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Teaching Students to Read Words: Effective Strategies for Students with Reading Difficulties

Rollanda E. O’ConnorUniversity of California at Riverside

Jekyll Island, Georgia, 2008

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From Early Literacy to Skilled Reading

Oral language Phonemic awareness Letter to sound correspondences Decoding words Recognizing words Building reading fluency Comprehending language Comprehending written text (good spelling would be nice, too!)

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Milestones Toward Effective Intervention

Determine where the child falls on the reading continuum

Choose an intervention with a strong research base

Shore up preskills while maintaining age-appropriate oral language

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Word Study Strategies

Phonic Analysis Teach most common sound for each letter

Structural Analysis Letter combinations; Silent –e rule

Multisyllable Word Strategies Dropping a silent –e; Doubling rule; Affixes; BEST

Morphemic Analysis Teach meaningful parts of words

Contextual Analysis After a student tries a pronunciation: Does that make sense?

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The Likely Suspects… Kindergarten

Understanding & use of the alphabetic principle First Grade

Alphabetic principle Phonics and decoding words

Second Grade Alphabetic principle, phonics and decoding Reading fluently

Third Grade Phonics and decoding, fluency Multisyllable words, morphemes, and comprehension

Fourth Grade Decoding, fluency, multisyllable words, morphemes Active comprehension of sentences, paragraphs, and passages

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Interventions in Kindergarten

Segmenting Blending Letter Sounds The alphabetic principle [and meanings of words]

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Stretched Blending

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Teaching Letter Sounds

Avoid alphabetical order (Carnine et al., 1998) Use cumulative introduction Teach short vowels in kindergarten Start teaching letter sounds as soon as possible Integrate letter sounds with phonological awareness

activities (Ball & Blachman, 1991; O’Connor et al., 1995) Assess letter knowledge, and begin “catch-up”

instruction immediately

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Onset-rime with 1st Sound

m

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Segment 3-phoneme Words

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Ex: Segment to Spell

a m s t i f

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Measuring Progress to the Alphabetic Principle

Rapid Letter Naming

Segmenting

Goals: >50 Letters per minute

>30 segments per minute

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Rapid Letter Naming

Time: 1 minute Number correct:________

D N b H f i m O A R

s E W y L T c X g k

B F o j a S p r U e

M z K C t q n J P x

u G Q l w Z I v Y d

V h

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Segmenting

"I will say a word, and you tell me the sounds you hear in the word. My turn. I can say the sounds in Mike.

M--i--ke. Your turn.” (1 point/phoneme)

1. soap_______ 6. leaf_______

2. van________ 7. fall_______

3. food_______ 8. not_______

4. show______ 9. mad_______

5. make______ 10. zoo_______

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Interventions in First Grade

Segment to Spell Phonics High frequency words [and meanings of words]

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Phonics

Teach common sounds first Teach blending letter sounds After ~20 sounds are well known, add

consonant digraphs like th, wh, ch After consonant digraphs, introduce letter

combos (ee, ar, ing, or, al, er, ou) Next add the silent -e Rule

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ai says /aaa/. ai says—

Teach aiairainfailbaitplainafraidfair

Discriminate aimainboatfishpaidoldmailfar

Sight wordstheygoodcome

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Blending

For stretchable sounds: Don’t stop between the sounds

fast

For stop sounds Blend the consonant-vowel first:

fi — x ba - m

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The problem with word families

Discuss this problem with a colleague.

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Word Building (p. 65)

pet—pot—pat—pad—sad—sod

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Sight Words

25 high frequency words make up nearly 1/3 of all print for primary readers

100 high frequency words make up nearly 1/2 of all print

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28 High Frequency Words

the you are this

of that as from

and it with I

a he his have

to for they or

in was at by

is on be one

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Teaching Sight Words

Constant time delay Spelling words aloud Word walls [ok, but be CAREFUL]

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How Regular a Language is English?

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Patterns in the 100 Most Common Words

th: that, than, this or: for, or, more ch: much, [which] wh: when, which, what ee: see, three al: all, call, also ou: out, around er: her, after ar: are, part

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Teaching Silent -e

One generalization covers them all: “When there’s an -e at the end, the vowel says its name.”

Is there an -e at the end? Game sit hop hope ram

yes no

What’s the name of this letter?

What’s the sound of this letter?

Read the word Read the word

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Assess Progress in Phonics

Most common sound for each letter High frequency letter combinations Lists of 25, 50, 75, 100 common words

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Interventions in Second Grade

Common letter patterns & affixes Fluency [and meanings of words]

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Highly Regular Letter Combinations

th oa qu oi

er ar ay oy

ing ea igh ph

ch oo ol wr

wh ee ir au

or ai ur aw

ou sh kn

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Small Moves toward 2-Syllables

Inflected endings: -ed, -ing, -s, -es Words that divide between consonants Every syllable has at least one vowel Words that end in –le

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Words That Divide Between Consonants

cannot happen

goblet kidnap

cactus magnet

rabbit triplet

plastic dentist

tablet absent

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Words that End in –le

Purple little

Sparkle apple

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Generate words that are decodable if:

Students can add –le Students can divide words between

consonants

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Most Common Affixes

Prefixes Un-, re-, in-, dis- account for 58% of

words with prefixes (White et al., 1989)

Suffixes -ly, -er/or, -sion/tion, -ible/able, -al, -y, -

ness, -less

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Why Bother Building Fluency?

