- Soft 'c' and Soft 'g' Skill Explainer
Spelling Soft 'g' with 'ge'
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Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan: Today we're going to learn another way in English that you can say /j/ with another different type of letter. I want you to listen. Say the word gelatin.
Emilio: Gelatin.
Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan: Gentle.
Emilio: Gentle.
Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan: Genie.
Emilio: Genie.
Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan: What sound did you hear at the beginning?
Emilio: /j/.
Narrator: Bilingual reading expert and speech pathologist, Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan has been working one-on-one with a third grader named Emilio on the different ways to spell the /j/ sound.
Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan: Can you say it really, really short? Say /j/.
Emilio: /j/.
Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan: Let's say /j/.
Emilio: /j/.
Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan: That was better. Say /j/.
Emilio: /j/.
Narrator: In today's lesson, Dr. Cárdenas-Hagan introduces one of the soft 'g' spelling patterns. '-ge' like in the word gentle.
Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan: All right, so we have a new way of showing that. Let me show you the letters. The letters are G-E, and our word is genie. Look, see the picture of the genie. Have you ever seen anything like that?
Emilio: No.
Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan: No. Okay. So that was, oh, see where the genie comes out? Yeah. Yeah. Congrat. Magical wishes. Like I give you three wishes, right? So say Ge. Ge. Genie.
Emilio: Genie.
Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan: Very good. En español es /h/, /ā/..
Emilio: /h/, /ā/.
Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan: Genio.
Emilio: Genio.
Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan: Genie. So when the 'g' comes before the 'e', the sound changed from good to J. There you go. That was perfect. So now we're going to practice some of this reading. So let's look here. So all of these, what do you see that looks the same. What letters?
Emilio: 'g-e'.
Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan: 'g-e'. What letters?
Emilio: 'g-e'. 'g-e'. 'g-e'.
Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan: They all have g-e', right? So let's prepare row one. You think you can read 'em? Okay. Read the first word.
Emilio: Jerome. Gerum.
Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan: There's not an extra letter there. Germ.
Emilio: Germ.
Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan: Oh, I don't want to get any germs, do you?
Emilio: No.
Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan: No. Okay. Let's try this one.
Emilio: /jŭ/
Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan: /j/
Emilio: /j/
Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan: /er/
Emilio: /er/, /b/, /ĭ/
Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan: Let's divide it here. Let's divide it right here.
Emilio: /jer/, /bĭl/
Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan: And we say it. Let's think about how we accent it. Can you say gerbil?
Emilio: Gerbil.
Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan: We're going to accent the first syllable. GERbil.
Emilio: GERbil.
Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan: That's a type of little rodent, little animal. Let's try this one.
Emilio: Re, gent. Regent.
Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan: Very good.
Emilio: Gen, tle. Gentle.
Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan: Okay, gem.
Emilio: Gem.
Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan: Say it again.
Emilio: Gem.
Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan: Gem. Look. My ring. It has a gem. What color is it?
Emilio: Red.
Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan: Red. So now what we're going to do … this is … oh, I don't know if you're going to like this, but this is spelling time. [laughter] I know spelling can be quite challenging.
Narrator: So in this part of the lesson, Emilio will reinforce the sound-letter connections he's been practicing. Dr. Cárdenas-Hagan will say a word with the /j/ sound and Emilio will write it down using what? He's just learned to pick the right letters.
Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan: Let me see. I want you to look and listen. Look at me. And I want you to say this word after me. And remember our pattern. It's going to have what letters?
Emilio: ‘g-e’.
Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan: Oh, you were right. Ready? Say gem.
Emilio: Gem.
Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan: Wait, tell me the sounds.
Emilio: /j/, /ē/, /m/.
Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan: Oh, that says jeem. It's /j/, /ēm/. It's /j/ ...
Emilio: /j/, /ĕ/, /m/.
Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan: Again.
together: /j/, /ĕ/, /m/.
Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan: All right. What letters did you use?
Emilio: /j/, /ĕ/ ...
Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan: ‘g’...
Emilio: 'g', 'e' ...
together: 'm'.
Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan: That spells ... ?
Emilio: Gem.
Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan: Gem. Very good. I want you to write the word geeenie.
Emilio: ‘g’.
Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan: Ah, that's in Spanish.
Emilio: Oh, I know. ‘g’. Geee …
Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan: That ‘i-e’ is saying …
Emilio: Oh.
Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan: … ‘e’. That's right! Geee-nie. What letters did you use?
Emilio: ‘g’, ‘e’, /n/, ‘e’, ‘i’ …
Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan: Can you name the letters? ‘g’, ‘e’ …
Emilio: ‘g’, ‘e’, /n/ …
together: ‘n’, ‘i’, ‘e’.
Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan: ‘g’, ‘e’, ‘n’. Let's say the sounds: /j/, /ē/ Let's say the sounds. /ē/
Emilio: /ē/.
Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan: /n/.
Emilio: /n/.
Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan: /ē/.
Emilio: /ē/.
Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan: /n/
Emilio: /n/.
Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan: Genie.
Emilio: Genie.
Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan: Oh, spelling. You did it. Okay. Tell me a sentence with gem.
Emilio: I have a gem.
Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan: All right. Let's write that sentence. Right. We'll get some writing in. I …
Emilio: I … have … a gem.
Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan: Very good. What do we need at the end? A period. Nice work. Nice spelling and writing.
Narrator: Reading Universe is made possible by generous support from Jim and Donna Barksdale, the Hastings/Quillin Fund, an advised fund of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, the AFT, the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation, and anonymous donors. This video was produced by Noel Gunther, James Allgood, and Christian Lindstrom. Our video editors were Ben Howard and Mandana Tadayon. Our field crew was Edwin Noe Mendoza, Jessica Vidales, and Arnold Martinez. And our narrator was Danielle Famble. If you enjoyed this video, please subscribe to our YouTube channel @RUteaching. Reading Universe is a service of WETA, Washington D.C., the Barksdale Reading Institute, and First Book.
