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This Reading Mama

Strategies for Reading Longer Words

By thisreadingmama 15 Comments

As readers move from reading beginning readers to hard texts, they need to develop strategies for reading longer words. Some readers can make this move almost naturally, while other readers {like my oldest son} do not.

Today, I’m sharing some simple strategies for reading longer words resources you can download for free! {The free printable can be found towards the END of this post. Click on the teal download button.}

FREE Strategies for Reading Longer Words Pack (Updated)-This Reading Mama
*This post contains affiliate links.
**The free printable can be found towards the END of this post. Click on the teal download button.

 

As my is moving into harder and longer texts (2nd grade), he has begun to really struggle with reading longer words; words like national or unfrozen. This has really affected his motivation to read. So I put my “teacher hat” on and devised a plan for him. He needed some concrete strategies for reading longer words.

 

Strategies for Reading Longer Words

Now, we are in the middle of working these strategies, one at a time. How long is it taking us? As long as it takes him to “get it”. The strategies included are meant to go in this order* as he “attacks” the word.

keep the strategies for longer words page handy when reading

 

  • Look for parts you know at the BEGINNING of the word (prefixes). I have listed some very common prefixes in the box. If your child wants to add more on the organizer, maybe ones that are tricky for him, let him do it.
  • Look for parts you know at the END of the word (suffixes). Again, I listed some common suffixes that I noticed over and over in my son’s reading.
  • Look for VOWEL PATTERNS that you know in the base word. Although vowel patterns and sounds can change when moving from single syllable words to longer words, a lot of them stay the same. Helping kids see the connection between the vowel patterns they already know and applying that knowledge to longer words is a good thing.
  • Divide the word into SYLLABLES. If your child does not know how to do this, All About Reading (Level 3) is a great place to start. Words Their Way also does quite of bit of syllable sorting in their Syllable and Affix Spellers supplement book.
  • Now, make your BEST GUESS. You always want your child to think, “Does this make sense?” The guess should be a real word and should make sense in the sentence. After all, comprehension is the end goal of reading.

*While working through the strategies to read a longer word in a text, a word many not contain a certain feature (for example, a prefix). Ask your child to check for it first. If it does not have one, acknowledge that and move on to the next step.

 

 

Model Reading Longer Words

To explicitly teach each strategy, we work on words out of context. While we have time for reading together, I spend 5-7 minutes of looking at words apart from a book. For each strategy, I list words from his reading that fit. For example, when studying prefixes, I pulled words like misspell, dislike, and unhappy.

finding prefixes in longer wordsI write them on (my nice, clean-ha!) dry erase board and together we “dissect” the words with different colored dry erase markers so he can visually see the word parts. We talk a bit about word meanings as well, so he’s getting a bonus vocabulary lesson!

We are not finished with learning these strategies. We will probably work through them for the next year or so, as I help him apply these strategies to longer words in his reading. But I am praying that by making the task of reading longer words more concrete for him, with specific strategies for attacking the words, his motivation will come back.

 

Not sure where to start? Grab our Upper Grade Phonics Assessment!

 

Strategies for Reading Longer Words Wall Set

Also included in the free printable pack, thanks to a reader’s request, is a classroom wall set of these strategies (see below).

strategies for reading longer words wall set-This Reading Mama

Like the 1-page strategy page, these can be downloaded in color and black/white. I love the little “poster topper” boy that can be added to them!

 

 

Enjoy!
~Becky

 

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Filed Under: Learn to Read, Struggling Readers Tagged With: MSW, RS

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Comments

  1. Malia {Playdough to Plato} says

    March 13, 2014 at 4:11 pm

    Awesome roundup of reading strategies, Becky. Sharing!

    Reply
    • thisreadingmama says

      March 14, 2014 at 3:58 pm

      Thank you, Malia! 🙂

      Reply
  2. JDaniel4's Mom says

    March 15, 2014 at 8:41 am

    Really wonderful! I have children asking me how to sound out a word all day long in the computer lab.

    Reply
    • thisreadingmama says

      March 16, 2014 at 6:52 am

      It seems like kids get stuck on that one…like that’s the only strategy they can use. 🙂 Hopefully this will help.

      Reply
  3. boymamateachermama says

    March 30, 2014 at 7:58 pm

    More great stuff! Thanks for sharing at After School!

    Reply
  4. Janice Miller says

    June 8, 2014 at 8:20 am

    I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your wonderful site! As a special education teacher, I have begun to rely on all of your strategies and helpful hints. Thank you!

    Reply
    • thisreadingmama says

      June 8, 2014 at 4:28 pm

      Aw, thank you. You are so welcome.

      Reply
  5. Nilda says

    November 17, 2014 at 12:51 pm

    I love your website! Thank you for all the hard work and dedication you put for us!!

    Reply
  6. Norma says

    December 5, 2015 at 11:50 pm

    Thanks for sharing! I love your site!

    Reply
  7. Esther says

    March 13, 2016 at 3:02 pm

    I am using those strategies with struggling and strong readers, ages 7-11, and they love using them. It has motivated them to decode longer words. Thanks for your freebies.
    I have encourage teachers to visit your site. It is very informative. God Bless.

    Reply
    • thisreadingmama says

      March 14, 2016 at 7:09 am

      Thanks, Esther! Glad to here that the strategies are helping. 🙂

      Reply
  8. mlemmonsdesigns says

    September 12, 2016 at 12:03 am

    This is going to get printed and hung all over our house! My 4 year old sees the word chunks a lot better than my 6 year old, but they both need reminders.

    Reply
    • thisreadingmama says

      September 12, 2016 at 6:14 am

      I’m glad you’re able to use it! 🙂

      Reply
  9. Allison Leonard says

    May 31, 2020 at 5:37 pm

    Thank You for posting these FREE, quality resources! They are so very helpful!

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. 50+ free reading activities and resources - The Measured Mom says:
    January 5, 2015 at 1:02 am

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Hi! I’m Becky, a homeschooling mama with 4 blessings who keep me on my toes {and knees}. Before homeschooling, I was a classroom teacher (M.Ed.) and reading tutor. Read more about me here.

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