“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