In the spirit of "Be the I in Kind" and celebrating kindness, I just kept thinking about this word.
Kind. K-long i-nd. Why is the i in kind pronounced as a long sound?
One thing I always think about is why are words pronounced in a certain way and look a different way. My explanation is English is crazy. It is a made up language with all different words in it from other languages. Most words follow a rule. Yet, I hate rules and I rarely teach them. I teach patterns. Along with three questions.
My three questions are: Does it look right? Does it sound right? Does it make sense? So when my students are reading or writing I ask them those three questions. If they are native English speakers they can probably find one of those questions helpful in solving their word. But if they are not native English speakers it might be more difficult.
I teach for patterns. Kind looks like blind, mind, remind, rewind. So for kind, it follows its word family pattern. But it also looks like wind (blowing air). Why doesn't wind have the long i sound? Why does ice have the long i sound? Because there is a buddy e at the end that tells i say your name. But, there is not a buddy helper to help i in kind however it does says it's name- the long i sound. This is when and why I ask my readers and writers: Does it look right? Does it sound right? Does it make sense? Most likely they can change or flip the vowel sound to make the word make sense and sound right. We don't have to make a rule.
How ever an English language learner might not understand how to flip a vowel sound. So yes, say does this word [kind] (point to the word) sound like wind (short i) or blind (long i). These questions might remind them that kind is with the long i. Other times you might have to say is it: kind (pronounce with a short i sound) or kind (pronounce with a long i sound). Then usually they will pick the correct word.
Remember to not give the student the word. Ask them the three questions: Does it look right? Does it sound right? Does it make sense? If this doesn't help give them options. Let them be the solvers, the discovers. Sometimes patterns and word families work. Sometimes they don't. As teachers, we don't have the time to find (like kind!) all the answers. We don't need to give reasons and rules. Just question them, students are smart, allow them to show what they know!
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