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Khalaf Alanazi
Dr. Christine Rogers
Reading Assessment and Intervention
2-1-2015

Word Identification
There is no problem that cannot be solved, but to find the solution, the
heart of problem should be understood. As educators, one of the main
problems in teaching reading is ensuring students are able to decode
unfamiliar words. This is especially a challenge for students with learning
disabilities because fluent decoding unpins reading throughout the
educational system. Many studies have investigated strategies, sub
strategies, techniques, and methods that can help students with reading
disabilities avoid struggling in reading, and the studies claimed that by using
simple techniques and strategies students with learning disabilities can
substantially improve their reading and comprehension skills. Recently, there
have been introduced paradigms that enable students to deconstruct words
in question. One of such paradigm is called structural analysis that proposes
to disassemble words into the word units, i.e. prefixes, suffixes, stems. One
of the word identification strategies of the paradigm is called the DISSECT,
shortened version of the steps the strategy encompasses. The main purpose
of this paper is to examine the utility of using a word identification strategy,
DISSECT, as an intervention to help students who have reading difficulty
identify the parts of unknown words and decode them. By decreasing the

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number of word identification errors in oral reading students will increase

reading comprehension. The intervention discussed here uses the acronym
DISSECT. The DISSECT strategy was developed by Lenz, Schumaker, Deshler,
and Beals in 1984 (Lenz, Hughes 151) and stands for the following steps: 1.
Discover the context; 2. Isolate the prefix; 3. Separate the suffix; 4. Say the
stem; 5. Examine the stem; 6. Check with someone; 7. Try the dictionary
(Lenz, Hughes, 1990). It was designed to assist students with manipulation of
word units (prefixes, suffixes and root words) to help them to decode words.
Training to adolescents in DISSECT by using a general problem-solving
strategy with specific sub strategies for quick identification of difficult words
and the requirements of the seven steps such as focusing on the context
surrounding the word, dissecting the word into component parts using simple
rules, and using available resources are key elements of the strategy. The
studies of A Word Identification Strategy for Adolescents with Learning
Disabilities (Lenz and Hughes, 1990) and Word Identification strategy for
Middle and High School Students (Corley,& Perason,, 2002) examined a 7step word identification strategy (DISSECT) and its effects on students with
learning disabilities in the area of reading. All of the resources that I choose
focused on the effects of DISSECT on the students who were struggling on
reading. So, this paper will summarize and discuss the main two resources,
the results, how to implement the strategy, and the important factors that
make the strategy more beneficial with a full demonstration of DISSECT.

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The effects of the word identification strategy, DISSECT, for

adolescents who were classified as learning disabled were examined in a
study by Lenz and Hughes (1990). Twelve students who were seventh,
eighth, and ninth graders attended two different school were randomly
selected for the study. What constitutes a problem for students with learning
disabilities is that they cannot participate in regular class learning as they
experience a great discomfort in understanding polysyllabic words. DISSECT
was a strategy designed to help students decode and read difficult,
unfamiliar, or polysllabic words. DISSECT strategy included 7 steps, and each
letter of DISSECT refers to one step of the strategy (Discover the content,
Separate the suffix, Examine the stem, Check with someone, and Try the
dictionary). The acronym of DISSECT was designed to make it easy for
student to memorize the strategy. The strategy lies on the premise of
problem-solving process: one needs to identify a word, i.e. decode it into
meaningful units. The main study question was whether students' reading
skills would improve after studying and practicing the DISSECT strategy. The
interventions appeared in language art classes where students with learning
disabilities were taught. Teachers underwent 9 hours of training, which
followed by 6 weeks of students' trainings. Teachers taught students the
word identification using an eight-step instructional sequence. The eight-step
instructional sequence included pretest and obtain commitment, describe
the strategy, model the strategy, verbal rehearsal, controlled and feedback,
posttest and obtain commitment to generalize, and generalization.. The

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study used five pre/post test measures that were taken as to investigate of
the dynamics of students' reading and comprehension skills. Measures were
taken by recording oral reading and completing comprehension test
measures. As a reading measure passages from the standardized Timed
Reading series and extracts from students' science book from a regular
science class were taken. As results, by the end of the study students has
shown an improvements both in reading and comprehension skills. Precisely,
students were reading faster while making less mistakes. Nevertheless, one
ought to keep in mind that, firstly, teachers were qualified for teaching
students with learning disability. Hence, extrapolation of the findings on the
other schools is in question. Secondly, an increase incomprehension skills
was not shown by all participants. Hence, reading skills may not influence
comprehension skills directly.

