WORD RECOGNITON

Improving Word Recognition Skills: What Works? "The most important outcome of teaching word
recognition," Dr. Swanson emphasizes, "is that students learn to recognize real words, not simply sound
out 'nonsense' words using phonics skills." What other terms might teachers or other professionals use
to describe a child's problem with "word recognition"  decoding  phonics  phonemic awareness 
word attack skills Direct instruction appears the most effective approach for improving word recognition
skills in students with learning disabilities. Direct instruction refers to teaching skills in an explicit, direct
fashion. It involves drill/repetition/practice and can be delivered to one child or to a small group of
students at the same time. The three instruction components that proved most effective in increasing
word recognition skills in students with learning disabilities are described below. Ideally, a reading
program for word recognition will include all three components. Increasing Word Recognition Skills in
Students With LD Instruction component Program Activities and Techniques* Sequencing The teacher: 
Breaks down the task (e.g., starts by having the child break an unknown word into separate sounds or
parts they can sound out).  Gradually reduces prompts or cues.  Matches the difficulty level to the task
and to the student.  Sequences short activities (e.g., first spends 10 minutes reviewing new words from
a previous lesson, then 5 minutes underlining new words in the passage, and finally 5 minutes practicing
blends).  Uses step-by-step prompts. Segmentation The teacher:  Breaks down the targeted skill (e.g.,
identifying a speech or letter sound) into smaller units or component parts (e.g., sounding out each
speech or letter sound in that word).  Segments or synthesizes component parts (e.g., sounds out each
phoneme in a word, then blends the sounds together). Advanced organizers The teacher:  Directs
children to look over material prior to instruction.  Directs children to focus on particular information. 
Provides students with prior information about tasks.  Tells students the objectives of instruction
upfront. * May be called "treatment description" in research studies. Improving reading comprehension
skills: What works? The most effective approach to improving reading comprehension in students with
learning disabilities appears to be a combination of direct instruction and strategy instruction. Strategy
instruction means teaching students a plan (or strategy) to search for patterns in words and to identify
key passages (paragraph or page) and the main idea in each. Once a student learns certain strategies, he
can generalize them to other reading comprehension tasks. The instruction components found most
effective for improving reading comprehension skills in students with LD are shown in the table below.
Ideally, a program to improve reading comprehension should include all the components shown.
Improving Reading Comprehension in Students With LD Instruction component Program Activities and
Techniques* Directed response/questioning The teacher:  Asks questions.  Encourages students to ask
questions. The teacher and student(s):  Engage in dialogue. Control difficulty of processing demands of
task The teacher:  Provides assistance (as needed).  Gives a simplified demonstration.  Sequences
tasks from easy to difficult.  Presents easy steps or concepts first and moves on to progressively more
difficult steps or concepts (a technique called task analysis).  Allows student to control level of
difficulty. The activities:  Are short. Elaboration The activities:  Provide student with additional
information or explanation about concepts, steps, or procedures.  Use redundant text or repetition
within text. Modeling of steps by the teacher Teacher demonstrates the processes and/or steps the
students are to follow. Group instruction Instruction and/or verbal interaction takes place in a small
group composed of students and teacher Strategy cues The teacher:  Reminds the student to use
strategies or multiple steps.  Explains steps or procedures for solving problems. The activities:  Use
"think aloud" models.  List the benefits of strategy use or procedures. * May be called "treatment
description" in research studies. Evaluating your child's reading program Now you are well-equipped
with research-based guidelines on the best teaching methods for kids with reading disabilities. These
guidelines will serve you well even as new reading programs become available. To evaluate the reading
program used in your child's classroom, follow these steps: 1. Ask for detailed literature on your child's
reading program. Some schools voluntarily provide information about the reading programs they use. If
they don't do this — or if you need more detail than what they provide — don't hesitate to request it
from your child's teacher, special education teacher, resource specialist, or a school district
administrator. In any school — whether public or private — it is your right to have access to such
information. 2. Once you have literature on a specific reading program, locate the section(s) that
describe its instruction components. Take note of where your child's reading program "matches" and
where it "misses" the instruction components recommended in this article. To document what you find,
you may find our worksheets helpful. o Reading Program Evaluation: Word Recognition o Reading
Program Evaluation: Reading Comprehension 3. Find out if the instruction model your child's teacher
uses is Direct Instruction, Strategy Instruction, or a combination approach. Some program literature
states which approach a teacher should use; in other cases, it's up to the teacher to decide. Compare
the approach used to what this article describes as being most effective for addressing your child's area
of need. 4. Once you've evaluated your child's reading program, you may feel satisfied that her needs
are being met. If not, schedule a conference with her teacher (or her IEP team, if she has one) to present
your concerns and discuss alternative solutions. Hope and hard work — not miracles Finally, Dr.
Swanson cautions, "There is no 'miracle cure' for reading disabilities. Even a reading program that has all
the right elements requires both student and teacher to be persistent and work steadily toward reading
proficiency."

