EBLI’s Split Word Reading: Explicit Instruction in Decoding of Multisyllabic Words

We’ve all heard it before. A student is persevering, stumbling through decoding a difficult sentence, and they hit a multisyllablic word. The anxiety and anger spread across their face as they freeze, daunted by some word like egyptians, wonderfully, circuitry, or praiseworthy.

Without proper word attack strategies and frequent practice with segmenting and blending multisyllablic words, our students are set up to fail. But with explicit instruction in the procedure of sounding out such words, I’ve watched my students in intervention build immense abilities in a short period of time. How was this drastic growth possible?

In the followings video, my students are just a few weeks into reading intervention through the Evidence-Based Literacy Instruction (EBLI) program working their way through an intentional, interleaved sequence of activities that effectively teach them to crack the code. After foundational instruction in the alphabetic principle of English, students are ready to tackle the “big words” systematically.

Here, you will see these readers decoding multisyllabic words through the EBLI Multi Syllable Split Word Reading activity, for the first time ever:

They are focused and dedicated, fighting through this new process of isolating and ordering sounds and syllables. But each student, with their unique profile, is able to succeed through this activity. This is because students are flexing multiple critical skills at the same time, while their working memory is supported by providing succinct instruction with nothing more than the prompting needed. Modeling the correct sounds, especially when students need to retain previously read syllables in mind while decoding the ensuing syllables, allows them to navigate the variability of English successfully.

After just a few at-bats with this particular activity and abundant authentic practice in texts, students’ abilities skyrocket, as you can see in the video here taken a few instruction hours later (and on a Monday morning, no less!):

Through consistent use and frequent practice with decoding multisyllabic words using EBLI, my readers’ confidence has blossomed, their fluency and accuracy has improved, and we are just 4-5 hours of instruction after the initial video. After completing this activity, they are ready to tackle these words in a real context in the following EBLI activity, while reading a passage or in a book. And they continue to build upon that foundation, decoding these multisyllabic words with more ease, accuracy, and pride.

For more information about EBLI, go to eblireads.com.