Some students can automatically process the short to long vowel transition. But, for some students understanding the differences is difficult. Why? Students who are right brain thinkers need to have MEANING attached to a concept.

When teaching the following rule; words with short vowels end in ck and words with long vowels or patterns end in k doesn’t have MEANING to it. If you show a right brain thinker that when you add a clicking camera /c/ in front of the cricket /k/ (crickets make the k, k, k sound) and take the e away – now there’s MEANING to the rule.

When a student is dyslexic, has an auditory processing disorder is ADD/ADHD or has any other specific learning difference, they must learn differently. Their brain will not process simply a rule. Their brain will process what they SEE. The reason is that MEANING is now attached to the concept.

In the video the student SEES an a-e word, writes the word on the whiteboard to show that the sounds and letters go together. Then, the student changes the a-e word to a short vowel word – Notice that the vowel is now represented with a picture (roller coaster “aaaa!”). Pictures represent short vowel sounds and letters represent long vowel sounds or patterns. The student can explain the rule because it has MEANIN