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Topic 5: Designing a reading intervention

Part 2
Part 3

Part 4

Part 2:

Orthographic activities

Orthographic activities

• Categorizing, sorting, matching activities

• Reading unfamiliar words by analogy

• Memory activities

• Awareness of word structures Which of these; nam, mna, amn, man could be words?

• Discuss aspects of the pattern

• Develop the letter cluster pattern in applied and game activities

• Teach students how to segment or chunk written words

• What goes with what? Students predict the likely letters/clusters that might follow a particular cluster in a word.
For example, n n n a w

• Check readers can remember the letter cluster

 

Two syllable words

Difficulties reading multi-syllabic words Some readers

• use distinctive visual features; select some letters and made a
rapid guess

• select the first few letters after which they 'bog down'.

• have difficulty handling the unstressed vowels that are softened
and blurred; 'schwa' sound. Develop awareness of it as a vowel
orally initially.

Teach students to recognise syllabic units by word building

• combine syllables, note how they join, how words are built, the building units.

• use this to read syllables in words, to compare segmenting words in different ways.

• look at how are syllables linked in 2-syllable words. Types:

• those with an identifiable stem word and prefix/ suffix ('jumping', 'beside')

• those in which stem is not a familiar word ('insect', 'predict', 'begin')

Teach the syllabic structure of words

Unstress syllable.
Readers learn how to use different stress patterns and to handle unstressed or silent sounds.

Become aware of the syllable structure of words

recognise each syllable Students segment 2-syllables word in 2 ways,

Pre-tend Pr-etend

Which one sounds better ? Why ? Students suggest their definition of 'syllable'.

saying either part, They can

break words into syllables. "Listen to how I say wander. Wan-der.
hear 2 or 3 separate syllables said with equal stress and blend them into a word.
hear 2- and 3- syllable words and say the unstressed syllable, for example, attract, flannel, happen, customer, permanent. Was unstressed syllable/ first, second or third ?

making a gesture for each syllable they hear in a word, for example, they can clap, tap the table, stamp, click fingers, or shake a musical instrument such as a tambourine.

Combining two or more syllables to make a word.

Many reading underachievers can't move from 1 to multiple syllabic units. They say the first part of a word and then can't progress. They can practise holding the first part in short term memory, say the second part, blend them into a word and then alter the stress pattern to match what they say with a word they know. cap ture mix ture man age gar age.

Experience the use of having words syllabified

Help them see the value of syllabifying; a word may be easier to read when it is syllabified.

Teaching each type of multi syllabic word Multi syllabic words vary on several dimensions

• whether the word consists of a stem or root word + prefix and /or suffix, two smaller words or less common segments (for example, 'chaos').

• whether the stem is an identifiable, familiar root word (such as 'jumping', dived', 'unfit') or is not an identifiable, familiar root word
(such as 'happy', 'receive')

• the syllable/s that are and are not stressed.

Explore different 2-syllable patterns and how you segment these in different ways To segment words, note where the two separate vowels are. Thee patterns arise and that affect how easily the word can be segmented

words with 2 or more separate consonants (not part of a digraph) between the two vowels; in confuse, consent or lantern. Split between the two consonants.

words with 1 separate consonant between the two vowels; decide, protect, eject, tropic, serious, payment, label and total . These have-vcv- structure and are called 'open syllables'

words in which the two vowels, though separate, are adjacent as in 'create', 'chaos'.

words with a repeated consonant, for example, traffic, summer, accept, cabbage, pretty, gallop, tennis and collect.

Students can experiment with segmenting these words in different ways and see which ways help them read them most easily.

The sequence for learning each type of 2-syllable word is similar to that for 1-syllable words:

• learn the prerequisite sound knowledge by segmenting spoken words into syllables.

