STACK 4 is the ideal way to develop deconstruction as a decoding strategy. So many of my students guessed at longer words with only the first letter or syllable being accurate. These students did not look further than that and read on. Sometimes that does not affect comprehension, but, too often it did. These students were not able to separate a word into syllables. Games are the perfect way to break a habit. The high levels of engagement means they want to play again and again. This is the way to replace an ineffective reading strategy when multi-syllabic words are encountered.

I have added the flashcards because I usually target this skill deficit directly from my student's reading. This involves one-on-one teaching, but I realise it will not help a busy teacher who doesn't have that level of support - hence, the flash cards. You could start with the flash cards demonstrating deconstruction and identifying each syllable. Once students were familiar with some of the words, add them to rotations and provide a wipe-off pen. When syllabication is evident, introduce the game. Playing the game will provide the repetition that will lead to fluency and this, as you know, improves comprehension, the ultimate goal of reading. You may prefer to start with shorter words. I have two, three and four syllable words in this format.

The words I have used are:

anticipation, invaluable, resuscitation recuperated, international, inappropriate, unexpectedly, reprehensible, interpretation, appreciated, unfortunately, unrepresented, precipitation, determination, benevolent, electrocution, evacuation, misrepresented, undesirable, inadvertently, inadmissible, beautification unemotional, immaterial, experimental, developmental, associated, irresponsible, uninterested, intermediate, indiscriminate, emancipation, underestimate, overestimate, overcommitted, misunderstanding, overconfident recommendation, irresistible, irreversible, accommodation, mathematical, capitulated, investigation, visibility, unapproachable, inconvenient, unreasonable, miscalculated, multiplication