(Corley,&and Perason,, 2002) investigated the effect of using DISSECT

with nine students who were currently served by the special education
program, under the categorical labels of specific learning disability or
cognitively impairment. The study is directed at students who experience
difficulty in identification of unfamiliar words, and, thus, have impaired
understanding of the main idea of the text read. Twelve students were
sampled, but only nine underwent the study which had 7 Stages, and the

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study was conducted in the rural high school in south Alabama on the sixth
grade pupils with learning disabilities who experienced difficulty in a general
education science class. Precisely, they struggled with understanding words
with a complex syllable structure. Such students, while studying in an
inclusive classrooms, often seek an assistance of a teacher and an
exceptional materials to study (commonly the ones that of a lower level).
Hence, the study aimed at establishing whether word identification strategy,
DISSECT, would help students with learning disabilities to enhance general
reading and comprehension skills. The DISSECT strategy was taught on
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday for 50 minutes daily. The study design
was based on pre- and post-test measurements in order to tackle the
dynamics of students' reading and comprehension skills. For the pre- and
post-test measurements the Word Recognition subtest of the Peabody
Individual Achievement Test-Revised was used. As a result of a nine week
period of training, the test has shown an increase in words read (54.7 to
31.4) as well as decrease in reading errors (14.3 to 42.5). Accordingly, their
grades have improved as well. Additionally, students gained self-esteem as
they acquired skills and abilities important for a success in a class. Also, one
of the most interesting outcomes was that one of the student's mother came
to thank the teacher for teaching this strategy which really helped her child
who was struggling in reading. The mother, who was also struggling reader,
said she benefited from learning the DISSECT strategy with her child.

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Middle and high school is a great environment to teach the DISSECT

strategy, and many studies focused on this period of schooling. The students
of middle and high school are taught from content textbooks such as
science, chemistry, physics and social studies. These kinds textbook have
many of difficult and unfamiliar words. So, the middle and high school
students benefit from learning this strategy that facilitates decoding
multisyllabic words. This strategy accelerates and improves the ability of
these students to read longer words. Teachers who will use this strategy
should teach it explicitly. It is not difficult, but teachers need to understand
how to implement each step. The first step of DISSECT strategy is Discover
the content. Teachers will let students to read the whole sentence except
unfamiliar word. Then teachers ask students to guess the meaning of
unfamiliar word by using the context of the passage. If the students guess
unfamiliar word incorrectly, teachers ask them to go to second step. The
second step is Isolate the prefix which was added to the beginning of the
unfamiliar word. Teachers ask students to identify the prefix of the unfamiliar
word, if they could identify the prefix phoneme, they will isolate this part
from the word by drawing circle around the prefix. For example, the word
subtraction. Students are told to identify the prefix of subtraction which is
sub. They can identify it orally, then they are asked to isolate it by drawing
circle around the prefix sub. Teacher should give students many of these
unfamiliar words and ask them to do step 2 again to practice this step. Third
step is called separate the suffix. Unlike prefix, suffix is added to the end of

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unfamiliar word. As well as second step, teachers ask students to identify the
suffix and separate it from the main word. For example the word powerful,
students will separate the suffix ful- from power. After that students will be
asked to do the fourth step which is Say the stem. The stem of a word means
the original word with no suffix or prefix. For example the word -unbearablethe prefix is in, the suffix is able, and the stem is bear. Teachers ask student
to identify the stem of unfamiliar word and pronounce the long word with all
of its parts. If the students cannot pronounce the whole word or identify the
stem the will be asked to move to the next step. Fifth step is Examine the
stem. In this step, teachers ask students to break the stem down into small
parts which can be pronounced which means dividing the syllables of stem,
using "Rules of Twos and Threes" (Lenze & Hughes, 1990). Rule 1, if the stem
or part of the stem start with vowel, students divide the first two letters. For
example, the word active, students will divide /ac/ from -tive-. If the stem or
the part of the stem start with consonant, student divide the first three
letters, and continue doing Rule 1 until the end of the word. Rule 2, if Rule
one does not work, students will take off the first letter and apply rule one
again. For example the word -achieve-, students will divide the letter -a-, and
back to Rule 1. Hence, the rest of the word is chieve which start with
consonant. In this situation, students will take off the first three letters (chi)
from eve. So, it is going to be like this (a/chi/ev/e). Rule 3, if there were two
vowels together, teachers ask students use their knowledge about
pronunciation. For example, students should already have an idea about the

