Try a different sound

If you see readers who . . .

• realize the word they are reading doesn’t sound right or make sense.
• know a variety of sounds a letter or combination of letters makes but aren’t flexible with that knowledge.

Many words in the English language don’t follow conventional phonics rules. Some letters represent more than one sound. For example, the sound y makes in fly and the sound it makes in yes, or the a in hat and hate. Learning various patterns is key in the decoding process, and knowing the various sounds to try can help too, when predictable phonics skills fall short.

When you notice a word doesn’t sound right or make sense, you have to look at the letters in the word and see if any of them represent a pattern or have more than one sound.

We model this with the class during a read-aloud.

Class, today in our read-aloud I tried an Accuracy strategy when I came to a word that didn’t make sense. I read the word drope. I immediately thought, Wow, that doesn’t make sense—I have never heard that word before, so I used the strategy Try a Different Sound. I know the o can make more than one sound; it also makes an ah sound. So I tried it again, this time saying the word with that sound: drop. I then went back and read the sentence again to see if the word drop made sense: I watched a drop of water slide down the glass. I thought, Yes, that is it, that makes sense. I see there is no e after the p and therefore the o is the short-o sound.

It really helps to know the different sounds letters or letter combinations represent. 

Suggested Language

• Did the word you just read sound right?
• What other sound could that letter make?
• Try another sound that letter can represent. Do you hear a word that you recognize?
• What do you know about the sounds that a letter or letter combination makes?

This strategy works particularly well with vowel sounds of a, e, i, o, and u, along with the consonants of c, g, and y, since all of these letters represent more than one sound.

Also consider differentiating materials, setting, instructional practices, and cognitive process.

These strategies may provide support before, during, and after teaching this strategy:

• Map It
• Listen Carefully to Sounds
• Look Carefully at Letters and Words