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Fix it Up!

Children will use a variety of fix-up strategies to read unfamiliar words. Students will learn to pronounce words, determine meanings in context, and figure out words using knowledge of root words, prefixes and suffixes, among other strategies. They will learn to figure out the meaning of an unfamiliar word. Sometimes that results from figuring out how to pronounce the word. Sometimes that is by inferring from context. Of the two skills, figuring out the meaning is more important. We launch into a study of fix-up strategies right when we get to school in the first month. Children tell me they get frustrated with figuring out multi-syllable words the most and so I start there.

I want to hear teachers say "what would make sense there" as often as "sound it out."

Dorsey Hammond

Getting Started: Pronunciation, Meaning or Both?

I teach minilessons during this month that either introduce or review 12 fix-up strategies I believe all children should master. I ask students to add to their lists in their daybooks as I introduce and we work with each one. They are not in any specific order. As a matter of fact, students use multiple strategies most of the time.

The most effective, fix-up strategy all readers try first is sounding it out. However, when faced with an unfamiliar, multi-syllable word or sight word, there are other cues children should have in their reading toolkits. Many don't. These strategies should be taught to any student or group of students who depend on that one, fix-up strategy - sounding it out. I've gathered these from many sources and from working with children throughout the years.

1. Take words apart in chunks or syllables and sound them out. Teach the Spot and Dot rules. (See below.)
2. Skip the word and read on. See if you can come back and figure out the word.
3. Use connections to understand what the writer is talking about. Try to think about what you know to figure out the confusing parts of the reading.
4. Reread.
5. Read slower.
6. Use context clues. Read around the words and figure out the unknown word.
7. Remember. Try to remember where you have seen the word or the root word before.
8. Use the picture to get information that may help you figure out the word.
9. Use the dictionary to find the sound spelling and/or the meaning.
10. Take a guess. Know when to guess and when to look up a word.
11. Ask for help.
12. Keep a word list. Give yourself a gift. Keep track of new vocabulary and their meanings in some way.

For my minilessons, I find or create passages that force the students to use each strategy, similar to the way Keene and Zimmermann forced me to use my strategies when reading the passages at the beginning of each chapter in Mosaic of Thought. Your groups may need one day or many days depending on their grade level and reading sophistication to learn these fix-up concepts.

Encourage your students to share with one another how they figured out the pronunciation and the meaning of difficult words. The discovery and discussion that corresponds with the reading...with reading taking the biggest chunk of time... will help students become more proficient. Also, tell your students that unlocking the meaning of texts is a lifelong skill. Readers never arrive, per se. As they become better readers, they use these very same strategies on more difficult texts.

Again, the need for long periods of time for study is obvious, but your students will be happier for it. I've gone into classes thinking I'd be teaching a 15-minute minilesson, only to find the students didn't want me to leave 45 minutes later. One Friday afternoon, I was called to cover a class and there were no lesson plans. So, I gave each child a dictionary and taught how to use the sound spelling to pronounce multi-syllable words. We spent an hour just reading the dictionary, trying to find the biggest words we could to stump our friends. Children love discovering how to unlock the pronunciation and the meaning of unknown words. They enjoy the puzzle-solving aspect of working with our language!

Sample Lesson: Unlock Unfamiliar Words

Materials
pull a small group of children for this lesson, no more than 6
chart with "Reading Strategies for Figuring Out Unfamiliar Words" you've made ahead of time
copies of a difficult text for the teacher to read - one for each student and one for you
passage for students - pick a passage above their independent reading level
paper and pencils for each student or reader response journals
timer or clock

Lesson Part I: Think Aloud to Determine Fix-Up Strategies We Know

1. Remind kids that they have talked with their teachers and assistants over the years about what to do when they come across unfamiliar words. Tell them that you made a list of ideas that you'd like to share BUT FIRST you want them to make their own list so you can see where you agree.
2. Record their ideas on chart paper. (By brainstorming their own list, they will remember better and be engaged more when they match their list to your list.)
3. Share your list that you've made on chart paper and compare the two lists. Add any ideas they came up with to your chart that are different (and worthy!) and hang it in your space. Tell them they will refer to this chart of strategies often.

	Reading Strategies for Figuring Out Unfamiliar Words Look for familiar chunks and sound it out. Look for little words and big words in the word. Think about whether you've seen the word before, where and in what context. Reread the sentence OR read ahead to gather context clues. Ask yourself, "What will make sense and matches the letters?" Substitute a word that makes sense in the sentence.

