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Skill Explainer
3.3 Explicitly Teach Soft 'g' with '-ge'
Soft 'c' and Soft 'g' Skill Explainer
3.3 Explicitly Teach Soft 'g' with '-ge'
Teaching Hard 'g' vs. Soft 'g'
Watch first grade teacher Gina Inzitari as she teaches a small group of students about the two sounds made by the letter ‘g’ — either a /g/ or a /j/ sound.
Produced by Reading Universe, a partnership of WETA, Barksdale Reading Institute, and First Book
Below are the steps for teaching soft 'g' in the early grades — after your students know the magic 'e' rule.
You can introduce soft 'g' using this step-by-step lesson.
Say,
Today we are going to learn about another sound that 'g' can spell.
What sound do we already know that 'g' can spell? [/g/]
Yes, /g/.
Do you remember when we learned that 'c' can spell /s/?
What vowels does 'c' look at when it's spelling the /s/ sound? ['e', 'i', and 'y']
Yes! Today we are going to learn that when 'g' looks at 'e', 'i', or 'y', 'g' will spell the /j/ sound.
Take out the '-ge' card.
Say,
Let's look at this card. I see the letters 'g', 'e'. I notice the magic 'e', and we know that it can make the vowel say its long sound.
I notice that the 'g' is looking at 'e', so 'g' is going to spell /j/. This says /j/.
Listen to what we'll say when we see this card: "'g', 'e', /j/."
Say and have students repeat,
'g', 'e', /j/.
On the board write the following words:
cage, age
Say,
I am going to underline the '-ge' pattern.
Underline the '-ge' in the words. Then have the students read the words together.
cage, age
Now let's talk about spelling. Remember when 'g' is looking at 'e', 'i', or 'y', it spells the /j/ sound. Now let's spell a word together! The word is page. Let's tap the sounds in page: /p/, /ā/, /j/. We have three sounds, so I will write three lines on the board.
Write three lines on the board.
__ __ __
The first sound we hear is /p/. How do we spell /p/? ['p']
Write 'p' on the first line.
p __ __
Say,
The next sound I hear is /ā/. That's a long vowel sound! How do we spell /ā/? ['a']
Write 'a'.
p a __
Let's tap the sounds in page one more time: /p/, /ā/, /j/. How did we just learn to spell /j/? [-ge] Right! Let's write 'g', 'e'.
Write 'g' and 'e'.
pag e
After explicitly modeling spelling words with '-ge', you'll move on to the dictation portion of your lesson. During this you will say words like stage. Students will repeat the word and tap the sounds in the word. You will discuss the soft 'g' sound and spelling pattern.
