In lessons where chunks overlap, which one should my student mark?

Some words will have overlapping chunks or letter patterns. As your student advances through Wild Tales, they will begin to mark multiple kinds of chunks in a passage and they may need to choose which they are going to mark. Marking chunks on top of one another in different colors would only cause confusion. 

If the lesson’s focus is only vowel chunks or only Bossy r chunks, this is not an issue. In lessons where several chunks are to be marked, we recommend that students follow the suggested order for chunking provided. Vowel chunks are marked before Bossy r chunks. Typically, we mark chunks in order of frequency: vowel chunks, consonant chunks, and then bossy ‘r’ chunks.

For example, look at the word “beard.” It has a vowel chunk (ea) that overlaps with a Bossy r chunk (ar); the letter a is part of both chunks. In this example, we would suggest the student chunks the vowel chunk, as it appears before the Bossy r chunk in the suggested order of chunking. 

Remember, do not consider it wrong if the student chooses a different chunk to mark. Discuss their choices and have your student mark the one they believe will be most difficult to remember.

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