More Than Just Sounding It Out

Telling a child to “sound it out” is one of the least productive ways in which to help her read, and yet it is probably the most common.  

As teachers we need to set our students up for success and use a variety of techniques to aid any student that is struggling with reading.  Naturally, the technique used will depend upon the child, his background knowledge, and where he is developmentally.  We also have to make sure that we have shown children how to use any technique prior to asking them to utilize it.  We need to model the behavior, and show them how it is done.  Let them see the usefulness of going back and rereading the sentence from the beginning, or looking at the pictures for clues.  Explain what you are doing while you are doing it (and I'll bet you’re not just sounding it out).

Now for your most challenging students, Pat Johnson and Katie Keier give some great strategies for helping struggling readers in their book Catching Readers Before They Fall. Reading through their suggestions, they all seem almost obvious, and yet I wonder if I would have ever thought of them.  For instance, knowing that you read from left to right, (directionality), is an essential piece of knowledge in order to learn to read, but I wonder if I would have noticed that a child hadn’t learned that.  Also, clearly identifying that each word spoken has a matching written word (one-to-one correspondence) is something that needs to be learned and is not just an innate ability.  So the suggestion of using texts or our morning messages with exaggerated spacing only makes sense.  

One activity I particularly enjoyed was one for children who are having extreme difficulties with letter identification.  The activity is a sorting one; and, as such, it easily ties in with skills that children need to use for math and science.  Just as you would in a science exploration, allow the child to observe the varying features of three-dimensional letters (magnetic letters).  Help her describe the letters and what they see, without naming them.  Let her explore the curves and the straight lines to become familiar with the characteristics and give her the language to describe them.  Then have her sort them in various ways, always starting with small groups and building up as she gains proficiency.  Now when you work with her on identifying letters or forming them, you have a shared language with which to work.  

With all the great suggestions that were offered by Johnson and Keier, a couple stand out above the rest.  First, “develop a ‘can-do’ attitude,” celebrate all the positives that you can and help build the child’s self-esteem.  Even Brian Cambourne recognizes this as being a condition of learning, although he calls it “expectations.”  Show him that you expect him to learn and that you believe he is capable.  His increased self-worth and positive attitude will benefit his learning.  Secondly, “Take time to reflect on what is working for these students and what needs to be adapted to better meet their needs.”  We can never forget that every child is an individual with individual needs.  What are the needs of the child that struggles to read?  How can we change our approach with her?  It all comes back to knowing your students and doing more than just “sound it out.”