DECODING STRATEGIES

Presented by:

B. Harris
March 2015
OBJECTIVES OF WORKSHOP
• To sensitize participants to decoding
strategies that can empower readers.

• To engage participants in activities which

can be transferred to classroom situations.
 WORD RECOGNITION/
DECODING SKILLS
• Readers recognize
words by using a
combination of
skills.
 DECODING SKILLS

DECODING SKILLS

DICTIONARY
PHONEMIC AWARENESS CONTEXT
SIGHT
WORDS STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS

PHONICS
 SIGHT WORDS
• “Words that children recognize
immediately without analysis are sight
words.” (Ross & Roe, 1980)
“A sight vocabulary comprises the stock of words
that you recognize and understand instantly and
automatically through repeated reading
experiences over time.
(Cooper,1987)
 IMPORTANCE OF SIGHT
VOCABULARY
Sight Vocabulary
• provides the foundation for early success
in reading
• helps children develop confidence .
• helps the reader to concentrate on
meaning rather than decoding
 DEVELOPING SIGHT
VOCABULARY
STRATEGIES
• Labeling of Objects
• Visual Scrutiny
• Paired Associations (Picture with words)
• Pantomiming
• VAKT (Multi-sensory)
• Classification
 PHONEMIC AWARENESS

• Phonemic Awareness is not

just another word for
phonics.
 Phonemic Awareness…
• Phonemic Awareness is the
ability to hear, identify and
manipulate individual sounds
(phonemes) in spoken words.
Phonemic Awareness…..
• Phonemic Awareness activities
are done orally, calling attention
to the sounds-not the letters or
which letter makes that sound.
THE LANGUAGE OF LITERACY-
Clarifying Key Terms
• Phoneme
Phonemes are the smallest parts of sound
in a spoken word that make a difference in
the word’s meaning.
Example: changing the first phoneme in
the word hat from /h/ to /p/
changes the word from hat to pat, and so
changes the meaning.
 Phonemic Awareness…..
Few words such as a or oh, have only one
phoneme. Most words, however, have
more than one phoneme.
The word if has two phonemes (/i/ /f/)
check has three phonemes (/ch/ /e/ /k/)
cheque has three phonemes(/ch//e//que/
and stop has four phonemes (/s/ /t/ /o/ /p/).
N.B. sometimes one phoneme is
represented by more than one letter.
Phonemic Awareness…..
• Let us do some calculations:
WORD NUMBER OF PHONEMES
a -------
oh -------
if --------
check --------
cheque --------
stop --------
THE LANGUAGE OF LITERACY-
Clarifying Key Terms….
• Grapheme
• A grapheme is the smallest part of
written language that represents a
phoneme in the spelling of a word. A
grapheme may be just one letter, such as
b,d, f, p, s; or several letters, such as
ch, sh, th, -ck, ea, -igh.
THE LANGUAGE OF LITERACY-
Clarifying Key Terms….
• Let us do some more calculation:
WORD NUMBER OF GRAPHEMES
bag ………
child ----------
graph -----------
Claro ------------
equation -----------
THE LANGUAGE OF LITERACY-
Clarifying Key Terms….
WORD NUMBER OF GRAPHEMES
bag …3……
child ----4------
graph ----3------
Claro ------4------
equation ---4--------
 Why is Phonemic Awareness
Important
Phonemic Awareness activities
-help children learn to distinguish individual
sounds (phonemes) within words
( This is a pre-requisite skill before
children can learn to associate sounds
with letters and manipulate sounds to
blend words (during reading) or segment
words (during spelling).
 Why is Phonemic Awareness
Important…….
• Phonemic awareness training provides the
foundation on which phonics instruction is
built.
• Eg. Phonics Teaching
What sound do the words sit, sand, and
sock have in common?
Will not make sense
 PHONEMIC AWARENESS
ACTIVITIES
• Phoneme isolation
• Children recognize individual sounds in a
word.
• Teacher: “What is the first sound in van?”
• Children: “The first sound in van is /v/.”
 PHONEMIC AWARENESS
ACTIVITIES…..
• Phoneme identity
• Children recognize the same sounds in
different words.
• Teacher: “What sound is the same in fix,
fall, and fun?”
• Children: “The first sound, /f/, is the same.”
 PHONEMIC AWARENESS
ACTIVITIES……
• Phoneme categorization
• Children recognize the word in a set of
three or four words that has the “odd“
sound.
• Teacher: “Which word doesn’t belong?
Bus, bun, rug.”
• Children: “Rug does not belong. It doesn’t
begin with /b/.”
 PHONEMIC AWARENESS
ACTIVITIES……
• Phoneme blending
• Children listen to a sequence of separately
spoken phonemes, and then combine the
• phonemes to form a word. Then they write
and read the word.
• Teacher: “What word is /b/ /i/ /g/?”
• Children: “/b/ /i/ /g/ is big.”
• Teacher: “Now let’s write the sounds in
big: /b/, write b; /i/, write i; /g/, write g
 PHONEMIC AWARENESS
ACTIVITIES…..
• Phoneme segmentation
• Children break a word into its separate sounds,
saying each sound as they tap out or
• count it. Then they write and read the word.
• Teacher: “How many sounds are in grab?”
• Children: “/g/ /r/ /a/ /b/. Four sounds.”
• Teacher: “Now let’s write the sounds in grab: /g/,
write g; /r/, write r; /a/, write a; /b/,
• write b.”
• Teacher: (Writes grab on the board.) “Now we’re
going to read the word grab.”
 PHONEMIC AWARENESS
ACTIVITIES…..
• Phoneme deletion
• Children recognize the word that remains
when a phoneme is removed from another
• word.
• Teacher: “What is smile without the /s/?”
• Children: “Smile without the /s/ is mile.”
 PHONEMIC AWARENESS
ACTIVITIES…..
• Phoneme addition
• Children make a new word by adding a
phoneme to an existing word.
• Teacher: “What word do you have if you
add /s/ to the beginning of park?”
• Children: “Spark
 PHONEMIC AWARENESS
ACTIVITIES…..
• Phoneme substitution
• Children substitute one phoneme for
another to make a new word.
• Teacher: “The word is bug. Change /g/
to /n/. What’s the new word?”
• Children: “Bun.
Phonemic Awareness….