2.   In order for children to become fluent, strong readers, they need to possess print skills and
within those print skills, they need to master word recognition in order to become a good reader.
According to the Literacy Information and Communication Systems “Word recognition is the
ability of a reader to recognize written words correctly and virtually effortlessly. It is sometimes
referred to as ‘Isolated Word Recognition’ because it entails a reader's ability to recognize words
individually without the benefit of surrounding words for contextual help” (Print Skills, 2014). In
order for children to become progressively better readers, word recognition is considered to be a
main component of their literacy learning. 

          As of recently, word recognition is considered an important part of a child’s reading

development. However, this was not always true. According to Robinson, McKenna, & Conradi
(2012) “Before the mid 1930’s, teachers taught phonics through a mechanistic phonics approach.
In the last half of the 1930s, a backlash occurred. Scholars, publishers, and teachers banned
phonics instruction. By 1940, teachers did not teach phonics in schools” (Robinson, McKenna &,
Conradi, 2012, p. 6). This shows that literacy specialists did not feel that this was an important
component of learning how to read. However, “by the early 1950s, teachers taught phonics as the
last resort rather than banning it” (2012, p. 7). Then, as we progress into the 1960s, the importance
of word recognition had a comeback. “During the 1960s, numerous basal reading series include a
manual outlining how to teach each story. The manual included a program for analytical phonics
instruction that recommended that the teacher use known words and ask children to analyze the
phonetic elements in these words” (2012, p. 8). Now, as we progress into the 1970s, phonics was
considered to be important and teachers were encourage some type of phonics instruction in the
classroom, no matter what program or basal reader they were using. “During the 1980s, phonics
first programs and skill instruction decreased in use and basal readers include more literature
based stories because of the growing influence of whole language” (2012, p. 12). And finally, in
the 1990s, teachers were being encouraged to use various approaches simultaneously to improve
word recognition in readers. Overall, in the last century, researchers went back and forth between
the importance of word recognition in reading, and finally came to the conclusion that it is a
critical aspect in learning to read. 

         Soaking in all of this background information and history of word recognition can be quite
intimidating. However, it is rather easy to teach and implement into classrooms. One day I have
integrated all of this information into my current classroom instruction is by promoting activities
where children are always reading and writing. In order for students to become proficient readers,
they need to read often in a motivating and literate environment. Therefore, some of the word
recognition activities we complete in the classroom are word walls, flash cards, and spelling
folders just to name a few that integrate word recognition instruction. For the word walls, we put
up frequent words we see in our reading. For example, during our reading of Witch Child, by Celia
 Rees, the word “superstition” is repeated frequently throughout the book. Therefore, it is
important to discuss this word and place it on our Word Wall for students to have multiple
exposures to it. In our classroom we also incorporate flash cards during independent reading time
or conferences. Students read off the flash cards and we record how many words are pronounced
accurately per minute. This word recognition activities includes words students will read
frequently in our book club books, independent reading books, or classroom novels. Lastly, we
also include spelling folders for students. When students find a sight word or word from the word
wall in their independent reading novels, they record it in their spelling folder. Again, this is
another way for them to recognize a word and be able to practice it. All of these activities promote
accurate word recognition in students. 
Word Recognition

