While many older students struggling with content-area classes are not achieving academic success in middle, junior, and high school nationwide, this is an easy problem to solve.
In middle school, adolescents' blossoming minds explore basic concepts about the Earth’s crust, the rock cycle, and the solar system, learn about ancient Mesopotamian civilizations and connect them to the present, and analyze a character’s motivations better to understand the protagonist’s role in the plot. This is the catalyst for many students to learn about the world and begin to see themselves in it. It’s when content fuels future dreams.
But many students will not have the opportunity to seize this moment. It’s not because they lack the intellectual prowess. It’s because they lack the skill to unpack the code on the page. Quite simply, these students cannot read . . . yet . . . but it doesn’t mean these lower-level readers are lower-level thinkers. For older struggling readers, academic success is rooted in quickly and efficiently acquiring those foundational reading skills that were not learned along their primary trajectory.
There is a plethora of research on best practices for teaching phonetics to older students. Here are some approaches that can have an immediate impact.
-
Individualized Intervention Instruction versus Guided Reading
Small group guided reading instruction often emphasizes reading strategies, such as decoding, fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary. Although all these literacy elements are crucial for reading success, the gap frequently lies in decoding skills, especially for older struggling readers. The use of leveled texts in guided reading, which are not based on a research-driven scope and sequence, is unlikely to address the gaps in decoding skills because there is no logical, research-based trajectory to follow.Teaching decoding in a sequential manner is essential with synthetic, explicit, and systematic phonics instruction. To achieve rapid growth in older readers, the key is to focus on what Dr. Anita Archer calls “critical content.” She adheres to a scope and sequence that considers the maturity level and the years of academic and social exposure of older readers. For instance:
- Spend very little time on consistent consonant sounds, such as b, d, and t. Older learners often know these single-consonant letter-sound associations.
- Be strategic in vowel instruction. For example, teach long vowel digraphs such as ea, ow, and high before silent e long vowels. It’s often easier for older readers to learn that two letters side by side represent one vowel sound before learning that two letters, vowel–silent e separated by a consonant, represent one vowel sound.
- Teach multisyllabic words from the start to prepare older students for reading more challenging grade-level texts.
Explicit decoding during small group instruction is a high priority for older students. While research points to leveled readers as an ineffective strategy to address a gap in decoding, using age-appropriate decodable text to reinforce phonetic instruction is a proven approach.
-
Multisyllabic Word Instruction
Decoding instruction on multisyllabic words is critical for older readers because most new words introduced from Grade 5 on are longer. In fact, students encounter approximately 10,000 new words per year at this age, most of which are multisyllabic1 and are often the source of meaning in content-area text.2 There are several ways to approach teaching multisyllabic words. One strategy is to teach students to identify the six syllable patterns found in English.3The short-term consequence of being unable to decode longer words is that students cannot understand the meaning of the text. The more pressing, longer-term consequences start with under-involvement in their own secondary education and often lead to dropping out of high school, un-/under-employment, and social/emotional adult challenges.4
-
Teaching Morphology
Structural analysis is essentially multisyllabic word instruction rooted in morphological awareness—the structure of words, including prefixes, suffixes, and word stems, or parts of a word. In addition to breaking these words into syllables, students home in on the meanings of these word parts to understand unfamiliar words as a whole.5 Morphology is crucial for successful vocabulary development and accurate decoding. It’s also a strong indicator and positive influence on reading comprehension.6Teaching phonetics is quick and easy through morphological awareness that builds on grade-level vocabulary. These instructional strategies can take as little as 10–15 minutes a day and are very effective when consistently implemented.
Try these mini-lesson ideas:
- Top prefixes and/or suffixes such as:
- Prefixes: pre-, re-, un-, dis-, inter-, under-, or ir-
- Suffixes: -tion, -ity, -er, -ness, -ism, -ment, or -able
- Orthographical changes, when adding a suffix, such as sun/sunny and swim/swimming/swimmer
- Root words, or word parts with meaning that cannot stand alone, such as carn-, gen-, or tele-
- Base words, or word parts that have meaning and can stand alone, such as act, legal, or form
- Top prefixes and/or suffixes such as:
These are just a few ideas that you can use to teach phonetics to your older struggling readers through morphology, but the list is innumerable and fun—with fun being the operative word. Learning language and expression unlocks the magic of meaning within text, whether the learner is a native speaker or a new English Learner, and ultimately the joy of reading.
For more ideas, tune in to this episode of the Extraordinary Educators™ Podcast, or try The Vocabulary Teacher’s Book of Lists or The ESL/ELL Teacher’s Book of Lists.
References
Archer, A. L., Gleason, M. M., & Vachon, V. L. (2003). Decoding and fluency: Foundation skills for struggling older readers. Learning Disability Quarterly, 26(2), 89–101.
Nagy, W. E., & Anderson, R. C. (1984). How many words are there in printed school English? Reading Research Quarterly, 19(3), 304–330.
Stowe, M. (2018). Teaching morphology: Enhancing vocabulary development and reading comprehension. William & Mary School of Education.