Basic steps in using word patterns

• Select a word pattern from your learner's reading material or a word that you know the learner knows by sight. (To start, look for three letter words that consist of a consonant-vowel- consonant. Examples include: map, get, run, and fin.)
• Ask your learner to read the word that she knows.
• Place your finger over the first letter of the word and have your learner say that sound.
• Point to (or write) a rhyming word underneath.
• Ask your learner to say the word.
• Continue with the next word.
• Assist your learner whenever there is an error.
• Practice no more than 3 rhyming patterns each lesson.

-at
bat
cat
fat
hat
mat
rat
sat

For beginners, avoid blends such as the spr, br and thr in spread, bread and thread (instead just teach words such as head, lead and read if you teach the-ead series).

If you cannot think of any rhyming patterns to use, take a look at the following books. They have extensive lists of word patterns that can be useful for this type of exercise.

Patricia Frey, LITSTART: Strategies for Adult Literacy and ESL Tutors (Okemos, MI: Michigan Literacy, Inc., 1999.)

Ed Robson et al. LITSTART: Literacy Strategies for Adult Reading Tutors. (Okemos, MI: Michigan Literacy, Inc., 1990.)
   •      This is a great book for word patterns (also referred to as word families)
   •      In the appendix, there are lists for beginning, intermediate and advanced learners.

Judy Blankenship Cheatham et al., Tutor: A Collaborative Approach to Literacy Instruction. (Syracuse, New York: New Readers Press, 1993.)