Reading Multisyllable Words with Xavier, Third Grader — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00[Music]
2. 0:00Xavier: I think, he -- he's kind of bad.
3. 0:03Linda Farrell: Oh.
4. 0:03Dog Man is?
5. 0:04Xavier: Yeah -- at his job.
6. 0:06Linda Farrell: He sure is.
7. 0:07He chews the table leg.
8. 0:09Oh my gosh.
9. 0:15Reading expert Linda Farrell is working with Xavier, a third grader at Windy Hill Elementary
10. 0:21in Calvert County, Maryland.
11. 0:23She'll be helping him learn how to read multi-syllable words.
12. 0:26Xavier: "... going to study Flippy's brain."
13. 0:28Linda Farrell: Keep going.
14. 0:30Linda Farrell: When we visit classrooms, it's a big issue: "The kids do well with small
15. 0:35words, but they can't read big words."
16. 0:39So I'll ask a student to read.
17. 0:40And they look at a word and it's "volcanic" and they read "volcano."
18. 0:44Or it's "fanatic" and they read "fantasy."
19. 0:49So they guess the most common word that has that configuration that that word looks like
20. 0:54it has.
21. 0:55What they don't know is how to break a word into syllables so that you're not reading
22. 1:03a big word that you have to memorize, but you're just going, "Oh, there's a little word,
23. 1:08a little word, a little word."
24. 1:09Linda Farrell: I'm gonna have you read some nonsense words.
25. 1:11They all have short vowels.
26. 1:13So, could you just read these three nonsense words.
27. 1:17Xavier: "Nad.
28. 1:18Naf.
29. 1:19Nef."
30. 1:20Linda Farrell: Good.
31. 1:21Alright.
32. 1:22What are these three?
33. 1:23Xavier: "Zib.
34. 1:24Zid.
35. 1:25Zash."
36. 1:26Linda Farrell: Your, uh, this is pretty easy, isn't it.
37. 1:27Yeah.
38. 1:28This is too easy.
39. 1:29We're done with that one.
40. 1:31Okay?
41. 1:32Now I'm gonna teach you about reading two-syllable words.
42. 1:36This is kinda fun.
43. 1:37Linda Farrell: We started with nonsense words with Xavier because often syllables are nonsense
44. 1:45words -- that when you combine them they become real words.
45. 1:49So teaching nonsense words is not an exercise in futility.
46. 1:54It is preparing children to read multi-syllable words.
47. 1:58Ms. Farrell now knows Xavier can read one-syllable words with short vowels.
48. 2:03Next she checks to make sure he knows what a syllable is, because breaking long words
49. 2:07into syllables is the key to the strategy she'll be teaching him.
50. 2:10Linda Farrell: I just remembered something.
51. 2:13I have to make sure you know what a syllable is.
52. 2:15Okay.
53. 2:16So look at me.
54. 2:18My name is Linda.
55. 2:19It has two syllables in it.
56. 2:22Lin.
57. 2:23Da.
58. 2:23Linda.
59. 2:24Okay?
60. 2:25So what's your name?
61. 2:27Xavier: Xavier.
62. 2:28Linda Farrell: How many syllables in your name?
63. 2:31Xavier: Four.
64. 2:32Linda Farrell: Okay.
65. 2:33Let's stomp them.
66. 2:34Xavier: /Ex/, /ay/, I mean, /ex/, /zay/, /vee/, /er/.
67. 2:40Xavier.
68. 2:42Linda Farrell: You got it.
69. 2:42Linda Farrell: How many syllables in "computer"?
70. 2:45Xavier: "Com-pu-ter."
71. 2:47Three.
72. 2:48Linda Farrell: Yes.
73. 2:49You got it.
74. 2:50So you know what a syllable is.
75. 2:51Alright.
76. 2:52Cause that's really important if we're gonna read these big words.
77. 2:55So if I look at this word, and I want to know how to read that, the first thing I have to
78. 2:59do is figure out how many syllables are in it.
79. 3:02And I can do that by figuring out what the vowels are.
80. 3:06Do you know what the vowel letters are?
81. 3:07Xavier: 'A, e, i, o ,u.'
82. 3:11Linda Farrell: You got it.
83. 3:11Those are the vowel letters.
84. 3:13So here's what I know.
85. 3:15Every syllable has a vowel in it.
86. 3:18So in order to figure out how many syllables there are, I have to count the vowels.
87. 3:24So can you tell me -- how many vowel letters do you see in that word?
88. 3:28Xavier: Two.
89. 3:29Linda Farrell: Yep.
90. 3:31Are they together or apart?
91. 3:34Xavier: Apart.
92. 3:35Linda Farrell: They are apart.
