Ideas for Project 3

G is an avid reader. Each week I meet with her, she has a different book, because she’s finished the one from the week before. She doesn’t like to be assigned a book; rather, she has favorite genres (mystery, fantasy, young adult fiction) and authors and is particularly keen on those who “tell what the character is thinking, like they’re inside the character’s head.”  G seems drawn to novels with a) teenage main character, usually a girl, though not necessarily; b) a quirky family surrounding said character; and c) a dilemma, often mysterious, that the main character must resolve or overcome.

As with her writing, G is aware of her reading strengths and weaknesses. One area for development that overlaps both reading and writing is her ability to spell and decode words. While decoding is directly related to comprehension, G’s understanding of a text doesn’t appear to be as compromised as one might expect. She has retold each text she has read during my meetings with her—her own books, as well as the passages I bring.  Some retellings are more detailed than others—G pointed out that she does better when she’s reading something she’s interested in--but she gets the gist of a passage. When she doesn’t know a word, G says she turns to a dictionary, or her mother (or me, in our meetings), deriving meaning from the surrounding sentence, or simply She is interested in improving her word knowledge but appears to lack more substantive strategies for improvement.

I had originally considered developing a vocabulary lesson for G, but since we’re going to do that anyway, I’d like to focus my comprehension lesson on decoding words. Her spelling appears to be in the within-word-pattern stage, but her reading ability may hover more in the syllable or root-word stage. Regardless, I think I should focus on helping G establish graphophonic and lexical cueing systems (Tovani) through some sort of structural analysis activity (Fox).

My objective then, is:

The student will be able to rely on at least one structural strategy to decode multi-syllabic words.

I’m thinking of asking G, in the meeting prior to the lesson meeting (if possible) to put a sticky note next to any word she doesn’t know in her silent-reading book. I will give her the stickies and ask her to bring the book to our next meeting. If this is not possible—or unrealistic--I will rely on whatever book she brings with her to our meeting on the day of our lesson and ask her to read at least two pages out loud, flagging any unknown words.

Using strips of paper, I will write each unknown word on a strip and fold the strip in syllables, so that the first syllable appears. She reads the syllable, then I unfold the second one, and she reads the two together, then I unfold the third, and so on. I will explain that slowing down and dividing words into syllables can help decode.  I will also point to the common syllable arrangements (open/closed), especially as they pertain to vowels. I will have additional words, from the spelling inventory, available on extra strips of paper.

As an alternative, I’m thinking of a lesson on Greek and Latin roots, but that feels too close to a vocabulary lesson. I’d like to find something that is appropriate to her grade level (some Fox activities are better suited to younger children), and syllable decoding, with words from her own book, feels right.

I WELCOME other ideas.