Sounding Out New Multisyllabic Words
If they saw the word ‘r-o-b-i-n’ and they, I said, “How many vowels do you see?”
“Two.”
“Together, apart?”
“Apart.”
“See a ‘silent e’?”
“No.”
“How many syllables?”
“Two.”
“What’s the word?”
“/roe-bin/.”
“Could be /roe-bin/. You decoded it perfectly. Flex that first ‘o’ to a short ‘o’ instead of a long ‘o.’”
So the kid goes /rah-bin/. Oh, robin. And if the word’s in his vocabulary, he’ll go — “Oh! Robin.” And if the word robin isn’t in his vocabulary, he’ll go /rah-bin/, /rah-bin/. And you know it’s not in his vocabulary, and you say, “That word’s /rah-bin/. It’s like a bird. What’s that word?” “Robin.”
