Chunk-ing….Chunking!
By Brandon and Shaina
Hiatt
Let’s start off with a
practice! (Please get out
a writing utensil and paper)
Chunk that word!
http://www.starfall.com/n/skills/chunkin
g/load.htm?f
Now please briefly discuss
with your neighbor some
ideas of how this activity
can be beneficial in your
classroom?
Thoughts we had?
*Get them engaged
*Open activity/attention getter
*Reaches multiple learning
intelligences
*Can even add in hands on
kinesthetics
What is chunking?
To “chunk” is to find similar parts in a word.
This is helpful to students because the word
parts are meaningful and can usually be
easily announced. The parts could be
sounds, prefixes, suffixes, endings, whole
words, or base words.
What kind of word parts are there?
*Compound Words: two words that come together to
form a new word.
*Onsets: consonants that come before the vowel in a
syllable or word.
*Rimes: the vowel and all the consonants that come
after it in a syllable or word until the next vowel.
*Prefixes: any syllable at the beginning of a word that
changes the meaning of that word.
*Suffixes: any syllable with meaning at the end of a word
that changes the meaning of that word.
*Inflectional Endings: a special set of suffixes that
change the number, case, or gender when added to
nouns or tense when added to verbs.
When teaching chunking:
1) First, try to read the unfamiliar word by looking for
chunks.
Ex. church
2) Next, read each chunk by itself.
Ex:“ch” / “ur” / “ch”
3) Then, blend the chunks together and sound out the
word.
Ex: ch ur ch / church
4) Finally, have the students reflect, “Does that word
make sense in the context?” or “Does that word match
the picture?”
3 exceptions in chunking!
The Main Rule
Stop each chunk after the vowel sound and use the first vowel sound on the first attempt to decode an
unfamiliar word.
Obviously, if your child is familiar with the word, he/she should use the correct vowel sound in each
chunk, but if he/she is not, then, he/she should be trained to try the first vowel sound on the initial
attempt.
The First Exception
If the next chunk starts with a doubled consonant, add it to the chunk before it.
Explain that a doubled consonant is just a consonant letter that is repeated, giving examples like bb,
dd, tt, etc
The Second Exception
If the next chunk is "hard to say," move a letter to the chunk before it.
The second exception utilizes the concept of an illegal English blend. We only start words with certain
consonant combinations, or blends, and there aren't a lot of them so most children readily recognize
them. Thus, words can start with "bl" (black) or "br" (brick) but not "bc," "bd," "bf," bg," etc. Similar
situations exist for all the consonants used to begin words. The words beginning with "s" have several
more legal options ("sc," "scr," "sk," "sl," "sm," "sn," "sp," "spl," "spr," "st," "str," and "sw") but that's about as
complex as it gets. Again, most children have an inherent understanding of legal English blends
because they are always using them when speaking.
The Third Exception
If the next chunk starts with a marker, move it to the chunk before it.
The third exception utilizes the concept of a marker. When you taught the phonograms "x," "ck," "tch,"
and "dge," you called them all markers. Now, you again explain that a marker always follows a single
vowel letter and that it "marks" the sound of that letter as the first vowel sound. You should add that
markers are never found at the beginning of words, and that they should not begin a chunk either.
http://www.ontrackreading.com/spalding-method/chunking-multisyllable-words
Why chunking Works?
*In order for children to comprehend what they read, they must first learn to
decode the text
*Students have an easier time decoding if they first learn to segment words
by chunks.
*Children can better decode words if they sound them out in chunks as
opposed to letter by letter.
*According to Margaret Moustafa (1997): “Children are able to analyze
spoken words into onsets and rimes before they are able to analyze spoken
words into phonemes when onsets and rimes consist of more than one
phoneme. If students learn to decode by "chunking" as opposed to
sounding out each letter of a word, they will acquire a greater vocabulary.
*According to Adams, "Nearly five hundred common words can be derived
from only thirty-seven rimes." (Adams, 1990 in Routman, 2000, p. 102).
Reference - Routman, R. (2000). Conversations. New Hampshire: Heinemann.
http://www.proteacher.net/discussions/showthread.php?t=80102
Chunk It
Teaching Segmenting & Blending as a Reading Strategy
Jack Hartmann
Chorus:
Chunk the beginning, chunk it at the end
Chunk it in the middle or anyway you can
If you can’t read a word
and you don’t know what to do
Chunk, chunk, chunk it and it might help
you
Chunk the word "chin"
Chunk the beginning ch ch
Chunk it at the end in in
Put the chunk together ch-in, ch-in
And you’ve go "chin"
Let’s chunk the word "rainbow"
Chunk the beginning rain rain
Chunk it at the end bow bow
Put the chunks together rain bow, rain bow
And you’ve got "rainbow"
Repeat Chorus
Let’s chunk the word "anteaters"
Chunk the beginning ant ant
Chunk the middle eat eat
Chunk the end ers ers
Put the chunks together ant eat ers
And you’ve got anteaters
Repeat Chorus
Let’s chunk the word "_________"
Chunk the beginning ___ ___
Chunk the middle ___ ___
Chunk the end ___ ___
Put the chunks together ___ ___ ___
And you’ve got "_________"
References
“Chunking Multisyllable Words”
http://www.ontrackreading.com/spalding-method/chunking-multisyllable-words
“Chunking Verses Sounding-out Words”
http://www.proteacher.net/discussions/showthread.php?t=80102
“Chunk That Word’ Chicken song
http://www.starfall.com/n/skills/chunking/load.htm?f
“Chunk It” Teaching Segmenting & Blending as a Reading Strategy by Jack Hartmann
http://www.songsforteaching.com/jackhartmann/chunkingreadingstrategy.htm
“2-Syllable Chunking Explained”
http://www.ontrackreading.com/phonics-program/2-syllable-chunking-explained
*Pictures of children and music notes were found at www.googleimages.com