Transcript Chapter 7 Cole

Irregular Word Reading
Chapter 7
Becky Cole
What?
 Not all words are regular, or can be read by
sounding them out. An irregular word contains
one or more sound/spelling correspondences
that a student does not know and therefore
cannot use to decode the word.
 Because students can’t sound out irregular
words by applying their phonics knowledge,
they have to learn to identify these words as
wholes, or automatically by sight. Many of the
most common (i.e., high-frequency) words in
English are irregular.
What?
 There are two types of irregular words:
 1. Permanently Irregular: One or more
sound/spellings in the word are unique to that word or a
few words and therefore are never introduced. E.g.,
said, of, one, two, been, could.
 2. Temporarily Irregular: One or more
sound/spellings in the word have not yet been
introduced. They may be irregular at one point in the
reading program but may eventually become regular
after all the sound/spellings in the word have been
taught . E.g., for.
What?
 High-frequency words are regular and irregular
words that appear often in printed text.

See page 244-245, Most Frequent Words in School and
College text table.
What?
 Only 100 words account for approximately 50
percent of words in text used in schools and colleges
(Zeno et al. 1995). Out of this list of 100 highfrequency words, almost 25 percent are permanently
irregular. These high-frequency irregular words
appear often in printed text and therefore are crucial
for comprehension.
What?
 Teaching Irregular Word Reading

The set of irregular words selected for instruction is
generally drawn from the upcoming stories,
passages, or other connected texts that students will
be reading. The more difficult an irregular word, the
more practice is necessary.


There are two factors to determine the difficulty of an
irregular word.
 1. The number of irregularities in the
pronunciation of its sound/spelling
correspondences.
 2. Whether or not the word is in a student’s oral
vocabulary.
Word Banks and Word Walls provide a method for teachers
to organize irregular words that have been taught so students can
practice them.
What?
Sequence of Introduction

Word Frequency: Introduce high-frequency irregular words
before low-frequency irregular words.

Word Similarity: Some pairs of irregular words are easily
confused and should not be introduced too close to each other, such
as of—off, there—their and were—where.

Word relationship: Some pairs of irregular words belong to the
same word family; they contain similar letter patterns, or
phonograms. Irregular words that have a phonogram in common,
such as could, should, and would should be introduced in sets.
Why?
 Beginning readers do not learn irregular words
as quickly or accurately as regular words. They
tend to read these words more slowly and
inaccurately. This makes it important to
provide explicit instruction and systematic
practice.

If developing readers cannot instantly identify [highfrequency] words, they are unlikely to become fluent
because of the widespread presence of these words. –
PIKULSKI, 2006
When?

When to Teach
 Irregular words need to be systematically
introduced in a reasonable order,
practiced, and then cumulatively
reviewed. Introduce irregular words
after students can read regular CVC
words at a rate of about one word every
three seconds.
When?
When to Assess and Intervene
-For students performing at or above
grade level, monitor progress every four
to six weeks.
-Students slightly below grade level,
monitor progress every two weeks.
-Monitor student progress weekly for
those who are significantly below grade
level.
When?
 Guidelines for Teaching Irregular Words
Introduce high-frequency words before low frequency.
 Do not introduce too many words at once.
 Introduce new words before they appear in connected text.
 Cumulatively review previously taught words every day.
 Provide opportunities for students to use the words.

How?
 Sound-Out Strategy
 The sound-out strategy for introducing irregular words
is based on a format described in Teaching Struggling
and At-Risk Readers: A Direct Instruction Approach
(Carnine et al. 2006).

According to the authors of this book, the procedure for
introducing the first 15 to 25 irregular words should
require students to examine all the letters in a word and
then point out the irregularity in one or more of the word’s
sound/spelling correspondences.
How?
 Sound
Out Strategy
Introduce Irregular Words. See lesson model on p. 252253.
 2. Practice Irregular words. See lesson model on p. 253.
 3. Word Reading Practice for Automaticity. See lesson
model on p. 253-254.
 4. Apply Decodable Text.
 To ensure ample practice of irregular words, provide
students with connected reading materials. Choose
books or passages in which most of the words are
wholly decodable and the majority of the remaining
words are previously taught irregular words.

How?
 Spell-Out Strategy
 The spell-out strategy for introducing irregular words is based
on a format described in SIPPS (Shefelbine and Newman
2004). This sample lesson on p. 255 targets words that are
irregular at one point in a reading program but may not be
irregular permanently.
1.Introduce Irregular Words. See lesson model on p. 255-256.
 2. Practice Irregular Words. See lesson model on p. 256.
 3. Word Reading Practice for Automaticity. See lesson model on
p. 256 and 257.
 4. Apply to Decodable Text. See lesson model for Reading
Decodable Text, p. 235.

Conclusion
…children don’t learn “irregular” words as
easily or quickly as they do “regular”
words…Therefore, children need to be taught
“irregular” high-frequency words with explicit
instruction.
-BLEVINS, 2006