Sounds and Reading

Before students can really read/decode words, they need to go through some steps to be able to understand how letters and sounds work together to make words.

A foundation of reading will be knowledge of letter and sounds. Some of these activities they can do without knowing the basic letter sounds, but once we get to looking at letters for later stages of reading, they need to have letter/sound skills. If your child is still working on this area, make sure to continue daily practice at home. Even kids who do know it would benefit from practice to get faster at producing the sounds the letters make. The faster they are at that, the easier it will be to blend letters together for reading.

The focus here will be on a series of skills and understandings that I have observed in our class in the past.

Compound Words: We have spent a lot of time playing with words at the large level (What's my word.. motor cycle. Rain bow.) They can blend those very well just listening and responding. We also use their names (Who am I thinking of? Cam den).

Syllables: Next we go a little smaller... Let's clap the parts of this word (syllables) Motorcycle and they clap Mo tor cy cle. Getting perfect syllables isn't the point here. It's about becoming aware of smaller parts of words.

Beginning Sounds: This is often the first real challenge. They have to be able to isolate the first sound of a word AND understand what that means. Not as easy as it seems for many of our young students. We practice this different ways.

• Touch below your mouth and say "mom". What's the first sound? Good words to start with at his stage include words that start with sounds that can be easily exaggerated (f, l, m, n, r, s, v, w.z as examples). They can answer with just the sound or the letter name (saying the letter name means they understand that connection). The emphasis here is on hearing the first sound in a word.

• Get or draw several pictures of things that start with the same sound but are very different at the beginning. A pile of m words and a pile of z words. Then have them sort them into a m pile and a z pile. Maybe draw the letters on a piece of paper so they have a place to put them and also to look at the letters they are working with. This is the skill we work on when you see worksheets that have to be sorted by first sound. If you have a printer you could do a google search for things like words that start M. You will find some pictures you can print.

• Just practice saying words and ask if it is m word or a z word. Once they get better at it, they will not need to do sorts, you will just be able to say words and they will be able to tell you the first sound. Here's a little video of me demonstrating it.

On Set and Rime: Blending: This is the technical name for the first sound of a word and then the rest. An example: What's my word... f ish. The word is ? Easier is to start with big words. Ch ocolate. M onkey. Or names. Who am I thinking of M ason? As they get better, move to three letter words. Video explanation below.

Three Sound Blend: This is a huge one and can be very difficult. Quick note... a letter inside forward slashes is a way to indicate the SOUND of the letter. /m/ would be the sound of m. To be successful here, your student must know the sounds the letters make. Our focus is on reading three sound words, although you could start with 2 sound words. Once students know the sounds and have the previous skills, they are close to being able to decode small words. The most common problem here is the student will do all three sounds, then only blend together the final two sounds. Example. The word is mop. They will say, /m/ /o/ /p/. Then tell you the word is op. It is a stage where they haven't been able to hold all three sounds at once. As they get good at it, try some nonsense words like zug, bip or any other silly combo.

There are a couple ways I work with them on it in class. The short term goal of these methods is to get them to blend teh first two letters into one unit then add in the third sound. Also, as before, it is easiest to sounds that stretch out nicely like /m/, /s/, /f/. Example words could be mud, sat, fit. I often use a toy car as we work on it...

• Write the three letter word. Ask them to do the first sound, then the second sound, then "back it up" and do the first two sounds together. Now move on and put the third sound in.

• Another way is to only write the first two letters. Once they have put them together, add in the third sound. If they get it, you can try removing the third sound and doing it again with a new sound.

I had been planning to address this before we had to leave school, so I made student video demonstrating some of this.

Word Reading and Decoding: Now is the time to practice with small readers or word lists. The Bob Books from Scholastic are a good place to start. Another possible option is Raz Kids If you need log in information, please let me know and I'll resend it). Or practice writing small words and sentences and having your child read them to you. We want to build up their speed. The faster they can read words (fluency) the easier it will be to understand what they read. Focus on small words with short vowel sounds.