LESSON ONE: Decoding Strategies

                             

LESSON DESCRIPTION

Students focus on determining the meaning of unfamiliar words using roots and affixes, context clues and use of the dictionary and thesaurus.

 

GRADE-LEVEL EXPECTATIONS

R1C         Apply decoding strategies to problem-solve unknown words when reading

R1E         Develop vocabulary through text using roots, affixes, and context clues

R1G         during reading, utilize strategies to self-question and correct, infer, visualize, predict and check using cueing systems for meaning, structure, and visual

 

LESSON MATERIALS

§         Source of Literature

o           The Cremation of Sam McGee by Robert W. Service

 

§         Supplies 

 

§         Handouts provided

o        Determining Word Meanings graphic organizer (for formative assessment )

o        The Cremation of Sam McGee

 

§         Words to know

o        affixes

o        context clues

o        cueing system

o        decoding strategies

o        infer

o        visualize

 

FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT            Assessment            Scoring Guide 

Students complete a graphic organizer to identify three unfamiliar words, predict the meaning of each, and explain how they determined the meanings.

 

LEARNING ACTIVITIES

 

1.        In small groups or pairs, student read the first stanza of The Cremation of Sam McGee.

 

Questions

for

students

How can one make sense of written words that are unfamiliar?

What clues are given in the context of the poem or by the root form of an unfamiliar word that help give more meaning?

       

Strategy

Elicit the following strategies from students:

Chunking – breaking words into meaningful parts

Base word – a word to which affixes may be added to create a related word

Root word – the basic part of a word that usually contains the main component of meaning and cannot be further analyzed without the loss of identity

Affix – one or more sound or letters attached to the beginning or end of a word or base: prefixes and suffixes

 

 

Idea

Be sure to note that this poem is a good example of a passage that deals with an adventure, traversing across the Canadian wilderness. Also make sure students understand that each syllable of a word doesn’t necessarily have its own meaning. A root may be multiple syllables.

 

2.        On the overhead, display the word immortality and gristly as words that may be unknown or unfamiliar to students. Though these words relate to the subject matter of the poem, they are not taken form the poem. Think aloud, chunking, or breaking words into meaningful parts using base words, root words, and affixes including what each part of the word means and how those parts determine the meaning of the new word. In addition to thinking aloud, model using the dictionary and/or a thesaurus to determine the meaning of each word’s part. (for example, look up the root of one word, gristle, and the suffix of the other (ity)

 

Strategy

im/ mortal/ ity = prefix + base+ suffix = not + deadly/fatal/death + state of = the state 

of not dying

 

grist/ly = root + suffix = tough (gristle) + like = tough-like or like gristle

 

Idea

Reference for think aloud strategy (Marzano 2001)

 

  1. Using the four additional words provided, student use “chunking” to break the words into meaningful parts (base and affixes). Encourage students to make use of a dictionary and/or thesaurus as necessary to determine what each affix or root word means. Monitor students to make sure they don’t simply use those tools to look up the whole words being studied. Students may do this activity individually or in pairs, pairing a struggling reader with one with stronger vocabulary skills (ghastly, encircled, exceedingly, burrowed). Note these four words as well as the two used in the modeling segment of the lesson are words that are appropriate for adventure writing.

 

Questions

for

Students

How does chunking words help a reader identify unfamiliar words?

How can words be chunked, or broken into smaller parts?

 

  1. Display the first stanza of The Cremation of Sam McGee on the overhead. Read the stanza aloud and ask students to speculate on the meaning of the words moil and marge. Guide students in discussing why they believe those words have the meaning they have offered. After speculation, students look up the words in the dictionary to confirm or adjust their understanding of the word’s meaning.

 

Idea

If students do not find these words in the dictionary, have the students look up margin and mole and determine which meaning is appropriate for the poem.
  1. Using context clues, roots, and affixes, and the dictionary and thesaurus, students work in pairs to determine meanings of unfamiliar words in stanzas ten and eleven of the poem. Make sure students understand they may have to read more of the poem than just the two stanzas to fully understand the meaning of words. Students reread the stanzas, knowing the words’ meanings, and discuss the words’ meanings in the stanzas.

 

Questions

for

Students

What strategies did you use to help you determine the meanings of unfamiliar words?

What clues helped you figure out the meanings of the unfamiliar word?

 

Idea

Have students read other portions of the poem to explain the differences in the use of the words cremate, cremation, and crematorium, and how the meaning varies. Analyze the meaning of the word nightfall and how it varies form the meanings of night and fall. Explain the creation of a new word from two root words to create an entirely new meaning.

 

Idea

Cooperative learning strategies, such as think-pair-share, (Kagan 1994)