Rhyming word families

When you read together, talk about rhyming words (for example, the ‐at family – at, cat, mat, etc.) Focus on the similarities and differences between the sounds and spelling. This discussion will help your students learn about initial consonants and vowels. Once your students understand the relationship between regular rhyming sounds and spelling (book, cook, took), talk about words that rhyme but are not spelled similarly (me, free, tea, etc.)

Sounding it out

When your students read, help them to strengthen their ability to sound out unfamiliar words. For one‐syllable words, look first at the initial letter, then the last letter and finally the middle letters. Afterwards, help your students blend the sounds together. Break longer words into syllables or smaller words. Then help your students sound out the smaller pieces.

Phonetic rules

Explain common phonetic rules to your students. For example,

• the final e in short words makes the vowel say its own name, e.g., mat becomes mate
• when two vowels go walking, the first vowel does the talking and it says its own name, e.g., boat, beat

Since many words in English come from other languages, there are almost as many exceptions as rules. Discuss these exceptions with your students to decide how they can remember them. The best way for your students to practise is by using words in a meaningful context.

Breaking words down

Help your students learn how to break large words down into manageable pieces. Here are some strategies:

• Divide compound words [newspaper = news + paper]
• Look for root words [read → reader, reading, reread]
• Find familiar words within new big words [continent = con + tin (+ ent)]
• Isolate prefixes [mis → misinform, misbehave]
• Separate suffixes [able → understandable]
• Know the forms of contractions [is not → isn’t]
• Understand plural endings [grapes, rings, foxes, grasses]
  (The rule for plurals: add es to words ending with s, ss, ch, sh, and x. Add s to all other words. Of course, there are exceptions – feet, children, fish)

Also help your students break words into syllables (or “chunks”). Help them practise this by clapping or tapping on the table (e.g., phar‐ma‐cy). Remind them that each syllable contains at least one vowel. A quick (though not perfect) way to break a written word into syllables: