Ph words

How do you teach ph words?

Show ph as a Greek spelling of a familiar sound. "Ph says /f/. When you see these two together, think phone." Students read ph easily once taught; spelling is the hard part, since f is far more common. Group ph words by meaning parts: phone, phonics, telephone; graph, photograph, paragraph. Once phon and graph are known as parts, the ph comes with them.

What mistake do students make with ph words?

Students spell phone as fone. That's a logical error. Praise the sound match, then ask, "Is this a Greek word? Phone, photo, graph are Greek, and Greek words use ph." In reading, a few students say /p/ /h/; point to both letters and say "partners."

Where do ph words come in the sequence?

Ph is often taught with wh, after the main digraphs. It shows up again later in word-part lessons on Greek roots. In the sequence we use, the pattern is taught in Lesson 50.

Exceptions worth knowing

In shepherd and uphill, p and h are in different parts and say two sounds. In Stephen, ph says /v/. A few words such as sapphire have double ph.

Decodable sentences

Every word in these sentences can be read at Lesson 50 or earlier, or is a heart word taught by then.

• The graph is on the desk.
• We did math with a graph.
• Can you graph the bugs?