One piece of the comprehension puzzle Minimum fluency requirements (Good et al., in

press; O’Connor et al., 2002)

Silent reading is NOT effective in improving fluency (NRP, 2000)

Building fluency requires frequent, long-term practice

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Strategies to Increase Fluency

Rereading (Dowhower, 1991; Sindelar et al., 1990)

Partner reading (Fuchs et al; 1998; Greenwood et al., 1998)

Control the difficulty level of text (O’Connor et al., 2002)

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2 Methods of Partner Reading

Modeled reading (PALS)

Each student reads in 5 minute intervals

Strongest partner reads first Allows a model for the poorer reader

Sentence-by-sentence (CWPT)

Partners take turns reading sentence by sentence Reread with other student starting first Encourages attention and error correction

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Assess Reading Fluency

Listen to student read aloud for 1 min from Grade level text

Mark errors and omissions Help with hard words after 3 sec, but count as

error Count the words read correctly in 1 min

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Reading Rates

Grade Average Rate Danger

1, March 45 25

1, May 60 40

2, Dec 75 50

2, May 100 60

3, Dec 120 70

3, May 135 80

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Interventions in Third Grade

BEST Morphemes Rules for combining morphemes Comprehension strategies [and meanings of words]

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BEST for Multisyllable Words

Break apart Examine the stem Say the parts Try the whole thing

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BEST Examples (Shackleton)

understandingly expedition unknown Antarctic Uninhabited

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Glass Analysis

May What word? Which letter says /mm/? Which letters say /ay/? A-y. What sound? M. What sound? [take away letters and ask what’s left]

way layer delayingday paying paymentrays mayor Sundays

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Every

What word? Which letters say /ev/? Which letters say /er/? Which letter says /y/? E-v. what sound? E-r. What sound? y. What sound? [take away letters and ask what’s left]

never clever evidentdevil crevice neverthelesslevel several revolution

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Teaching Vocabulary Words

What works: What doesn’t work :

Direct teaching

Frequent review

Production responses

Look it upChoose the best meaning Fill in the sentence

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Prodigy

A prodigy is a person with wonderful talent. What’s a prodigy? What do we call a person with wonderful talent?

Is Harry Potter a prodigy? How do you know?

Michael Smith has no special skills. Is he a prodigy? How do you know?

What does prodigy mean? So--What would a child prodigy be? Mozart was a child prodigy.

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Expedition

Expedition means: a long trip or journey. What does expedition mean? What word means a long trip or journey?

What’s another way to say: Shackleton took a long trip to Antarctica?

Lewis and Clark took canoes from Washington, DC to Washington state. Was that an expedition? How do you know?

I walked next door. Did I take an expedition? What would you call a hike from Brunswick to

Savannah?

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Features of Vocabulary Instruction

Tell the definition or synonym. Have children repeat it. Have children use the word and the definition

at least 7 times during your instruction.

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Your turn:

Dissect Intelligible Dwelling License

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Teaching Morphemes to Older Students--The meaningful parts of words--

“not” Un, dis, in, im (disloyal, unaware, invisible, imperfect)

“excess” Out, over, super (outlive, overflow, superhuman)

“number” Uni, mono, bi, semi (uniform, monofilament, bicolor,

semiarid) “in the direction of”

Ward (skyward, northward) “full of”

Ful (merciful, beautiful)

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Inter-- means between

What does inter-- mean? So what does interstate mean? What would you call a highway between

states? What would interperson mean? So what are interpersonal skills?

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Word Strategies for Older Students

Structural Analysis Letter combinations; Silent –e rule

Multisyllable Word Strategies Dropping a silent –e; Doubling rule; Affixes; BEST

Morphemic Analysis Teach meaningful parts of words

Contextual Analysis After a student tries a pronunciation: Does that make sense?

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Important Rules for Reading & Spelling

Every syllable has at least 1 vowel magnanimous

Drop the –e when you add a word part with a vowel close+ing, close+ly, sense +ible, sense+less

Double the consonant when words end in –cvc and you add a word part with a vowel Drip+ing, drip+less, win+ing, wonder+ful

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When do you drop the –e from a word?

When the next part begins with a vowel. T: Does this word end in –e?

Does the next part begin with a vowel? Will you drop the –e?

make + ing port + able like + ed come + ly use + ful use + ing back + ed guide +ing

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Rule for doubling the final consonant:

WHEN do you double the final consonant in a short word?

“When the word ends in CVC and the next part begins with a v.”

mad + er mad + ly mad + est ask + ing big + er kind + er

Dixon, et al.

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Keys to Successful Intervention

Determine where the child falls on the reading continuum

Choose an intervention with a strong research base Shore up preskills while maintaining age-appropriate

oral language Students with reading difficulties will need 7-20

practice sessions or more to master a new concept Use the student’s progress to determine the next

appropriate intervention