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Harriett Janetos's avatar

Where to begin? So spot on! I will bore you with more details in future comments, but let me just reassure you that solving the problem is a whole lot easier than you may think, though we keep trying to reinvent the wheel--and that's part of the problem. As a reading specialist working with first and second graders with serious decoding issues, I have kept books from every reading program my district has used over the last two decades. This includes the program adopted over ten years ago that was influenced by Common Core's emphasis on informational text whereby the decodable books at the second grade level have interspersed complex informational text with more easily decoded text. These informational pieces are packed with multisyllabic words like fil-a-ments, at-mo-sphere, and con-stell-a-tion, which means my below-level second graders apply the decoding skills I teach them for attacking monosyllabic words to attacking the multisyllabic words that I know they will encounter in third grade and beyond. Believe me--we know what to do and how to do it!

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Leah Mermelstein's avatar

Giving students specific strategies for decoding multisyllabic words is crucial. I feel so fortunate to have been trained in Sound-Write because they put a big emphasis on this starting in grade 1. I now do the same both in my one on one tutoring and my partnerships with schools. This conversation is a crucial one for schools to consider. I would love others to check out my Sustack article that relates to this.

I lay out a way to study longer words that integrates spelling, phonics, grammar and vocabulary.

https://leahmermelstein.substack.com/p/building-stronger-readers-and-writersone

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