Fo Slow to Go Fast

Watching a master teacher show 2nd graders how to separate words into syllables reminded me of the importance of going slow.  She was asking them to tell her the vowels, she marked the vowels, and they went on to divide the words between the consonants.  Sometimes between the twins, double consonants.  Sometimes between the two consonants, unless there are three consonants, and then we divide after the last consonant in the previous syllable.  And we ignore the silent e at the end of most words.  It is simply a helper.  

Think of all the learning that had to come before.  Children needed to know which letters were the vowels, how they sounded, and their purpose i the word.  They need to know the other letters are consonants.  That’s a big word in itself!  They also have sounds, and when they are next door to another consonant like th sh ch- they make a completely different sound.  They needed to know that each syllable must have a vowel-if we count the vowels, except for silent e, we know how many syllables there are in the word.  (At this time, in this class, students were not reviewing words with two vowels together such as oi, au, ow, ea, etc. )Learning to read takes time, humans are not hard wired to read!

Online phonics diagnostic @whamphonics.com
Additional elementary resources @ https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Whamphonics