View the 
Word Recognition 
Diagnostic Testing Video

Word Recognition is the ability of a reader to recognize written words correctly and virtually effortlessly. It is
sometimes referred to as "isolated Word Recognition" because it entails a reader's ability to recognize words
individually—from a list, for example—without the benefit of surrounding words for contextual help.
Rapid and effortless Word Recognition is the main component of fluent reading. Words that beginning readers initially
sound out through Word Analysis or phonics come to be recognized as whole units after readers encounter them
repeatedly in connected text. This means that beginning readers need to read lots of connected text at an appropriate
level to solidify their Word Analysis and Word Recognition abilities—to move from sounding out words to rapid Word
Recognition. ABE learners need many encounters with a word in order to develop quick and accurate recognition of
it. Practice with flash cards, lists, and word grids is needed to provide these repeated encounters.
Readers also begin to notice and apply known spelling patterns to decode new words by analogy, for example, using
a familiar pattern such as consonant-en" as in Ben, hen, Ken to decode an unfamiliar word like fen (an archaic term
for marsh). Even after readers become proficient at Word Recognition, they may still have occasion to use their Word
Analysis or phonics skills when they encounter unusual words and complex multisyllabic words.
Learners who have difficulty with Word Recognition often misread words by substituting a similar-looking known word
for the target word; e.g., reading carrying  for carriage  or immorality for immortality. If they are reading a text on a
familiar topic, they can sometimes correct their miscues when they come to the end of the sentence or the end of the
paragraph. It is fortunate when learners are able to self-correct based on context, but this inefficient strategy only
works for very familiar topics. Learners who are reliant on context for Word Recognition usually have difficulty with
unfamiliar topics and reading to learn the new.
Assessment
It is critical to assess Word Recognition for any ABE learner who scores below GE 8 on a Silent Reading
Comprehension test. In addition to finding out a learner's mastery level in Word Recognition, you should make notes
of all errors. Then look for patterns among the words that were misread; e.g., syllable patterns like words ending in -
tion,  silent-e, or words containing double vowels (vowel digraphs) like strait. Patterns of errors by a learner or group
of learners can be used to plan focused lessons in Word Analysis and Word Recognition.
Download a free assessment of Word Recognition with directions and watch the short video clip (See the box at the
top right of this page.) on how to administer Word Recognition tests. Word Recognition testing only takes a few
minutes per learner, but it is time well spent.
We know that a predictor of learning to read for children is rapid recognition of all the letters. "Rapid" is important
because fast, accurate performance means not only that a task has been mastered but also that the learner has
achieved a level of automaticity for that task.
Acronyms and Abbreviations

GE = Grade Equivalent 

Sight words
The term "sight words" has two somewhat related but different meanings in reading instruction:
 the many common words in English that do not conform to rules of Word Analysis or phonetic decoding—
words like said, would, night, was, were, etc. (Some people refer to these words as "non-phonetic.")
 any words a reader can recognize instantly without sounding them out.

For the sake of clarity, ASRP uses the term sight words in the first sense only—the common words that do not
conform to rules of Word Analysis. The second meaning—any words a reader can recognize instantly—ASRP
includes in the category of Word Recognition.
With any learner scoring below GE 4 in Word Recognition, it is a good idea to assess her/his knowledge of the most
common sight words. Two lists you can use to assess sight word knowledge can be downloaded free on this Web
site: Dolch Basic Words and the Fry Instant Words. (The Fry list is based on word frequency in written English, so it
includes some common words that are easily decodable such as did.)
Methods for teaching sight words as whole units vary. It all boils down to using as many modalities as necessary to
help learners remember the forms and recognize these words instantaneously. Flash cards or other ways to have
repeated visual exposure to the word, writing the word, using a finger to trace the letter sequence, and visualizing the
word are some strategies for learning the words. Saying the word while looking, tracing, or visualizing brings in
another sense—hearing—to help impress the word in memory. Again, repetition is the key to acquiring mastery and
automaticity with sight words.
Approaches to instruction
Sight word teaching techniques should not be used as a substitute for teaching Word Analysis skills. Because most
adult poor readers have difficulty with Word Analysis skills, they tend to use a sight word approach on unfamiliar
words, when they should attempt to decode them. They substitute a word they know well for a new word that
somewhat resembles it, e.g., carrot  for carriage. The result is guessing, self-corrections, and misreading.RR
Non-native Speakers of English (NNSE) in Beginning and Intermediate Level ABE classes who already read an
alphabetic language proficiently can usually transfer what they know about decoding from their native language to
English. However, like native English speakers, they will need direct instruction with the many English sight words
that are not phonetically regular (e.g., would) as well as the letter combinations that can be pronounced in various
ways (e.g., -ough in rough, bough, and thought  ).

Phonics Games - Playing with Sounds

You can have great fun with your child playing phonics games, which are all
about playing with the sounds in words.

What’s more, many of these games can be played on the move so are ideal for
playing in the car or while waiting to be served in a restaurant.

By playing these games you are building your child’s phonological awareness,
that is his awareness of sounds in words. This is important because as his
awareness of sounds increases he will start to master skills which will eventually
help him to read and spell.

The different skills which these phonics games will help to develop are:

 Awareness of Syllables Separating words into syllables will help your

child break down longer words into parts to help him read or spell them eg
break down 'contact' into 'con' and 'tact'.
 Rhyming Being able to recognise and generate rhyming words will help
your child to read new words by comparing them to known, rhyming words
eg use 'could' to help him read 'would'.
 Isolating Sounds By learning that 'pen' and 'police' start with the same
sound, and that 'cat' and 'seat' end with the same sound, your child learns
to match spoken sounds to written letters.
  Blending Sounds When your child learns to blend the three individual
sounds /c/ /a/ and /t/ to make 'cat' he will then be able to "sound out" any
simple words in this way to read them.
 Segmenting Sounds When your child learns to break down the
word 'chip' into its three individual sounds /ch/ /i/ and /p/ he will then be
able to start spelling simple words.

Before starting these phonics games your child should be comfortable with letter
recognition. If he needs some practice on learning letters try these other early
literacy activities for learning letters first.

Your child is also sure to enjoy these word-based literacy games which are

designed to develop word recognition.

Awareness of Syllables
The following phonics game will teach your child to break down longer words into
parts which will eventually help when reading and spelling long words.

 Sort by Syllables Gather together several objects which your child knows

the name of and put them in a bag. Label three boxes 1, 2 and 3. Ask your
child to pick one object at a time from the bag and place it in the box which
is labelled with the number of syllables in the object's name. Box 1 should
contain all the objects of one syllable (eg cup, pen), Box 2 objects of two
syllables (eg pencil, teddy) and Box 3 objects of three syllables (eg
umbrella, elephant). You could also play this game using picture cards
rather than objects. Cut out pictures of different objects with one, two or
three syllables and glue them onto index cards. Ask your child to sort the
cards into three piles.

Rhyming
These phonics games help your child learn to recognise and generate rhyming
words.

 Point and Rhyme Around the house, or while you are out and about, point
to an object and say its name. Then ask your child to think of as many
words as he can which rhyme with the name. Let him use nonsense words
too - the point is that he gets the hang of rhyming even if the words are
made up. Words that work well include hat, coat, book, bed, toy, pot, chair,
sink, bell, rug, car, dog.
 Odd One Out Say three words, two of which rhyme and one which does
not eg pen, bin and hen, and ask your child to tell you the two words which
rhyme.
 Guess the Rhyme Think of two words which rhyme. Tell your child one of
them and ask him to guess the other, based on your brief description of it.
For example, “I am an animal which rhymes with hat. I fly around at night
and hang upside down when I sleep. What am I?”.
Isolating Sounds
With these phonics games your child learns to isolate the first or last sound from
the rest of the word.

 Guess the Animal Think of an animal and tell your child the first sound of
the animal’s name. Ask him to guess which animal you are thinking of eg “I
am thinking of an animal beginning with /d/. What is it?”. When he has
guessed correctly, ask him to choose a name for the animal which begins
with the same sound as the animal’s name eg ”Should the dog’s name be
Dingo or Bingo?”.
 Sort by Sound Put several different objects which all start with one of
three different sounds in a big bag. Label the outside of three small boxes
with the letters associated with the sounds you have chosen. Ask your
child to pick one object at a time from the bag and place it in the box which
is labelled with the first sound of the object’s name. You could also play
this game using picture cards, as in the Sound Detective game below.
 Sound Detective Cut out various pictures of objects which your child
knows the names of and glue them onto index cards. Try an image search
on Google if you want to find a picture of a particular object you know your
child will enjoy. Several of the pictures should start with the same sound.
Lay the cards on the floor, choose a sound, and pick up all the cards with
pictures starting with your chosen sound. Give these cards to your child
and tell him that you are thinking of a sound and all these pictures start
with that sound. Ask him to be the Sound Detective and work out which
sound you are thinking of.
 Words Beginning With ... Say your child’s name, or ask him to pick a
friend's name, and then ask him to tell you all the words which he can think
of which begin with the same sound as the name you have chosen.
 Going on Holiday Choose a sound and then say “I’m going on holiday
and I’m going to take a ...” . Follow with the name of an object beginning
with your chosen sound. Then tell your child that it is his turn. He should
repeat the phrase and add his own object on the end, which must also
start with the same sound. Continue to take turns until you run out of
objects. Then you can repeat with another sound.
 Tongue Twisters Ask your child to choose a letter (perhaps the first letter
of his or a friend’s name) and then help him make up a silly sentence with
lots of words which all start with the same sound eg Bouncy Boris Blew
Bubbles By the Bed.

Blending Sounds
These phonics games help your child to learn to blend individual sounds to make
a word.

 Blending Game Think of a three sound word eg fun, cat, red. Say each
sound individually, isolating it as much as possible. For example, for /f/ say
 “fffff” not “ffuh”, otherwise your child might end up saying “fuhun”. Ask your
child to guess the word.
 Stretch the Story Tell your child that you are going to read him a story but
you will stretch out some of the words so that he can hear all of the sounds
in the word. His job is to put the stretched words back together. Read your
child the story and when you get to an important place, character or object
say that word stretched out - saying each of the individual sounds in the
word. Pause to allow your child to put the word back together before
continuing with the story.

Segmenting Sounds
By playing these phonics games your child is practicing breaking down words
into their individual sounds.

 Segmenting Game This is the same as the Blending Game but with you
doing the guessing. Ask your child to think of a word and, without telling
you the whole word, say each sound individually. You have to guess the
word.
 Word Building Think of a three letter word which is simple to spell and
write each letter on a small piece of card - one letter per card. Draw three
lines on a separate piece of paper. Tell your child the word and ask him to
make the word by arranging the three cards in the right order on the lines
of the paper. If he needs help try running your finger along the three lines
as you slowly say the word, but do not segment the sounds in the word for
him. This phonics game also works particularly well with magnetic letters
and a magnetic white board.
 More Word Building Create cards, as in the Word Building game, of the
following letters: a, c, f, m, o, p, s, t. Start by spelling ‘cot’ using three of
these letters. Ask your child if he can change one of the letters to make
‘pot’. Then continue to make other words, always changing one letter at a
time ‘pat’, ‘fat’, ‘mat’, ‘cat’, ‘sat, ‘sap’, ‘tap’, ‘cap’, ‘map’, ‘mop’, ‘cop’, ‘top’,
‘pop’. This phonics game also works particularly well with magnetic letters
and a magnetic white board.

