Hanson Reading Phonics CHART 2 Consonant Sounds
When students can name the lowercase consonants on Chart 1b, out of order fluently, they are ready to begin learning Chart 2.
Hanson Reading Phonics Chart System Chart 2
Learning the Consonant Sounds quickly is important, so when the vowels are introduced, the child does not have to keep so many sounds in their head as they decode the word. Use the TEACHING IMAGINARY PICTURES to teach the lowercase consonant sounds in order to help children see the shape of the letter and associate it with the Hanson Reading Imaginary Picture story. Refer to the imaginary picture when a child is having a hard time remembering what sound to say.
The GOAL of Teaching Imaginary Pictures of Lowercase Consonants is to help children learn HOW to look at the consonants to determine the SOUND each consonant makes by:
1. Approaching each letter from the left, rather than visualizing the consonant as a whole. We recommend driving along the One-Way Reading-Road with a truck and bumping into parts of letters. (Pretend the truck with a flat front Drives and Bumps into parts of letters.)
2. Learning to imagine each consonant as an Imaginary Picture. Pictures are easier to remember than letters. 3. Learning a spatial relations perception to help recognize the Imaginary Picture (later very important for writing. The 1st part “bumped into” is the 1st part written) tall or short part “naughty-cave” letters.
4. Learning to Drive and Bump into letter parts to determine the sound of a “b” & “d”. (The eye sees 180° at one time, so focus must be directed to the part of the letter the “Truck bumps into first to distinguish the difference between ″b″ and ″d″ etc.) NO PICTURES ARE TO BE USED FOR THE IMAGINARY PICTURES (The consonants (in the Lynne Hanson Font) themselves are to be the pictures.)
Teach these Imaginary Pictures when the child has learned the NAMES of the letters on Chart 1. Learning the NAMES of the letters happens before focusing on the sounds.
NOTE about reading development: For some children whose visual memories haven’t fully matured yet and are progressing very slowly learning the letter names, begin teaching the Imaginary Pictures, BUT review Chart 1 each lesson indicating that Chart 1 is for learning NAMES and Chart 2 is for learning SOUNDS, otherwise children confuse NAMES and SOUNDS. Chart 2 is more logical than Chart 1 and learned more quickly than Chart 1, but it is necessary to learn both the letter NAMES and the consonant SOUNDS. Even though these Imaginary Pictures will be used for cueing writing the lowercase consonants, DO NOT focus on the writing concepts until the identification of the Imaginary Pictures has been well established, the children know the SOUNDS of the consonants and know how to print the uppercase letters.
My kid is older - do I need to practice Chart 1?
For older children who know Letter NAMES well, check your child on the requirements for
Chart 1. If your child is proficient, then move on to Chart 2, but teach your child the Prompt for
Chart 1. The Prompt for Chart 1 is the Alphabet song. Doing a quick review of this Chart will reveal if a child is missing any recognition of the Letter Names. If they've got it- move on.
Prepare for Chart Reviews
As your child progresses through the Charts and learns to apply the Chart skills, Hanson
Reading reinforces the concepts learned on each Chart by reviewing them at the beginning of
each lesson. This is what Hanson Reading calls Chart Reviews.
At the Chart 1 Level, there is not much to review, but begin to establish a quick Chart Review by
asking the student:
Chart 1
“What do you learn on Chart 1?” Letter NAMES
“What if I forget a letter’s NAME, what do I do?” Prompt for Chart 1: Sing the ABC Song.
Your child needs to be able to answer these questions for each Chart. By doing a Chart Review
at each lesson, students are learning to file the information being learned in their brains so
they can find it more easily.