Transcript Word Recognition and Fluency in 4th and 5th Grade

Sharon Walpole
Michael C. McKenna
Zoi A. Philippakos
Goals
1. Discuss assessments necessary for this
group
2. Provide background information on
word recognition development
3. Provide a potential scope and
sequence for short multisyllabic word
recognition lessons
4. Provide video examples of teachers
piloting these lessons
Word Recognition
Development
Sounds
Consonant
Vowel
Patterns in Single-Syllable Words
Short Vowel
Long Vowel
Other Vowels
Word Parts in Multisyllabic Words
Syllables
Morphemes
Word Recognition by Grade Level
Kindergarten
Individual letter names and sounds
First grade
Short vowel patterns
Blends and digraphs
Vowel-consonant-e
R-controlled vowels
High-frequency vowel teams
Second grade
Low-frequency vowel teams
Affixes (prefixes and suffixes)
Third grade
Multisyllabic words
Developing early decoding
Use the informal phonics
inventory (p. 125) to
identify needs.
Use the model lessons
to address the needs,
and then take stock.
What about older struggling readers?
 It is possible (common, perhaps) for students
to master all of these lower-level phonics
skills in single-syllable words and still have
significant word recognition problems.
 We are working a series of reasonable steps to
identify these students and then try to
address their needs within regular
classrooms.
 What challenges have you faced with
older struggling readers?
Weak oral reading
fluency
Strong word
recognition
Weak word
recognition
Use an informal measure of
multisyllabic decoding to
investigate word recognition
For students with strong word
recognition and weak fluency,
plan to build fluency and
comprehension
For students with weak word
recognition and weak fluency,
plan to build multisyllabic word
recognition, fluency, and
comprehension
For students who do not respond
to this instruction, consider
intensive decoding interventions
A sample informal measure
The Advanced Decoding Survey copyright indicates that it can be used for
educational use by nonprofit agencies; it cannot be distributed or used
for profit. We use it here as an example. You may have similar measures
in your core program materials or in your professional books.
Zoi’s Pilot Test
 Zoi has been working with us to create
an informal assessment that is
matched directly to our differentiated
lessons.
 We know that we have to deal with
multisyllabic words.
 We are giving you a draft copy of the
test, in case it is useful to you now.
Possibilities
 Use a fluency screening to identify
older elementary students with
potential word recognition problems.
 Use this (or another) informal test of
word recognition in isolation to
identify three groups: those with no
word recognition problems, those with
single-syllable pattern problems, and
those who can read single syllables but
not longer words.
Caveat
 While students with single-syllable
word recognition problems might be
served by the lessons in How to Plan
Differentiated Reading Instruction, it is
important to note that we did not
intend them to be used with older
struggling readers. Consider whether
an intensive intervention of some sort
might be more appropriate.
Lesson Plan Components
Decoding
Practice
dividing and
reading
multisyllabic
words
Fluency
Choral read new
selection
Comprehensio
n
Inferential or
Partner read or
summary questions
whisper read same (either in discussion
selection
or later, in writing)
(either with the
teacher or later)
How to Plan the Lesson
1. Choose or write a list of words to have
the students divide and decode.
 You could select words from the book
you’re using.
 We are working on word lists now
that are similar to those in How to
Plan Differentiated Reading
Instruction.
How to Plan the Lesson
2. Choose text that provides enough
challenge to make the choral reading
necessary and the repeated reading
meaningful.
 Choose chapter books, information texts,
leveled texts, magazines, internet-based
texts, but not decodable or predictable texts.
 We favor chapter books as a start, because
you can plan to use a new chapter each day.
How to Plan the Lesson
3. Write high-level questions. Remember that
you must motivate older readers to want and
like to read. The texts you choose have to be
challenging and interesting and the
questions you ask have to be meaningful.
You may have to teach students what it
means to make an inference within the text
or between the text and prior knowledge.
 If you begin with how or why, the question is
almost always inferential.

 How do you think your 4th- and 5th-
grade teachers would respond to this?
Review of Syllable Types
Type
Closed
Open
VowelConsonant-e
Description
Short vowel followed by one
or more consonants
Vowel is at end of syllable
and is pronounced with its
long sound
Final e marks the long vowel
sound
Example
trash
con tent
she
remote
time
enrage
OR is dropped when a vowel blaming
suffix is added
Type
R-controlled
Vowel Team
Consonant-l-e
Description
Link a vowel and r to make a
vowel sound that is neither
long nor short
Two vowels (and sometimes
w or y) working together to
represent one sound
Example
shark
purpose
team
contain
boyish
Always comes at the end of a enable
word and is never accented
New Resource
Kathy Ganske’s Mindful of
Words integrates the
background knowledge of
word recognition
development with useful
activities that you can use
first with teachers and
eventually with children.
Let’s get a taste of it
Look at the Table of Contents for Chapter 2.
Assign each of these topics to someone at
your table.

compound words (p. 22) plus sort 1

-ed and –ing (p. 26) plus sort 5

comparisons (p. 45) plus sort 9
Read your section; be prepared to share the
talking points, and then do the sort
together!
How would we begin teaching children to
divide and decode?
 Teach them to be flexible!
 Provide lists of words with similar structures.
 Give some guided practice:
 Divide.
 Decode and blend.
 Check to see if the word is one you know! (But
as children get older, they will meet more
words that they’ve never heard and don’t
understand.)
Combinations We Are Considering
Compounds
lighthouse, flashpoint
Closed/Closed
custom, comment
Open/Open
cozy, ivy
Open/Closed
depend, moment
Closed/VCe, Open/VCe
escape, membrane, delete
R-Controlled/Closed, R/Open, R/R
garnish, firmly, curler
Vowel Team/Closed, VT-Open, VT/R,
VT/VCe
maiden, paisley, reader, meanwhile
Closed/Cle, Open/Cle, VT/Cle, R/Cle
cattle, fable, eagle, startle
3-Syllable Combinations
operate, dynamite, occupy
Prefixes
foreshadow, discomfort
Suffixes
homeless, harmful, peacefulness
Both Prefix and Suffix
unsuccessful, unidentifiable
Yikes!
 You don’t have to be a linguist to do this!
 The goal of this type of instruction is to get
students to divide and pronounce, and to
build their confidence in attacking longer and
longer words.
 We want children to use syllable types as a
tool.
 Please note: THERE ARE MANY ODDBALLS,
and if you demonstrate that, you can help
students to become wordsmiths.
Another Taste
 Everyone read pages 48-56. The issues
of decoding open and closed syllables
are key to getting children to decode
longer words.
Let’s all do Sorts 11 and 12
Compounds
Closed-Closed
Open-Closed
-Cle
breakfast
myself
snowstorm
throughout
beside
downpour
napkin
happen
magnet
dentist
plastic
absent
music
robot
female
fever
human
basic
table
battle
handle
bugle
cable
sample
Divide between
the vowel and
the consonant
Divide before
the Cle syllable
Divide between Divide between
words you know
consonants
Prefix Only
Suffix Only
Both Prefix and
Suffix
misjudge
pretest
unicorn
tripod
nonsense
extend
roughly
weakness
plentiful
comfortable
cautious
craziest
unhappiness
mistreatment
subtraction
pretreatment
replacement
Divide between the Divide between the Divide between
prefix and the rest suffix and the rest both the prefix and
of the word
of the word
the suffix and the
rest of the word
Teacher Talk We are Piloting
Compound Words
Today we will work with compound words. Compound
words contain two words that are joined together to
make up a new word. We will break each compound
word into its two separate words and then read the
whole word together. You know already how to read
short words and you can apply this knowledge into
reading these longer words. The challenge is to figure
out where to divide the word. For compounds, you
divide between the two words.
Compound Word Introduction
Teacher Talk We Are Piloting
Finding Syllables
You already know how to read short words and you can apply
this knowledge to read longer words. The challenge is to figure
out where to divide the word into syllables. Each syllable has to
have a vowel sound.
A strategy you can use is to first find the vowels. You can mark
them. Then divide between consonants. Blends are usually not
divided and digraphs are never divided.
Pronounce each syllable, blend them into a word, and see if it
sounds like a word. If it doesn’t, divide in a different way.
Finding Syllables
Teaching Children to Correct
Teacher Talk We Are Piloting
Closed Syllables
Today we will work with words that have closed
syllables. A syllable is called closed if the vowel is
followed by one or more consonants and the vowel is
pronounced with its short sound. Closed syllables can
come in any part of a word.
Closed Syllables
Teacher Talk We Are Piloting
Open and Closed Syllables
Today we will work with words that have both open
and closed syllables. A syllable is called open if the
vowel is not followed by a consonant and is
pronounced with its long sound. Open syllables and
closed syllables can come at the beginning or end of
words.
Open and Closed Syllables
Student Practice
Once you have introduced the syllable
types, provide the students an
opportunity to apply their knowledge
to actually read words.
Student Practice
What about fluency?
 What do you think your 4th- and 5th-
grade teachers will think about more
targeted fluency work?
Is it important for upper elementary?
 Students with stronger oral reading fluency
typically have stronger comprehension.
 Fluency is necessary but insufficient for
comprehension.
 Fluency is developed by wide and repeated
reading of text – which may also build
vocabulary, knowledge and motivation to
read.
Is it reasonable for upper elementary?
 Remember that all students should receive
grade-level Tier I instruction, and that
instruction includes comprehension,
vocabulary, and fluency work with grade-level
selections and vocabulary and
comprehension in read-alouds.
 Students whose oral reading rate is weak may
experience great benefits from additional
fluency work during Tier II instruction.
 Planning and implementing this instruction
are very simple.
Weak oral
reading fluency
Strong word
recognition
Weak word
recognition
Tier I
45-60
min?
Tier II
45-60
min?
Grade-Level Instruction
Interactive Read-Aloud
Written
Response
WR & F
Reading
Practice
F&C
Reading
Practice
Written
Response
Written
Response
Literature or
Idea Circles
V&C
Tier I
45-60
min?
Tier II
45-60
min?
Grade-Level Instruction
Interactive Read-Aloud
Written
Response
WR & F
Reading
Practice
F&C
Reading
Practice
Written
Response
Written
Response
Literature or
Idea Circles
V&C
If word recognition is weak, WR & F
Decoding
Practice
dividing and
reading
multisyllabic
words
Fluency
Choral read new
selection
Partner read or
whisper read
same selection
(either with the
teacher or later)
Comprehension
Inferential or
summary
questions
(either in
discussion or later,
in writing)
If word recognition is strong, F & C
Fluency
Choral read new
selection
Comprehensio
n
Inferential or
summary questions
Partner read or
whisper read same (in discussion and
perhaps later, in
selection
writing)
(either with the
teacher or later)
The fluency techniques are simple
Echo
Choral
Partner
Whisper
Choral Reading of a Book
Partner Reading of a Book
Whisper Reading
Rationale for Repetition
 Students may wonder why you are
asking them to reread. Listen to Zoi
explain that to a group of Fourth
Graders.
Rationale for Rereading
Comprehension Discussion
 You will see that we choose to ask just a
few questions and engage the children
in as much talk as possible.
 If you then ask the students to reread
the text and answer the questions in
writing, you will have also planned
meaningful practice.
Discussion with teacher
Using Written Questions
What do you think about making this
differentiation model K-5?