Strategies for Teaching Word Recognition

Students are taught to see and recognize aspects of the alphabetic system - letter identification and
sounds - in a sequenced manner. They are typically taught letter names first, then sounds of
consonants, vowels, and later blends and digraphs. Eventually, students will learn to recognize
words by sight, quickening their pace of reading and allowing them to spend time and energy on
understanding what they read instead of decoding.
Teachers can scaffold readers as they build word recognition skills in three main ways:
1. Repeated Reading - The best way for young readers to learn to recognize words by sight is
to see them often. Teachers can expose young readers to words by offering activities that
use these words, like bingo and matching games. An even more effective way students learn
to recognize words, though, is through authentic interactions with books. The more students
read and are read to, the more words they learn. Teachers should offer a wide variety of
books and plenty of time for reading.
2. Word Structure - Once a student begins to recognize some words, their ability to recognize
others grows. Why is this? Students begin to put together principals of the alphabetic system
 and make connections between words. For example, when teachers tell children about
prefixes, they'll be able to recognize the meaning and usage of 'un' in words like 'undo' or
'unbutton'.

3. Context Clues - Finally, teachers can teach students to increase their word recognition skills
by instructing in the use of context clues, or those things in books students use to read
words. Strategies include teaching students to use picture clues; if the text is unknown, a
student can check out the picture for help and guidance. They can also use text clues. For
example, if the unknown word in the sentence is 'My dog likes to chew ?', teachers can show
students how to use the surrounding text to read and recognize the unknown word, 'bones'.

REPEATED READING

Reading while listening is a form of something known as ‘repeated reading’, a strategy whereby a
student reads a passage several times, either silently or aloud. The idea, as discussed in the previous
entry, is to develop greater fluency or automaticity, and there is evidence to suggest that it works,
and, moreover, that it has a positive effect on the student’s language development as a whole.

But isn’t it terribly boring to just read the same passage again and again? Not according to Gorsuch
and Arnold , who claim that students were ‘delighted to see such powerful and immediate increases
in reading speed and comprehension.’ I’m sure that’s it’s true that students can be motivated simply
by seeing progress. The typical way that this kind of motivation is built on in schools is by overtly
measuring this progress. For example, Tomkins (2003)* suggests the following procedure:
1 Conduct a pre-test. The student reads a passage aloud while the teacher records the reading time
and any mistakes. The teacher then clarifies any problems.

2 The student practises reading the passage again on their own, out loud or silently, several times.

3 The teacher records the student again and makes a note of reading time and any mistakes.

4 Teacher and student discuss the improved time (pretty much inevitable) and whether there were
fewer mistakes.

I can see this working very well in some contexts, and being disastrous in others. Your call, I think.

If you don’t want to take such an overt approach, you could try thinking about real reasons why a
student might need to read aloud in English, and build activities around these. For example, the class
might enjoy reading a one-act play, repeatedly reading it in order to prepare for a recording. Or,
many ESOL classes are made up of parents of young children, just learning to read in English at
school. These parents could definitely benefit from practising reading aloud their children’s favourite
books.

Or try some activities where there is a goal or outcome, other than simply improving your reading
fluency. For example, a dictogloss in pairs. Student A reads the text out loud, at a natural speed,
while B tries to write down as much as possible. This is repeated until B feels confident that they
have the whole text. B can then read the text back to A, for checking. This works best if the more
fluent reader in the pair is A, the one who initially reads the text, as this way A is able to give a good
model. The activity could be extended by changing the pairs, so that B then takes away the text to
dictate to a new (A) partner. This way, B also gets the repeated reading practice, but only after they
have heard the next a number of times from the original A.

Choral reading, as a class, has also been shown to be very effective, but in its unadulterated form
seems rather dull and childish. You could try putting a text on the board or smartboard, getting
students to read it aloud as a class, and then rubbing out random words, so that they have to
remember what was there. Of course, this is as much about memory as reading, but it does provide a
powerful motivation. It is also a good opportunity to work on weak forms and linking- demonstrating
how these occur in the text which is being read.

And, of course, repeated reading does not have to mean reading aloud. A nice activity which can be
done with absolutely no preparation is to ask all the students to read the same passage silently. After
one minute exactly, stop them, whether they have finished or not, and ask them note how far they
got. Tell them to start the passage again, from the beginning. Stop them again after one minute and
ask them if they read any further this time (they almost certainly will have done). The beauty of this
activity is that it is completely differentiated, as each student is working at his or her own level, and
under no obligation to expose their reading level to anyone else.
 Tompkins, G. (2003). Literacy for the 21st Century: Teaching reading and writing in pre-
kindergarten through grade 4. New Jersey: Merrill Prentice Hall.

