Is S s an
THE FISH STRATEGY
Moving From
Sight Words to Decoding
Susan D. Whitaker
Linda J. Hassell * Tammy Linder
Jeremy is able to read at a second-
grade level now although he is actual-
ly in the fourth grade. He has estab-
lished a basic sight vocabulary and
knows consonant sounds. He has been
unable to learn the vowel sounds and
rules and struggles to decode
unknown words. His teacher is con-
cerned that he seems "stuck" at this
reading level.
Shaquilla is also in fourth grade,
and is reading significantly below
grade level. When she comes to a
word she doesn't know, she tries to
read it based on the beginning letters
and the general configuration of the
word. She has not seemed to be able
to learn enough phonics to really
decode unknown words. Therefore,
her reading is slow with many mis-
cues.
Do you know these students? Perhaps
you have students very much like them
in your classes. We know that many stu-
dents with disabilities struggle with
reading. They frequently have difficulty
with phonological awareness and phon-
ics. They often read slowly with many
errors and lack fluency. They lack
strategies for quickly figuring out
14 m COUNCIL FOR EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN
( r l Access
9 Michele Harvey
e Debra Tutterrow
unknown words. Although they usually
are able to establish a basic sight word
vocabulary, moving them from reading
sight words to being able to decode
unknown words remains a struggle. It
was for students such as Jeremy and
Shaquilla that we developed the FISH
strategy to help them learn to use onsets
sound to use. Other children just
and rimes to move from known words
appeared to make random guesses.
to decoding unknown words.
Why Onsets and Rimes?
In observing unsuccessful readers such
as Jeremy and Shaquilla, we realized
that something was missing in their pro-
cessing. Although they had been taught
to read the sight words they needed to
analogize to new words, they seemed
not to recognize the resemblance
between the words they knew and sim-
ilar patterns in unknown words. Some
Children at risk for failure in learning
children's errors appeared to result from
to read do not seem to discover what
an impulsive style combined with anxi-
teachers have left unsaid about the com-
ety about their difficulties in learning to plexities of word learning. As a result, it
read. These children responded too is important to teach them specific pro-
quickly to words without looking care- cedures for learning words (Gaskins,
fully at all the letters. Other children Ehri, Cress, O'Hara, & Donnelly,
tried to sound out words letter by letter 1996/1997). By the end of third grade
rather than by patterns and gave up children will be expected to recognize
quickly when they did not know what by sight more than 80,000 words.
Clearly, they must develop some proce-
dure for analyzing and learning these
words (Juel & Minden-Cupp, 2000).
The most effective way for beginning
readers to store sight words in memory
is to fully analyze the sounds in the spo-
ken word and to match those sounds to
the letters in the printed form of words
(Ehri & Robbins, 1992). However, "read-
ing unfamiliar words by analogy to
known words is an easier process and
can be executed by beginners more
readily than reading unfamiliar words
by phonologically recoding the words"
(p. 22). In analogizing, children learn to
use word parts from known words and
relate them to unknown words to make
logical decisions about how to pro-
nounce the unknown words (Wanzek &
Haager, 2003).
Although some students are unable
to segment spoken words into their
smallest sounds, they can, however,
divide words into the larger components
of onset (the initial consonant or conso-
nants) and rime (the vowel and the let-
ters after it that form the rest of the syl-
lable; Gaskins et al., 1996/1997).
Learning that "end" represents /end/ is
much easier than learning it as the sep-
arate sounds of short /e/, /n/, /d/.
Asking young readers to isolate the
vowel or to sound their way through a
word letter by letter applying phonics
rules is asking them to do something
that is very abstract, complex, and for
some, impossible (Johnston, 1999). The
more natural proclivity for learning
onset and rimes may be related to the
fact that for most children sensitivity to
rhyme develops easily and is one of the
earliest instances of phonological
awareness to emerge; thus, it makes
sense to use this skill of rhyming to help
support the study of more abstract and
difficult phonological insights (Adams,
1990).
In addition to being more psycholog-
ically accessible to children than indi-
vidual phonemes, rimes are also more
predictable in their spellings and pro-
nunciations than are smaller linguistic
units (Juel & Minden-Cupp, 2000).
