Does "Sounding It Out" Work?

Try "sounding it out" is a phrase we've all encountered in the classroom culture during our elementary days in the United States.  But what does that really mean?  Can an individual really decipher any word by simply sounding it out, especially when there are countless exceptions in the English language in which words are not phonetically consistent?

As educators, we should strive to instruct our students to not only depend on phonics to solve unknown words, but to use all the sources of information available to them.  The chart on the left depicts three sources of information with which we use to "decode" words - Meaning, Structure, and Visual.  When students learn to integrate and balance meaning, structure, and visual information, they can continue to develop into proficient readers. While it is important to pay attention to make predictions based off of the three sources of information, students need to also take on the responsibility of checking for themselves and waiting for someone else to monitor their errors for them.