Empowering Parents with Educational  Resources 

Many years ago I became very interested in the rules of syllabication.  In my very early years of teaching I strongly emphasized phonics, but I did not have as strong a focus on the syllabication portion as I should have.  I came to learn that my struggling learners needed more than just knowing the 44 phonemes of phonics; they needed to have rules to work with when decoding words.  They needed to know how to take words that they could not read and break them down into smaller parts (syllables) so that they could read them.   Through much research, I began teaching the most important rules of syllabication, and I began actually having my students use their pencils to split and mark unknown words.  Once they were split into individual syllables, my students then read the words by following syllabication rules that very closely resemble the information on the previous page.  However, my method was not quite as systematic back then, but getting there.  Over the years, I continued my research as well as obtaining a Masters in Reading, and my methods became more and more systematic.  Along the way, I became introduced to various programs involving the decoding of words, and they were all based on the Orton Gillingham principles.  Yes, there are many ways, styles and formats to teach the same principles.

 

Eventually I came across a program called Reading Horizons, which is based of the Orton Gillingham principles.  I was amazed when I saw an actual program that was actually using a marking system close to what I was already using with my students.  The point that I am getting at, is that the Phonics Principles and Syllabication Rules discussed on the previous page have become a mixture of what I was doing for many years on my own, while in conjunction with what I have learned when I began hands-on experience with actual purchased programs.  The thing that changed the most for me was that my instruction became even more systematic.  I am not in any way suggesting that you purchase a program.  As a matter of fact, you don't need to; however, understanding some of the concepts from these programs can be very helpful when you want to implement successful strategies for working with your child at home.  If you want, just click on the Phonics Principles and Syllabication Splitting Rules on the previous page and you will have a very strong foundation to start working with your child.  However, if you become even more interested in ways that you can help your child at home, I am going to provide you with a link to a very lengthy workshop - 3 to 5 hours - that you can subscribe to for free and take up to 30 days to view the entire workshop. You will be able to print out a great syllabus to follow what is being taught in the workshop. The workshop will follow similar phonics patterns as I have shown you on the previous page, but they will mark the words differently than I have shown you.  The marking system that you choose to use does not matter; it's how your child learns to split the word once he applies whatever marking strategies he is being trained in.