Marking Words

Marking words is a very important part of learning how to be strong readers. Words should always be "marked-up" before taping. For example, the word chess has 5 letters but only 3 sounds.  This can be confusing if the word is not marked first. We do not tap /c/-/h/-/e/-/s/-/s/, but rather we scoop the syllable first (this is a good habit to start with single syllable words so that students get in the habit before multisyllabic words). Next underline the digraph, we star the bonus letter and mark the vowel as short or long.  Now we only have to tap the three sounds /ch/-/e/-/s/.