience in environmental work, stories
read aloud, art expression, music and so on, all help the child to gain a balance
of experience and enlarged vocabulary, as well as being valuable and interesting
in their own right. It is vital that decoding ability should not be allowed
to outstrip vocabulary and experience. Meanings of new words become very important,
leading to the use of dictionaries. The child may, through learning to read
quickly, begin all the sooner to ‘read to learn’. However, he should
not attempt reading matter beyond his understanding even if he can decipher
the words. There is a wide choice of fiction and information for this age level,
and it is a good time to consolidate and enjoy the fruits of learning to read,
while concentrating on mastering writing and spelling to some level of accuracy.
For any children with such problems that they have not been able to reach an
average standard, a thorough recognition of phonic sounds and their symbols
will be invaluable in any remedial work. It is frightening to find such children,
after two or three years in school, having learnt only a few words by sight
recognition and very few sounds. Surely they could learn forty-five sound-symbol
bonds if enough time were given to it. They could then make rapid reading progress
using MPC. Numerous experiments have shown that learning the sounds and their
symbols is the only real barrier to progress. Once this has been done, the rest
is easy.
In teaching the two MPC symbols, the cross and the substitution, it is important
to present them not as yet another thing to learn, but while explaining the
structure of a word. For instance, if a child comes to the word ‘beautiful’
the teacher would say something like this, putting in marks at the same time:
“We don’t sound the ‘e’ or the ‘a’ (putting
the cross over them) and the ‘u’ (adding the bar) sounds its name.
Now can you put this part together? There are only two sounds ‘’.
Can you get it? Try the rest of the word. (Substitute ‘'
above the second ‘u’.) Now start the sentence again.” The
child will then probably be able to read the word. If not, another approach
would be to get him to leave out the word and find what is being described,
then go back to ‘beautiful’ and use a mixture of context nad phonic
cues to find out what it is.
Children quickly understand how MPC can help, and find its logic attractive.
It is very hard on them, after being encouraged to use reason in thinking things
out and solving problems, to be presented with some thing as illogical as the
English spelling system. The fact that MPC gives a guide that can be trusted
in every case is really appreciated and a great morale-booster.
It is vital that word-building in this way should be encouraged only once it
really is helpful, so that it does not become a burden, hindering the understanding
of what is written. In the early stages practice with sounds can be done in
an enjoyable activity or game (see Appendix 1), separate
from other reading, until the required maturity is reached.
Junior children, 7-11 years
For many children
there is a change of school at 7-plus. Ideally, close contact between schools
would prevent any problems connected with the change from arising. If MPC was
used in an Infant department the children concerned should be allowed to continue
with it and stop using it when they are ready, at least with their reading.
The best results are achieved when a child has learnt the spelling rules using
MPC, so that it can be used for an understanding of word structure and spelling,
giving time for this to be internalised and the prop discarded. Children who
are moved from a school using MPC to a Junior school which does not use it are
at no disadvantage. Any learning of sounds is equally valid in MPC and t.o.,
the children will not be used to writing in a different script, and they will
not have to change their print in reading.
On the other hand, if a Junior teacher who likes MPC has children from an Infant
school which did not use it, there will be no difficultly in introducing it
where needed. The children should already know most of the phonic sounds, which
are the basis of MPC, and some revision of these with the introduction of the
two marks, the cross and the substitution, will allow its use. MPC shows sound-spelling
relationships clearly and so might at least be used when explaining something
involving this from the blackboard, or compiling lists of different ways of
spelling the same sound. Unfortunately, MPC is of no help in deciding whether
to use ‘their’ or ‘there’, ‘-tion’ or ‘-sion’,
‘-ight’ or ‘-ite’ in writing, although it is a great
help in rading such sounds with the right pronunciation. A very interesting
and imaginative form of word study can, however, be undertaken using the MPC
Spelling Workbook as explained in Chapter 4. The extent
to which this would be advisable depends on the children and their skills.
