Word Study

1
Word Study

• Phonics, Spelling, and Vocabulary Learning at Home

2
What Is Word Study?

• Definition
• Active exploration of words that leads to
  spelling and meaning knowledge
• Includes children learning at their stage of
  development
• Is based on 30 years of research conducted
  through UVA

3
What Is Word Study?

• Some Guiding Principles
• Look for what students use but confuse
• Use words students can read
• Work for automaticity
• Sort by sight and sound in early stages
• Sort by sight/sound and meaning in later stages

4
What Is Word Study?

• Assessment
• Fall DSA determines a stage
• Weekly/Biweekly class assessments
• Using words not on the initial list or used in
  the initial sort
• Scoring features and/or correct words at earlier
  stages

5
What Is Word Study?
Stage Grade Range Characterized By..
Emergent Pre k to mid 1st Pre Literate
Letter Name K-early 3rd Alphabet
Within Word Pattern 1st -mid 4th Patterns
Syllables Affixes 3rd-8th Meaning
Derivational Relations 5th-12th Meaning
6
What is Word Study?

• Features Studied in the Emergent Stage
• Concept of word
• Phonemic Awareness
• Letter Identification
• Direction

7
What Is Word Study?

• Features Studied in the Letter Name Stage
• Compare/contrast beginning and ending consonants
• Develop sight words
• Compare/contrast consonant blends and sh, th, ch
• Word families
• Short vowels
• mp, ng, nd, nt, nk

8
What Is Word Study?

• Features Studied in the Within Word Pattern Stage
  (One Syllable Words)
• Common long vowel patterns (i.e. ay, a_e, ai ee,
  ea, e i_e, igh, y o_e, oa, ow u_e, ew)
• Syllable patterns across vowels (VCe, CVVC
  (rain), CVCC (back))
• Less common long vowel patterns (ea, old, ei,
  ind, ue, etc.)
• R-controlled vowels (ar, air, etc.)
• Complex consonant clusters (scr, thr, etc)
• Dipthongs and others (oi, ough, etc.)
• Begin to bring in meaning with homophones

9
What Is Word Study?

• Features Studied in the Syllables and Affixes
  Stage (Mulisyllable Words)
• Plural endings (doubling, e-drop, no change, y to
  i, irregular plurals)
• Open and closed syllables
• Vowel patterns in accented and unaccented
  syllables
• The j sound in the middle and ends of words
  (badger, major, village)
• The cher sound (culture)
• Simple prefixes and suffixes