“Existentialism” - the Power of Dividing Words into Syllables

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“Existentialism” - the Power of Dividing Words into Syllables

After one year of instruction with Silent Elephant “e”, one of my 11-year-olds bounced into tutoring excited to tell me that she had checked out a book on philosophy at the public library.

I tried not to show my surprise.

She enthusiastically shared that she had decoded the word existentialism.

I asked her, “How did you sound out the word existentialism”?

She proudly replied, “I used ALL the things you taught me about sounding out words - - dividing words into syllables with purple lines, looking for prefixes and suffixes, finding schwas - - you know!”

I was quite amazed, as a year prior, this young lady wasn’t reading at a first-grade level!

I quizzed her, “What does existentialism mean?”

She answered confidently, “It means I have free choice. Now that you have taught me to read, I can be anything I want to be!”

Tears filled my eyes as I gave her a big hug and told her how proud I was of her.

Even now, my eyes fill with tears just thinking about her pride and her feeling of freedom that she had never experienced before.

Keep a song in your heart!

If you have further questions about phonics, feel free to contact us.

Linda Katherine Smith-Jones                         Nina Henson