What is the best initial focus for a 1st-grade student who has mastered letter-sound correspondences but struggles to decode unfamiliar regular words?

Focusing on blending letter sounds into words is essential for a 1st-grade student who has a good grasp of letter-sound correspondences but is struggling with decoding unfamiliar regular words. When students understand how to blend sounds together, they can effectively apply their phonemic awareness to decode new words. This skill is foundational for reading fluency and comprehension.

By concentrating on blending, the student will practice combining individual phonemes to form complete words, which strengthens their decoding skills. This process allows them to tackle regular words they have not encountered before and encourages independent reading. Mastery of blending also supports the development of their overall reading fluency as they become more confident in their ability to decode.

In this context, other options serve different purposes that may not directly address the student’s current decoding challenge. Building vocabulary through reading is valuable but may not immediately assist the student in decoding. Practicing spelling with sight words does enhance recognition of common words but doesn’t specifically improve decoding skills for unfamiliar regular words. Increasing reading speed with familiar texts, while important for fluency, does not help with the fundamental skill of decoding new words. Therefore, prioritizing blending letter sounds to form words is the most appropriate next step for the student’s reading development.