Have you ever watched a student slam into a longer word and completely shut down?
They get the first syllable. Maybe the second. Then they stall out, guess, or just wait for you to rescue them.
The good news is, there's a simple, flexible strategy you can teach your students to use on any longer word. No elaborate syllable division rules. No labeling. Just a quick routine they can run every time.
In today's video, I'm walking you through that strategy with a whole pile of real words. Some are straightforward. Others are sneaky, with vowel sounds that don't do what you'd expect.
Because here's the thing. English isn't as predictable as we'd like it to be. The schwa shows up everywhere, especially in unstressed syllables, and students need to know they're allowed to flex the vowel until they land on a word they recognize.
That's the piece most students are missing. And once they have it, longer words stop being scary.
P.S. Ready to make every minute of your phonics block count? Sign up for my 5-day Invigorate Your Phonics Instruction challenge! Early bird pricing ends soon! Sign up here.
Just a note
We are currently rebranding from The Measured Mom, which was our business name for 13 years.
Because of that, you will still see themeasuredmom.com on many of our resources.
We hope to complete the entire transition by the end of 2026.
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