Consonants, Blends and Digraphs

Lessons 1 - 53

 

What: 

 

Consonants are the following single letters of the alphabet:

b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, y, z

 

Blends are “voiced” combinations of two or three consonants.  Following are examples:

fl, bl, sl, cl, pl, bl, gr, tr, br, cr, dr, pr, fr, wh, st, str, sw, sp, sc, sn, sm, sk

 

Digraphs are “voiceless” combinations of two consonants.  Following are examples:

sh, ch, th, wh    

 

Why:

 

There are only two words in our spoken and written language that have one letter.  They are “a” and “I”.  All other words have at least one consonant.

 

Without automatic recognition of consonants, blends and digraphs, the student will not be able to phonetically decode words at a fluent rate.  The ability to comprehend written material decreases if analysis and/or hesitation for each sound and/or word are slow.

 

When:

 

Learning consonant sounds should be taught early in any reading program.  My Breakfast Reading Program focuses on consonants in Lessons 1 – 28.  Blends and digraphs are introduced in Lessons 29 – 42.

 

How:

 

Repetition, repetition, repetition! 

 

My Breakfast Reading Program presents a maximum of five consonants, blends or digraphs in each lesson.  Each lesson consists of one 60-second exercise.  This exercise provides a high number of repetitions in a very short time frame.  Each lesson is repeated five days a week.

 


 

Statistical Analysis:

 

·   Consonants/blends/digraphs: 

Analysis of the database indicates that there are sixty-six beginning consonants, blends and digraph combinations for the beginning sound.  See Table 1.

Analysis of the database indicates that there are forty-six ending sound consonants, blends and digraph combinations.  See Table 1.

·        Consonants:  Lessons 1 - 28

o       Beginning sound (47%):  Twelve consonants comprise 47% of the words with the beginning sounds.  That is, of the 2377 words, 1120 have the beginning sound of one of the twelve consonants.  Therefore, a significant emphasis is placed on these twelve beginning consonant sounds. 

The twelve most frequently used beginning consonants are (in frequency order): b, l, p, h, m, r, t, s, f, d, w, c

 

o       Ending sound (56%):  Twelve consonants comprise 56% of the words with the ending sounds.  That is, of the 2377 words, 1338 have the ending sound of the twelve consonants.  Therefore, a significant emphasis is place on these twelve ending consonant sounds.

The twelve most frequently used ending consonants are (in frequency order): t, d, k, n, p, l, g, m, s, b, c, v

 

o       Common consonants:  Note that of the 12 beginning and 12 ending consonants, the following 8 are the same: 

t; d; p; l; m; s; b; c

 

·        Blends and digraphs (32 % of beginning sounds):  Lessons 29 - 34

o       ?R family (13%):  Eight blends that have an “r” sound comprise 13% of the words with the beginning sounds.  That is, of the 2377 words, 308 words have a “?r” blend beginning sound.

The ?r family consists of: br, cr, dr, fr, gr, pr, str, tr:  Lessons 29 and 30.

 

o       ?L family (10%):  Six blends that have an “l” sound comprise 10% of the words with the beginning sounds.  That is, of the 2377 words, 238 words have a “?l” blend beginning sound.

The ?l family consists of: bl, cl, fl, gl, pl, sl:  Lessons 31 and 32.

 

o       S? family (9%):  Seven blends that begin with “s” comprise 9% of the words with the beginning sounds.  That is, of the 2377 words, 208 words have an “s?” blend beginning sound.

The S? family consists of:  sc, sk, sm, sn, sp, st, sw: Lessons 33 and 34.

 

·        Digraphs (6 % of beginning sounds):  Lessons 35 - 36 (42)

o       ?H family (6%):  Four digraphs that have an “h” sound comprise 6% of the words with the beginning sounds.  That is, of the 2377 words, 133 words have a “?h” blend or digraph beginning sound.

The ?h family consists of: ch, sh, th, wh:  Lesson 35

Note:  ch, sh, and th also comprise 5% of ending sounds:  Lesson 42.

 

·        Summary of above consonants, blends and digraphs:

o       Beginning Sounds:  Of the 66 beginning consonants, blends and digraphs, the cumulative total of 37 comprise 85% of the beginning sounds in the database of 2377 words.  That is: 12 beginning consonants (47%), 21 beginning blends (32%) and 4 beginning digraphs (6%).  These high frequency beginnings are the primary focus of the program.

o       Ending Sounds:  Of the 46 ending consonants, blends and digraphs, the cumulative total of 16 comprise 84% of the ending sounds in the database of 2377 words.  That is: 12 ending consonants (79%) and 3 ending digraphs (5%).  These high frequency endings are the primary focus of the program.



                                                                Table 1

                               
Initial Position Visual Patterns
Sorted by Total		   Medial Position Visual Patterns
Sorted by Total		   Final Position Visual Patterns
Sorted by Total
 