Furthermore, for children with memory
deficits, holding in mind and blending
only two sounds is much easier than
dealing with many smaller sound seg-
Figure 1. The FISH Strategy
THE FISH STRATEGY
Find the rime (the first vowel and the rest of the word)
Identify the rime or a word you know that ends like that
Say the rime (the word you know without the first sound)
Hook the new onset (beginning sound) to the rime
AND YOU HAVE SAID YOUR NEW WORD!
ments (Gaskins et al., 1996/1997). Just
38 phonograms with added beginning
consonants can make 654 different one-
syllable words (Fry, 1998). Children can
use these larger chunks of letters to read
faster and more efficiently rather than
having to blend each individual sound.
The study of onsets and rimes offers
a friendly route to phonics and decod-
ing. The fewer demands for phonemic
awareness, blending, memory, and
phonics rules make decoding with
onsets and rimes a much more accessi-
ble strategy for young, inexperienced,
and at-risk readers (Fox, 2000). Children
can learn to work with sounds in the
context of easily perceived and immedi-
ately useful units (Johnston, 1999).
Why a Learning Strategy?
Teachers need to help children develop
metacognitive knowledge about their
learning processes. In addition, children
need specific explicit instruction in how
to learn the key words needed to decode
with onsets and rimes (Gaskins et al.,
1996/1997). Recent research suggests
that effective decoding instruction
should be explicit and systematic; that
is, decoding should be taught intention-
ally in a logical sequence, rather than
embedded within more global literacy
experiences (Torgesen et al., 1999).
Researchers at the University of
Kansas have done extensive research
into the use of learning strategies with
students with learning disabilities
(Deshler et al., 2001; Lenz, Ellis, &
TEACHING
.. ,
Scanlon, 1996). The objective of a learn-
ing strategies approach is to teach stu-
dents how to learn rather than just
teaching the student what is contained
in a specific curriculum-in this case,
teaching children how to approach
decoding rather than just teaching them
individual sight words or sounds. One
widely used model of strategy instruc-
tion is Strategies Intervention Model
(SIM) developed and validated at the
Kansas Center for Research on Learn-
ing. This model uses a series of eight
instructional stages to teach a specific
learning strategy (Ellis, Deshler, Lenz,
Schumaker, & Clark, 1991). We, there-
fore, chose this model to teach the FISH
strategy.
When Do We Teach the FISH
Stratew*.
Students are ready to be introduced to
the FISH strategy when they are at the
full-alphabetic stage as this strategy
moves them into the orthographic or
consolidated alphabetic stage, This
means that students should have a
good repertoire of sight words and
should be at the point where they look
at the whole word rather than just
guessing at the word from the begin-
ning letter(s) and the general configura-
tion. In addition, students should know
initial consonant sounds (and prefer-
ably consonant blends and digraphs).
In terms of phonological awareness,
students should be able to rhyme words
EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN - MAY/JUN 2006 m15
 * Show and explain the steps in FISH.
Figure 2. Rules for Dividing Words Into Syllables Present the mnemonic "We are fish-
DIVIDING WORDS INTO SYLLABLES ing for new words."

Put your fingers on the first two vowels and see if there are any consonants Step 3: Model the Strategy
between them. If there are, use these rules. If not, move to the next vowel. "* The teacher takes an unknown word
>If there is one consonant between the vowels, you usually divide before the and models each step of the FISH
consonant. strategy using that word.
SIf there are two consonants, you usually divide between the two conso- "* The teacher models the thinking
nants (but don't break up blends or digraphs). process for each step.
"* The teacher refers to the visual chart
SIf there are three consonants, you usually divide between the first and sec-
of the steps while modeling the
ond consonant (but don't break up blends or digraphs).
process.
-- If there are four consonants, you usually divide them two and two (but
don't break up blends or digraphs). Step 4: Verbally Practice the
Strategy
Let's look at some examples: "* The student practices saying the
Began: Put your finger on e and a. There is one consonant between them, steps in the FISH strategy until he or
so divide the word as be-gan. Now you have the -e rime and the -an rime. she can easily recite them from
memory. The student must be able
Betray: Put your finger on e and a. There are two consonants between
them, so you would normally divide between the two consonants, but tr is to recite the steps easily before he or
a blend so you treat it as one consonant and divide the word as be-tray. she can be expected to apply the
Now you have the -e rime and the -ay rime. steps to words.