93. 3:36If I have two vowels -- letters, and they're apart, I'm going to have two syllables.
94. 3:42So I'm gonna draw two lines right here, and I have to have a vowel letter in every syllable.
95. 3:50So can you break that word into two syllables for me?
96. 4:04Linda Farrell: Now this is a nonsense word, so we're gonna read it.
97. 4:06What's the first syllable?
98. 4:07Xavier: "Jod."
99. 4:08"Pum."
100. 4:09Linda Farrell: What's the word?
101. 4:10Xavier: "Jodpum."
102. 4:11Linda Farrell: So read it again.
103. 4:12Xavier: "Jodpum."
104. 4:13Linda Farrell: And the word is ...
105. 4:14Xavier: "Jodpum."
106. 4:15Linda Farrell: That's a nonsense word.
107. 4:16I just made it up.
108. 4:17I literally just made that word up right now.
109. 4:20I've never even seen that word before.
110. 4:22But we now know what to do if we have a word that we don't know.
111. 4:28So let's try another word.
112. 4:34Xavier: "Volcano"?
113. 4:35Linda Farrell: Oh!
114. 4:37You got the first two syllables -- you got the first syllable right.
115. 4:40How many vowels do you see?
116. 4:45Xavier: Three.
117. 4:46Linda Farrell: Together or apart.
118. 4:47Xavier: Apart.
119. 4:48Linda Farrell: Okay.
120. 5:04Linda Farrell: Okay.
121. 5:05Read each syllable.
122. 5:05Xavier: /Vol/, /cay/ ...
123. 5:07Linda Farrell: Hmmm.
124. 5:08What's that middle syllable?
125. 5:11Xavier: ... /can/, /ic/.
126. 5:15Linda Farrell: Touch each syllable and read it.
127. 5:17Xavier: /Vol/, /can/, /ic/ ...
128. 5:26Linda Farrell: Mm-hmm.
129. 5:27Xavier: /ks/
130. 5:27Linda Farrell: Wait.
131. 5:28Wait.
132. 5:28What's that?
133. 5:29Xavier: /ic/
134. 5:30Linda Farrell: Yeah.
135. 5:31Let's do it again.
136. 5:32Xavier: /Vol/, /can/, /ic/.
137. 5:35"Volcanic."
138. 5:36Linda Farrell: You just read "volcanic."
139. 5:39So what are the syllables in "volcanic"?
140. 5:41Xavier: 'O' ...
141. 5:42Linda Farrell: Those are the vowels.
142. 5:43What's the first syllable?
143. 5:45Xavier: /Vol/, /can/, /ic/.
144. 5:49Linda Farrell: I'm gonna ask you to do something.
145. 5:50I'm erasing this.
146. 5:52Okay.
147. 5:53So say "volcanic."
148. 5:54Xavier: "Volcanic."
149. 5:55Linda Farrell: How many syllables in "volcanic"?
150. 5:56Xavier: Three.
151. 5:57Linda Farrell: Okay.
152. 5:59I would like you to please see if you can spell each syllable in "volcanic."
153. 6:04So draw three lines right up here.
154. 6:11Linda Farrell: Do you think you can spell "volcanic"?
155. 6:13What's the first syllable?
156. 6:16Linda Farrell: What's that syllable?
157. 6:16What'd you just spell?
158. 6:17Xavier: /Vol/.
159. 6:19Linda Farrell: Okay.
160. 6:19Next one.
161. 6:23Linda Farrell: Now write the whole word.
162. 6:32Linda Farrell: Oh my gosh.
163. 6:33You just spelled "volcanic."
164. 6:34You couldn't even read it and now you can spell it.
165. 6:36That is pretty good.
166. 6:37Do you want me to see if I can get a really hard one for you?
167. 6:39Linda Farrell: In teaching Xavier word attack skills, it's very important that we choose
168. 6:46words with short vowels that have only one vowel all by itself.
169. 6:52So you'll see we're not going to have words with 'silent e,' we're not going to have words
170. 6:57with vowel teams.
171. 6:59So we need two questions that we can ask Xavier that can help him break a big word into syllables
172. 7:09so that all it is is little small words that he has to put together to read a big word.
173. 7:14The two questions are ... how many vowels do you see?
174. 7:20Are they together or apart?
175. 7:22And what we teach him is that -- if you see three vowels and they're apart, you're going
176. 7:32to have three syllables, because every syllable has a vowel.
177. 7:38And then we teach him to draw a line for each syllable, write each syllable on a line, and
178. 7:46then read each little word and then put them together.
179. 7:49Linda Farrell: Let's see if we can try this one.
180. 8:04Linda Farrell: How many vowels did you see?
181. 8:08Xavier: Three.
182. 8:09Linda Farrell: Okay.
