5 Fantastic Strategies for Solving Words

In order for a reader to be able to read and understand a text there is a great deal of work that they must do in their head. As shared in The Importance of Strategies, readers use a variety of strategic actions and strategies to process what they are reading.  Solving Words is one of twelve strategic action we will explore in this Strategic Action Series. 

Strategies Change Over Time

When young children begin reading, they may use very simple strategies like memorizing or remembering the words in a story and reciting them as they see the pictures. As they learn more about letters, words, and books, they will begin using strategies like:

• Pausing when something doesn’t make sense (self-monitoring)
• Looking at the picture, thinking about the sentence, and looking at the first letters to make sure what they have read “looks right,” “sounds right,” and “makes sense.” (cross-checking sources of information)
• Reread a word to read it correctly when they misread the word the first time. (self-correcting)

As young readers have more and more time to read and experience books, they develop their ability to use more sophisticated strategic actions as they read.

IMPORTANT REMINDER

It is important to note that readers use strategic actions simultaneously. Unfortunately, many children view them as separate actions or even as their goal of their reading. This may be the case if you’ve ever heard your child say, “This week I am inferring.”  This happens when strategies are talked about in isolation or if your child does most of their strategy work with worksheets. Even though we may attempt to strengthen a strategic action by talking about it in isolation, it is always important to remind your child that they use many strategic actions and strategies to understand what we are reading.

Here is an example shared by Fountas and Pinnell in Guided Reading (2e) 

• A child who is automatically solving words and monitoring his comprehension might realize it and pause to reread or search for more information. He might also search his background knowledge, make connections, and, by comparing present knowledge to new learning, synthesize new ideas.

Even though these actions are listed in a sequence, many take place simultaneously. Our brains can work so quickly and can do such much.

Now let’s take a look at Solving Words, a strategic action identified by Fountas and Pinnell (Literacy Continuum, Expanded Edition, 2017).

Solving Words

Solving Words is a strategic action that we all use every time we read. Readers use a variety of flexible word-solving strategies to not only decode  (pronounce) words but to also understand their meaning. Marie Clay (1993) described that readers use several sources of information to solve words as they read through a text.

• They use meaning (the reading has to make sense). Does it make sense?
• They use language syntax or structure (predictable and grammatical language patterns). Does it sound right?  
• They use visual information (the letters that are formed on the page and the spaces separating them into words). Does it look right?

Nine Important Areas of Learning to Support Solving Words

• Early Literacy Concepts (Pre-K -Grade 1) – An awareness of how written language works which begins to develop before children can read. They continue to learn about processing print as they read their first books.
• Phonological Awareness (Pre-K -Grade 1) – The ability to hear the individual sounds in words, and rhymes, and word parts. Read more here 
• Letter Knowledge (Pre-K -Grade 1) – What your child needs to know about the characters in the English alphabet. They need to know how they look, how to distinguish one from another, how to identify them within a text, how to use them in words,  and the names we use to talk about them.
• Letter-sound Relationships– Expanding on how letters and sounds are connected, this includes alternative sounds of letters and letter combinations (blends and digraphs).
• Spelling Patterns– Noticing and using patterns in the ways words are constructed – making word solving much faster and easier.
• High-Frequency Words– Being able to read words that appear often in print and can sometimes help solve other words.  Read more here.
• Word Meaning and Vocabulary – understanding words read and developing categories of words: labels, concept words, technical words, academic vocabulary, synonyms, homonyms, and so on.
• Word Structure– understanding how words are related to one another and how they can be changed by adding letters, letter clusters, and larger word parts (base words, prefixes, affixes, suffixes, root words, plurals, possessives, compound words, contractions)
• Word-Solving Actions– The moves your child makes using the knowledge of each of the areas listed above.

Check out the Reading Level Specific Posts  to see questions you can ask or prompts you can give to support your child’s use of this strategic action.

5 Fantastic Strategies to Encourage Word Solving

1. Use a Word You Know

Great for any Reading Level

Strategy Steps 

1. Look at the word you are having trouble with.
2. See if there is a part that is the same as a part in a word you know.
3. Notice what is different.
4. Try to read the word.

You can prompt your child to use a word they know by asking the following questions:

• What can you try?
• Is there a part of that word you’ve seen before in other words?
• What part do you know/recognize?
• You know the word _____(say a word that has the same part). Does that help?

 2. All 3

Great for Reading Levels C and up

Strategy Steps

1. Share with your child that as a reader, they don’t just do one thing when they get to a word. They do at least three.
2. Think about what makes sense.
3. Think about how a book sounds.
4. Think about what looks right.
5. Consider all three when solving words.

You can prompt your child to use all three by asking the following questions:

• Does that make sense?
• Does that sound right?
• Does that look right?
• Look at the letters. What could it be?
• Thank about how books sound. Would it sound like that in a book?
• What else could the word be?

3. Attempts That Make Sense

Great for any Reading Level

 Strategy Steps

1. When you come to a word you don’t know, pause.
2. Think about what is happening in the text.
3. Think about the sentence the word is in.
4. Use the information you have so far and make some guesses.
5. Say, “It could be _________ or it could be ______ or it could be_______.”
6. Check the letters of the word to see if it matches any of the words that you thought of that would make sense.

You can prompt your child to make thoughtful guesses by asking the following questions:

• What could that word be?
• What else makes sense here?
• You said ______. Let’s look at the letters, could that be right? Why?

4. Try, Try, Try

Great for any Reading Level

 Strategy Steps

1. When you come to a word you don’t know, pause.
2. Think about what could help you read the word.
3. Try the strategy.
4. Think about if it worked.
5. If not, try another strategy.
6. Think about if it worked.
7. If not, try another strategy.
8. Think about if it worked.
9. If not, try another strategy. 

You can prompt your child to try multiple word solving strategies by asking the following questions:

• What strategy do you think you’ll try here?
• What else can help you read that word?
• What’s the next thing you can try?
• What do you think will help you read this word?
• What else can you do?
• What might help here?

5. What Kind of Word?

Great for Reading Levels J and up

 Strategy Steps

1. When you come to a word you don’t know, pause to think about the kind of word you are reading.
2. Think about where the word is in the sentence.
3. If the word comes before a noun, it is most likely a describing word (adjective). If the word tells what the character is doing, it is most likely an action word (verb).
4. Think about what kind of word it is.
5. Ask yourself, “What word would sound right here?”

You can prompt your child to think about the kind of word by asking the following questions:

• Where is the word in the sentence?
• What kind of word might that be?
• Do you think the word is a noun, verb, or adjective?

Check out these posts for more strategies to support strategic actions:

• Searching for and Using Information
• Monitoring and Self-Correcting
• Maintaining Fluency
• Adjusting
• Summarizing
• Predicting
• Making Connections
• Synthesizing
• Inferring
• Critiquing
• Analyzing

Resources:

• Fountas, I. C., & Pinnell, G. S. (2017). Guided reading: Responsive teaching across the grades. Heinemann.
• Pinnell, G. S., & Fountas, I. C. (2007). The Continuum of Literacy Learning, Grades K-8: Behaviors and Understandings to Notice, Teach, and Support. Heinemann.
• Serravallo, J. (2015). The reading strategies book: Your everything guide to developing skilled readers (Vol. 11). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.