when two vowels go walking the first one does the talking
Many of my students come in having already learned “when two vowels go walking the first one does the talking” to help them remember the long vowel sound of a vowel team.
But that saying isn’t very helpful once they start needing to sound out words like “shout” and “hawk”. So I decided to build on what they knew, but take it a step further by introducing “walking” and “wrestling” vowel teams.
A walking vowel team is one that follows the saying…two vowels go walking the first one does the talking. But then explain that vowel teams don’t always get along with each other, and sometimes they actually fight…and when they are fighting, neither one get to say their sound. They say things like “ouch” and “ow” and “oof”.
but vowel teams don’t always get along
Now you have a way of prompting students when they are trying to figure out a vowel team…ask them, is it walking or wrestling? With enough practice, they should be able to learn which ones get along and which ones don’t. Which is a great first step to figuring out what it says.