183. 8:09Could you underline them please?
184. 8:11Xavier: I mean four.
185. 8:18Linda Farrell: Okay.
186. 8:18Four vowels.
187. 8:19Are they together or apart?
188. 8:20Xavier: Apart.
189. 8:21Linda Farrell: So how many syllables?
190. 8:23Xavier: Four.
191. 8:24Linda Farrell: Okay.
192. 8:41Linda Farrell: Could you move that 'n' over there?
193. 8:46Okay.
194. 8:51Linda Farrell: Okay.
195. 8:53So read each syllable.
196. 8:54Xavier: /Con/, /tic/ ...
197. 8:57Linda Farrell: What's that?
198. 8:58Xavier: /ti/, /tin/
199. 9:00Linda Farrell: What's this?
200. 9:01Xavier: /ti/
201. 9:03Linda Farrell: /t/, /i/.
202. 9:04What is it?
203. 9:05Xavier: /ti/
204. 9:05Linda Farrell: Okay.
205. 9:06So it's ...
206. 9:07Xavier: /Con/, /ti/, /nin/, /tul/.
207. 9:12"Continental."
208. 9:13Linda Farrell: You just read "continental."
209. 9:15Are you ready for another one?
210. 9:17Xavier: Mm-hmm.
211. 9:18Linda Farrell: Okay.
212. 9:19Here we go.
213. 9:20Let's try this one.
214. 9:24Linda Farrell: How many vowels do you see?
215. 9:29Xavier: /o/ and /i/, /e/
216. 9:35Linda Farrell: Okay.
217. 9:37So how many?
218. 9:37You can underline them if you want.
219. 9:41Linda Farrell: Why don't you start here and go this way.
220. 9:44Yeah.
221. 9:46Linda Farrell: Okay.
222. 9:47So how many?
223. 9:47Xavier: Four.
224. 9:48Linda Farrell: Together or apart?
225. 9:50Xavier: Apart.
226. 9:51Linda Farrell: Okay.
227. 9:58Linda Farrell: Do you wanna try to read it without breaking it into syllables?
228. 10:00Try it.
229. 10:01Xavier: "Accosh" -- "accomplishment."
230. 10:05Linda Farrell: What was the word?
231. 10:07Xavier: "Accosh" -- "accomplishment."
232. 10:09Linda Farrell: It's "accomplishment."
233. 10:11You are right.
234. 10:12As Xavier grasps the strategy, you can see him thinking through the two questions: How
235. 10:17many vowels?
236. 10:19Are the vowels together or apart?
237. 10:21And he's able to read big words without writing out the syllables.
238. 10:29Xavier: "Wil-ming-ton."
239. 10:31Linda Farrell: What's the word?
240. 10:32Xavier: "Wilmington."
241. 10:33Linda Farrell: "Wilmington!"
242. 10:34It's the name of a city ...
243. 10:35Linda Farrell: Xavier does a great job of learning how to attack a word.
244. 10:42After this lesson he has a strategy to help him break words into syllables and read them.
245. 10:51He will need lots of lessons.
246. 10:52We start with short vowels, then we move to 'silent e,' then we move to vowel teams.
247. 10:59So it's explicit and it's systematic when we're teaching him this.
248. 11:05Xavier responded beautifully to reading these long words.
249. 11:09[Music]
250. 11:10Linda Farrell: We're gonna do one more.
251. 11:11It is ...
252. 11:18Xavier: "Electric ... cal" ... "electrical."
253. 11:24Linda Farrell: You got it!
254. 11:25That was a good one to end on.
255. 11:28High five!
256. 11:29Yes!
257. 11:31[Music]
258. 11:32We'd like to thank the wonderful students and families at Windy Hill Elementary School
259. 11:35in Calvert County, Maryland.
260. 11:37We hope that sharing these experiences will help other children who are learning to read.
261. 11:43Special thanks also to Kelly Cleland, Julie Donovan, Joanne Harbaugh, and their outstanding
262. 11:48colleagues at Windy Hill Elementary ... and to Leanne Meisinger at Calvert County Public
263. 11:54Schools.
264. 11:55We are deeply grateful to Linda Farrell, Michael Hunter, and Nicole Lubar of Readsters for
265. 12:01their invaluable contributions to this project.
266. 12:05Produced by Noel Gunther
267. 12:07Edited by Christian Lindstrom
268. 12:08Graphic Design Tina Chovanec
269. 12:11Camera Richard Chisolm
270. 12:12Audio Dwayne Dell
271. 12:14For more information about teaching reading, please visit
272. 12:17www.ReadingRockets.org
273. 12:21Reading Rockets is a service of WETA, Washington, D.C.
274. 12:26Copyright 2019, WETA, Washington, D.C.