In all of this, your index finger is going to be your best tool. Just FYI.

Let’s take the first word: passengers.

We haven’t introduced the soft-g sound yet, but other than that it is just a long word that follows the same rules we’ve been using all along. Take your index finger and block off most of the word so that only “pass” shows. Have your student read just that portion.

At this point, I usually say something like, “See? Big words still follow the rules!”

Have your student read the next syllable (“en”) and then combine the two syllables to have your student read “passen.” Do not be discouraged if your student fumbles it a bit! Many students think that long words are “hard” and get nervous, causing them to make all sorts of mistakes. If you absorb this–if you ignore this–they will forget themselves and move on.

At least, most of them will.

Now, for the second word: anywhere.

This is combining two words we already know, but a lot of us mess it up anyway. Go figure. Again, use your index finger to work your student through the word. Some of your students will start doing this on their own in the near future! You are really teaching them a tool for decoding words for the first time. Please do not worry that this will become a crutch and they will be breaking words into syllables until they are in college. It’s not going to happen. Learning to break into syllables is a natural part of learning to read.

The last word is more complex. That’s right: shiny.

In shiny, we’ve taken the word shine, dropped the e, and added the –y ending. I usually write this out somewhere for my students so that they get an idea of how it works. Something like this: