Word Recognition

Automaticity & Reading Strategies

Before children can begin to read they need to understand the relationships between a symbol or a

combination of symbols and the sound, or sounds, they represent. The ability to sound out or decode

words is an important step in reading. When children correctly sound out a word, they are able to

add it to their listening and speaking vocabulary. With a lot of practice, children begin to recognize

many words automatically. Simply, the more words children recognize the easier it is for them to read. There will, however, always be unfamiliar words children must figure out. As you are helping a student, always guide and model rather than tell! Use these strategies to help the student: 

1. Sound out the Word-Have the child blend the sounds together and try to say the word.

Ask: Does the word make sense in the sentence?

2. Use the Picture for a Clue-
Have the child look at the picture. This is a good strategy to confirm whether a word makes
sense. For example, if they read cat instead of cow for the word cow, you can ask them to look at the picture and think about whether cat makes sense.

3. Look for Word Chunks -

Have the child look for familiar letter chunks within a word. They may be sound/symbols,

prefixes, suffixes, endings, whole words, or base words. Examples: and in sand, eat in cheat.

4. Recognize Syllable Pattern - They can decode each syllable as if it were a single, smaller word then blend the syllables together. Often simply getting the first syllable will trigger the full word.

5. Connect to a Word You Know - This is using words as an analogy. If the student is stuck on tray, but they just read the word play. Write play on a white board, have them read that word, then erase pl and write tr. Have them read the word again. This draws their attention to similar parts in words. 

Artifacts:

This teacher draws students' interests to K high frequency words by finding them in books, titles, and text then placing it in a binder. Ms. K's blogspot

Read it, Build it, Write it helps with word recognition - RockaByeButterfly's site


Using Connect 4 game rules to play with sight words. Click here for site. 

This is a great website for first grade interventions. Tons of word recognition activities plus more! Click here for her website.

Sight word puzzles! Click here for website.