4. Think Aloud. Model how you go about using these strategies. Give copies of a difficult text to students and keep a copy for yourself. (I like to use a piece taken from a book on brain research. Encyclopedias are other good sources of difficult texts.) Slowly, read the piece aloud to the students. When you come across words you do not know, talk out loud about what you do to help yourself through the reading. (Do not spend more than 10 minutes on this part of the lesson. You do not need to read the whole passage to make the point. Collect the papers.)

I'd say words to this effect aloud.


	Unfamiliar word		I say...
	Topic 21.3 The biology of the creative personality		Well, I know that 21.3 is probably the text chapter number because this comes from a brain research book. I need to think about what I know about the brain to help me read this book. I'm wondering how the book is structured if the chapters say 21 point 3!
	"Exploring (High in the Openness trait) is probably related to higher acetylcholine, calpain and C-kinase level..."		I can't read acetylcholine and I don't think I need to because it is a name and as I long as I can recognize it, I don't need to know how to pronounce it. I don't know what calpain is but I recognize pain is pain and cal looks like pal so I'll guess and say cal-pain.

5. If new strategies come up that you use, add new strategies to the chart that hangs in the room. Be sure to add...

7- I can pronounce names any way I want in silent reading.

6. Give students a short story or passage to read silently. Tell them you picked a passage that is harder than normal for the purpose of this lesson. Ask them to read and record the strategies they use when they come across unfamiliar words on a chart like the one below. Set the timer and tell students that they can work 10 minutes and you will stop them when 10 minutes is up whether they are done or not.

	Unfamiliar word		Number of the strategy I used to figure it out

7. Ask the students to talk through their chart with a partner. Tell their partner what words gave them trouble. Share what strategies they tried to figure out the word. Get help from their partner in figuring out the unfamiliar words.
8. Let the partners share with the whole group any words the students could not figure out alone or with their partner. Have the group figure out the words and share how they knew what the word meant. Take the time to model using more than one, and possibly all the strategies, when trying to figure out tough words.
9. Add any new strategies to the chart.

Lesson Part II: Apply Fix-Up Strategies to Taking Tests

Objective
Relating what we learned yesterday about attacking unfamiliar words to reading tests.

Materials
strategies chart from yesterday posted in the work space
1 copy of reading passage per child
brown bag or basket with reading strategy strips cut up and inside (see below)
handout - test questions - one for each child (see below)

1. Tell students something like, "You can apply everything you have learned about attacking unfamiliar words that we talked about yesterday to taking a test."
2. Review the strategies on the chart. Let each child reach into the bag and pull out one of the strategies that we talked about yesterday. Ask the student to read what's on the strip and then tell what it means in his/her own words. Use this time to reteach and reinforce what was discussed yesterday. Collect the strips back.
3. Work together as a whole group to use the fix-up strategies from the list you made yesterday. Pick the most difficult passage in your book to read aloud together. Ask one child at a time to read a paragraph, to stop when confronted with a new word, and use one more strategies to figure out the unfamiliar word.
4. This process is a slow one and the other children will be tempted to offer their help. Explain to the others that you are modeling what you want them to do for one another when they partner read. When it is not their turn, their job is to watch closely at the kinds of questions you ask and how you help a child figure out the word for himself. The goal is to help one another use the reading strategies to figure out new words, not to read perfectly.
5. Give each person time to demonstrate what they know. Make sure that they feel comfortable with the assignment: using fix-up strategies to help them when they get stuck. (Explain that they are just beginning to "think about their thinking." Eventually, the strategies will become automatic and the work will be easier. Point out that there are passages on end of grade tests that are above grade level. They may not know that. So how should they handle it? Use their strategies! Finally, let them know that everyone - even adults - use the same strategies just like you modeled yesterday. Even though texts get harder, the reading strategies stay the same.)
6. Choose a second passage for children to try independently. Have them record the unfamiliar word(s) and the strategy number(s) on a T-chart just like they did in the previous lesson. (I found that asking the children to record the number of the strategy they use makes this practice go more quickly, but you could use a key word just as well.)

	Unfamiliar word		Number of the strategy I used to figure it out

7. Share with a partner and then with the group like yesterday.
8. Add any new strategies to your chart.

Lesson Part III: Apply Fix-Up Strategies to Question Stems and Answer Choices

Objective
Relating what we learned yesterday about attacking unfamiliar words to reading test questions and test answers.

Materials
strategies chart from yesterday posted in the work space
1 copy of reading passage per child
1 copy of unfamiliar word strategies for each child (see below)
handout - test questions - one for each child (see below)

1. Give students their own copy of "What to do With Unfamiliar Words" to paste in their daybook. (See handout for students below.) Review the strategies with the students. Ask again if they need to review any of the strategies or if they need any clarified. If a student from the group was absent, have the others explain the fix-up strategies to that student.