Bookmark: Put your finger on o and o. There are no consonants between
"* The teacher should use various
them. Put your finger on the second o and the a. There are two consonants memorization strategies such as the
between them and km is not a blend, so you divide between them and FISH mnemonic, writing the steps,
divide the word as book-mark. Now you have the -ook rime and the -ark reciting the steps, creating a poster,
rime. etc. to reinforce learning the steps.
Step 5: Controlled Practice and
Feedback
and use consonant deletion and substi- Step I: Pretest and Obtain "* The teacher should refer frequently
tution so that they are able to delete Commitment to Learn to the steps in the strategy and walk
onsets and substitute other onsets in "* Pretest to determine if the student the student through the process with
their place. The FISH strategy appears to various words, gradually reducing
can decode using onsets and rimes.
be most effective with students reading scaffolding.
"* Pretest to determine if the student
at a late first to beginning third grade
knows initial consonants, blends,
"* The teacher should start by teaching
level. one rime at a time and begin with
and digraphs.
rimes that are easy words such as
What Is the FISH Strategy?.
"* Pretest to find out if the student can
-at, -all, etc. Students should then
do consonant deletion and conso- decode many words in that rime
The FISH strategy makes explicit what
nant substitution and is therefore family such as bat, cat, fat, hat, mat,
students must do to decode unknown
words using onsets and rimes. Students ready to learn the strategy. pat, rat, sat, brat, chat, flat, that, etc.
learn to "fish" for new words using "* Get student to commit to learn the "* When the student is successful with
words they know. (See Figure 1.) strategy. Students often respond well one rime family, another rime family
to signing a contract agreeing to should be introduced.
How Do You Teach the FISH learn and try the strategy. "• Then the teacher should mix rimes
that the student has learned so that
Strategy?.
Step 2: Describe the Strategy the student has to use the FISH strat-
The FISH strategy is taught using the
"* Give a few examples of words the egy to decode the words.
same steps that are used to teach any
other strategy. The teacher should intro- student doesn't know. Discuss that Step 6: Advanced Practice and
duce the strategy, provide guided prac- readers need to be able to figure out Feedback
tice with relatively easy words using new words when they read. * When the student is successful with
only a few known rimes, and then pro- "* Explain that FISH is a way to figure between 6 and 10 different rimes, the
vide more advanced practice using the out words that the student does not teacher then moves the student to
strategy with more difficult rimes. already know. using the FISH strategy:

16 m COUNCIL FOR EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN

 - With harder words.
- With words in context.
- With mixed onsets and rimes.
- Eventually with new rimes that
have not been directly taught.
The student gradually becomes more
independent in using the FISH strat-
egy and begins to use it in everyday
reading.
Step 7: Posttest and Commitment
"* The teacher posttests the student on
the effective use of the FISH strategy
with unknown words.
"* The teacher obtains a commitment
from the student to use the strategy.
Step 8: Generalization
"* As the student reads and comes to
unknown words, the teacher
prompts the student to use the FISH
strategy.
"* The teacher watches to see that the
student uses the strategy when read-
ing without prompting.
If the strategy is taught for approxi-
mately 15 to 20 minutes per day, within
about 4 weeks most students will be
able to learn the strategy, apply it in
words with rimes they have been direct-
ly taught, and move to generalizing the
strategy and begin to apply it with rimes
they have not been directly taught.
When students are able to fluently
use the strategy in single syllable words,
the teacher can introduce the use of the
strategy in multisyllable words. This
necessitates introducing rules for divid-
ing words into syllables. Once students
are able to divide words into syllables,
they simply use the FISH strategy to
decode each syllable and then blend the
two syllables to make the word (see
Figure 2).
Practice Activities
We used a variety of practice activities
with the students. Rimes were generally
introduced with a key word and a
tachistoscope (a device that shows an
image for a specific but adjustable
amount of time); for example the -at
rime was introduced with the word
"cat" and a tachistoscope shaped like a
cat. The tachistoscope had -at written
on it with a cutout for a strip of paper
Figure 3. Results of an Action Research Study Using FISH Strategy
AN ACTION RESEARCH STUDY ON THE
EFFECTIVENESS OF THE FISH STRATEGY
Four teachers identified students who would benefit from instruction in the
FISH strategy. Students were all reading at a second- to third-grade level and
knew consonants, blends, and digraphs. There were a total of 20 students ages
10 to 12 in the sample. Students were 90 % African American and 75 % male.
