Competency 7: Syllabic Analysis: Structural Analysis, and Orthographic Knowledge

RICA Reflection

Competency 7: Syllabic Analysis: Structural Analysis, and Orthographic Knowledge

Introduction

RICA Competency number seven addresses the structural analysis, syllabic analysis and orthographic knowledge. How to teach children to identify multi-syllabic words is a tool that teachers must teach.

Personal Connection/Evidence

There are a many ways that I have engaged with this competency.

Word walls are important to have in a classroom. Both of my master teachers have word walls that we can access at any time. My fifth grade master teacher has math terminology on her word wall and when we are teaching math and a new word arises we will look to the word wall or add a new word. For the EL or special needs students we will give them a copy of the word with a picture and definition.

In my first grade class, while on the carpet, my master teacher will give the children a new word and they have to identify the number of syllables in a word. They will sound it out while putting a finger up for each syllable then, count up the total fingers and say the number.

Under the “How to teach spelling” heading my master teacher has shown me all of the ways in which to teach spelling. She picks her words and the kids will write them down and during the remainder of the week the students will have to self- study, use multisensory techniques such as visual and auditory.  They must write them down five times, use them correctly in a sentence, and identify where they go on some pre-written sentences.

Meeting the Needs of All Learners

Struggling readers and students with reading disabilities will need to have more time to focus on key skills such as concentrating on “identifying frequently occurring syllable patterns and affixes and related orthographic patterns.” (RICA p. 62) Tactile and auditory approaches are a good way for the students to be able to use multiple sensory intelligences in order to learn the words. An example of this is having the student write the letters on the words in clay, on the desk or in the air.

English Language Learners or speakers of nonstandard English will need to analyze the similarities or differences between English and their native language. “It is important to explicitly teach English learners the common English roots and affixes. This will greatly increase their word identification skills.” (RICA p. 62)

Advanced learners will need to have the pace or complexity increased and extending the current knowledge and skills of the current words.

Assessment

There are several ways in which to assess the students to find out if they are progressing. Isolation and context are important skills that should be assessed when testing the structural analysis, syllabic analysis, and spelling. There are also entry-level, progress-monitoring, and summative assessments. When assessing the students in structural analysis this is more about the prefixes, suffixes, and roots in isolation. The teacher will have the student read aloud the words; there may be nonsense words that may appear. Syllabic analysis will have the student read aloud a group of words that have the same opening syllable or they will be given a paragraph to be read to check if they can apply their knowledge of syllable patterns. Spelling is very traditional, the teacher give a spelling test but another way to check for understanding is by obtaining work samples from the students.   

Entry-level, progress-monitoring, and summative assessments are assessments that the teacher will administer when needed to check progress along the way.

Text-to-Text Connections

“Teachers who engage children in the analysis of words must be well versed and knowledgeable in content and language if phonics.” (RLTR p. 186)

“This knowledge is so thoroughly learned that skilled readers devote less attention to encoding and put less energy into identifying words.” (In reference to orthographic knowledge) (RLTR p. 19) For more information click here

“Structural analysis involves identifying words through meaningful units such as prefixes, suffixes, and root words.” (RLTR p. 203)

TPE Connections

TPE 2: Monitoring Student Learning During Instruction

TPE 3: Interpretation and Use of Assessments