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6 syllable types. For example, letter E in the end of the word always would
not be pronounced. The sixth step is Check. In this step, students ask
teacher about the meaning of the word and how to pronounce it. So, they will
get the right pronunciation because the teachers of course are familiar with
these kinds of word. Also, students can check with anyone who has
knowledge such as parents or friends. The last step is Try the dictionary. In
this step students will use the dictionary to check the meaning and the
pronunciation guide for how to pronounce the word. For example, if the
students are looking for the word unbearable by using oxford dictionary. They
will find the definition of that word and they will see the word unbearable is
broken down into many syllables (unbearable). Then, students will read
the word easily. So, the dictionary is really beneficial in this situation. So, this
is the perfect way to implement DISSECT strategy, and many researchers
were using this way to investigate the effectiveness of DISSECT, and it was
beneficial with tangible results.
There are many factors that can make the implementation of DISSECT
strategy more easy. For example, Lenz and Hughes (1990) found that
working as group is really beneficial more than working individually. Working
with group will really support the synergistic thinking of students, so they
can help each other making decision of identifying the prefix and suffix or to
apply the strategy. Also, Deshler, Alley, Warner, and Schumaker (1981)
founded an eight-step instructional sequence that supposed to be taught to
the students for promoting strategy acquisition and generalization. Fakhir

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(2014) claimed that if the students follow this eight-step, the training on
reading comprehension will be more successful.
The following are the eight-steps:
1. Pretest and Obtain Commitment to Learn:
The commitment will be obtained from the students
2. Describe the Strategy:
This is the function of teacher. So, teachers describe the strategy, explain
each step, and let students know about its importance because some
students think that they are good reader and decoder. So, these students
think that they are wasting their time doing the strategy.
3. Model the Strategy:
Teachers demonstrate for students how to use DISSECT strategy.

4. Verbal Rehearsal of Strategy Steps:

In this step, teachers ensure that each student be able to name each step of
DISSECT strategy, and understand the function of each one.
5. Controlled practice and feedback:
This step is going to let teachers know that students use DISSECT
strategy professionally in their content materials.

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6. Grade-Appropriate Practice and Feedback:

This is going to be for the content of higher level. So, students will be
profession by using DISSECT strategy in this step.
7. Posttest and Obtain Commitment to Generalize:
As what Lenz and Hughes (1990) explained it that obtaining commitment
from students to generalize DISSECT strategy to school and home situation.
8. Generalization:
Ensure that the students generalize the use of the strategy to general
education classes (Ellis, Deshler, Lenz, Schumaker, & Clark, 1991).
Many studies ensured that these eight steps were really important because
these steps exceedingly accelerate the process of DISSECT strategy. Also,
the six syllable types can help students to practice the implement the
strategy easily. The six syllable types includes closed syllable, vowelconsonant-e, open syllable, consonant-le, R-controlled, double vowel syllable.
Especially with step 5 of DISSECT (Examined the stem), the six syllable will
be added to the students background before they start learning the DISSECT
strategy. However, many factors can be helpful with learning the word
identification strategy, and these are really common factors can help
students in this situation.

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In conclusion, one can argue that both articles investigated a problem

of word identification by students with learning disabilities. Indeed, the
efficiency of the word identification strategy was in question. Additionally,
they both referred to the DISSECT identification strategy as to one of the
most convenient strategy. As a result, student groups in both studies truly
have shown a dramatic increase in reading and comprehension skills,
yielding the effectiveness of the DISSECT strategy. So, the great technique
that was used in DISSECT strategy helped students to practice the strategy
in the right way by using some factors or giving some recommendation. Also,
teachers should practice how to teach DISSECT strategy to let struggling
readers learn the strategy effectively. However, one ought to keep in mind
that the strategy was taught to the students by teachers with a preliminary
to study training. It means that, replicated on the different sample, the study
may not show such dramatic results. Besides, the effects of the studies may
be overestimated due to the small sample. In other words, should there be
30 or 40 students, results may not be repeated.

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References
Corley, W., & Perason, D. R. (2002). A word identification strategy for middle
and high school
students. Academic Exchange, 73-78.

Bremer, C. D., Clapper, A. T., & Deshler, D. D. (2002). Improving word

identification skills using
Strategic Instruction Model (SIM) Strategies. Research to Practice Brief, 1(4).
Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota, National Center on Secondary
Education and Transition.

Lenz, B. K., & Hughes, C. A. (1990). A word identification strategy for

adolescents with learning
disabilities. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 23(3), 149-158, 163.

Mohammed, F. O, (2014). The effect of DISSECT strategy on first year EFL

university students
word awareness. European Scientific Journal. 10(5), 399-419.

Warrington, S. E. (2006). Building automaticity of word recognition for less

proficient readers.
The Reading Matrix, 6(4), 52-65