Working with Words

WHAT ARE THE GOALS OF WWW?

• help students understand how words work

• help students learn high frequency words, which are found in reading passages and stories

• teach students the skills needed to decode in order to read and spell words correctly

• teach students strategies to read unfamiliar words

• expand oral, reading, and spelling vocabulary

WORD FAMILY WORDS

Word Families are groups of words that have a pattern or feature in common, like the same combination of letters or similar sounds. When readers understand a sound, what it says and how to spell it, they can then apply that to knowledge to build a family of words.

For example, /an/. Once students understand the sound, can say it and spell it, they can then build more words by adding beginning letters. b-an=ban, c-an=can, f-an=fan, m-an=man, t-an=tan, p-an=pan, and so on.

Learning one sound leads to reading and writing a number of words! This can help students expand their vocabulary, increase their reading fluency, and improve their writing.

Word Families

Here are some common word family sounds.

-ack -ain -ake -ale -all -ame -an -ank -ap -ash -at -ate -aw -ay -eat -ell -est

-ice -ick -ide -ight -ill -in -ine -ing -ink -ip -it -ock -oke -op -ore -ot -uck

-ug -ump -unk