• build 2-syllable words from known root words by adding a prefix or suffix

hop -----> hopping jump -----> jumping tap -----> tapping

stop -----> stopping come -----> coming

and discuss how

• the 2-syllable word differs from the 1-syllable word

• the letter cluster that is shared by all of them

• the 'stem' telling you what the words mean and the 'added part'

• in some of the stem words the last letter is doubled.

• read instances of the 2-syllable words, eg., for the re- word family: repeat, remark, refuse, receipt, receive, recur, refine They

• link each word both with what they know about similar words and how it is said

• segment each written word into two letter clusters that match how they segmented the spoken word into syllables.

• visualise writing each word, predict how to spell and read similar words and gradually automatise this knowledge

• explore the prefix-stem structure of 2-syllable words .

• teach the meaning of the prefix/ suffix, for example,

What people can do

law

tour

run

teach

drive

work

Person who does it

lawyer

tourist

runner

teacher

driver

worker

using 2-syllable reading strategies Students practise reading sets of words by segmenting them into syllables as they go. They say each syllable aloud and blend and if necessary modify the stress pattern.

reading words by using analogy strategies

A developmental orthographic program needs to include
• teaching functional letter clusters directly.

• an integrated approach across the year levels .

• an assessment device to test orthographic knowledge on program entry and at various stages.

• that students be familiar with the notion of orthographic knowledge, what it means and the journey that they are taking through learning it.

The focus is on students' ability to process each orthographic pattern relatively automatically in prose. Students will read a clusters in individual words before they develop the general pattern.

 

A sequence for teaching orthographic patterns
Development = learning to read larger letter clusters at once

Types of orthographic awareness.Each awareness involves students being able to:
  • do things, act on words in various ways
  • recognise, particular letters and letter clusters

Awareness

 

of individual letter-sound patterns

  • individual sounds map into a letter
  • each letter has a name

a short string of letters can be recoded to spoken word

Recode words with c-short vowel-c

Each letter linked with a sound

Example: hot, cat, dog

consonant clusters processed at once; a letter-cluster and matching sound pattern shared by several words

Develop first for onsets and rimes in 1-syllable word

Example: 'hot' as h-ot and 'stop' as st-op

one-syllable simple word structure

Words consisting of the cvc, ccvc or cvcc

two or more consonants can be linked with the same sound

Example: Patterns - shell, chop, them

words with long versus short vowel sound

Two types of sounds associated with vowels; long and short vowel sounds

vowel-vowel and vowel-consonants digraphs

Example: tree, seem, star, far

different letter groups linked with same sound

Example: the long 'a' sound is linked with 'ay', 'ai', or 'a-e' as in may, main & mate

same letter cluster can be linked with different sound

Example: stool versus foot, farm versus fare

one-syllable more complex form of digraphs and trigraphs

 

syllables and syllable-like units

Example: con + cert, in + side, out + side

'silent letters'

Example: write, lamb, know

how to read two-syllables, one after the other

Example: button

stress patterns in two-syllable words

 

two-syllable word structure

 

letters surrounding a letter influence how it is said

Options for pronouncing 'g' - gentle, grid

Options for pronouncing 'c' - cigar, current

letter cluster - meaning patterns

Example: micro, phone

how meaning is carried by particular letter clusters

Example: adding 'ing', 's' or 'ed' to a verb

syllabic structure of multi-syllabic words

Example: prefixes, suffixes and root words that aren't said how they are written; tion, ance, ble, er

 

Part 3:

Linking phonological and letter cluster knowledge

grade 5

phonological outcomes

phonemic

letter-cluster outcomes

orthographic outcomes

• say the syllable /s shared by two or more spoken 3-syllable words

• segment 3-syllable words into morphemes

• say how many syllables are in common morphemes

• delete, substitute morphemes in 3-syllable words

• compare two 3-syllable words in terms of shared morphemes

• say the sound in a 3-syllable word that comes after / before a morpheme.

• read 3-syllable words by segmenting them into morphemes and say each morpheme

• read 3-syllable words by using analogy with known words

• recall the meanings of particular stems, prefixes and suffixes.

