Let's face it, when I was in school, anytime I came across a word that I did not know in a book I was reading, I could just pause and the teacher would eventually tell me the word. Unknowingly, that teacher was doing a disservice to me. Later on, as the text became more instructional in college, I had to learn strategies that I did not have in order to decode and understand the words in my textbooks. Today, some teachers are still using the same strategies they were exposed to as students themselves. I was one of those teachers! Of no fault of our own, all we are doing is creating a society of students who are dependent on others to be successful. So how can we change this? Well I have some strategies and activities that you can easily implement in your classroom to help break the cycle. Let's look at some strategies and activities for younger students first.
Teachers need to ensure their students have several strategies to choose from when encountering a word they need to decode. There are several, when I am stuck... posters you can find on Pinterest and teachers pay teachers to use. Even though the titles for each strategy may be different, the strategies are the same.
1. Look at the pictures for clues.
2. Get your lips ready to say the word.
3. Say the beginning and/or ending sound on the word .
4. Stretch the word out.
5. Look for chunks or parts in the word that you know.
6. Flip the vowel sound.
7. Skip the word and come back to it.
It's fun to come up with movements or silly faces to help students remember these strategies. For example, I use fish lips for get your lips ready to say the word. You can use whatever movements or faces works best for the strategies you pick. I also suggest sharing the strategies you are using with your colleagues in your building so the kids will be exposed to the same strategies throughout and there will be consistency across the board.
As for activities to help with decoding, concentrate on word families and CVC words in the early stages. Then add on CVCe words as well as CVVC words. Do not forget to include digraphs (2 letters that make 1 sound) and blends (2 letters that keep their individual sound). Some great activities that can be easily modified for each new sound you are working on are sorts, go fish, matching, and creating words with cups or flip books.
But what about students in our upper elementary grades who are struggling to decode longer words. Here's some strategy ideas to help those students as well.
1. Look for parts you know at the beginning of the word. (prefixes)
2. Look for parts you know at the beginning of the word. (suffixes)
3. Look for root words you know.
4. Look for vowel patterns you know.
5. Break the word into syllables.
6. Split between compound words.
7. Split double letters.
8. Split VCCV patterns.
9. Split after ck or x.
Some great activities to use for building students confidence with decoding and working with longer words are sorts, building words, and graphic organizers. Pinterest is a great resource to use to find activities that are appropriate for your students and the phonics skills you are working on.
For ideas check out my Pinterest page at www.pinterest.com/welltaughtlife
Also please leave a comment below and tell me what you use in your classroom to help your students with decoding unknown words.
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