Word Study

Word study is important because the ability to spell and break words down influences students' ability to read, as well. At the elementary level, students begin to explore spelling and writing. Cunningham and Cunningham explain that between kindergarten and third grade students are being encouraged more and more to write with invented spelling. In doing so, students develop the ability to decode that is significant when reading. "Making Words" activities involve giving individual children some letters which they use to make words. These activities should be 15 minutes long and their end product should be 12-15 words per student. Students should begin with 2-letter words, then build on them with 3-letter, then 4-letter, and so on. Activities of this sort are effective because with one instructional format and activity, students are provided with countless possibilities for experimenting and discovering how our alphabet works.

Having the ability to spell, however, is not very useful without developing an understanding of what words mean and why they are significant to text. Therefore, Yopp and Yopp explore activities that encourage students to learn new words, find their meaning, and apply them to text and other aspects of their lives. One activity suggested involves students reading a text, taking note of 10 words they believe are important, writing them on adhesive strips, and then making a class chart to see which words were most commonly identified as significant. This is a really good activity because it focuses on finding big ideas in text, on identifying words with important meaning, and then on connecting their mean to the main ideas. Emphasizing looking up new words and understanding word meaning further prompts word consciousness; it also actively engages students with words so they can relate them to other words and contexts, explore how the different parts of word influence their meaning, and link words to their own experiences.

Two of my roommates recently moved out of the house we rent from my parents, and they left behind a shelving piece like the one on the left. My parents wanted to toss it but, with my future classroom in my forethoughts, I insisted we reinforce it, paint it, and use it until I can put it in my classroom. (They both rolled their eyes, but it is still standing in the soon-to-be-revamped dining room--BIG WIN for me so early in the week.) Anyway, when I began thinking of my post for this week, I had the "manipulative"/"free-play" area of my classroom on my mind. Then, Yopp and Yopp mentioned, "classrooms that promote word consciousness stimulate students' awareness of, interest in, and curiosity about words so that word learning extends beyond a particular lesson or the confines of a particular lesson"(158). I wanted to find activities that I could use as reinforcers to whatever we are doing with word study, and I wanted the activities to be inviting and fun.

"Let's Make Words!": When I initially came across this, I thought that it would be wasteful to have each student who wanted to do this activity cut out their own letters and etc. In my class, I would probably laminate the pages, cut the letters out and put them in labeled bags; then students would just need to grab a back and a laminated dotted page and practice. They could also fill the lines in with dry-erase markers if they wanted to record the words they create.

"Word Charts": There were a few of these on Pinterest, so I just chose one picture. However, they way that students list words could vary. They can have base letters and interchange certain letters to build words (as seen above) or they could be given a 2-letter root word and then different letters or letter combinations to build more words/create larger words. If you wanted, you could easily make both activities and rotate between them for variety every so often.

"Sort and Spell": I like this because it could be turned into a competitive activity where students challenge one another with word lists and then have to chose a way to organize them on the boards. They would, of course, be expected to spell correctly with the words provided for them. This activity would offer a multitude of options for sorting off and on the board (by number of letter, by sound, by relating categories, etc.) which would encourage creativity and also, with a little more autonomy, students' would be more engaged in their choice of sorting and in the words that are in the lists they choose.

-Did you find any other games that would apply to this that you might want to share?

-Did you find that Cunninghams' or Yopps' piece was more important than the other or do you agree that both are of equal significance to reading development?