Whereas 80% of the students were diagnosed as having a learning disability,
10% were diagnosed as having an emotional disability, and 10% were diag-
nosed with a mild mental disability. All students received free and reduced
lunch and were enrolled in two different elementary schools in an urban
school district. The teachers taught the FISH strategy to the students in small
groups for 15 to 20 minutes per day for 4 weeks. Initially they taught the strat-
egy, and then they taught the students to use the strategy with a different rime
each day. Students built words with various onsets and the target rime. They
then played games and did various activities to practice decoding words with
all of the rines studied thus far. Students were then posttested by having them
read a list of words using rimes explicitly taught and rimes not yet taught (to
test for generalization).
Analysis of this data revealed a significant difference between mean pre-
and posttest scores for single initial consonants and rimes t(19) = 5.85;
p < .0005, for consonant blends and digraphs and rimes t(19) 10.70;
p < .0005, and for the total test score t(19) = 16.70; p < .0005. These find-
ings show that the instruction in the FISH strategy for decoding words with
onsets and rimes resulted in a significantly higher posttest score (M = 53.00,
SD = 14.82) as compared to the pretest score (M = 36.30, SD = 16.10).
Further analysis of the data reveals a significant difference in the pre- and
posttest scores for the rimes directly taught in the lessons, t(19) = 10.75;
p < .0005, as well as for the rimes that were not directly taught in the lessons,
t(19) = 3.45; p < .009. Students showed a mean increase of approximately 11
words on the 42 words that used rimes that were directly taught and a mean
increase of approximately 4 words on the 32 words with rimes that were not
directly taught.
These findings indicate that although the improvement was greater for the
rimes directly taught, the students were able to transfer the learning and use
the strategy to decode words that included rimes that were not directly taught
even after a relatively short period of instruction.
Teachers reported that the students enjoyed the strategy and that they could
see the students using the strategy to decode unknown words. One teacher
said, "I see the children talking themselves through the acronym while trying
to read an unfamiliar word. I witnessed children with very poor decoding skills
become successful decoders using this strategy." Another teacher said, "Using
the FISH strategy allowed me to provide my students with another tool they
can use to decode unfamiliar words. Learning to isolate the end rime was espe-
cially helpful to them and after repeated practice, many began to use it auto-
matically during independent reading." Another teacher reported that one of
her students who was very unsure of his decoding skills learned this strategy
and then would say, "Just give me time now. I want to 'break it down' to solve
the word." Students enjoyed being able to "fish" independently to figure out
the new words.
with various onsets. The paper could be onsets were written on yellow cards.
slipped through the tachistoscope to Students combined onsets with the rime
make various words such as cat, bat, to make new words.
hat, that, flat, etc. The shape of the Students often enjoyed playing
tachistoscope served as a cue to the games with the onsets and rimes. A
rime. Students then had letter cards that favorite game was "fishing." Words
they used to make words. The rime was were written on cutout fish. A paperclip
written on a blue card, and the various was attached to the fish, and students
TEACHING EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN 0 MAY/JUN 2006 * 17

SUGGESTED SUPPLEMENTAL
RESOURCES
SWord Family Mini-Storybooks
from Scholastic, Inc., 2931 East
McCarty Street, Jefferson City,
MO 65102 (duplicating masters
for short stories using various
common word families)
>- Word Families (books 1, 2, and
3) from Remedia Publications,
15887 N. 76th Street, Suite
120, Scottsdale, AZ 85260
(worksheets and activities for
common word families)
:- Building Word Families (books
1 and 2) from S & S Learning
Materials, 15 Dairy Avenue,
Napanee, Ontario K7R IM4
(worksheets, hands-on activi-
ties, patterns for tachisto-
scopes, and activity forms)
were given a fishing pole with a magnet
at the end. Students used the fishing
pole to pick up a fish. They had to iden-
tify the rime and use the FISH strategy
to read the word in order to keep the
fish. They also used the fish to play var-
ious board games where they picked a
fish, used the FISH strategy to read the
word, and then rolled dice to move
ahead on a board game. As students
progressed in their use of the strategy,
they read short stories that incorporated
words with various rimes. There are
many commercially prepared materials
using onsets and rimes (sometimes
called word families or chunks) that can
be used to reinforce the use of the FISH
strategy (see the box titled "Suggested
Supplemental Resources").
