I’m working on accuracy! My strategy is Chunk Letters and Sounds Together
Secret to Success
Chunking is putting letters and sounds together within a word to make decoding more efficient, rapid, and accurate. Watch for familiar word patterns such as blends (sl, dr, st, etc), digraphs (sh, ch, wh, etc), prefixes, suffixes, compound words, and small words within a word.
What you can say or model
This strategy is typically for students reading beyond the basic CVC level. Once they know the different sounds made by digraphs, blends, etc., they can start to find familiar chunks. As you read with your child practice with him or her to use fingers to mask off the chunks found in words, decoding those chunks first, then moving on to tackle the whole word.
Slowing the process of looking for smaller parts in words helps train students’ eyes to look rapidly for those chunks.
Chunks to look for:
Adapted from The Café Book by Gail Boushey and Joan Moser (2009)
Secret to Success
Chunking is putting letters and sounds together within a word to make decoding more efficient, rapid, and accurate. Watch for familiar word patterns such as blends (sl, dr, st, etc), digraphs (sh, ch, wh, etc), prefixes, suffixes, compound words, and small words within a word.
What you can say or model
This strategy is typically for students reading beyond the basic CVC level. Once they know the different sounds made by digraphs, blends, etc., they can start to find familiar chunks. As you read with your child practice with him or her to use fingers to mask off the chunks found in words, decoding those chunks first, then moving on to tackle the whole word.
Slowing the process of looking for smaller parts in words helps train students’ eyes to look rapidly for those chunks.
Chunks to look for:
- Blends and digraphs
- Small chunks (on, an, ar, any small word they might know)
- Beginnings or prefixes (pre, re, un, etc.)
- Endings or suffixes (ing, ed, s, ful, est, er, etc.)
Adapted from The Café Book by Gail Boushey and Joan Moser (2009)