One of my students is a high schooler still learning English as her second language. She has learned so much in the few years she has lived in the US, but she struggles with reading.
She has pretty much mastered how to read one-syllable and two-syllable words which follow the rules. But three-syllable words confound her. Instead of stopping to figure out big words, she slurs over them and keeps reading almost as if they aren’t there.
That works when the reading level is at the second or third grade level because not many three- or four-syllable words are in books meant for that reading level. But my student is in high school. She is confronted with long words in almost every sentence she reads in text books. Like many older students I have taught, she thinks she can get by skipping over words. Now that she is preparing for the SAT, she realizes she can’t.
In late elementary grades students learn about root words, prefixes and suffixes. Knowing words can be dissected leads good readers to break apart words rather than skipping over them. My student thinks this is too time-consuming, so she is reluctant to do this on her own.
She is a wiz with computers and can look up the meaning of a word faster than I can. But sometimes the synonyms are long words too. Or sometimes one synonym works in one context, but not in another context. Or sometimes, most times, she doesn’t bother.
What’s my point? Reading instruction can’t stop after a student learns basic phonics rules. This is especially true for impatient students who would rather finish quickly than finish well. The tedious work of learning how to break words into syllables can’t be skipped. Nor can understanding the meanings of prefixes, suffixes and roots.
Reading is probably the most important skill we learn in school. Don’t stint on it.
comicphonics for early readers 
Great point of view.
Thank you so much.
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