• A REMINDER!
Phonemic Awareness activities are
done orally.
THE END
TEST YOURSELF-SECTION A
• Contact your group members and discuss with them
how you would help a child to develop his or her
sight vocabulary using the strategy assigned to your
group.
• Group 1 : Labeling of Objects
(Jennifer,Deante,Joel,Lucan)

• Group 2 : Paired Associations (picture with words)

(Jheaneil , Jodi-Ann, Shanice, Demar )

• Group 5
 TEST YOURSELF
• Contact your group members and discuss with
them how you would help a child to develop his
or her sight vocabulary using the strategy
assigned to your group.
• Group 3 : Classification
(Shamar Blythe,Cava-Lee,Kevaughn,Sashane )

• Group 4: Visual Scrutiny

(Nascine,Jheanelle,Ricardo)
 TEST YOURSELF
• Contact your group members and discuss with
them how you would help a child to develop his
or her sight vocabulary using the strategy
assigned to your group.
• Group 5: Pantomiming
(MicahshayTrey,Al)

• Group 6: Classification
(Asha,Elizabeth)
 TEST YOURSELF-PART B
For each of the following cases relating to
classroom teaching and learning, write down the
specific phonemic awareness activity in which
the teacher and students would be engaged.
1.Teacher says the word ‘bat’ and asks
students to give the first sound in the word.
2.Teacher reads out the following words :
bell,tell,fell, fill
and asks students to tell which one does not
belong.
 TEST YOURSELF-PART B
For each of the following cases relating to
classroom teaching and learning, write down the
specific phonemic awareness activity in which
the teacher and students would be engaged.
3. Teacher says a word slowly so that each
sound in the word can be heard.
Teacher then asks students to give the word
that would be formed when the sounds are
combined.