Reading Strategies

Often as a reading teacher you will have students who will struggle with reading a word correctly.  The following strategies will help a student learn to decode a word on their own.

1.  Covering:  have the student cover part(s) of the word. For example:  cover the suffix, beginning or ending syllables.

Examples:

jumping - First begin by having the student cover -ing in the word.  Next have the student read the baseword.                     After they have read the base word, have the student read the suffix.  When the student has successfully                 read both the base word and suffix have the student try to read the whole word again.    

sunflower - First begin by having the student cover flower, and read the word sun.  Then cover sun and read the word flower.                     The student will then try to read the two parts together.

paper -  First begin by having the student cover -per.  Remind the student that the a in pa- is in an open syllable, so the                       vowel will be read long.  Then read the second syllable -per,  Last have the student try to read the word as a whole.

2.  Find a Letter Cluster: point out a letter cluster within a word to the student.  Ask how to read the letter cluster.  If they do not know, remind them of the picture that goes along with that sound or simply give the correct sound.

Examples:

loud - point out the letter cluster ou.  say, " ou mouse" this should then trigger /ou/.  If it does not simply                        provide the sound /ou/. Then the child can try to read the word again using the sound /ou/ when reading ou.

3.  Spell orally: tell the student to spell the word orally.

Example:

clip - if a child continues to read a word incorrectly. " cilp" "cilp"  Have the student spell the word aloud. (c-l-i-p)                Then allow the student to try to read the word again.