OnTrack Reading

Preparation:

Write on the board “Main Rule: Stop each chunk after the vowel sound and say the First Vowel Sound.”

Write on the board: “First Exception: Add any marker to the chunk.”

Write on the board: “Second Exception: Add any doubled consonant to the chunk.”

Write on the board: “Third Exception: Add a sound if the next chunk is HARD TO SAY.”

Familiarize yourself with the lesson plan and the word list near the end.

Class time elapsed: 0 minutes

Review the Main Rule about stopping each chunk after the vowel sound.

Class time elapsed: 1 minute

Review the First Exception about Markers.

Class time elapsed: 2 minutes

Review the Second Exception about Doubled Consonants.

Class time elapsed: 3 minutes

Refer to the Third Exception.

Write the word contest on the board.

Draw a vertical line between co and ntest in contest (stopping after the vowel sound as instructed by the Main Rule.)

Ask a student to say the first chunk (co) and then the second (ntest.)

Point out to the class that ntest is an awkward sounding chunk and is “hard to say.”

Write the word reptile on the board and repeat the process, drawing the vertical line between re and ptile. Again, point out that ptile is an awkward chunk and is “hard to say.”

Refer again to the Third Exception.

Say “When the next chunk is ‘hard to say’ we add a sound to the chunk in front just like we did with Markers and Doubled Consonants.”

Redraw the line in contest between con and test.

Have a student say the two chunks and point out how much easier test is to say.

Repeat the process with reptile, drawing the line between rep and tile.

Class time elapsed: 6 minutes

Use the list of words below and have the class first apply the main rule, then move the chunk boundary until the next chunk is no longer “hard to say.”

2-syllable words: jum ping, lan ded, in vest, in sect, lun ches, lob ster

2-syllable words requiring two sounds be added: lamp shade, camp fire

Class time elapsed: 9 minutes

Remind the class of the Rule of c and tell them to apply it to any c’s in an unfamiliar word before beginning to chunk the word.

Chunk the following 3-syllable words, after applying the Rule of c first where applicable:

3-syllable words: in struc ted, con duc ting, con cen trate

Tell the students that they now know the complete multisyllable decoding method and that once they learn the English code they should be able to figure out almost any unfamiliar word they encounter in their content area reading.

Class time elapsed: 10 minutes

Notes to the Teacher:

The “Hard to Say” exception could be rephrased in more elegant terms as: “Move sounds to the preceding chunk until the next chunk begins with a legal blend.” While this Exception might seem more complicated than the other two, it is actually quite easy to apply because people naturally chunk words like contest at the normal syllable boundaries (because ntest is an illegal English blend and is, as a result, quite awkward to pronounce.) No child would ever consider orally chunking contest as co-ntest for that reason (though they might attempt to do so for a while as they are learning to apply this method.)

Strictly applied, a word like resting will be chunked re-sting, which disturbs teachers who are used to teaching multisyllable decoding techniques which involve identifying prefixes, roots and suffixes. The point, though, is that young children will easily read the word resting if they do chunk it as re-sting and apply the first vowel sound. It is our training in prefixes that convinces us that they will try the /ee/ sound first and get ree-sting. But it is also our training students in using such prefixes as a decoding technique that makes requisition and restitution hard words for them to read, whereas using the simple technique described here will usually have students easily decoding them on the first or second attempt.

To carry the problem a step further, a word like lookout would be decoded on the first attempt as loo-kout, probably with the /oo/ sound to boot. However, ask yourself if a second grader reading the word in context would arrive at lookout fairly quickly, even without realizing that the oo digraph can be the sound in book as well as in zoo. Of course, it’s quite likely that once the student learned the word, it would be perceived as a compound of look and out.

I’ve used this multisyllable technique with nearly 100 struggling readers as of August 2007 and they easily adopt it and quickly become comfortable with decoding longer and longer words. Equally important, because they are comfortable with the strategy, they begin to dump their old guessing strategy and actually start examining each chunk in an unfamiliar word. It is when you see this begin to happen with your poorer-reading students that you will become convinced of the effectiveness of this method.

Last mini-lesson: Summing Up

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