Lessons 76 & 77 - Teacher Master Key

PRIMARY SPELLING & PHONICS • CURRICULUM ARCHITECTURE TEACHER MASTER KEY INSTRUCTOR REFERENCE • PAGE 2 OF 2

Target Concept	Linguistic / Phonetic Environment	Core Vocabulary	Instructional Focus
Homophone Distinction	Diphthong /aʊər/ with silent h- vs. pure possessive pronoun	hour vs. our	Semantic context determines spelling
Broad A (ạ = /ɔː/)	Vowel retraction before velarized /l/ (-all, -alk, -alt)	all, call, wall, fall, tall, ball, stall, small	Standard Webster notation with dot below (ạ)
Silent L Elision	Phonological loss of /l/ between /ɔː/ and /k/	talk, walk, stalk, chalk	Do not pronounce the 'l'; rhymes with hawk
Labial W Influence	Rounding of /ɑː/ or /æ/ after labial-velar /w/	want, warm	W alters subsequent vowel quality to broad /ɔː/

Complete Answer Key & Orthographic Solutions WHEELER'S PAGE 43 EXERCISES

Ex. 1: Homophone Detective Solutions (Lesson 76)

1. What do the hands of a clock tell besides minutes?
  → Answer: hours (or the hour).

2. What do we call the things which belong to us?
  → Answer: our things (or ours).

3. Sample Combined Sentence:
  “In one hour, our school day will be finished.”

Ex. 2: Broad A Phonetic Groups (Lesson 77)

• -all family (/ɔːl/): all, call, wall, fall, tall, ball, stall, small.
• -alk family (/ɔːk/): talk, walk, stalk, chalk (the letter l is silent).
• -alt & w-words (/ɔː/): salt (/sɔːlt/), halt (/hɔːlt/), want (/wɒnt/ or /wɔːnt/), warm (/wɔːrm/).

Socratic Guiding Prompts & Teaching Techniques CLASSROOM DIALOGUE

The Silent H in 'Hour': Ask the child: "Look at the word 'hour'. Do you say the 'h' like in 'hat'? No! It starts with the same sound as 'our'! Why? Because 'hour' comes from an old French word where the 'h' was silent. The 'h' reminds us of the ticking hands of the clock!"
Uncovering the Silent L: Say: "Listen to 'talk' and 'walk'. Do you hear an 'l' sound? (No!). We don't say 'tal-k' or 'wal-k'. The letter 'l' is quiet, but it changed the sound of 'a' from short /æ/ (as in bat) into broad /ɔː/!"
The Power of W: Point out: "Notice how 'want' and 'warm' don't sound like 'cat' or 'car'. The round letter 'w' rounds our lips, giving 'a' the broad sound!"

Dictation & Oral Application Sentences (Read slowly at normal speaking pace):

1. “We spent one happy hour playing ball beside the garden wall.”

2. “The children went for a long walk and wrote with white chalk.”

3. “The tall horse stood in the stall and ate from our hand.”

4. “Please pass the salt at dinner, for the soup is not quite warm.”