Just as words are made from the sounds of letter combinations, larger words can be made from smaller words. Teach kids to recognize smaller, simpler words within larger ones. For example, the word "friend" contains the simpler word "end." Also, the word "tonic" includes the simpler word "on." Smaller words -- especially "in," "an" and "at" -- can be found in a variety of larger words. This strategy doesn't end with one- and two-syllable words. Much more complex words like "catalog" includes both "cat' and "log" as smaller words.
Basic phonics teaches that different letters make different sounds, which are essential for students to sound out words. This may seem extremely simple to an adult who has been reading all his or her life, but to a student learning to read, this may not be so easy. Start off with the very basic sounds of the letters, like the sound that a "b" makes or the sound that a "d" makes. Differentiate vowels because they have more than one sound, such as the long "a" in "lake" versus the short "a" in "hat." Some consonants also make more than one sound, such as the hard "c" in "car" and the soft "c" in "city."
Just as individual letters have specific sounds, when some letters are put together, they make specific recognizable blended sounds. This can begin to be confusing to a student struggling with phonics, so instead of them sounding out the two or more consonants together, teach them the blended sound it makes. For example, the word "blend" includes the consonant pairs "bl" and "nd," each of which makes a distinctive sound that can be found in many other words.
Words with similar sounds can be separated into families based on these sounds. When the sounds appear at the end of the words, they form rhymes. For example, "cat" is similar to "rat," which is similar to "hat," which is similar to "sat." All of these words fall in the same family because that all share the word pattern of having the "at" sound at the end.
Students who struggle with reading comprehension can get tripped up while reading when they encounter a word they do not recognize. Even if they are able to figure the word out, their reading rhythm is thrown off, and they can lose focus about the meaning of the sentence. When dealing with a reading selection that will have new or difficult words in it, introduce these words prior to actually reading the selection. This is particularly important to do with names because the reader will likely not know or recognize an unfamiliar name when he or she first encounters it.
Another example is if the student will be reading a selection about a restaurant, introduce the somewhat complex word "restaurant" before reading starts so this is a part of the student's vocabulary. This will result in a lesser chance that he or she will stop or be confused by this word when it shows up in the selection.
Not all children have the same real-life experiences as others. Students can become easily confused if they encounter a situation or setting in a reading selection with which they are unfamiliar. For example, if a student has never been to a zoo, he or she could be confused if the characters in a story go see a lion in a zoo. Similarly, children raised in the inner-city may not comprehend a farm in a story because they have never been to one or seen one. Introduce these real-life experiences, either by first-hand exposure or discussion, before a selection is read.
When some students encounter a word they do not know, they often guess, and they can be wrong. Teach students to monitor their own reading to ensure that what they read actually makes sense. For example, a student can misread the following phrase "She drove down the street in a car" as "She drove down the street in a cap." It doesn't make sense that someone would drive a cap, which the student must learn to recognize. After each sentence, have the student ask himself or herself if the sentence makes sense. This will often identify misread words and strengthen comprehension.