What is Word Study?

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What is Word Study?

• Professional Development Study Group
• PS 48 Summer Planning
• July 20th --25th

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What is Word Study?

• Teaching students to use word analysis
  strategies in reading and writing.
• Word Analysis -examining the parts of words and
  patterns.
• Analogizing recalling words already learned
  (or parts of words) to read/write new words. (
  If you can spell wait, you can spell)

3
To be effective, Word Study must have these
components

• Teaching students spelling strategies
• Helping students memorize high frequency words
• Teaching students to generalize spelling
  patterns
• Creating conditions that develop students
  spelling
• consciousness
• Communicating with parents about your methods.

4
How is it different from a traditional spelling
program?

• Traditional
• Teacher provides the rule to be learned.
• Student learn specific sounds/words
• Students learn sets of words and sounds
• Grade level spelling lists

• Word Study
• Student discovers the rule
• Students look for patterns and exceptions
• Students learn habits and strategies
• Developmental stages, assessment driven

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Developmental Stages

• Emergent
• Letter Name-Alphabetic Stage
• Within-Word Pattern Stage
• The Syllables and Affixes Stage
• Derivational Relations Stage.

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Emergent Spellers Age 1-7 Grades pre-K to
mid-1

• Writing looks like this
• Activities
• Talking and reading to children
• concept sorts develop vocabulary
• picture sorts develop phonological awareness
• alphabet games and activities develop letter
  recognition
• font sorts and matching games establish upper-
  and lower-case equivalence
• beginning consonant picture sorts secure initial
  phonemic awareness.

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Letter Name-Alphabetic StageAges 4--8 Grades
K to early 3

• Students spell this way
• M MN MIN mine
• J JV JRF DRIV drive
• T TP TEP tip
• BK BAK back
• Activities
• comparing and contrasting initial and final
  consonant sounds through picture sorts
• word banks develop sight-word vocabulary
• hunt for words that begin or end the same
• sort pictures and words to contrast single
  consonant sounds with consonant blends.

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Within Word Pattern StageAges 6 -12 Grades 1
to mid-4

• Students spell this way
• Seet sete Crie cry
• Nale nail Fownd found
• Roap rope Bote bought
• Activities
• Sort pictures to contrast long and short vowels
• Use teacher-made word sorts to examine long vowel
  patterns
• Collect words in word study notebooks
• Sort words by grammatical and semantic features
• Conduct word hunts for specific long and complex
  vowel patterns
• Play card games such as Homophone Rummy

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Syllables and Affixes StageAges 8 - 15 Grades
3 to 8

• students spell this way
• hopping confussun
• atend plesur
• capchur disposul
• Activities
• Study consonant doubling, common suffixes, and
  past tense endings in sorts and word hunts
• study common prefixes and suffixes
• interrelate spelling and meaning in word study
  groups

10
How do we assess spelling?

• What rules and what sight words is the child
  using?
• What is the child using but confusing?
• What is absent?

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At what stage is this third grader?
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And what about this one?
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The Staple of Word Study Sorting

• Why? Leads to discovery,and
• What we discover on our own is more
• enduring.
• Concept Formation
• You give some words, children come up with the
  categories.
• Children find words, come up with the rule.
• Concept Attainment
• You demonstrate the categories, children infer
• from your categories what the rule is.

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Lets try a sort.
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Questions

• When do we do Word Study?
• What assessment/s will we use?
• Do we want our word wall public or personal?
• What structures supplies will support us?
  Notebooks, folders
• What dictionary skills are necessary?-- online
  and in hand
• How can we differentiate?
• What about Spanish word study?

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The Diane Snowball Approach to Word Study

• Look At The Word (so hard that when you close
  your eyes you can still see the word
• Say The Word
• