Practical Routines for Reading Multisyllabic Words

Big words are everywhere: textbooks, novels, even instructions. But too often, we assume students will just ‘pick them up.’ They won’t. By upper elementary, over 65% of the words students encounter are multisyllabic (Kearns & Hiebert, 2022), yet explicit instruction on how to tackle them is not common.

Teaching big words isn’t just about breaking them into syllables. It’s about giving students tools and routines to recognize patterns, apply knowledge of both syllables and morphemes, and build a flexible mindset when decoding.

We’ve had three incredible conversations on the podcast with researchers and educators who are leading the way on multisyllabic word reading. Each episode offers practical strategies you can use in your classroom backed by research.

Stay connected with Melissa and Lori!

Teaching Flexibility with Big Words

Helping Students Read Multisyllabic Words🎙️

with Devin Kearns

Expert Devin Kearns emphasizes that teaching students to decode big words can’t rely on rigid syllable-type rules. In fact, he cautions that syllable types are unreliable because they don’t always work consistently across multisyllabic words.

As Devin explains: “We don’t want kids to feel like they’re solving a puzzle every time they see a long word.”

Instead, students need to learn to be flexible. This flexibility is called set for variability: the ability to adjust when their first attempt at a word doesn’t quite match. For example, a student might read bus-i-ness beginning with the typical pronunciation of bus and then shift to the pronunciation of business, begging with biz, because it fits meaning and their oral vocabulary. This skill is what allows readers to adjust from an initial decoding attempt to the actual word without getting stuck.

By modeling this kind of flexible problem-solving, teachers show students that accuracy isn’t about memorizing dozens of rules. It’s about using strategies that make long words both manageable and meaningful.

🔎 Try it Tomorrow:

• Write a multisyllabic word on the board (e.g., important).
  
• Model sounding it out incorrectly (im-port-ant, emphasize the pronunciation of ant like the insect) and then adjusting to the correct pronunciation with a schwa sound in the final syllable.
• Ask students: Does that sound right? Does it make sense in the sentence?

A 6-Step Routine for Multisyllabic Words

Research-Based Routines for Multisyllabic Word Reading 🎙️

with Jessica Toste & Brennan Chandler

Jessica Toste and Brennan Chandler remind us just how central multisyllabic word reading is to literacy. Jessica notes: “It’s estimated that students encounter more than 20,000 multisyllabic words in print every year.”

And Brennan adds: “A study that Freddy Hebert did in 2022 estimated that about 80% of the kids who score below proficient on our national exam of reading really have difficulties with multisyllabic word reading.”

To address this, they recommend a six-step routine that builds consistency and independence:

1. Underline the vowels in the word.
   
   
2. Join vowel teams so they stay together.
   
   
3. Circle the known parts (prefixes, suffixes, roots).
   
   
4. Count the syllables based on the number of vowels.
   
   
5. Break the chunks apart and read them (e.g., un-be-lie-va-ble).
   
   
6. Read the whole word aloud and check: Does it sound right, and is it a word I know?

This routine takes the guesswork out of big words. With repetition, students internalize the process and begin applying it automatically.

✏️ Try it Tomorrow:

• Pick a multisyllabic word from your current text.
  
  
• Walk through all six steps with your class.
  
  
• Reread the word in a sentence to check for meaning.

Unlocking Decoding and Meaning with Morphology

Why Morphology Matters for Word Reading and More 🎙️

with Melissa Orkin and Alex Osburn 

Melissa Orkin and Alex Osburn remind us that multisyllabic word reading isn’t just about saying a word, it’s also about understanding it.

As Melissa explains: “Morphology is this really incredible aspect of language that bridges decoding and comprehension.”

By grades 3–6, nearly 60% of the new words students encounter are morphologically complex: words built from roots, prefixes, and suffixes (Nagy & Anderson, 1984). If students can identify those parts, they gain immediate access to both decoding and comprehension.

Melissa and Alex highlight how morphology bridges word reading and understanding. For instance, knowing that bio- means “life” unlocks words like biology, biography, and biodegradable.

One powerful classroom routine Alex shares a teacher-led use of the Frayer model with words that contain prefixes. In this approach, the teacher creates and presents the Frayer Model to the class, walking students through the definition, examples, and non-examples, and a sentence. For example, a teacher might introduce the prefix pre- and then use the word preview in the Frayer Model:

This not only reinforces the meaning of the prefix pre- but also shows students how it functions in authentic vocabulary.

📖 Try it tomorrow: 

• Choose a word with a prefix. 
• Prepare a Frayer model in advance and share it with your class.
• Break down the word, highlight the prefix and base, and connect the prefix meaning to the word’s definition, examples, non-examples, and sentence.

Why These Conversations Matter 

Taken together, these three episodes paint a full picture of how to help students read big words:

• Streamline instruction: Don’t overload students with rules. Teach flexible strategies that work across many words.
  
  
• Build automaticity: Use consistent, research-based routines (like the 6-step checklist) so students gain independence.
  
  
• Connect to meaning: Teach morphology through tools like the Frayer model, showing how prefixes, roots, and suffixes unlock both decoding and comprehension.

If we want students to thrive as readers, we can’t stop at phonics. Multisyllabic word reading, taught with flexibility, predictable routines, and connections to meaning, unlocks the thousands of big words students encounter every year. When we teach these skills intentionally, especially in upper elementary, we’re not just helping them read words. We’re equipping them with the tools to tackle complex texts independently.

👉  Listen to all three episodes about multisyllabic word reading and take away strategies you can use right away in your classroom!

Citations

Kearns, D. M., & Hiebert, E. H. (2022). The word complexity of primary‐level texts: Differences between first and third grade in widely used curricula. Reading Research Quarterly, 57 (1), 255–285. https://doi.org/10.1002/rrq.429

Nagy, W. E., & Anderson, R. C. (1984). How Many Words Are There in Printed School English? Reading Research Quarterly, 19(3), 304–330. https://doi.org/10.2307/747823

📘 For more research-based ways to teach reading, check out our book: The Literacy 50–A Q&A Handbook for Teachers: Real-World Answers to Questions About Reading That Keep You Up at Night