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Words Their Way is a hands-on, developmentally-driven approach to word study that illustrates how to integrate and teach children phonics, vocabulary and spelling skills. (Pearson, 2008)
What is Word Study?
Word study involves “doing” things with words - examining, manipulating, comparing and categorizing - and offers students the opportunity to make their own discoveries about how words work. (Bear, et. al., 2012)
Purpose of Word Study
- It teachers students to examine words to discover the regularities, patterns, and conventions of the English language in order to read and spell.
- It increases specific knowledge of words- the spelling and meaning of individual words.
Three Layers of Word Study
- Alphabet- learning the relationship between letters and sounds
- Pattern - learning specific groupings of letters and their sounds
- Meaning- learning the meaning of groups of letters such as prefixes, suffixes, and roots. Vocabulary increases this layer.
Word Study at Home with Families
- Word study activities are modeled and practiced in school, so your child can teach you how to do them.
- Remind your child to sort the words into categories like the ones we did in school. You child should read each word aloud during this activity. Ask your child to explain to you why the words are sorted in a particular way- what does the sort reveal about spelling in general? Ask your child to sort the words a second time as fast as possible. You may want to time him or her.
- Have your child sort his words the way they sound, as well as the way they look. Ask your child to explain why the words are sorted in a particular way.
- Help your child notice his patterns in words read at bedtime. Making connections between them will move the patterns into long-term memory.
- Help your child notice words that follow the patterns, as well as ones that “break” the rules.
- Do a blind sort with your child. Lay down a word from each category as a header and then read the rest of the words aloud. Your child must indicate where each word goes without seeing it. Lay it down and let your child move it if he or she is wrong. Repeat if your child makes more than one error.
- Assist your child in doing a word hunt, looking in a book he or she has already read for words that have the same sound, same pattern, or both. Try to find two or three in each category. Have your child do a word hunt, looking in books, magazines, newspaper, on food boxes, etc... for words that have the same sound, pattern, or both. Try to find two or three for each category.
- Do a writing sort. As you call out the words in random order, your child should write them in categories. As soon as each word is written, have your child show it to you to check for accuracy. Call out any words your child misspells a second or third time.
- Do a speed sort in which your child sorts the words as fast as possible.
Resources
Terms
- Sorting- organizing words into groups based on similarities in their patterns and meaning.
- Oddballs- words that cannot be grouped into any of the identified categories of a sort. Students should be taught that there are always words that "break the rules" and do not follow the general pattern.
- Sound Marks - / /- Sounds around a letter or pattern tell the students to focus only on the sound rather than the actual letters. (example: the words gem could be grouped into the /j/ category because it sounds like a j at the beginning).
- Vowel (represented by V)- one of 6 letters causing the mouth to open when vocalized (a, e, i, o, u and usually y). A single vowel sound is heard in every syllable of a word.
- Consonants (represented by C)- all letters other than the vowels. Consonant sounds are blocked by the lips, tongues, or teeth during articulation.
- Headers-Words, pictures, or other labels used to designate categories for sorting.
- Word families-Words that have the same vowel and ending letters (example: cat, bat, fat, sat, etc...).
- Digraph-Letter combinations that have only one sound (examples: sh, ch, wh). Blend-Letter combinations in which each sound can be heard (examples: bl, gr, sp).
- Base word-A word to which prefixes and/or suffixes are added.
- Prefix-Letters added to the beginning of a base word which change the word’s meaning (examples: un-,pre-, re-).
- Suffix-A letter or letters added to the end of a base word to change the word’s form (exa mples: -ly, -es, -ing).
- Affix-A prefix or suffix added to a base word.
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