Helping Older Students With Decoding and Syllable Types

This is a quick addition to part 3 of the syllable types blog series. Read part 1 and part 2.

I recently saw a question posed about how to help a middle school student who continually made errors in vowel sound production when reading, even after interventions, and while I responded on the social media page, I also thought of this quick strategy that I have used for years with my older students and that it was was worth sharing.

So, in addition to solidifying sound-symbol correspondence knowledge with the student and applying this to their decoding strategies, how can we help our older students make the quickest gains in the area of accurate decoding, honor their age, and, most importantly, help them understand how to use strategies in real life (their classrooms!)?

When older students come to work with me, they often have multiple areas where they rely on compensation skills. One of these is looking at a word’s first letter or part and then guessing or saying a word that may sound similar. They can plod through a text with these words and gain a gist of meaning. However, as they move up the grades, the literacy demands and expectations of deeper interaction with the text, pulling out the enduring understandings or lessons the author wants to be taken away, become surface level because of their weak decoding skills.

When students can’t read the words on the page or alter the words, they impact their ability to gain access to new vocabulary and connect with the text at a deeper level. In addition, this links to their writing of compositions as they may not utilize the higher level vocabulary and instead choose words in which they feel more comfortable spelling or reading independently.

You may see this as well in the students you work with. While it is just one part of the need for instructional intervention, if students are not accurately reading the words on the page, they will eventually hit a wall.

The Simple View of Reading, by Gough & Tunmer, breaks apart the very complex elements needed for reading into two broad categories: word recognition and language comprehension. Reading comprehension is a product of these two categories.

Word recognition, or the accurate and fast retrieval of decoded word forms, is essential for developing reading comprehension. Students who can not accurately read the words on the page will not fully comprehend what is being read. This automated word reading frees up mental resources and allows for close attention to the meaning of the text. The skills acquired under word recognition (decoding, word-level reading, and phonological awareness) are paramount for beginning and novice readers. Read more about building automaticity in reading here.

Try this scaffold to help older students with decoding skills.

Decoding multisyllabic words in smaller chunks - but with real words!

I use real multisyllabic words, often pulled from our connected text, as our decoding focus for my older students. Why? I want to provide my students with strategy, application, and practice for what they will do in their reading.

This is a scaffold for guided practice of multisyllabic word reading with the goal of independent decoding of multisyllabic word reading. In preparation for my lesson, I pull a connected text we will use. Then, I analyze the words within the text that address my students’ needs. This may be specific phonics (sound-symbol correspondences), a review of targeted syllable types, or syllable division patterns, etc).

I choose 5-10 words and write these out on index cards. I then cut them up by syllable type. When given to the student, these smaller word parts, or chunks, are mixed up. The student is charged with reading the word part and identifying the syllable type. If students need the scaffold of coding the syllable type, they do so. Read more about coding with diacritical marks as a scaffold here. It is very important that we guide students in a gradual release of this scaffold. We don’t want them to need to code forever, however, it is a valuable tool for our dyslexic students when analyzing words and orthographic patterns.

Once students have read aloud and sorted the word parts, I challenge them to create real words. The number of words varies based on the student’s need, but I recommend starting with 5-8 words and building from there.

Extra reinforcement of reading these target words includes locating them in the text and highlighting them as they are read. Then, go back to the text and read the entire passage. This gives students multiple opportunities to read the words and gives them a strategy to use when they are struggling - we go back to the scaffold of syllable identification and division to aid in decoding the word.

Benefits and Things to Think About:

This task of word part to whole word analysis is helpful for my students for multiple reasons:

1. We are working with real orthographic patterns they will encounter in the text. I often see people using pseudo/nonsense words for practice, but I caution that when doing so, you are mindful in the orthographic patterns being used. Are they ones that students will see in text? The purpose of nonsense/pseudowords is to test how students attack unknown words. If we think about how the brain learns to read - the orthographic mapping process - do we want students to spend valuable instructional time working through this process on orthographic patterns they won’t encounter in real words? For me, the answer is no. If you opt to use nonsense words, analyze the orthographic patterns to ensure that they are part of whole words that students will encounter in reading.
2. The students see value in knowing the syllable types and how that knowledge connects to real-word attack strategies. Often, older students, or those who have had multiple interventions along their educational path, are jaded in their belief that “this” will actually help them. Why do I really need to know what a vowel is or the pattern within the words? By breaking down the syllables into meaningful word parts, we are setting the stage to help them use this knowledge and transfer this to their independent application. This is key - we need students to actively engage in the tasks and see the value in doing so. We are the sages to lead many of our students on this discovery.
3. The sorting and building task is more challenging than one may imagine. When we ask students to build real words from the sorted word parts, we have set them up for success as they can (and have!) read the word parts correctly. We are guiding them in connecting this knowledge to reading real multisyllabic words and providing them with a strategy to add to their reading toolbox. Bringing awareness to this critical thinking is crucial - we want to empower students with the knowledge they need to independently read new and unknown words.
4. These words are in the connected text - so we can address targeted vocabulary through phonology, orthography, morphology, syntax, and semantics. We have the student say the word aloud (phonology) as it becomes part of their oral vocabulary, we link this to the letter sequence (orthography), we identify and discuss any meaningful parts (morphology), we address the form, and use of the word in language (syntax, semantics). A great deal of connection occurs across the elements of structured literacy as we work with these words in meaningful ways. (Let me know if you want to read more on vocabulary.)
5. We can address the need for flexible sound production in multisyllabic words - and how the sound production may shift when combined within a larger word. For example, in the word preparation, when pulling out the morpheme pre- in isolation, we read with a long vowel sound. However, as we read this word, our vowel sound shifts. Students need to be aware of this flexible sound production within multisyllabic words and opportunities to practice reading, spelling, and using their oral and written word. 
6. We begin to shift this awareness and knowledge of the syllables into scooping strategies  for words, phrases, and sentences and move them along the gradual release of responsibility model to independent practice. 

As you can see, a lot of learning and application can occur within small, meaningful activities. All of these are skills that our older students need to have as part of their decoding strategies, and in this meaningful practice, we honor their journey and help them see the value in what they are doing in interventions. The more I can help my students build cross-connections between our work in interventions and the work they are asked to do in their general education classrooms, the better. I want to empower my students with skills and strategies they can access without me as they become independent readers and writers.

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