Practice Brief-Struggling Readers.pdf

What Do Successful Readers Do?Successful readers know that letters and letter patterns are associated withsounds and that these sounds blend to make the words that we read. They areable to use this knowledge to decode unknown or difficult words while they arereading. As they read, readers proficient in word study also employ structuralanalysis strategies to break words into smaller meaningful parts that help themdecode and understand words. The table outlines characteristics common tosuccessful and struggling readers in the area of word study.Successful Readers• Read multisyllabic words and usestrategies to figure out unknown words.• Make connections between letterpatterns and sounds and use thisunderstanding to read words.• Break unknown words into syllablesduring reading.• Use word analysis strategies to breakdifficult or long words into meaningfulparts such as inflectional endings,prefixes, suffixes, and roots.Struggling Readers• May read single-syllable wordseffortlessly but have difficulty decodinglonger multisyllabic words.• May lack knowledge of the ways inwhich sounds map to print.• Have difficulty breaking words intosyllables.• Often do not use word analysisstrategies to break words into syllables.Adapted from Bhattacharya & Ehri, 2004; Nagy, Berninger, & Abbott, 2006.Instructional Practices Associated withImproved Word ReadingWhile many struggling readers at the secondary level are proficient at readingsingle-syllable words (stint, core, plan) they may lack strategies to decode themultisyllabic words that are common in higher-level reading materials (Archer,Gleason, & Vachon, 2003). Often termed advanced word study, interventions inthis area generally include instruction in word recognition and word analysis(Curtis, 2004).6