How to Help Students Read Multisyllabic Words (SOR Summer Series Part 6)

You’re listening to episode number 207 of the Stellar Teacher Podcast.

Welcome back to the sixth episode in our Stellar Teacher Science of Reading Summer Series. Now, after this week, we just have one more week where I will be sharing a bonus episode every Thursday. But don’t worry, if you have missed any of our previous Thursday episodes in this series, you can always go back and listen to them. They will still be available for you to listen to whenever you have time this summer.

Now, before I talk about today’s specific focus, which actually has to do with helping our upper elementary students read and decode multisyllabic words, which we know is important. I like to start off these summer series episodes with just kind of a general explanation of what the science of reading is and why it’s important. I know we still have teachers in our audience who are just starting their science of reading journey, which I think is so exciting, and I’m just excited for you to continue to learn more. And so I like to give kind of an overview of why the content that I’m talking about and sharing is really important.

So this summer, I’ve been sharing the Simple View of Reading, which is a model that can really help us understand this kind of big picture perspective of what effective reading instruction looks like. So I want you to imagine reading comprehension as the result of a multiplication formula, and that formula is word recognition multiplied by language comprehension equals reading comprehension. And here’s how it works. Word recognition involves the ability for us to recognize and decode the words on a page, it’s like the actual physical act of reading. Whereas language comprehension is all about understanding and making meaning from the words and texts, whether we read them or we hear them. So language comprehension is the understanding side of things. And in this model, both components are essential, and they really function like factors in a multiplication problem. So think about it, if either word recognition or language comprehension scores a zero, then reading comprehension is going to fall to a zero. So for example, if a student has perfect language comprehension scored as a one, but they can’t physically read or decode the words, which would be scored as a zero, then their overall reading comprehension is going to be a zero. And on the flip side, if a student can beautifully read every single word, they can decode perfectly, that would be scored as a one, but they can’t actually understand the meaning behind the words they’re reading, that means their language comprehension would be a zero, and one times zero is zero, which means reading comprehension is going to fall to a zero.

So the simple view of reading reminds us that reading comprehension requires proficiency in both decoding and language comprehension, which is understanding, because without both skills, a student’s ability to comprehend a text is significantly compromised. And oftentimes as upper elementary teachers, and this is definitely something that I did when I was in the classroom, and I remember talking about these things with my team, but we would put a lot of focus on language comprehension. So we’d really put a lot of focus on the comprehension side of things, and we would get so focused on comprehension that we would forget that we had students in our class that still could not actually read the words in a text, or they couldn’t read enough of the words for the text to make sense. And if a student struggles with decoding, then it really does not matter how amazing our comprehension instruction is, because they’re still going to struggle to understand the text, because, as we know, decoding is an essential part of the reading process.

So I want to share with you today a really simple and easy process that you can teach your students, that is going to help them learn how to decode and read multisyllabic words, because we want to make sure that in upper elementary we are not solely focused on comprehension, but that we’re still remembering that word recognition does play a role in comprehension.

Now before I share that process, I do want to give a little disclaimer, and that is that this process is going to help students who already have a foundation in word recognition skills to be able to easily read multisyllabic words. And I think it’s important that we support our upper elementary students with developing their word recognition skills, especially when it comes to learning how to read multisyllabic words. But I think it’s also important that we recognize that a strategy like the one I’m going to share with you today is not going to be enough for our students who are still really struggling to decode basic, single syllable or simple two syllable words. They’re going to need intervention well beyond what this process can offer them. So if you have students who are still struggling to read really any word, they’re going to need additional intervention that is much more intense beyond this process.

So definitely teach this strategy to your students, but know that it is not going to solve all of your decoding challenges in your classroom, but it’s definitely going to help with students who need help reading multisyllabic words. Now, as you’re listening and you think about this strategy, and you’re like, Okay, I can see this would help my students. We have a free strategy poster that you can print off and share with your students. So go to stellarteacher.com/bigwords, all one word there, and grab this free poster that we made that really outlines the five steps. You can print it off and share it with your students, make it super simple.

So the five step process that you can teach your students to help them decode multisyllabic words is: step one, circle the prefixes, step two, have them put a box around the suffixes, step three, we’re going to have them look at what is left in the Word. So what is left in the middle of the word. And with this step, we want them to underline the vowels and really approximate or figure out the syllables, or if they recognize any smaller words in the middle of the word. Then once they’ve really spent some time breaking down the different parts, step four is they’re going to say the word parts slowly. And then step five, they’re going to say the entire word, and they’re going to consider, does this sound like a word that I know? And then once they figured out the word, here’s a bonus step. We want them to go back read the word again more quickly, and we want them to go back and read the sentence again with the word, because we want to make sure that they can read the word in context and that it’s helping them understand the meaning of the text.

So that’s it. That’s simple. Now it sounds easy and it really looks easy on paper, but getting your students to automatically apply this strategy is going to require a little more than just printing off the free download and introducing this strategy in September. So in addition to this process, I’m going to share a few things that you can do to really help this routine become more automatic for your students. Because in order for our students to be able to dedicate their mental energy to comprehension, they need to be able to automatically read words, especially big, multisyllabic ones. So this is something that we want them to do. Want them to do really automatically without even thinking about it.

