It all started harmlessly enough. I took our ESL student, “Jane” aside to have her read to me for a little bit. She was so excited to share with me the book that she and her partner, “Joe,” were partner reading as a part of Literacy. Both Jane and Joe are in our lower level reading groups. Jane reads at a C level which is about Kindergarten. I had come up with the idea to pair Jane with Joe who was slightly higher up in G level. I thought that Joe was a helpful student and would relish the chance to “teach” someone. This group had differentiated instruction due to their low reading abilities. They were allowed to read to each other whereas all the other groups read by themselves and then would meet to discuss what they had read. My CT had cleverly told them that after reading this book they would be ahead of the class with their knowledge of the rainforest when we did our rainforest unit.
So anyway, Joe was out of the room at Learning Center so I had Jane come over and read to me. Everything was fine and good for a while. She would try her best to sound out the words (impressing me with her ability at every turn of the page). Once she was done with a sentence, I would read it again to her for comprehension. All of a sudden we landed on a word that stumped me. None of our tricky word strategies would work. No stretchy snake, flippy dolphin, or chunky monkey. After what seemed like hours (but was probably only a couple of minutes) I gave the word to her. The difficult word…people. How do you explain a silent “o”?
What strategies do you use to read the word, people?
Image courtesy of http://lifelonglearnersinprep.blogspot.com/2012/10/beanie-baby-reading-strategies.html
The Sanguine Schoolteacher 
It is hard when we come across the words that don’t follow spelling patterns. I have learned that for words like people, we just have to make it into a sight word for the child. It is one of those words that has to be introduced to the student, and hope they are able to instantly recall it the next time it comes around. I have heard that putting words like people on a word wall is helpful, and pointing out the word in stories when the context is clear is also helpful. The more the student comes in contact with the new word, the better the chance it will become a sight word. I wish there was a magic pattern for each word, but unfortunately there is not. If someone fills you in with the secret to explaining a silent “o” fill me in! =)
Seeing as you don’t have any comments yet, I’ll try to provide an idea. The eo pairing is definitely unique, and I’m guessing that after seeing it a couple times, the student will be able to identify it as a sight word for reading. As for explaining the sound it makes, you could use the rule “When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking.” This “rule,” like many English language rules, is only true so often. This site says not to even teach it: http://www.allaboutlearningpress.com/when-two-vowels-go-walking/ but it could be a good starting point to understanding words like this as long as the student can understand that it’s not an “always” rule. What do you think?
I would also point you to try to find something that might help in our books from later quarter like Word Identification Strategies by Barbara Fox. Maybe she has good suggestions.
I had totally forgotten about this one! I am wary to teach “rules” about learning the English language because they are not always true. Thanks Rethinking Teaching!