I believe many of us have seen a student struggle with reading. So many times we are at a lost at how to help them when "sound it out" doesn't work. The article by Kathleen F. Clark "What Can I Say Besides 'Sound it Out'? " is especially helpful to future teachers because it details how to coach students into reading correctly instead of asking them to make the letter sounds and figure it out. The most interesting example to me was that of the teacher who asked his students if "fenk" was a word when they were trying to say the word "fence". Reminding students of what various sounds letters make and then having them eliminate options is a skill they can continue using for the rest of their lives. It is far more reliable than simply sounding words out because it engages their thoughts and their context for the word. Have the ever heard a word like 'fenk' in a story before? Would 'fence' make more sense?
What ways do you still use the reading skills, such as "sound it out" as we were so often taught, in your lives?
I agree, sound it out is such a hard concept to teach to students and then try and make stipulations on when one should use the sound it out concept This approach cannot always be used because it can confuse student. For instance the word "group" students would say (g-ro-u-p) instead of the "oo" sound that is used in the middle of the words. I would use other strategies outside of the read aloud to make reading for children easier to understand.
ReplyDeleteI too, really liked this article. It is a great idea to get students thinking about what parts make up a word, not just individual sounds. For instance, when a child is struggling with the word "carton," the teacher can coach them to recognize the smaller word, "car," within the larger word. When a child is able to recognize small words or sounds (-ed) within a larger word, they are able to piece those parts together and figure out the new word by themselves. This gives the child confidence, as well as a deeper understanding of how words are formed.
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