Alan, I have a query about the graph "u" or the digraph "ew". I cannot find a phoneme box on the vowel chart which covers "u" as in computer, tube or tutor, or "ew" as in few, pewter or ewe. Perhaps, I am missing it, but there does not seem to be a phoneme box or catchall which covers this phoneme. The traditional vowels of a, e, i and o (as in baby, me, tiger and nose) are covered but not the traditional u (as in computer).

[see page 71 of the teaching guide TEACHING THRASS (T-50: TEACHING THRASS Essential Guide) and it is under the heading Non-Phonographic Spellings.]

For names that have Non-Phonographic Spellings (Not Playing Sensibly), such as Alex and Max (where the 'x' represents two phonemes, the consonant blend/cluster /ks/), it is not possible to put the 'x' in just one box. You will have to tell Alex and Max that the letter 'x' is in two boxes (with cat etc. and also sun etc). Their pictures (or such words as box, fox and mix) will have to go in two boxes (see Teachers Notes p5, Phoneme Sheet 41 and PHONEME SHEET - BLANK in the Reading Section of the Resource File and the teachers notes on the inside cover of the 380 Big Book).

Use the NPS tiles for names that have letters or sequences of letters that are "Not Playing Sensibly". At the end of Matthew, there is no (sensible) one-to-one relationship between the 'e' 'w' and the two phonemes. It is possible to allocate the 'e' to yawn and the 'w' to moon/screw/glue but it does not seem sensible! It is probably better to explain that when we hear the phonemes /ju:/ we may spell them 'e' 'w', as in f-ew, kn-ew, m-ew, mild-ew, neph-ew, n-ew, st-ew, or with just a 'u' in music or with three letters (not a trigraph) in b-eau-tiful. To construct these names, use the NPS tiles (and then select the possible grapheme tiles) from the Magnetic Grapheme box. Note, the 't' 't' 'h' in Ma-tth-ew is a consonant trigraph.

Also, have a look at the Phoneme Machine software and click on the words 'music' and 'new'. You will see that for the 'u' in music the lips move twice (y and oo) and for the 'ew' the lips move twice (y and oo). That is, these letters are not graphemes (spelling choices for a sound) because these letters have more than one sound/phoneme. Ironically, the 'u' and 'ew' represent a consonant AND a vowel sound (so have no place on the THRASS chart; where there are 'phoneme-boxes' for only the separate 44 sounds/phonemes).

In summary, there are 120 spelling choices on the THRASS chart which will help your children to spell hundreds of thousands of words but there are some letters of sequences of letters that are not playing sensibly (NPS). It is best to tell your children, in music the 'u' represent two sounds and in 'new' the 'e' 'w' represent two sounds and in beautiful the 'eau' represents two sounds.

Ask Alan

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