Blending CVC Words-How to break them down for struggling readers

Helping beginning readers learn to blend can be an exhausting and rewarding experience. What do you do when a student says the correct letter sounds in a word and then reads a completely different word when they try to blend those sounds together? This is such a frustrating experience, and I've encountered it all too often while teaching many different age levels in small group reading intervention. If the correct sounds are there, why can't they put them together?! Here are a few tips that will help you support those struggling with blending even the most basic CVC words.

1. VC words - It's possible that a CVC word is too much for some of your younger students to start with (especially those that struggle with their working memory). Try having your student(s) break apart the sounds and then blend together words like these that only have 2 sounds and see if they are able to blend correctly: at, if, in, ox, up, it, ab, on, am, ax, ad, us.
   
   Once your students have been taught that twin consonants side by side make only one sound, you could also practice these words with two sounds: odd, app, ill, add. Nonsense VC pattern words could also be added to this list like: ug, id, el, os, ak. As your students are able to blend these 2 letter words together more easily, try starting with the VC word (ex: it) and then adding a sound to the beginning to make the word longer (ex: sit).
   

2. Using Continuant First Sounds- If your students can blend some CVC words and not others, it may help to provide CVC words for practice that start with continuant sounds. Sounds are referred to as "continuant" when you can hold the sound out. Continuant sounds include: F, L, M, N, R, S, V, and Z. Using these consonants to start a CVC word is a great way to begin CVC blending for those that struggle. Continuant sounds allow the reader to hold out the initial sound and continue picking up sounds until the word can be blended. Here are some example CVC words with continuant first sounds: mat, sun, fit, rap.

For more CVC practice, check out these resources!: