Decoding is the process of translating print into speech by rapidly matching a letter or combination of letters (graphemes) to their sounds (phonemes) and recognizing the patterns that make syllables and words. Some students are able to do this automatically, some need to be explicitly and systematically taught decoding strategies in order to become proficient readers.
In order to become good readers, children need to use three cuing systems: phonographic (Visual), syntactic (Structure), and semantic (Meaning). Students need to look at the words they read from these three perspectives and be able to answer three basic questions: Does it look right?, Does it sound right?, and Does it make sense?. Students can be taught the three cuing systems through mini-lessons and teacher modeling.
When using the phonographic/visual cuing system, readers use letter-sound relationships to figure out words by looking at the letters and using the sounds they make. For structure/syntax cues, readers use grammar and knowledge of how language goes together to identify words. This cuing system can be reinforced by asking the readers to determine if the word they read makes sense or not. When using semantic cues, readers use meaning to predict the message of text. They can use the context to figure out unknown words.
MOST COMMONLY KNOWN DECODING STRATEGIES
Since special education students need lots of visuals and hands on experiences, beanie babies are great to use in conjunction with mini lessons on different decoding strategies. There are also songs that go with each strategy, and that way you can ensure your auditory learners are engaged too. These prompts help struggling readers understand and connect to different decoding strategies. The most common ones are: Eagle Eye, Lips The Fish, Stretchy Snake, Chunky Monkey, Trying Lion, Flippy Dolphin, and Skippy Frog.
Eagle Eye teaches students how to look at pictures to decode unknown words while reading. Children are able to answer the question Does it make sense? by using picture clues that support the text.
Lips the Fish teaches children to get their mouth ready and say the sound the first letter of a word makes. This helps children focus on the beginning letter and the sound the letter makes.
Stretchy Snake helps young readers stretch out sounds and then blend them together. The ability to segment words into individual phonemes (sounds) and blend them together is a crucial skill for beginning readers. This skill will help readers take a word like flag and segment the word into /f/ /l/ /a/ /g/ and then blend it together to decode and read the word correctly.
Trying Lion teaches students to use their schema and context clues to help decode an unknown word. Students just “try” a word in place of the tricky, unknown word.
Chunky Monkey teaches students how to look for chunks and little words inside bigger words. Children are able to answer the question Does it look right? by using what they know about words to decode unknown ones. For example, children can read the word cupcake more easily if they break down the word into cup and cake instead of trying to sound the entire word out.
Flippy Dolphin teaches students to try different vowel sounds when until their word makes sense.
Helpful Hippo teaches students growth mindset. Students are never allowed give up. Instead, they can ask a friend or the teacher for help if none of the other strategies are working.
For older students, the same strategies can be introduced in the form of decoding visuals that feature less pictures. These visuals follow the same cuing systems. Find the complete resource here.