A skillful reader's ability to read long words fluently depends on his or her ability to break words into syllables. The two decoding skills allow students to break words of any length into syllables so they can apply the Five Phonetic Skills to determine the word's pronunciation.

The two decoding skills are:

1. If there is only one guardian consonant following the vowel, that consonant will move on to the next syllable.
2. When a vowel is followed by two guardian consonants, the consonants will split. The first consonant will stay in the first syllable, and the second consonant will move on the next syllable.

Teaching reading can be a challenge. But as these reading strategies are gradually internalized and become automatic, it will result in greater reading speed and fluency for your students.

What is decoding? ›