What can I do if my student can’t sound out words? Part II‍

When your student can find words by hearing the first sound and looking for that letter, next they need to start looking for the ending. 

When you put a frozen pizza in a hot oven, what's next? You have to know when the cooking process ends!  Once your young reader knows how words start, next they have to learn how they end, before they can sound out words or identify sight words.

How do we help students focus on the first AND last letters in a word? Here are three ways.

• Point - As you read to a student, point to each word.
• Count the words - Say or read a sentence out loud and ask, “How many words did you hear?”  (display a short sentence 5-7 words)
• Find the difference - Have your student identify different words with the same first letter, but different last letters. For example, say, “Find the word ‘wear’.  Now find the word ‘when’.  Now find the word ‘walks’.  How did you know the difference? What letter did it start with? What letter did it end with?” (demo with Gossie page 18)

Here’s what not to do:

• If a student can’t do these activities yet, don’t ask them to sound out a word.    Frustration is where learning stops. 

So remember, When your student can find words by hearing the first sound and looking for that letter, next they need to start looking for the ending.

This is the next step to build up letter sound knowledge and phonemic awareness at the same time, and lays the foundation for sight words and sounding out. 

Stay tuned for more videos about how to build up letter and word knowledge before moving onto phonics and sight words, as well as what to do if your student is ready to “sound out”. 

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