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VOWEL RULES AND 

READING STRATEGIES

Beginning Vowel

usually a 

short vowel sound

 

ex:  at,  it,  up

 

Middle Vowel

usually a 

short vowel sound

 

ex:  cat,  bed,  sit

 

Ending Vowel

usually a

long vowel sound

 

ex: be,  go,  she

Magic "E"

The letter "E" at the

end of a word is silent

making the vowel before

it says its own name

 

ex:  cake,  time,  home

 

Two Vowels Go Walking

If 2 vowels are together, the first one does the talking and the second one does the walking. The first one says its own name.

 

ex:  rain,  bean,  coat

"AY" as a Vowel

 

"AY" at the end of word says long "a" 

 

 ex:  day,  play,  say

 

"Y" as a Vowel

 

1,  "Y" says "i" when the word has 1 syllable

 

ex:  by,  fly,  my

 

2.  "Y" says "E" when the word has 2 syllables or more

 

ex:  country,  funny

 

TO -- WITH -- AND -- BY

 Everyday your child should experience To-With-and-By.  Read TO your child for a minimum of 5 minutes every day.

Read WITH your child.  Time in which you help your child become a better reader.

If your child can't read yet, let them repeat after you or re-tell the story to you.

Provide time for your child to read BY themselves.

SPELL IT

 Have the child spell the difficult word out loud.  This may help them hear the sounds in the word and the order in which the sounds should fit together.  This works well if the word is a common sight word or spelling word.

SKIP IT

 When your child comes to a word they don't know, try the following steps to help them figure out the word.  

Have your child go back to the beginning of the sentence and read it again and when they get to the word they don't know say it's first sound.

If the child is still unable to figure out the word, have him/her skip it and read on to the end of the sentence.

Hopefully, the child will be able to gain enough context clues to figure out the difficult word.

FINGER BLOCKING

 When your child comes to a long or difficult word, have them use their finger to break up the word into smaller and more familiar parts.

Often times if a child can find a smaller hidden word inside a larger word, then they can easily figure it out.

It often helps to finger block the added ending so the child can just look at the base word first, and then when they figure it out, they can add the ending.

RE-READ

 Another strategy that really encourages self correction is to REREAD.  The job of the person reading with the child is to stop them whenever they don't self correct on their own.  Wait until the child reaches the end of the sentence that contained the error.   

FRIENDLY REMINDER

Just a friendly reminder that it is not necessary to expect your child to use one of the strategies each time they get stuck on a word.  It is OK to tell your child a word on occasion, so that the meaning of the story is not lost. 

Encourage the use of strategies so that when your child becomes an independent reader that they will be able to rely on their own skills rather than wait for someone to give them the word.

Praise your child whenever they use one of these strategies.