18 mCOUNCIL FOR EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN
Final Thoughts
The use of the FISH strategy enabled
students to learn a systematic approach
to looking at unknown words and
decoding them by analogizing and
using onsets and rimes. Students were
able to learn the strategy and use it with
rimes that had been specifically taught,
and then were able to transfer the use of
the strategy to times that had not been
specifically taught. Students enjoyed
"fishing" for new words and were excit-
ed about their ability to decode
unknown words using the strategy.
Students such as Jeremy and Shaquilla
were able to use their knowledge of
basic sight words to decode unknown
words by analogizing. The use of the
strategy began to move them from sight
words to decoding and helped them
take that next step in improving their
reading levels.
References
Adams, M. J. (1990). Beginning to read:
Thinking and learning about print.
Cambridge: Massachusetts Institute of
Technology Press. (ERIC Document
Reproduction Service No. ED 317 950)
Deshler, D., Schumaker, J., Lenz, B., Bulgren,
J., Hock, M., Knight, et al. (2001). Ensur-
ing content-area learning by secondary
students with learning disabilities. Learn-
ing DisabilitiesResearch & Practice, 16(2),
96-108.
Ehri, L. C., & Robbins, C. (1992). Beginners
need some decoding skill to read words by
analogy. Reading Research Quarterly,
27(1), 12-26.
Ellis, E., Deshler, D., Lenz, K., Schumaker, J.
& Clark, F. (1991). An instructional model
for teaching learning strategies. Focus on
Exceptional Children, 23(6), 1-23.
Fox, B. J. (2000). Word identification strate-
gies: Phonics from a new perspective (2nd
ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-
Hall.
Fry, E. (1998). The most common phono-
grams. The Reading Teacher, 51, 620-622.
Gaskins, I. W, Ehri, L. C., Cress, C., O'Hara,
C., & Donnelly, K. (1996/1997). Proce-
dures for word learning: Making discover-
ies about words. The Reading Teacher, 50,
312-327.
Johnston, F. R. (1999). The timing and teach-
ing of word families. The Reading Teacher,
53(1), 64-76.
Juel, C., & Minden-Cupp, C. (2000). Learning
to read words: Linguistic units and
instructional strategies. Reading Research
Quarterly, 35, 458-489.
Lenz, B. K., Ellis, E. S., & Scanlon, D. (1996).
Teaching learning strategies to adolescents
and adults with learning disabilities.
Austin, TX: Pro-Ed.
Torgesen, J., Wagner, R., Rashotte, C., Rose,
E., Lindamood, P., Conway, T. & Garvan,
C. (1999). Preventing reading failure in
young children with phonological process-
ing disabilities: Group and individual
responses to instruction. Journal of
EducationalPsychology, 91, 579-593.
Wanzek, J. & Haager, D. (2003). Teaching
word recognition with blending and
analogizing. TEACHING Exceptional Child-
ren, 36(1), 32-38.
Susan D. Whitaker, Directorof Special Edu-
cation; Michele Harvey, Special Education
Teacher; Linda J. Hassell, Special Education
Teacher; Tammy Linder (CEC SC Federa-
tion), Special Education Teacher; and Debra
Tutterrow, Special Education Teacher,
Spartanburg County School District No. 7,
Spartanburg,South Carolina.
Address correspondence to Susan D.
Whitaker, Directorof Special Education,Spar-
tanburg County School District No. 7, 698
Howard Street, Spartanburg, SC 29303.
(e-mail: sue1211@aol.com).
TEACHING Exceptional Children, Vol. 38,
No. 5, pp. 14-18.
Copyright 2006 CEC.
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TITLE: The Fish Strategy: Moving From Sight Words to

Decoding
SOURCE: Teaching Exceptional Children 38 no5 My/Je 2006
PAGE(S): 14-18
WN: 0612100442004

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