Benefits of Repeated Reading

 Helps all levels of readers with fact recall

 Serves as a study strategy

 Aids in students’ identification of what’s important in their reading, such as main

ideas and vocabulary

 Increases comprehension and results in more advanced questioning and insights

 Leads to faster reading and increased word recognition accuracy

 Assists struggling readers as they transition from word-by-word reading to more

meaningful phrasing

Instructional Steps for Unassisted Repeated Reading

Structured Repeated Reading Variations

In order to keep repeated reading fresh and new, it’s important to vary the way repeated
reading is implemented.  The following elements can be modified:  the instructional
setting, purpose for rereading, materials, and modalities.

 Radio Reading:  The reader acts as a radio announcer who has to communicate
a message to listeners.  The reader has the power to modify the text (add, delete,
modify) in order for the passage to make more sense.  The reader may practice as
much as he’d like.  Following the performance, listeners discuss, respond, and evaluate
the message and performance.  If the message is understood, the performance was a
success.

  Mumble Reading: With mumble reading, repeated readings can be done at the

same time without causing a distraction to others.  Students choose 50 to 100 words
from their guided reading to practice in a soft and low voice for five minutes.  After
practicing, they read their selection aloud to the teacher or entire reading group.

 Phrase Reading:  In order to reduce word-by-word reading, teachers begin by

recording students as they read a passage.  The teacher then models reading word-by-
word vs. reading in meaningful phrases.  Next, look at the passage sentence by
sentence, marking phrases that go together.  The teacher first models how this looks,
and then it is finished cooperatively.  Have the student practice reading aloud using
meaningful phrases, and then record again.  Discuss how the two recordings differ.

 Paired Repeated Reading:  Students work in pairs of similar ability and take turns
reading/listening to a passage (50-100 words).  Each student reads the passage three
times while the listener assists with pronunciation and meaning.  On a form students
evaluate each other’s reading gauging how the reading improved (i.e. by reading more
smoothly, knowing more words, using more expression).

 Dialogic Reading:  This strategy involves three readings, each with a different
purpose.  Teachers begin by choosing an interesting book and developing three sets of
6-8 questions, one for each reading of the book.  During the first reading the goal is to
periodically ask questions that familiarize the children with the book and discuss
important vocabulary.  The focus of the second reading is to deepen comprehension;
the third reading if for making text-to-self connections.
 Say It Like the Character:  This activity allows students to “become” book
characters as they read monologues and dialogues aloud with expression.  Based on
the reading, listeners make inferences about the character’s emotions, feelings, and
personality.  To be successful, readers need to both practice the reading and consider
the feelings and disposition of the character.

 Cooperative Repeated Reading:  In groups of two, students take a short reading

passage and the Cooperative Reading Response Form to a quiet, comfortable spot. 
One student begins by reading his passage three times.  As this is occurring, the
student listening provides assistance and feedback using the response sheet as a
guide.  Students then switch roles.

 Repeated Reading Centers:  The centers would contain a set of passages for
each student at his instructional level, along with recordings of the passages.  The
student would then spend 15-20 minutes per day in the center listening to and reading
the passage until the student feels he can read the passage independently and fluently. 
At that point, he may periodically read to the teacher.

 Repeated Reading of High Frequency Words and Phrases:  Instead of focusing

on high-frequency words in isolation, which can lead to word-by-word reading, this
strategy focuses on rereading high frequency words put into phrases.

 Repeated Reading While Listening:  Each student reads a text at his instructional
level while simultaneously listening to the same text being read aloud by a parent,
teacher, other more proficient reader, or from a recording.  The student repeatedly
reads and listens until confident enough to read aloud on his own.  As the student
improves, more difficult texts may be used.

 Tape, Check, Chart: Students listen to recordings of their own reading and record
their miscues on a copy of the text.  Next they record the same passage again; when
they listen they record miscues in another color.  This same procedure is done a third
time.  The student should tally and chart the number of miscues for each reading.  At
this point, teachers meet with the student to discuss his or her progress.