Word Identification (Strategies, Instruction, Needs)

Elements of Skilled Performance Review
1. Word Identification
2. Vocabulary
3. Fluency
4. Comprehension

All of our instruction should lead to COMPREHENSION even if you are teaching an individual element of skilled performance. In the end it is instruction to help comprehension.

Word Identification IS NOT Vocabulary Development

Word ID is decoding familiar words quickly and unfamiliar words rapidly enough that meaning is not interrupted (fluency)

Vocabulary is knowing the meaning of words and knowing how to find the meaning of unfamiliar words.

Word Identification Strategies (Identifying the word "passages")

1. Sight Word (you know and recognize the word passages, you have it in your word bank)
2. Phonics (using letter sounds to decode a word "paaasssaaggess")
3. Structural analysis (breaking into syllables, "pass-ages")
4. Morphemic (break down word into understandable parts "pass"-"age"-"s")
5. Phone a friend (ask a parent or teacher)
6. Context (using the meaning of the words around it to make sense of a word)
7. Using pictures (using context, and what you know about the illustration to guess the word)
8. Analogy (compare it to another word that looks the same)

Fluency

1. word recognition accuracy: automaticity
2. appropriate speed
   
3. proper expression
4. grouping words into meaningful phrase units

Impacts comprehension, and comprehension impacts fluency

Bottom-up (Phonics) vs. Top-down (Whole Language)

Phonics starts with phoneme/grapheme level, focused on phonics generalization.

Whole language works at whole text level. focused on meaning.

What we need is a balance approach.

Identifying word identification needs:

• performance on a word list (phonics and sight words)
• performance on connected text (strategies)
• miscue analysis (patterns in identification)
• reading/developmental level (different by age, background)

Instructional guidelines for quality word recognition instruction:

• Focus on the goal of reading: COMPREHENSION
• Teach phonemic awareness and phonics early and efficiently
• Teach students to take advantages of pattern and analogies (teach letter patterns).
  
• Provide intervention early when needed

What should you do when a student gets stuck on a word?

It really all depends, but start out by waiting to see what they will do. Consider first the purpose of reading, how meaning is interrupted, the students reactions/frustration level, ect... Almost always "waiting" is a good thing to start with. See what they do, then try these strategies:

1. WAIT (what are they doing? are they looking at you to tell them? are they using a strategy?)
2. Prompt to use an appropriate strategy that you have taught (Phonics/Morpheme, Context, Pictures)
3. If none of them work, tell them the word.

What should you do when a student miscues a word?

Again, it all depends but:

Don't jump on the student, avoid making them fell frustrated.
At the end of the line ask them if that made sense.
If they don't notice the miscue and it interrupts meaning, correct the word.
If it doesn't interrupt meaning consider not correcting the word, have you taught the letter sounds? is it a vocabulary word?