  Count of Printed Word           Count of Printed Word           Count of Printed Word      
Rank IVC -
Initial
Visual Component		 Total % Cum %   Rank MVC -
Medial
Visual Component		 Total % Cum %   Rank FVC -
Final
Visual Component		 Total % Cum %
1 b 118 5% 5%   1 (blank) 294 12% 12%   1 t 201 8% 8%
2 l 110 5% 10%   2 i 272 11% 24%   2 n 191 8% 16%
3 p 105 4% 14%   3 a 266 11% 35%   3 d 159 7% 23%
4 h 102 4% 18%   4 u 215 9% 44%   4 p 128 5% 29%
5 m 102 4% 23%   5 o 163 7% 51%   5 m 108 5% 33%
6 r 101 4% 27%   6 e 162 7% 58%   6 l 103 4% 37%
7 t 91 4% 31%   7 a-e 138 6% 64%   7 k 91 4% 41%
8 s 87 4% 34%   8 i-e 112 5% 68%   8 g 81 3% 45%
9 f 82 3% 38%   9 ea 88 4% 72%   9 ll 76 3% 48%
10 d 81 3% 41%   10 o-e 82 3% 75%   10 ck 74 3% 51%
11 c 73 3% 44%   11 ee 75 3% 79%   11 st 64 3% 54%
12 w 68 3% 47%   12 oo 66 3% 81%   12 b 62 3% 56%
13 st 66 3% 50%   13 ai 47 2% 83%   13 ch 60 3% 59%
14 g 54 2% 52%   14 ow 46 2% 85%   14 ng 58 2% 61%
15 sh 51 2% 54%   15 ou 34 1% 87%   15 s 57 2% 64%
16 sl 51 2% 56%   16 oa 33 1% 88%   16 nk 51 2% 66%
17 ch 50 2% 59%   17 ar 32 1% 89%   17 nt 50 2% 68%
18 fl 49 2% 61%   18 or 32 1% 91%   18 nd 44 2% 70%
19 br 48 2% 63%   19 u-e 27 1% 92%   19 v 39 2% 71%
20 cr 47 2% 65%   20 ie 22 1% 93%   20 mp 38 2% 73%
21 gr 47 2% 67%   21 al 21 1% 94%   21 sh 36 2% 75%
22 cl 45 2% 68%   22 aw 16 1% 94%   22 c 34 1% 76%
23 sp 44 2% 70%   23 ir 15 1% 95%   23 ss 29 1% 77%
24 tr 43 2% 72%   24 oi 15 1% 96%   24 ay 26 1% 78%
25 n 42 2% 74%   25 au 13 1% 96%   25 ow 25 1% 79%
26 bl 41 2% 76%   26 e-e 12 1% 97%   26 ff 22 1% 80%
27 j 39 2% 77%   27 ur 12 1% 97%   27 ght 22 1% 81%
28 dr 38 2% 79%   28 u-e  11 0% 98%   28 ld 22 1% 82%
29 pr 30 1% 80%   29 ow-e 10 0% 98%   29 lt 22 1% 83%
30 pl 29 1% 81%   30 er 7 0% 98%   30 are 18 1% 84%
31 fr 28 1% 83%   31 er-e 7 0% 99%   31 ear 18 1% 85%
32 sw 26 1% 84%   32 ee-e 6 0% 99%   32 ft 18 1% 85%
33 str 25 1% 85%   33 ea-e 5 0% 99%   33 dg 16 1% 86%
34 gl 24 1% 86%   34 ou-e 5 0% 99%   34 ore 16 1% 87%
35 th 24 1% 87%   35 ai-e 4 0% 99%   35 th 16 1% 87%
36 sc 23 1% 88%   36 ar-e 3 0% 100%   36 z 16 1% 88%
37 v 23 1% 89%   37 ei 3 0% 100%   37 y 15 1% 89%
38 sn 22 1% 90%   38 ur - e 3 0% 100%   38 f 14 1% 89%
39 k 20 1% 90%   39 ue 2 0% 100%   39 tch 14 1% 90%
40 qu 19 1% 91%   40 ui-e 1 0% 100%   40 x 14 1% 90%
41 wh 19 1% 92%     Grand Total 2377       41 aw 13 1% 91%
42 kn 17 1% 93%               42 lk 12 1% 91%
43 sk 15 1% 93%               43 ar 11 0% 92%
44 sm 14 1% 94%               44 ee 11 0% 92%
45 y 14 1% 95%               45 ew 10 0% 93%
46 wr 13 1% 95%               46 sk 10 0% 93%
47 scr 11 0% 96%               47 r 9 0% 94%
48 tw 11 0% 96%               48 ue 9 0% 94%
49 thr 9 0% 96%               49 eer 8 0% 94%
50 a 8 0% 97%               50 oo 8 0% 95%
51 spr 8 0% 97%               51 sp 8 0% 95%
52 squ 8 0% 97%               52 (blank) 8 0% 95%
53 z 7 0% 98%               53 air 7 0% 96%
54 shr 6 0% 98%               54 nc 7 0% 96%
55 a-e 5 0% 98%               55 nch 7 0% 96%
56 i 5 0% 98%               56 ie 6 0% 96%
57 ar 4 0% 99%               57 ire 6 0% 97%
58 ea 3 0% 99%               58 oy 6 0% 97%
59 gn 3 0% 99%               59 ea 5 0% 97%
60 o 3 0% 99%               60 kt 5 0% 97%
61 dw 2 0% 99%               61 mb 5 0% 98%
62 e-e 2 0% 99%               62 o 5 0% 98%
63 gu 2 0% 99%               63 oe 5 0% 98%
64 spl 2 0% 99%               64 pt 5 0% 98%
65 u 2 0% 99%               65 ey 4 0% 98%
66 ai 1 0% 99%               66 igh 4 0% 99%
67 air 1 0% 99%               67 ir 4 0% 99%
68 al 1 0% 99%               68 ur 4 0% 99%
69 au 1 0% 99%               69 gh 3 0% 99%
70 chr 1 0% 100%               70 ier 3 0% 99%
71 e 1 0% 100%               71 lp 3 0% 99%
72 ear 1 0% 100%               72 lth 3 0% 99%
73 ee 1 0% 100%