One of my favorite decoding strategies to use in 1st and 2nd grade is to teach kids to “Try the Other Sound.” I first read about this strategy in a Reading Teacher article many years ago. We made an anchor chart showing the short and long vowel sounds, and then we applied this strategy to a new poem in shared reading. We tell kids to “try the other sound” of the vowel when the first sound they try doesn’t make sense. We also posted an “Essential Question” on the easel to remind students of the focus of today’s lesson.
The class tries "Try the Other Sound" as they read a new poem together in shared reading.
Debbie Diller 