So the first thing is to teach this routine to all of your students. And like I mentioned earlier, kind of oftentimes we think that in upper elementary we only need to focus on decoding strategies for students who are struggling readers or have gaps in their phonics knowledge, but the truth is that all students need to have strong word recognition skills. And as words get more complex and challenging, as they often do in upper elementary, our students need to have strategies that they can use to help them decode big words. And this is a great strategy that is going to help all students. So teach this routine whole group to all of your students, so they should all know this five step process.

The second thing that you can do is to make sure that you are consistently throughout the entire year teaching all of the word study elements that are needed for students to be successful with this routine, and as a result, needed for students to decode big words. So if you think about it, in order for this strategy to be effective, students have to have a strong understanding of several word study concepts. They need to know prefixes, suffixes, roots, syllable types. And we want to make sure that we are teaching these things and reviewing them throughout the year and really helping our students develop strong word study awareness.

And if you are listening to this episode and you realize that your students could really benefit from a little more explicit instruction with these word study concepts, and that’s definitely something that you want to prioritize this next year, make sure you have a time in your literacy block that is dedicated just to word study. And then I’d also encourage you to add your name to the waitlist for the Stellar Literacy Collective. Word Study is one of my favorite things to create resources for and we have tons of lessons that will really help you teach the most common prefixes, suffixes and roots, and lots of syllabication resources and doors to the membership are opening up next week for the 2024-2025 school year, and we would love to have you join us. So you can add your name to the waitlist at stellarteacher.com/waitlist and that way you’ll be notified when doors open up next week.

And then one last thing just about the importance of teaching word study concepts, I think because things like prefixes, suffixes and roots are automatic for us as fluent readers, we often assume that our students know the meaning of prefixes, suffixes and roots. And so while we might do a general lesson, and we might combine multiple prefixes into a single lesson or multiple roots in a single lessonl or we might give our students a reference sheet and kind of gloss over them. But what we really want to do is make sure that we are explicitly teaching the meaning of individual prefixes, suffixes and roots. You know, we want our students to be able to automatically tell us that pre means before, the suffix less means without, the root rupt means to break or burst, and that they have the awareness of these word parts that they can automatically use then to help them not only figure out how to decode these big words, but they can also use them to figure out the meaning. So we really want to make sure that we are spending time during our literacy block to explicitly teach word parts like prefixes, suffixes and roots.

Okay, the next thing that you can do, though, to make sure that your students can put this routine in place automatically, is to consistently model and practice it with your students. And I think sometimes, at least I was guilty of this when I was in the classroom, we would get in the habit of teaching a strategy or introducing something to our students once, and then we would assume that our students would remember how to do it independently forever. But really, if we want something to be a habit or automatic for our students, then we need to prompt them and remind it about it often. So introduce this strategy to your students and then continue to model and practice it. Model it during your read aloud. Incorporate it into your small group instruction. Have your students practice it as a turn and talk during your read aloud or during independent practice. Have the poster displayed in the front of your classroom and refer back to it. The more you remind your students of the strategy, the more likely that they are to use it independently, which is ultimately what we want.

And then finally, I think it’s important, whether it is this strategy or any strategy, remind your students to always be flexible when we’re using strategies. They can be super helpful, but there needs to be some flexibility. This strategy is great, and it is going to help students figure out how to read big, multisyllabic words, but we have to remind our students that strategies are a tool, and sometimes we need to be flexible with how we use them in order to get to the correct pronunciation of a word. Prefixes, suffixes and roots don’t always get pronounced the exact same way in every single word. Sometimes there’s variation. And, you know, I think it’s really helpful for students to understand syllable types, but it’s also important for them to understand that there is variation in vowel sounds, especially as words become longer, and sometimes the rules aren’t always going to work for every single word. So our students really need to understand that it’s not always about following the process to a T, but ultimately it’s about do they have enough tools and strategies in place to where they can approximate and get to the correct pronunciation of a word? Like I said, and in some cases, in order for them to get to that end result, they have to use a strategy with flexibility. So remind students use the strategy, but also be flexible.

So let’s review this five step process that you can share with your students that will help them to decode big, multisyllabic words. And that is to have them one, circle the prefix. Two, put a box around the suffix. Three, look at what is left- they’re going to underline the vowels and approximate the syllables. And then four, they’re going to say the word part slowly. And five, they’re going to say the entire word, and really think about, does this sound like a word that I know? And then, of course, six, as a bonus step, have them go back, read the word again more quickly and then read it again in the sentence. And remember, if you want to grab a free poster with this strategy that’s all mapped out for your students, go to stellarteacher.com/bigwords. And again, just a reminder, when you teach this strategy, it is going to help your students improve their word recognition skills, which we know is essential if we want our students to get to the ultimate goal, which is reading comprehension.

Now don’t forget add your name to the waitlist if you’re interested in joining us inside the Stellar Literacy Collective. Doors open on Monday, and we can’t wait to welcome in a whole new group of teachers to support this next school year. And then, of course, be sure to tune in next Thursday for the final episode in our Stellar Teacher Science of Reading Summer Series. I hope to see you then!

Thanks so much for joining me today. If you enjoyed today’s episode and are finding value in this podcast, it would mean the world to me if you subscribe and leave a five-star positive review, this helps me spread the word to more and more teachers, just like you. Don’t forget to join me over on Instagram @thestellarteachercompany, and you can also find links and resources from this episode in the show notes at stellarteacher.com.

I’ll see you back here next week.