An analogy can be made between learning the skills of literacy and finding your
way in a new town. If you have a good aural memory, instructions of the ‘first
left, second right’ variety can be used. This is hopeless for those who
can’t remember what is said, but they may manage if the same instructions
are written down. Others, with good pictorial memory and understanding, may
do better looking at a street map. Some may use cues, like a pub on the corner
or an uphill slope or a shop. Even better, some may learn by being accompanied
a few times. However the process began, after a time one just knows the way,
forgetting how this knowledge was acquired. Similarly it is in the early stages
of teaching reading that method is important. After a time the skill comes naturally.
In most cases different ways of teaching achieve very similar results in the
end. The main difference will be found in the less-able learners, more of whom
are likely to fall by the wayside if the method doesn’t suit them or if
they have been discouraged.
An experiment comparing scores in pre-reading activities with progress after
nine months at school showed that children could make reasonable progress if
they were strong in some areas, such as language structure, visual discrimination
or sound discrimination, even if they were weak in one of the other areas. Those
who were far behind were weak in almost all areas. It is unlikely that MPC can
do much for these children. They need to improve their powers of learning by
practising the kind of activities they should have done before starting school.
However, because MPC can use interesting material which is not graded in too
restrictive language, whole-word learning, use of context, sounds and reasoning
almost equal quantities, the chances of success are increased.
One warning should be given about MPC. It is usually hard to interest children
in conventional word analysis of the kind used in Tansley’s Sound Sense.
On the other hand, a teacher who recently used MPC for word analysis says the
children find it so enjoyable that they are inclined to do too much! This is
perhaps the only drawback to the scheme.
Junior children with reading difficulties
The various terms
‘remedial’, ‘slow-learning’ and ‘backward’
really only describe some of the different kinds of difficulties. Since this
book does not purport to deal with all the related problems of diagnosis and
treatment it will pass over many points which are vital to teachers, hoping
that, if they feel their knowledge is deficient here, they will attend a course
or read some of the many books on the subject.
Some Juniors with below-average attainments are only just seven on transfer
and have not had as long in the Infant school as others. This is sometimes overlooked
in assessing them. A few of these will also have had considerable periods of
absence or have moved school several times. They need to receive extra attention
in following the usual programme so that any gaps in their skills and knowledge
may be filled, e.g. by teaching phonic sounds. Some may be slightly brain-damaged
and deficient in ability in one or more areas, often particularly in hand-eye
co-ordination or perception. For these, I would recommend training the weak
points and using the strong ones. Some have major or minor physical defects
which are not always diagnosed. For instance, if a child has one weak eye he
may be able to see and yet soon get tired of making the effort. Catarrh often
causes temporary deafness or partial loss of hearing. Examples of cultural deprivation
may range from the child who is well cared-for physically and emotionally, but
whose language is limited and interest in books small, to one from a shocking
home, who is maladjusted, insecure, antisocial, lacking in proper sleep, and
so on. In a few cases children have been poorly taught, often because a system
was adhered to which didn’t suit the particular child, or because there
was not enough systems. These children may have widely differing needs, different
capacities and potential, different strengths and weaknesses. No one idea will
work for all of them. The teacher must decide whether MPC is worth trying, either
with a group or an individual, and attention must be paid to many aspects other
than the methods used to teach reading.
For one reason or another these children will have a small sight vocabulary
and lack skill in decoding new words. A good deal of remedial work is therefore
concerned with developing decoding skills, learning sounds and blends, and trying
to use them to attack new words. It is necessary to find books which practise
these skills, as well as books which are of Junior interest, but of Infant reading
standard. Although there are now many of these on the market, they are inclined
either to concentrate on interest, like the Griffin and Pirate series
(E. J. Arnold), or on phonics, like the Royal Road Readers (Chatto
& Windus). The Oxford Colour Readers (O.U.P.) concentrate on picture
cues while the Dr Seuss books (Collins) combine comic-strip type humour
for phonics with humorous picture cues. Variety is important, so that the reading
material suits the child’s own needs and interests. This can be ensued
if the children make their own books by dictating them or drawing the pictures
for them.
