I am so happy to have such a wonderful mentor teacher. She is a fabulous phonics teacher and I have learned a ton from her. She has picture clues for each blend, short vowel sound, and digraph. She has taught the students all of the general "tricks" of reading and these students can tell anyone these tricks. For example, "ou" says "ow" like "cloud." If the students come to a word with "ou" and they are having trouble sounding it out she simply says remember our trick, and they will automatically say, "ou says ow like cloud" and will be able to sound out the word.
