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A Word Identification Strategy
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 Every so often when you’re reading you’ll come across a word that you’ve never seen before or that you simply don’t remember. When this occurs, you can use the following strategy to help identify, say and understand the word.
Step 1 – Look at the word again.
Look at the word and say each letter in the word. This will help you concentrate on the word and will help you remember the word if it is in deed a word you’ve seen before.
Step 2 – Read the sentence containing the word.
Reading and rereading the sentence containing the word, paying close attention to the context of the word, will help you to figure out what that word means. Knowing the meaning of a word will often help you identify the word.
Step 3 – Look for a prefix or a suffix.
A prefix is attached to the beginning of a word. For example, “pre” is the prefix for the word “prerecorded” and indicates that something was recorded ahead of time. A suffix is attached to the end of word. For example, “ly” is the suffix for the word “heavenly” and indicates that something is like heaven. Looking for a prefix or suffix on a word can often help you better understand the meaning of the word and identify the word.
Step 4 – Look the word up in a dictionary.
Using the dictionary to find the phonetic spelling of a word as well as its meaning can help you to identify the word.
Step 5 – If all else fails ask someone.
As a parent, teacher or another student if they know what the word means or if they’ve seen it before.
Correctly identifying words that you either don’t remember or haven’t seen before is an important process in understanding what you read.
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