The Reading Teacher's Sourcebook - The Meadows Center for ...

3. Read each word part. Remember that each word part will contain one vowel sound.4. Read the parts quickly. Put the parts together to read the word.5. Make it sound like a real word. “Flex” the word as needed so that it sounds like a real word.Often, multisyllable words do not “follow the rules.” For example, vowels in unaccentedsyllables often make the schwa sound, resembling a short u or i. Once students put the partsof a multisyllable word together, they may need to “play with” the vowel sounds until the wordsounds correct. This step is difficult, if not impossible, if the word is not in the student’s spokenvocabulary, but instruction in multisyllable word recognition can help extend this vocabulary.In order to apply this strategy, students must be able to:• Identify vowel letters.• Recognize common prefixes and suffixes.• Say the sounds of vowel letters, vowel teams, and r-controlled vowels.• Apply the silent e rule in silent e syllables.• Flex a word by changing the vowel sounds until they arrive at a recognizable word.It is important to teach these key preskills while teaching the strategy. Provide daily instruction and reviewin the sounds of vowels and vowel combinations and in quickly recognizing common prefixes and suffixes.Instruction in the meaning of these word parts can help extend students’ vocabularies.PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTINGWORD RECOGNITION INSTRUCTIONTeaching Syllable Types and the Multisyllable Word Reading StrategyMiddle school students who have difficulty reading multisyllable words benefit from direct, explicitteaching of the syllable types and the multisyllable word reading strategy described above. As described inChapter 4: Components of Effective Instruction, this includes:• Setting a purpose for the activity.• Clearly teaching concepts (such as the syllable types) and modeling skills (such as identifyingdifferent syllable types in words or using the word reading strategy).• Providing guided practice with immediate feedback.• Providing independent practice with close monitoring.• Teaching students how to generalize what they have learned so that they can apply skills in manydifferent contexts.Sample word recognition lessons are provided to illustrate this process.The Reading Teacher’s Sourcebook 237