Word Analysis:
Polysyllabic Words

Introduction:

The TTS for Polysyllabic Words provide two strategies for helping students read longer words:
breaking words into syllables and recognizing affixes.
 

Materials Needed:

Say:    Long words are often made up of parts of words, or syllables, that you can already   
           read. I’m going to teach you to break words into parts so that you will find long   
           words easier to read. Let’s use the following as an example. Here are the parts   
           of a longer word: re . . . luc . . . tant. What word did you hear? (reluctant)

I’m going to show you some words that have been broken into shorter parts. Let’s
see how many of these words you can read.

Give the student Worksheet A (Levels 3 and 4) or Worksheet B (Levels 5 through 8). Point to
List 1.

Say:    See if you can read these word parts together as words.

On the Student Record Form, record the student’s responses.

Say:    Now let’s see if you can break long words into shorter parts. I’ll show you some   
           longer words. (Point to List 2.) For each one, try to think about the word in its parts.    
           Then read the word.

Point to each word as the student reads. Put a mark beside three or four words that the student is
unable to read.

Say:    Sometimes when you have difficulty breaking words into parts, it helps to mark the   
           parts. Then you can sometimes see patterns that you know. The words I put a mark   
           next to seemed especially difficult for you just now. Draw a line between each of the   
           parts in these words, and then read those words again. See if doing that helps you to   
           find good places to divide these words.

On the Student Record Form, record the student’s responses and note whether the student was able to read the difficult words after dividing them into syllables.
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Materials Needed:

Say:    Many long words have parts of words added to them at the beginning or at the end.   
           Some words have them added at both ends. These word parts change the meanings   
           of the words.

A word part added to the beginning of a word that changes the meaning of the word
is called a prefix. Here are some words with prefixes.

Point to List 3 on the worksheet.

Say:    Do you see the prefixes in these words? (If necessary, point out that the prefixes in the   
           words are in bold type.) Now read these words.

On the Student Record Form, note which words were difficult for the student. Also note whether seeing prefixes in the words helped the student to read the words.

Say:    A word part added to the end of a word is a suffix. Here are some words with  
           suffixes.

Point to List 4 on the worksheet.

Say:    Do you see the suffixes in these words? Now read the words.

On the Student Record Form, note which words were difficult for the student. Also note whether seeing suffixes in the words helped the student to read the words.

Point to List 5 on the worksheet.

Say:    Some long words contain both prefixes and suffixes. Let’s see if you can read these  
           very long words. You’ll be able to find the prefixes and suffixes easily in the first  
           group of words. But you’ll have to look carefully and find them for yourself in the  
           second group.

On the Student Record Form, note which words were difficult for the student. Also comment on whether focusing on recognizing affixes helped the student read the words.
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Interpreting and Using TTS Results:

Difficulties in word recognition can be related to a tendency to guess based on a partial analysis
of the word. If this is the case, practice with analyzing word parts will be useful for helping
students apply the phonics knowledge and skills they have.

Inattention to affixes can contribute to word recognition difficulties in some students.

Note: In teaching word division, the difference between phonetic and dictionary
syllabication must always be kept in mind. The former is related to how written words are
spoken, while the latter is related more to their meanings. These lessons use a phonetic
approach that a reader might use when encountering the word for the first time.

The TTS for Word Analysis: Two-Syllable Words and Polysyllabic Words, together with
the results from the Two-Syllable Words and Polysyllabic Words DAR subtests, will
indicate the kind of help students need to divide words into parts.