Of course, MPC can be added to any book, kit, reading-card or homemade written
matter. Any of the ideas described previously to avoid marking the books could
be used, and any method of learning sounds. For children who take a long time
to memorise anything, learning and using the forty-five MPC sounds is much simpler
either than trying to remember many ‘sight’ words or using standard
phonics, learning a large number of blends and groupings before the system ‘works’.
Moreover, the teacher has a much wider choice of materials with which to try
to arouse interest.
If the class normally uses work-cards, harder words on them can quickly be marked
with MPC so that the poorer readers can decode them without feeling inferior.
The slow child is often ashamed of his poor ability and does not ask for help
when needed. MPC enables him to progress alone, giving him an independence highly
valued by most children. They also like having their own small cue-cards as
memory-aids. If slow children in a normal class can help themselves, more time
will be spent in reading, and their attitudes towards learning will be improved.
Secondary children needing help
These children usually
understand and remember sounds and cues very quickly. MPC can then be used on
material suitable for their needs and interests. This might include reading
matter from newspapers or magazines, forms, labels, signs and all the ‘real-life’
written material they so badly need to read. It should be remembered that small
print is difficult to cue. One way round this problem is to print enlargements
and simplified texts to go with magazine pictures or sports news, mark them
with MPC and paste them in. It is less damaging to the self-respect of a backward
child of secondary age to be seen with an adult paper, even if he is reading
something pasted into it instead of the printed text, than to have an obviously
babyish book to read. If short, simple sentences and words mainly of one or
two syllables are used, material is less likely to be too difficult, and it
can still be varied and mature in content. Cued books are especially useful
here, enabling more varied reading to take place.
In some secondary schools all pupils are given the same topic worksheets or
assignments, the remedial teachers preparing simplified versions for those who
need them. If the slower children know MPC the cues can be added to the worksheets
instead of rewriting the whole assignment. A secondary teacher who tried MPC
with her less-able children reported that they learnt it ‘almost at once’
and that it worked ‘like magic’.
When children are being taught by a variety of teachers in a number of different
curriculum areas it has to be recognised that reading progress in each subject
is the responsibility of all teachers. It cannot be confined to one or two special
teachers. Even English language teachers have to teach the appreciation of literature
and improved style in written work with the majority, and so find it hard to
help a few with basic skills at the same time. As with Juniors, MPC allows more
working without help once marks have been added to the words likely to cause
trouble. Books printed with cues would probably be most useful with older children,
because they would benefit from longer passages and a greater variety of vocabulary
which it would be time-consuming to mark by hand. Some bright children might
be able to add cues accurately, thus aiding their own spelling and analysis
of word structure. These books could be used for slower ones. Since larger print
than usual may be needed for cues to be clear, marked bookmarks or a marked
dictionary of harder words at the back of a book might be more practical. A
tape of the cue-card which could be borrowed and run through by a child who
was well-motivated to learn would make progress possible and require very little
extra teacher time.  If a child
was stuck with a word, pencilling cues over it enabled him to read it immediately.
A cued dictionary, such as the MPC Word List, would have enabled him to look
a word up and then read it. The small amount of initial instruction needed to
teach MPC and so enable backward secondary children to learn for themselves
is a clear advantage.
Adult illiterates
Although this title
is commonly used, my own experience of two years’ evening-class teaching
of basic literacy has shown me what a variety of needs it can cover. I originally
took on the work intending to experiment with the use of MPC with these students.
Although I used some aspect of it with most of them, either for reading or spelling,
it was a spectacular success with only a small proportion. I had to abandon
any idea of carrying out a set programme of learning sounds and cues together
and then using them with all pupils, because it was obviously not in their best
interests.
Of weaker ones, with a reading age of 6-7 years, the majority knew the alphabet
letter-names and seemed to think learning phonic sounds was babyish in some
way. As they were so insecure and likely to stop coming at the slightest setback
I could not tell them that the letter-names were practically useless and they
should learn something else. I therefore tried another tactic of getting them
to deduce sound from the letter-names, which some seemed able to do, and continued
telling them whole words and trying to increase sight vocabulary. MPC, introduced
as a spelling activity, was not viewed as so childish. One very successful idea
was to tape a radio programme likely to interest most of them, such as a report
on food prices or a sports commentary, play it to them and at the same time
write up words that occurred in it on a board. We then used it for discussion
to help them talk and think about it. Next I would see if they could read the
words I had put up. Usually one or two knew each word, so I used cues to point
out the sounds and how letters formed the phonic sound of he word, with some
of them unsounded others digraphs, etc. this worked very well and those who
could not read the words at first soon learnt to do so after a few tries.
