We’ve talked about teaching phonics explicitly during reading instruction…it’s important!
One concept that is tricky for many students is consonant blends. A few things to remember when you are teaching blends…
- Remind students that blends are made up of 2 or 3 different phonemes. (Blends are not 1 sound!)
- Blends will be represented in separate boxes when you are orthographic mapping.
3. Phonemic awareness will help students develop a deeper understanding of how blends work. (“/s//t//o//m//p/”)
4. Incorporate multi-sensory strategies when practicing words with blends. Use hand motions or sand trays!
What are Some Common Blends?
The photo above shows some of the most common consonant beginning and ending blends. A great idea is to make anchor charts to brainstorm many words that have these blends. The students will gain an understanding of how blends work and start using blends while they are encoding (spelling) as well! If your students need a little more support learning blends, check out my visual slideshows that explicitly teach beginning blends and ending blends!
Want to learn more about the Science of Reading?
I started thinking…”What can I do to help teachers bring the Science of Reading EASILY to their classroom?”
First, I made the Science of Reading FREE Guide…a simple resource for teachers to see the basics of SoR and get them started.
I knew some teachers needed MORE! I kept adding and adding more pages to the guide and it turned into the Science of Reading Complete Guide! Along with that, a self-paced course…Science of Reading Complete Course! What??!!
This Science of Reading Course will take you on a step-by-step along the Science of Reading journey. The self-paced modules will give background knowledge of SoR, explain the key components of instruction, give real-world classroom examples, share organization tips, provide printable PDFs, and much more!
If this sounds like something that would help you with your Science of Reading journey, head HERE!
