Alternatives to "Sounding it Out"

Many first-time and even experienced tutors make the mistake of telling their learners to "sound it out" when they reach a word with which they are not familiar. However, there are many more effective ways to help learners when they reach a word they do not know.

I especially liked the methods presented by Literacy Connections. Their article suggests that tutors let learners know that they can find "chunks" in each word that they know and then work from there. Another method they offered was to use context clues to figure out what word might be there. Using these tips can help take some of the pressure off your learner and can make your tutoring much more effective.

With my learners, I use several strategies. For younger learners, it helps to separate the word into individual letters. This works well for younger learners, because the words are generally three letters. When I have an older learner, I use tiles to write out each syllable. For this, use several small tiles and instruct your learner to write each vowel on its own tile. Then, help to fill in the consonants and sound out each syllable like it is a three-letter-word.

Try some of these strategies the next time you're tempted to ask your learner to "sound it out" and you may find that your learner is more comfortable reading. As any tutor knows, that's all that matters.