Know-Its: The Link To Reading

Do your students "freeze" when they come to a long word? Many beginning readers get comfortable reading a certain length of word and when they face a longer word, they don't know what to do. When I worked with fifth grade struggling readers, the students just stopped reading and wanted someone to tell them the word. I asked,"What can you do to help yourself?" They just sat there. . .

Finally, I placed my finger over part of the word and they read it instantly.This story shows that teachers need to equip students to break words down into small parts so they can attack a longer word. After all, don't we want readers to become independent?

This strategy can be taught to young readers by teaching them to cover up common endings (ing, ed, er). If children are familiar with suffixes, they simply cover them up so they can focus on the base word. (See Cover Word activity.) This structural analysis strategy continues with harder suffixes and then with prefixes. By the time beginning readers have experienced breaking words down into parts, they begin to "zero in" on the base word automatically, helping them to break down even longer words.Eventually, they don't need to physically cover up the word parts--they just see the base word.

When do you begin this strategy? Start right after children can read three letter short vowel words. Start with words like popping and teach them to cover up the ing and if there are two letters alike before the ing, cover up one of them. Then we just have a little three letter word that they can read--pop. Gradually add new endings and beginnings until they can read words like delightful, enjoyment, ect.

Teaching the Cover Up Strategy at an early age will help develop a sense of independence in students' reading. They don't have to be afraid of long words. Covering affixes helps develop other syllable work as children learn new ways to divide words.

Empower your readers by teaching them to help themselves!