In this case, a number of students were West Indians, who had been taught at
school by learning letter-names first. This would be less likely to occur with
those who had attended British schools. However, I found that some of these
pupils had not ‘missed out’ on education in the popular sense, but
were brain-damaged or handicapped in various ways. Some had been to E.S.N schools
where they had been well taught to have achieved what they had done so far,
and also given the desire to learn more. These usually know most of the phonic
sounds and only needed some revision of digraphs to begin using MPC providing
they had the necessary reasoning power. On the other hand, a small proportion
were intelligent people who had long spells in hospital as children, where either
no teaching was given or they were too ill to take it. Several had taught themselves
to read but were worried about their spelling. Some had never learnt the alphabet
order so that they could use a dictionary, and really only needed that in order
to help themselves. MPC may thus certainly be useful with adults, but must be
applied with discretion according to need.
The best approach with very poor adult readers is to aim at the recognition
of the hundred most common sight-words, while at the same time working on word-attack
skills with the MPC Spelling Workbook. A reading scheme using MPC might
well be useful in some cases, using adult material. It would have the great
advantages of providing phonic practice on normal adult vocabulary, and giving
practice in seeing the relationship of sound and spelling in the course of reading
interesting material in context. Once sounds are learnt, any marked books can
be used.
I tried making reading cards on which a piece from a newspaper was pasted and
printed out in large type below, with cues added. Pupils could take a card home
and practise on the cued script, then try reading the cutting on its own. Another
idea, explained in Chapter 3, was to help a pupil to make
his own book about his job or family, or about cars or some other interest.
Word matching and word analysis using cues was practised on each bit as it was
written. Wall labels and comic strip pictures with captions were also used with
the virtual non-readers in the way advocated with Infants (see
page 22), but made more relevant to their interests. Whereas schoolchildren
are a captive audience, it is important to keep adults coming happily, and other
considerations must sometimes be sacrificed to this one. They thought a great
deal of these books they had made themselves, in some cases never having expressed
themselves in writing before. One man who started a little story about his childhood
kept reading a few lines over and over to himself with a sort of creative pride
which was quite touching. A woman who had not been able to write to her son
abroad wept over the first letter she managed to get down on paper with a good
deal of help. Another pupil, who had learnt to read in English in school in
Pakistan, could read even irregular words like ‘neighbour’ without
difficulty, yet hardly understood any word meanings. If anyone ever ‘barked
at print’ he did. Speaking and extending his English vocabulary were his
first needs. He learnt very quickly, using children’s picture dictionaries
at first, and was soon persuaded not to be satisfied with reading unless he
understood it.
Since this is not a book on teaching adults these matters are only touched on
to show how important it is to be sensitive to the needs of one’s pupils.
Although I think a knowledge of MPC may well add to the tutor’s range
of skills and resources, it must only be used where useful and not be expected
to meet all needs. The older the pupil, the wider the variety becomes. When
teaching adults on a one-to-one basis, simply pencilling MPC over words on which
people get stuck is very useful. It helps the pupil to see the sound-spelling
correspondence and is a reminder if he reads it again to himself.
Overseas students learning to read English
This category also
covers a wide range of needs. At present I can only suggest in what ways MPC
might prove useful.
It is likely that it would be a very good method for intelligent English speakers
who have never before learnt to read or write the language. They would learn
the sounds and cues very quickly and then, if given cued reading books, could
teach themselves a great deal and learn with very little help. This would be
a great advantage where resources were limited and very formal teaching methods
necessary. A short spell of direct formal teaching would quickly be followed
by independent reading. Another great advantage is that the basic sounds could
be taught with an English accent and then applied to words. The MPC Spelling
Workbook would be very useful in doing this. The main problem would probably
be that although such pupils speak English it is really their second language
and that therefore their reading technique might soon outstrip their vocabulary.
