MORE WALLS: Introducing the Search & Say Exercise

An exercise in attention to detail
A drill for naming the Jiffy Words

About Search & Say, a Rapid-Accurate Naming exercise.

Example: Search & Say 'and.'

The exercise helps rehearse visual and attention skills.

When should I use Search & Say pages?

Search & Say pages alone will not teach Jiffy Words.

About the Search & Say exercise:

This exercises is called ‘Search & Say’ because the learner has to:

Search for the target word on each line
Point to it
And say it.

As the student simultaneously sees and says the word, the sight and the name of the word begin to 'link up' in the brain.

So be sure that your student says the word on each line--this is a Rapid-Accurate Naming exercise.

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EXAMPLE: Search & Say 'and'

Preparation: Find a sentence in your student's text which contains the word 'and.' "Look Zach: 'We had peanut butter and jelly.' And."

1. Write 'and' clearly, in bold marker, on an index card. Say "This is 'and.' Take a good look at 'and.'" Give familiar examples of the word 'and': "Grandma and grandpa. Chocolate and vanilla. And."
2. Now flip the index card over, and use it to underline each row (below) as your student works down the exercise.
3. Say, • "Find the word 'and.' • Put your finger under it (Point to it.) • Say 'and.'" (After awhile, your student will find, point and say without any prompting from you.)
4. If the child is correct, say something like "Yes," "That's it," "Right," or "Uh-huh."

If the child makes a mistake, say "Look again."

After the child finds, points to, and says the target word, move the index card down to the next line.

and            n             d

and           aa           dd

ddd          and          aaa

nnn          aaa          and

ddn          and          ann

and          dad          nan

aad          ann          and

dnn          and          add

aan          and          dnn

and          nad          dan

nad          and          dna

nda          dna          and

Follow-thru: Re-read together, from the student's text, the sentence containing the word 'and.'

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The Search & Say exercise also helps your student to rehearse important visual and attention skills.

As the exercise goes on, the distracting items look more and more similar to the target word.

Toward the end of the exercise, usually one or more of the distracting items is a backward version of the target word.

When should I use Search & Say pages?

When students need to feel comfortable with the idea of reading.

When students need to pay closer attention to the page.

When students need to pay closer attention to details in a word.

Note: Students may need only a few Search & Say pages to learn the skills above.
If so, don't make them do the whole set!

When students need to practice naming the Jiffy Word.

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Search & Say pages alone will not teach the Jiffy Words.

Students need to practice these common words in context.

Be sure to choose words that appear in material the student is currently reading.

Remember:

Do have your student read, re-read, and re-re-read, familiar text. (It will be loaded with Jiffy Words.) Once your student can read a selection smoothly, seven times is not too many times to re-read it.

Here are The Jiffy Words Search & Say Exercises to download.

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More on this topic: The Reading Treehouse -> MORE WALLS: Whole Words

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