Talking Word Strategies

In the early grades, students acquire many strategies that focus on figuring out how to read unknown "tricky" words. When a student runs into difficulty, we want them to try a strategy. Students are prompted: "What can you try here?", "Did the strategy work?", "Can you try another one?", and "How did you figure out the word?".

 Eagle Eye - Look at the picture.

  Stretchy Snake - Stretch the sounds out and then blend together.

 Lips The Fish - Get your mouth ready to say the beginning sounds.

 Chunky Monkey - Look for a chunk in the word that you know.

 Skippy the Frog - Skip the word, read to the end. Go back.

 Flippy the Dolphin - Try flipping the vowel sound. (Each vowel has a long sound and a short sound, try both).

 Tryin' Lion - Try rereading the sentence. See if the word makes sense.

 Helpful Kangaroo - Ask for help.

When reading the words, we teach students to monitor, or watch over, their reading. We want them to make sure that as they are reading, they are cross-checking. We prompt students to ask themselves as they read...

Does this:

• make sense?  
• sound right? 
• look right? 

The animal word strategies are adapted from the Beanie Baby strategies created by East Moline, IL teacher April Schilb.