However, if less time were needed for learning the mechanics of reading more
time could be given to extending experience and vocabulary in various ways.
English has an advantage over some languages in having such things as invariable
adjectives and relatively simple declensions.  Irregular spelling is another source of difficulty.
The use of MPC in such cases would be very much a matter for the teacher’s
discretion. It would be quite permissible, for instance, to point out the number
of unsounded letters by using the cross over them when giving explanations,
or to use the bar and slur in the same way to show pronunciation where needed,
without using the full system. One or two teachers who tried MPC stated that
some of it seemed unnecessary with their pupils but they had used some aspect
of it where they found it useful. This is fine and must be emphasised as one
of the advantages of the system. It can and should be used and adapted in any
way required. The teacher is the best judge of what her pupils need, and has
no need to feel guilty if using MPC in a different way from one that has been
advocated, provided it works. For instance, one person who tried it said that
the cue-card had several things on it which the children didn’t understand,
e.g. they didn’t know what an acorn was. The obvious thing to do would
be to alter this picture to ‘ape’ or ‘ace’ or anything
the pupils did know. Similarly, objects have different names in different places,
e.g. a van may be called a truck; there may be no thistles or roses or owls.
So you alter it to something else. There is nothing sacrosanct about the pictures
which are used to aid sound recognition, though the sounds themselves should
remain largely the same, as they have been carefully considered. Deviation from
them might be necessary if, for instance, teaching in a Scottish accent, where
‘bot’ and ‘foot’ have the same vowel sound. There may
be no need then to use the two forms on the cue-card. Some may feel that the
sound ‘ear’ should be included on the cue-card, and should therefore
add it.
Students of language structure
It is becoming increasingly
common to include the study of language structure in various courses on language
and communication. The International Phonetic Alphabet is
a rather complicated designation of the English sound system. Some symbols,
being unlike English forms, need some practice in learning and can easily be
misinterpreted when used for just one or two lectures. MPC provides a simple
and reliable alternative which is readily understood by the non-specialist.
6 Conclusion
The aim of this book
has been to explain a new but very simple idea in such a way that anyone interested
will have no difficulty in understanding and using it. Judging by the large
number of teachers who have been able to experiment with MPC after reading only
two or three pages of information and ideas, it has shown itself to be readily
understood. It is to be hoped that the extra information and suggestions included
here will make it easier for those who are less enterprising or experienced,
and also benefit the pioneers by sharing the many ideas which have been found
successful in one way or another.
One of the members of the Bullock Committee, whose Report has been published
since most of the experimental work was done on MPC, encourage me to make this
work available to teachers as worthwhile aid. The following relevant recommendations
are made in the Bullock Report.
’56. There is no one method, medium, approach, device or philosophy that
holds the key to the process of learning to read.’
I should like to emphasise that I agree wholeheartedly with this statement.
MPC is an aid, not a panacea.
’60. The accurate perception of individual letters and groups of letters
is an important factor in learning to read. Young children should be helped
to learn the characteristics of letters through a variety of games and activities,
not through formal exercises.’
From the Report’s 333 recommendations I have selected those which give
most support to an aid like MPC. I agree with all the rest and would work on
language, encourage pre-reading skills, use ‘cloze’ or practise
the use of context cues, teach for a variety of comprehension skills and so
on. It is in the area of learning the sound-symbol relationships that MPC is
most likely to help. The release from drills and from detailed phonic work detached
from the normal reading context should allow more meaningful reading and reduce
frustration and discouragement. Moreover, it enables pupils to do more for themselves,
which could make all the difference between wasting time waiting for attention
and getting on with the job of learning. Class organisation is simplified not
only because the children can work alone more easily but also because they can
start.
It is often claimed that reading improvement resulting from intensive help out
of the classroom is not maintained on return. MPC allows slower children to
cope with work in the classroom and carry on more normally, once they know the
sounds, thus preventing any such loss.
