Decoding strategies Reading

• Decoding involves using letter-sound relationships to read words.
• It requires connecting letters to sounds and blending them.
• Students segment phonemes, chunk words, and blend them.
• "Sounding out words" is another term for decoding.

Decoding Progression

• Students learn phonetically regular words, progressing from simple to complex.
• A key consideration is the frequency of word appearance in texts, alongside the ease of learning phonics.
• Initial focus on monosyllabic words with short vowels and single consonants.
• Then, move to consonant blends and digraphs in short vowel words.
• Finally, progress to words that contain long vowel patterns.
• C represents consonants, and V represents vowels.

Decoding Skill Progression (Simple to Complex)

• CVC (cat, bed, mop): Identify individual phonemes and blend.
• CCVC, CVCC (trip, shut, desk, mesh): Practice consonant blending; identify unique digraph sounds.
• CVCe (bake, line, robe): Practice long vowel sounds; understand Silent-E's influence.
• Silent E "jumps" over the consonant to make the vowel say its name.
• CVVC (moat, spoon, team): Identify and isolate digraph sounds.
• Vowel Diphthongs (soil, hawk, down): Identify and isolate diphthong sounds.
• Multisyllabic Words (kitten, together, about, photosynthesis): Identify syllables, break into syllables, apply decoding skills, recognize morphemes.
• Learning decoding skills systematically aids students.

Sight Words vs. Decodable Words

• Students apply phonics skills for decoding, while memorizing irregular words.
• Sight Words: Partially decodable words recognized by sight due to irregularities.
• High-Frequency Words: Common words in text, either decodable or irregular.
• Decodable Words: Follow phonics patterns and can be read using letter-sound rules.
• Phonics knowledge reduces the need to memorize words.

Definitions

• Sight word: Must be memorized due to irregularities.
• High-frequency word: Appears often; may or may not be decodable.
• Decodable word: Can be read using phonics skills.

Sight Word Instruction

• Emphasis on decoding and memorization of irregular parts only.
• Heart Words Approach: Decode regular parts and memorize irregular vowel sounds.
• Sight words are introduced systematically, aligned with phonics lessons.
• Fry word lists help determine grade-level high-frequency words.
• Use high-frequency words within decodable text.
• Multisensory activities and word mapping aid memory.

Sight Word Assessment

• Sight word skills and decoding abilities should be assessed separately.
• Use a nonsense word list to assess decoding skills without memorization.
• Use taught irregular words to assess sight word knowledge.
• Assess sight word recognition within connected text.

Why Teach Phonics and Word Decoding?

• Phonics and word recognition are vital for decoding and reading fluency.
• Fluency helps with reading speed, accuracy, and expression that bridges decoding and comprehension.
• Improved decoding enhances fluency and comprehension.
• Students should understand letter-sound relationships, letter patterns, and meaning acquisition through word recognition.

Foundational Skills

• Research highlights these building-block skills:
• Print Awareness: Understanding printed language forms and functions.
• Alphabetic Knowledge: Recognizing, naming, and writing letters.
• Phonemic Awareness: Hearing and using individual sounds or phonemes.
• Alphabetic Principle: Understanding words comprise letters representing sounds.
• Decoding improves with print awareness, alphabetic knowledge, and phonemic awareness.
• Enhanced decoding leads to fluency for better reading comprehension.

High-Frequency Sight Words

• High-frequency sight words are words that cannot be sounded out phonetically.
• Mastering sight words is key for reading fluency and comprehension.

Word Identification Skills

• Decoding involves applying letter-sound relationships to pronounce words.

Strategies breakdown

• Phonics: Applying letter-sound knowledge (e.g., 'sh' sound in "ship").
• Structural/Morphemic Analysis: Using knowledge of word parts.
• Breaking words into prefix "re" and root "do" to decode "redo".
• Sight Words: Recognizing words without decoding (e.g., who, of, you).
• Words introduced as sight words either do not follow phonics rules, appear frequently and are high-frequency words, fall into both categories, or the phonics rule hasn't debuted.
• Contextual Analysis: Using surrounding information.
• Recognizing "buy" in "I went to the store to buy groceries" with context clues.

Compound Words

• Compound words are two combined words forming a new word with a new meaning.
• Analyze individual word meanings to understand the compound word.

Word Analysis

• Morphology is the study of word form.
• Morphemes are the smallest meaningful units.

Roots and Affixes

• Morphemes include roots and affixes.
• Roots provide the core meaning of the word.
• Roots are either free (stand-alone) or bound (cannot stand alone).
• Anglo-Saxon roots like "help," "love," and "friend" stand alone.
• Greek/Latin roots like "geo" and "omni" are bound.
• Affixes are morphemes attached to roots and cannot stand alone.

Categories

• Affixes include prefixes (before the root) and suffixes (after the root).
• Derivational Affix: Alters meaning or part of speech.
• Adding "re-" to "do" forms "redo," changing the meaning.
• Adding "-ful" to "joy" forms "joyful".
• Inflectional Affix: Alters word form, usually not part of speech.
• "Loud," "louder," and "loudest" are adjectives or adverbs.
• "Jump," "jumps," "jumped," and "jumping" are verb tenses.
• Derivational affixes are prefixes and suffixes; inflectional affixes are suffixes.

Example breakdown

• "Unacceptable": root (accept), prefix (un-), suffix (-able).
• Root "accept" means to agree.
• Preffix "un-" means not.
• Suffix "-able" means capable of and changes the root to adjective.
• "Unacceptable" describes something someone cannot take.

Spelling Rules

• Adding a prefix does not change the spelling of a root.
• Adding a suffix sometimes impacts spelling.

Rules and reasons

• y to i: Change y to i when the root word ends with a y (worry → worrier), unless the preceding letter is a vowel or the suffix starts with i.
• Double the Consonant: Double the consonant if a root ends in a short vowel followed by a consonant (bat → batter), except for w, x, or y.
• Drop the e: Drop the e off the end of a root word if the suffix begins with a vowel (slide → sliding), unless it ends in ce or ge and the suffix begins with a or o.
• ie to y: Change ie to y if the suffix begins with i (lie → lying).