What strategy helps students use familiar parts of words to tackle unfamiliar ones?

Analogy-based phonics is a strategy that empowers students to draw on their knowledge of familiar word families and parts of words to decode unfamiliar words. By recognizing the similarities in spelling and sound patterns, students can make educated guesses about how to pronounce and understand new words. For instance, if a student knows how to read the word "cat," they can use that knowledge to tackle "bat" or "hat." This strategy reinforces the connection between phonics and vocabulary acquisition, making it easier for learners to expand their reading skills without needing to memorize each new word in isolation. Analogy-based phonics fosters independence in reading, as students learn to apply their existing knowledge to unfamiliar contexts.