Monthly Teaching Tip: Correctly teaching the sound to Q!
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Most of us were taught that the sound to Q is /kw/.
Very likely, many of you are teaching the sound to Q that same way.
But… please take a moment to read these words:
- Guava
- Guar
- Guacamole
- Cuatro (musical instrument)
- Cuisine
- Suave
- Suede
- Suite
In the above words, the letter U is acting as a consonant and making the W sound, just as it is in so many Q words like, queen, quack and quiz.
It is the U making the W sound, not the Q.
So why are so many people teaching the Q sound as KW?
If you teach your student that the U in quit, quarter and quilt makes the W sound, when they come across other words with a different letter just before the U making the W sound, such as G, C or S, they will more likely be able to decode those words faster!
Another reason to teach them the Q sound as just K is so that they won’t automatically add the W sound when reading words like liquor or torque.