2. Give students copy of sample questions from tests. (See handout for students below.) Lead a discussion with your group about what to do when they come across unfamiliar words in the answers or the questions. Lead the kids to the best choice of strategy that is in the parentheses. Collect them when you're done.

Examples of questions they may see on tests:

• Based on what you have read in this story, what would be the best thing to do if your teacher had made an error on your report card? (Can you substitute a word that makes sense for the word "error"? Strategy #6)

• Which word best describes Leila Josefowicz? (You do not have to be able to pronounce the name "Josefowicz." Refer to the passage for the answer. Strategy #7)

• What is the main theme of this selection? (If you don't know the word theme, for example, look at the answers to see if one of the choices seems like the right answer. Also, try to eliminate choices that are obviously not right. Do not shy away from picking an answer that includes a word you can't read IF you know that all the other answers are wrong. Also, it helps if you can relax a minute. Don't panic. Some students advise remembering where you have heard the word theme before. Strategy #3)

• How does Leila manage her demanding schedule? (Skip the word "demanding" and see if the sentence makes sense. You can sometimes get away with skipping adjectives. Strategy #4)

• Why are fast dribbling and crunch sit-ups helpful for soccer players? (You do not have to know how to pronounce the word to get the answer right. Go back to passage and reread what it says for crunch sit-ups to answer the question. Modification of Strategy #7)

• Sometimes the question says something like, "Suppose you did not know the meaning of the word precipitation. What is the first thing you would do?" Read the question! You do not have to know the word to answer this question. It's asking you what would you do if you didn't know a word. Hopefully, "Use your dictionary." would be one of the answer choices. Strategy #4

   

3. Emphasize one piece of advice; If you find an answer choice has an unfamiliar word, use the same strategies we've been practicing. However, do not be afraid to choose an answer that has an unfamiliar word. If you know the other 3 answers are wrong, the answer with the unfamiliar word must be right!

4. Ask students to add new strategies they learned today to their daybooks. (For tests and all reading tasks, reference the text! Work around words you can't pronounce by reading all answer choices and eliminating answers.)

Handout for students to glue in their notebooks or notes:

Sentence strips to use in Lesson II. Cut into strips for review activity and place in bucket or paper bag. Write out any strategies that you came up with that weren't in the lesson plan.

Look for familiar chunks and sound it out.

Look for little words and big words in the word.

Think about whether you've seen the word before, where and in what context.

Reread the sentence OR read ahead to gather context clues.

Ask yourself, "What will make sense and matches the letters?"

Substitute a word that makes sense in the sentence.

I can pronounce names any way I want in silent reading.

Fix-Up Strategies and Question Stems (Question stems to use in Lesson III.)

Directions: What strategy would you use if you came across these unfamiliar words in a test question or question stem?

1. Based on what you have read in this story, what would be the best thing to do if your teacher made an error on your report card?

 

 

2. Which word best describes Leila Josefowicz?

 

 

3. What is the main theme of this passage?

 

 

4. How does Leila manage her demanding schedule?

 

 

5. Why are fast dribbling and crunch sit-ups helpful for soccer players?

 

 

6. Suppose you did not know the meaning of the word precipitation. What is the first thing you would do?

Hot Spot and Dot

Adapted from the work presented to me by Dr. Wendy Cheyney.

Use hot spot and dot to figure out words that are unfamiliar. In order to use this strategy, the child should know the difference between a long vowel (or say-its-own-name vowel) and a short vowel sound (or say-its-other-sound vowel).

Students divide mult-syllable words using the rules that follow.

Steps to figuring out multi-syllable words:

• Spot the vowels.
• Dot the vowels.
• Connect the dots.
• Divide the word into parts. (Doesn't necessarily match syllable rules.)
• Figure out the vowel sounds. (Remember, if the rules don't work, try another sound.)

2-Consonant Rule
If there are 2 consonants, divide between them:

but  ter (Say the u's other sound - not it's name.)

1-Consonant Rule
If there is 1 consonant, divide after the vowel.

ta  ken (Say the a's name.)

The Bossy /r/
If there is an /r/ after the vowel - keep the /r/ with the vowel and say the r-controlled vowel sound.

fur   long (The u now has a new sound: /ur/)

The /le/ Rule
The le grabs the consonant with before it.

ta   ble

Suffixes and Prefixes Rule
Suffixes and prefixes should be taken off immediately. Then work with the rest of the word.

mis  represent  ed

Can you figure out these words?
contemporary
subterfuge
halberd
percolator
superstition
vassalage