[MOSAIC] strategies for figuring out unfamiliar words

[Laura Cannon]

There is a really good story we read each year--it just happens to be in our
basal--that is called Phoebe and the Spelling Bee.  Phoebe chunks her words
to learn to spell them.  

-----Original Message-----
From: mosaic-bounces at literacyworkshop.org
[mailto:mosaic-bounces at literacyworkshop.org] On Behalf Of ljackson at gwtc.net
Sent: Friday, October 06, 2006 6:47 AM
To: Mosaic: A Reading Comprehension Strategies Listserv
Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] strategies for figuring out unfamiliar words

One suggestion I made to parents was to purchase and play UpWords with their
kids.  It really encourages chunking and word 
within word analysis, plus it is fun.

On Fri, 6 Oct 2006 05:24 , Carol P. <iammamapie at yahoo.com> sent:

>I am new with the reading .  Can you give me a good site that would explain
the
>  decoding and Chunking method . Please !!      Thanks so much
>   My daughter is struggling with reading and this would help me so much.
>  To better help her !!          Carol P.
>
>"GRISTINA, KRISTIN" KLIGUORI at MAIL.NBTSCHOOLS.ORG> wrote:
>  
>When figuring out unfamiliar words, I think there are different problems to
consider. 
>
>1. They can't pronounce the word but they know the word and the meaning.
>2. They can pronounce the word but they don't know what it means.
>3. They can't pronounce the word AND they don't have any idea what it
means.
>
>The decoding and chunking is only good to use if they don't know how to say
the word. But a deeper issue with older 
readers is that they don't know the word meanings. I have the kids (2nd
grade and up) use post-its to mark when they come 
to a word that they don't know the meaning (whether they can say it or not).
>
>Then, they make a T-chart that says "Words I don't know" and "I can
infer..." They write down the page number where they 
found the word(s) and they use many of the same fix-up strategies that you
wrote in your email in terms of re-reading, 
thinking about the story, finding another word that fits or makes sense in
that unknown word's place...
>
>After the chapter or the reading is done for the session (this is usually
in guided reading groups) the kids share their words 
and their strategies for making good inferences about what those words mean.
I usually find one or two kids who have done 
this well as I'm listening to them read throughout the GR session and have
them share first and do a lot of praise of their 
good use of the steps and the strategy.When they are off base, we discuss it
and I usually give them the real meaning of the 
word and show them how that would have fit in by using the same strategies.
>
>This often doesn't help with pronunciation, but I think that just the same,
it's vocabulary building. And it's okay if we tell 
them how to say some difficult words if and when the chunking and all that
doesn't work. I find that for some kids, that 
chunking just doesn't work!
>
>I'd love to hear other ideas and strategies as well!
>Kristin
>NJ
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