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Big Words for Little Kids (K–2): Infusing Phonics with Appropriate Multisyllabic Strategies


In This Webinar

One out of every four words in complex text is multisyllabic. Students who can read and comprehend at Grade 3 have a solid base in how to read big words—with appropriate content—that begins as early as Grade K! In this webinar, participants will be introduced to the parts of big words and how they work, a scope and sequence with special attention to addressing appropriate parts in Grades K–1, and strategies and techniques for teaching the many word parts that advance students’ decoding and understanding, including inflections, derivational morphemes, bound roots, compounds, and affixes.

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About Our Literacy Expert



About the Author

Dr. Heidi Anne Mesmer

Dr. Heidi Anne Mesmer is a literacy professor at the Virginia Tech School of Education.  A former classroom teacher, Mesmer works extensively with teachers, schools, and young readers, directing numerous school-based initiatives to improve reading instruction. She studies beginning reading instruction and text difficulty, and her work has been published in The Reading Teacher, Reading Research Quarterly, The Educational Researcher, Elementary School Journal, and Early Childhood Research Quarterly. She is the author of Tools for Matching Readers to Texts, Reading Interventions in Primary Grades, and Teaching Skills for Complex Texts.



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PHONICS for Reading student book. 

Phonics for Reading (Grades 3–12)

Accelerate learning for older learners who need a targeted approach to mastering decoding with an effective, efficient, and easy-to-follow program by Dr. Anita Archer.

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