Word Study
Remember how we were taught to spell when we were students?
Many of us were simply handed a list of words and told to write each word five
times. We then had our Friday spelling test, after which we may have forgotten
those very words.
Remember how we
were taught to attack challenging words we came across when reading? You
may still hear your teacher saying, "Just sound it out!"
Of course, we were
also taught some reading and spelling rules such as, "When two vowels go
walking, the first one does the talking." But did you know that this
rule, like many others that we were taught, holds true less than fifty percent
of the time? (Clymer, 1996)
Not only do these
rules lack reliability, but the teaching of them is not really the best way
to help our students learn. We learn best through active
involvement and practice which allows us to see word and letter patterns
for ourselves. Research suggests that the brain is a pattern detector,
rather than an applier of rules (Cunningham, 2000).
If our brains are indeed "pattern detectors," then we should provide
our students with plenty of opportunity to investigate and organize those patterns.
Fortunately, we
are now seeing dramatic and exciting changes in the teaching of spelling and
word recognition. The field of "word study" provides students
an opportunity to manipulate words (and parts of words) in meaningful and enjoyable
activities and games. Teachers can also adapt word study
to meet the individual learning needs of students.
Word Study uses a hands-on approach
to teach students to examine words to discover the regularities, patterns, and
rules of the English language. Our objective is to encourage students to learn
to think while they are mastering the spelling
and meaning of words. In turn, students will increase not only their writing
abilities, but their reading skills as well.
Within the Word Study approach, students will:
Lessons may include the following activities:
MODEL LESSON: The teacher models the activity the
students will be challenged with. "Thinking out loud" by the teacher
helps students understand what they are expected to think about when they work
with words independently.
PICTURE/WORD
SORT: Students compare and contrast pictures representing certain sounds
or words to determine patterns and consistencies.
WORD
HUNT: Students find pictures or words in other resources that follow
a particular sound or spelling pattern. Students develop the connection between
spelling and reading words.
Word study activities call for active problem solving through the sorting of and searching for words. Students are encouraged to look for spelling patterns, form hypotheses, predict outcomes, and test them. These activities require students to continually ask themselves, "What do I know about this new word, and how is it similar to words that I already know?"
To see some examples of word sorts, try the following link: