A rePORT on the imPORTantance of CSSR

ImPORTance - to carry significance

http://membean.com/wrotds/port-carry
http://www.morewords.com/contains/port/ - 407 words with the root PORT - whoa!

Every time I say - CSSR (I hear the Beatles singing, USSR) but I digress.
CSSR - context, structure, sound, reference. I really enjoy acronyms that carry significance. It is a strategy that helps me remember the gist of the lesson. Now if I could also put it to a song - BONUS!
 I gravitate to this strategy because I feel that as Dr. Steffes stated it is so very important. Words - are so important.  I could go into a 10 point mini sermon but I will save that for another day.

Step 1 - context, read the sentence or paragraph can you guess? No? [For me the beauty of words and how we use them, changes things] Not only does it help us become better readers, but also writers.

Step 2 - structure, not to geek out on you but I am THAT student who likes, enjoys, relishes in breaking down words and diagramming sentences. What is the origin? Greek? Latin? Pre- Af- Suf..fixed on the root, rooted grounded, what is it surrounded by? Surrounded??

http://1aiway.com/nlp4net/services/enparser/

I could do this for days...

Step 3 - sound,  this step helps me some, EXCEPT when I was 12 reading Matthew chapter 1. Those names were so hard to pronounce. (Still are but now I can have it read to me) Our school uses the Wilson Reading Program and I immediately thought of that when reading this section.  It helps students break down words using the blends, open and closed. I hear this recited 3x a day. 

Step 4 - reference. this is always my go to strategy. I make a list of words I don't know, or understand in context, especially if I do not have the time to look it up immediately. 

This is the nugget of CSSR on pages 161-162 of our textbook. 

I wish I would have read about CSSR prior to teaching a lesson on prefix/affix and root words last semester. 

One of the history teachers use Cloze quite often with notes history directly taken from the text. Students seem to be able to read and find the missing words but I am now interested to see if the words would come to them by reading the surrounding text before reading from the actual text book.