There is a fairly wide consensus of opinion today that teachers who have expected
their pupils to ‘pick things up’ just because the opportunity is
there have been over-optimistic. There could easily be a corresponding swing
towards more formal methods of teaching which, in fact, the majority have never
abandoned. MPC strikes a good balance here. Although there is a very clear sound-symbol
structure for which some direct teaching is needed, MPC very quickly leads to
more freedom, both in learning independently with the motivation of success
and interest and in using almost any reading materials within the range of oral
understanding. Freedom from the restrictions of constant repetition for ‘look-say’
word learning as well as from the grading of phonic readers, starting with regular
three-letter words, allows for much more natural and easy writing.
Finally, perhaps the most vital consideration is the need for co-operation between
home and school. The child with someone who can hear him read at home and who
can understand and share in the aims of the school will have a great advantage
over the child who is entirely dependent on what is learnt on the school premises.
Although everyday written language is not marked with cues, it is not in a different
script. The technique required to teach the MPC marks need not be sophisticated.
Any parent with a copy of the cue-card could do some good by going through it
to help the child learn the sounds. The majority of parents who have spent a
short time studying MPC could easily use cues to regularise a word in a newspaper
or book in order to help a child read it. Beyond the classroom, it is also ideal
for amateur volunteers helping in adult literacy campaigns.
No other aid that I know of is so easy to learn and use. There is so little
to add to what is normally known and understood, yet it can make a spectacular
difference to the ease of reading and teaching to read. If MPC can help even
a few unhappy strugglers, something will have been achieved.
Appendix 1
Simple games to reinforce learning sounds and early sight vocabulary
Children vary widely
in the amount of repetition they need for anything to be permanently memorised.
Some need a great deal, however meaningful and interesting the presentation
or context. Such children are particularly helped by games with a purpose, which
provide motivation for learning and involve repetition without boredom. If they
are also self-checking, they can be played while the teacher is occupied elsewhere,
thus stimulating independent learning.
1. Flashcards: group (Figure 9)
Aids the memory-bond between picture-cue and sound.
Make cards about
10 x 6 cm. On one side write a sound from the cue-card in large print; on the
other draw the corresponding picture. The children are shown the picture and
try to say its sound. The first to do so takes the card and shows both sides
to the group.
At the end the child with most cards goes on to another activity, while the
rest repeat the game.
These cards can also be used for games 2, 3 and 4, and for matching to sounds
in words and sentences on the wall or to a large cue-card.
Figure 9
2. Guess the
sound: pairs
Aids the recognition of symbol without picture.
Both children must be able to say a sound with its picture. One child shows the picture (or sound) side of a card to the other, who has to say its sound (or picture), and takes the card if right. The children can take it in turns to select a card, change after a wrong guess, or after each set.
3. Sound pairs:
group
Matching recognition and the use of more than one sound-picture combination
are all involved.
Add a second set
of cards with different pictures. (a) Both sets are spread out, picture-side
upwards. The children take it in turns to pick a pair, checking by looking at
the other side.
(b) One set is picture-side downwards. A pair consists of a sound matched to
a picture. The winner is the child with most pairs.
4. Sound Bingo: group
This game encourages effort and quick response in recognising sounds.
Divide large cards into sections the same size as the flashcards. In each section draw a sound corresponding to one of the flashcards. The caller holds up a picture. The first child to recognise it as matching a sound on their large card takes it to cover that sound. The first to cover his or her large card wins. The large cards may be the same or slightly different for each child.
5. Test your
friend: pairs (Figure 10)
This is a useful and interesting method of self-checking, and involves learning
and correcting responses.
Cut notches in three sides of a piece of card about 12 cm square. The number of notches depends on the number of sounds which need testing. Draw a sound beside each notch and a corresponding picture on the reverse of the card. The card is held upright between the children. The one who can see the pictures say, for example, ‘Point to the owl’. The other then has to place his finger or pencil in the notch by the sound. If correct, he takes a counter. Five cards, each with nine sounds, will cover all the MPC symbols and could follow the same progression as the MPC Workbooks.
