Letter Combination Activities Tips

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Avoid terms such as diphthong and digraph when talking to students. Learning the terminology is not important for them.
If students are able to read decodable connected text, use these decodable passages with letter combinations as practice. Use this activity to introduce students to reading connected text. To help students become fluent in reading connected text, refer to this activity.
Some teachers use the rule: "When two vowels go a-walking, the first one does the talking," meaning the first vowel says its name (the sound for oa is "oh," for instance). This rule works for oa, ee, ea, and ai, but not for oo, ou, oi, or au.
When you point to a letter combination, wait before touching it, and train students to respond only when you touch the letters. That gives all students time to think of the answer, so that slower students don't just copy faster students.
For each activity, keep a record of items a student had problems with. Review this activity log before the next activity so you pay special attention to those students.