As a Reading One-to-One tutor, there are several little "games" we have to make sure the students master. One of them is "blending." I give the student three sounds and they blend them together to make a word. If I made the sound for 'c' followed by the sound for 'a' followed by the sound for 't', the student would blend these sounds together and say, "cat." For low readers they often have to sound words out as they go and if they don't know how to blend these sounds together then they're really not reading as much as vocalizing random letter sounds. So blending is important.

I start the exercise with the 'f' column of words to be rehearsed. F-A-T. "Fat." Very good. F-I-B. "Fib." Excellent. F-A-K(e). "F*&k." Uh...

She swore. I just had her say the worst of all foul words. I look nervously around me to see if the other tutors had heard my student cuss. Uh... no, listen to the sounds I make very carefully. Try again. F-A-K(e). She thought hard. Good. Good. Then in a more confident voice, "F*&k." D'oh! A. A. This time I emphasize that 'a' real good even though I'm not supposed to. F-A-K(e). "Fake?" Yes! Great job!!!

We continue on with our lesson, exploring all sorts of different 'f' words. But according to the tutor's guide, I have to go back the word she missed earlier to see if she can do it this time. F-A-K(e). "F*&k. No, fake!"

Close enough. Moving on!!