Figure 10
6. Spelling the
sounds: pairs (Figure 11)
With the help of MPC cues, the varying spellings of vowel sounds are introduced
and learnt. Children should have reached lesson 14 of the MPC
Spelling Workbook.
Make six cards each
about 12 x 9 cm. Write one vowel sound clearly on each card: ,,,
,
and . On the back of each
card write a list of words containing the different ways in which the sound
on the front can be spelt, e.g. —may,
cake, plaice, weigh; —who,
through, shoe, blue. Make a duplicate set. (a) One child lays his cards
down with the sounds showing. The other picks a word from his cards and asks
the first to find it by picking up the right card from his own set. If he is
right first time he gets a counter. When he has five counters they change places.
(b) The first child asks the other to spell, for example, weigh. After choosing
the right card by the sound the other then reads out the word and so gets a
counter.
Figure 11
7. Word recognition
board game: group
This aids learning the early sight vocabulary, using cued words from the MPC
Word List. A teacher must be present to ensure words are correctly read.
On a piece of card about 40 x 50 cm draw a road on which are marked about 50 moves between Start and Home. Number six small containers (such as margarine tubs) 1 to 6.  When they have read the word correctly they move that number of spaces. The first to reach Home is the winner. To add interest the board can be made into a football game, race track, treasure hunt, etc. Hazards can be added, e.g. Think squares: a tub labelled Think contains cars saying ‘Think of three words beginning with p’, ‘Think of four words ending with t’, etc. These are read by the teacher.
Appendix 2
The MPC Workbooks, Word List and Checklists
The MPC Teacher’s Book is accompanied by two workbooks and a simple dictionary, all for use by the pupil. Although mainly intended as part of a series making full use of MPC as an aid to reading, they could easily be used with more traditional methods. Only the normal alphabetical forms are used and all the letters are included.
The MPC
Reading Workbook teaches the main phonic sounds and how to form the
letters from which they are made. It does not go through them in alphabetical
order, but starts with the consonants which are most useful both as an aid to
recognising words and in teaching the correct movements. There is one representation
of each of the main sounds, e.g. ow but not ou.
The sounds ch, sh, ng, etc.
are included since these are regular in use. Children should become familiar
with them at an early stage, and think of them as sounds in their own right.
All the letters are used.
Each page forms a complete unit, taking a its starting point and focus a simple,
lively illustration. Some direction and help are needed from the teacher, firstly
in reading the sentence and then in discussing it with the pupils to encourage
language and ensure that print is always associated with meaning and interest.
The sound of the letters is then pointed out and its association with
the symbol emphasised. The letter-names should not be taught at this stage.
The teacher should supervise the pupil’s writing movements before leaving
him to work alone, since this will avoid much trouble later. At the bottom of
each page are suggestions for further, more open-ended activities designed to
reinforce learning.
The MPC Spelling Workbook teaches the main rules and exceptions of English spelling, clearly shown with the help of MPC. Each rule is presented with examples and practical reinforcement in the form of activities, so that the pupil learns to spell through experience. A vocabulary of about 150 words is necessary before beginning this workbook.
The MPC Word List is a simple dictionary containing over 600 of the words most commonly used in early reading with cues. Space is provided for the pupil to add new words. Once pupils know the sounds and cues, they will be able to read and learn the words and so recognise them in their books. It is hoped that this will help to deal with the two great problems encountered by those teaching reading to beginners: hearing pupils and giving them words for writing. By allowing the pupils greater independence, the MPC Word List will save the teacher time while laying the foundations for a thorough linguistic understanding of phonemegrapheme correspondence.
MPC Checklists, found on the last page of each book.
The MPC Reading workbook checklist lists the sounds covered in the book and provides space to record the pupil’s progress: knows sound with picture cue; know sound without picture cue. There is also space for fuller notes on each sound.
The MPC Spelling Workbook checklist list the rules or skills covered in the book, indexed by lesson number. It can thus also be used as a list of contents. Since the workbook deals with the understanding of English spelling in principle, rather than with learning actual examples of words, the checklist is designed to record that each page has been worked through and understood. The pupil may have to do a page more than once, so it is suggested that three marks be used to show his progress: mark doing this page, tick page completed with understanding, success in later revision test. Understanding of the MPC Spelling Workbook can also be tested using the quiz on page 55. This can be done as a game by the pupils or used as a method of testing by the teacher.
