Big Words for Young Readers: Teaching Kids in Grades K to 5 to Decode—and Understand—Words With Multiple Syllables and Morphemes

by Heidi Anne Mesmer

Phonics instruction shouldn’t end when students can decode short words. From an early age, they also need to be able to decode “big words”—words with multiple syllables (sound units) and morphemes (meaning units)—to read proficiently. The key is to teach them systematically and explicitly, in developmentally appropriate ways. That’s where this book comes in. Dr. Heidi Anne Mesmer shares essential background on how language “works,” provides a K–5 scope and sequence to guide practice, and offers abundant research-backed strategies that teachers can put into action immediately.

Genres: Education

162 pages, Kindle Edition

Reviews

[Hailey · Rating 5 out of 5]

While I found myself personally knowing the majority of the content in this book, I think it was perfectly organized and I loved that each chapter had examples and ways of teaching what they were talking about! I also loved the charts and will be easily referencing them along with the scope and sequence.

[Sunday]

Mesmer makes a strong case for teaching the "morphological principle" beginning in kinder with students who have mastered CVC words.

I was surprised, given that this is part of Scholastic's "Science of Reading in Practice," though, that Mesmer does not discuss in more detail how to directly/explicitly teach the content she recommends and then gradually release responsibility. For example, she has a four step routine for teaching affixes (p. 113) that is basically an introduction of an affix, with all teacher-talk, with no opportunity for students to engage in guided practice, etc. Then she describes several activities for student partners or small groups to do. There seems to be a leap from introducing affixes (with no student engagment) to students working on their own. A bridge from one to the other is missing. That said, the content of "what" to teach is helpful and the activities described could potentially be engaging after direct instruction with opportunities for guided practice.

I'll still use this as a reference for "what" to teach and when.

[Corina · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastically useful book! Most reading curricula include phonics and some sort of instruction in syllable types, but English is really a morpheme-based language. We are doing students a disservice if we don’t teach them to look for the smallest meaningful units (morphemes) when reading big words.

This book is packed with useful suggestions for scope and sequence, activities, and instructional routines - many things that I can put into use in my classroom now.

There are some minor errors, including one recurring error that bothered me as a teacher with a background in linguistics - English is not a Romance language, it is a Germanic language! Still, English vocabulary has been heavily influenced by French and Latin, so I understand why the author says this. But there is more to determining language family than simply vocabulary (e.g. grammar, history). Other errors were small and easily noticeable. For example, tooth-teeth is a vowel change plural, not a no change plural (pg. 103). Also, “priceless” includes the -less suffix, not the -ness suffix (pg. 112).

Overall, this short, easy read is well worth your time and money!

[Jennifer Lones · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent resource. This book refutes the common practice of not introducing multisyllabic words until children are in 3rd grade, and instead, suggest morpheme instruction beginning as early as Kindergarten. It gives simple activities to instruct students on these, and a suggested scope and sequence. The book is based on the science of reading, and follows best practices. The activities are simple and well-done, and I will be referring back to this book.

[Brianna · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is clearly written for classroom teachers, but as a SLP who works with literacy clients one-on-one, I still found this book to be highly informative and filled with practical activity ideas and strategies for literacy instruction. I immediately started putting what I learned from this book into practice to make sure my students get more experience reading longer words. I appreciate the broad scope and sequence that is outlined, and that each chapter covers what to teach, when to teach it, and how to teach it. I also appreciate that there is more focus on morphology than syllable types. 
Read my full review and summary on my blog: https://www.slpliteracycorner.ca/blog...