Chapter 5

“Researchers report that the big difference between students who identify words effectively and those who do not is whether they survey the letters in the word and analyze the interior components. Capable readers notice all or almost all letters in a word, whereas less capable readers do not completely analyze the letter sequences of words. Struggling readers with limited phonics skills often try to decode words by sounding out the beginning sound and then making a wild guess at the word without using the cueing systems to verify their guesses” (165). Just as this quote states, this situation really happened in my field when I was going around testing students on high-frequency words. My CT gave me a list of high-frequency words, and I was to call on students one by one and ask them to read the word. If they read it incorrectly, then I was to mark the word. A lot of the students were doing great with reading the words. But it was couple students who were having a hard time reading. One student was Farzeel, a student who has missed half of the school days, and comes to school late most of the time. When I started to test the high-frequency words, I was extremely frustrated. He was going well with the first column, but once he started to read the second list, he seemed like he was getting stuck, because there was pauses before sounding out the word. Then, what he was doing was interesting but at the same time disappointing. He started to sound the letters one by one, and then he read the word. It was interesting to see him do this, because none of the students in this class was seen doing this. On the other hand, it was frustrating because he was saying the words incorrectly, making wild guesses like the quote states. In addition, when he sounded the word incorrectly, I corrected him by saying the word correctly. Then he would say, “That’s what I just said…”

Based on this observation, I observed Farzeel read books in class, since it was March Reading Month. The class was required to read at least five books to one of the helpers. The first thing I noticed is that he was unable to concentrate when he was reading. When he finished reading one page, then he would talk about irrelevant things with the helper. Obviously, it was hard to make him concentrate back to the readings, because he would talk about endless stories. Another thing that I observed is that he would stutter frequently and were many pauses. It seemed like it was because he was unable to read a lot of the words. So he was sounding out the letters first and reading the word. So this took a long time for him to finish one book. Being able to read fluently affects so many areas of learning. Just by knowing the high-frequency words, it helps a reader become fluent in reading. If not, it affects how the student reads, and it also becomes an obstacle to the student.