The MPC Word
List checklist is intended as a record of progress in using sounds and
cues. There are six columns: First Sounds, Second Sounds, Blends, Simple
Words, Using Cues, Syllables and Endings. At the head of each column is
a star which should be coloured in when the work in that column is complete.
The teacher could have a master copy of the checklist column is complete. The
teacher could have a master copy of the checklist with the same headings but
with the pupil’ names some the side. The stars could then be entered against
the names, so helping to group the pupils.
Spelling Workbook Quiz
| Lesson | Lesson | ||
| 1 | What do you know about e at the end of a word? | 1 | It’s not sounded. It may alter the vowel. |
| 2 | What would it change these to? a e i o u | 2 | a e i o u |
| 3 | Write or point to two ways to spell ow and oi. | 3 | ow ou; oi oy |
| 4 | Write or point to two ways to spell au. Spell for and door. | 4 | au aw |
| 5 | What other sound can c stand for? How do these sound? ca co cu ce ci | 5 | s as in circle ca co cu se si |
| 6 | What other sound can g stand for? | 6 | j |
| 7 | What do you know about gh? What does gh sound like in enough? | 7 | It’s not sounded. It may alter the vowel before. f |
| 8 | What other sound can ch stand for? | 8 | c as in school |
| 9 | Read or spell: word fur first heard her. What sound is in each word? | 9 | er |
| 10 | What do you know about these?
kn gn wr Read or spell knee gnome write. |
10 | First letter isn’t sounded |
| 11 | What other sound can s stand for? Which s sounds like z in sees? | 11 | z the last |
| 12 | What are vowels? Name some of them. |
12 | Sounds made by altering the
shape of your mouth. a e i o u a e i o u |
| 13 | Read: Wh-n-sy—r
b-rthd-y? What can you do about vowels that change their sounds? |
13 | When is your birthday? Guess from the rest of the word. Refer to cards |
| 14 | Read or write words from the cards. Read: day make lady tail weight. Read: feel near ceiling piece he. | 14 | (All have a
sound) (All have e sound) |
| 15 | Read: throw coat hope though goes. | 15 | (All have o sound) |
| 16 | Does everyone speak with the
same accent? Which change most, vowels or other sounds? |
16 | No. Vowels, like a, a and ah |
| 17 | Read: Monday month one once. What sound does o make here? What would you do if o didn’t make sense? | 17 | u Try u. |
| 18 | What sound does ph
make? What sound does f make in of? Read: laugh cough tough enough. What makes the sound f here? |
18 | f v gh |
| 19 | Read: walk walked walks
walking. Which are the ‘bits’? Write from memory: pick picks picked picking |
19 | ed s ing |
| 20 | Find a small word inside: Demisting unfitted. |
20 | mist fit |
| 21 | What do you do to come
before adding ing? Add ing to have bake make live. |
21 | Take off the e.
having baking making living |
| 22 | What do you do to sit before
adding ing? Add ed to beg bat pin. |
22 | Add another t. begged baking making living |
| 23 | Read these: pick hick,
might dight, sing ming, house bouse. Are they all words? |
23 | No, but they could be syllables in words. |
| 24 | n what way are these words alike? shoe moon through who |
24 | All have the sound oo. |
| 25 | What do you notice about these? Cannot jamjar clockface doorknob Can you read them? |
25 | Each is made of two words put together |
| 26 | Read the first syllable of these: disconnect petticoat maternal hipster. |
26 | dis pet mat hip |
| 27 | How do you sound tion? Think of a word with it in. |
27 | shon action station fiction position |
| 28 | Try to read these: tension mission passion. |
28 | sion |
| 29 | Say the alphabet, using the
letternames Is a before or after o? Is p before or after x? Is j before or after b? |
29 | a b c d e f g h i
j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z |
| 30 | Which of these comes first in
a dictionary? dog dad dig Write the alphabet in small and capital letters. |
30 | dad |