Vowel Clustering Helps Students Make the Connection Between Letters and Sounds

by Elaine Clanton Harpine, Ph. D

There is no one central area of the brain that controls reading. Instead, there is a “network of connections or synaptic pathways.” When these pathways are developed, reading a word can take less than half a second, but reading does not happen automatically, it must be taught. Students must be taught how to make the connections between letters and sounds. Vowel clustering does not use rules or memorization. Vowel clustering teaches students to break words down and identify the sounds. The method that we use to teach reading is what keeps some children from learning how to read. The problem is not the teachers or the students. Reading failure is caused by how we teach reading. Vowel clustering works with the brain to make it easier for children to learn to read. For more on research about how the brain learns to read, see my blog post on teaching vowel clustering: https://www.groupcentered.com/ reading-blog/archives/03-2019 and vowel sounds with their corresponding letter symbols. This emphasizes the oral letter-sound relationship. Remember, we are training the brain, building “pathways” in the brain.

Vowel clustering works with the brain and the way the brain processes phonemes or letter sounds. Vowel clustering uses visual, auditory, and hands-on teaching techniques. Vowel clustering teaches students to match consonant

Therefore, it is important to organize how we teach so students can organize how they learn. We want to work with the brain, not against it. The vowel clustering teaching approach presents a visual and oral picture that struggling students can immediately identify with. Visually, students match words by how they sound not by how they are spelled. This teaches students that words can be pronounced one way but spelled another. This visual-auditory learning technique allows students to both see and hear letter sounds (phonemes).

For more on how to use a vowel board to teach letter sounds, see an excerpt from my newest book, Why Can’t We Teach Children to Read: Oh, But Wait We Can. See: https://www. groupcentered.com/reading-blog/is-readingfailure-linked-to-violence-crime-and-mentalhealth

It is never too late to correct reading failure:

A 15-year-old student was brought to my reading clinic because the school had said, “she could never learn to read.” In middle school, she was given coloring book pages and shuffled off to the corner of the classroom. The school was using “balanced literacy” in the classroom, and the student had received one-on-one tutoring in systematic phonics from early elementary school to middle school, but the student was still failing. I taught the student to read in 3 ½ years using vowel clustering.

These are just two examples; I have many others. If you are interested in learning more about vowel clustering, contact me at clantonharpine@hotmail. com. I am always happy to help.

Also:

A very smart third grader was brought to my reading clinic. The student could not even read at the beginning kindergarten level. The student’s parents were college-educated and had even paid for private systematic phonics tutoring. Balanced literacy from the classroom, pullout small group phonics instruction during school, and even private one-on-one systematic phonics instruction failed to teach this student how to read. Again, I taught the student to read in one year with vowel clustering.