• assemble a list of bound morphemes (prefixes and suffixes)

• guess the meanings of words by analysing the morphemes in them

• categorise written 3-syllable words, match identical words, words with the same morphemes

• read automatically 3-syllable words in isolation and in prose

• write 3 syllable words in spelling and dictation

• identify the structure of 3-syllable words, distinguish between letter clusters that are / are not 3 syllable words

 

grade 6

• say the syllable /s shared by two spoken 4- or 5-syllable words

• segment 4-syllable words into morphemes

• delete, substitute morphemes in 4-, 5-syllable words

• compare two 4-, 5- syllable words in terms of shared morphemes

• say the sound in a 4- or 5-syllable word that comes after / before a morpheme.

• read 4-, 5- syllable words by segmenting them into morphemes, say each morpheme

• read 4-syllable words by analogy with known words

• guess the meanings of 4-, 5- syllable words using their morphemes

• categorise written 4-, 5-syllable words, match identical words, words with the same morphemes

• read 4-, 5- syllable words automatically isolated/ in prose

• write 4-, 5- words in spelling and dictation

• identify structure of 4-, 5- syllable words

 

Grade 6 Weeks 3-4

Students work on the morphographic structure of words, learn the concept of the morpheme and learn to use morphemes to read longer words. 2 sets of 3-syllable words. Work on the following sets of words that each shares a morphographic feature:

• micro- words such as microscope, microbe, micro-second, microphone.

• video words such as vision, visible, revision, video, vista,

• 'or' words such as inventor, governor, editor, actor, instructor, projector

• 'ion' words such as invention, action, edition, instruction, projection.

• 'dis' words such as disease, disagree, disease, disarm, disallow, disconnect, distort.

Work on each set at a time by segmenting words into syllables, practise reading the words by noting each syllable and learning how to recognise syllables in words.

phonological outcomes

phonemic

letter-cluster outcomes

orthographic outcomes

Teach students to

• identify morphemes in words by identifying shared syllables in each set, for example, microscope, microbe, micro-second, microphone all contain the micro- unit.

• see how all words share a meaning. They guess at what 'micro', 'or' and 'tion' mean by using what they know about the words in each set. They learn the term 'morpheme'.

• decide whether a morpheme is the same as a syllable. They say how many syllables are in the morpheme 'micro'.

• suggest other words that have the morpheme in each set.

Teach students to

• compare two 4-, 5- syllable words in terms of shared morphemes

• say the sound in a 4- or 5-syllable word that comes after / before a morpheme.

Teach students to

• read 2-, 3- syllable words by segmenting them into morphemes and say each morpheme

• guess the meanings of 3- syllable words by analysing the morphemes in them

• recall the meanings of 'micro', video

• begin to assemble a list of bound morphemes (-or, dis- and ion).

• guess the meanings of words by analysing the morphemes in them

Teach students to

• categorise written 3-syllable words, with the same morpheme, match identical words, words

• read 3- syllable words automatically in isolation and in prose by noting morphemes

• write 3- words in spelling and dictation.

Part 4:

Modifying instruction in the classroom

 

In the classroom

The regular classroom can demand a high level of literacy for learning.  There is a range of teaching procedures that teachers can use to modify the demand made on students to be literate while at the same time helping them to improve their ability to read.

  • Modify the text
  • Experiment with print  
  • Have a range of printed materials 
  • Match students and texts to be read 
  • Encourage students to write.
  • Provide alternative ways of communicating
  • Teach readers how to learn
  • Use learner-friendly questioning techniques. For example, ensure that you clarify different purposes of reading/writing 
  • Have a systematic feedback schedule  
  • Model reading
  • Develop specialist reading strategy areas 
  • Encourage readers to work together on reading tasks 
  • Use learning centres 
  • Develop useful reading evaluation checklists
  • Encourage liaison with students' parents


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