Fourteen first-graders recently sat on a rug in their classroom at Longmont’s Northridge Elementary School while teacher Michelle Flippin led them through pronouncing a series of nonsense words.
“You are putting together everything you’ve been learning,” she said before they read out loud words that included “tipdexes,” “blosses” and “drinches.” “These are super weird words but, if you know all the sounds, can you read them? Of course you can.”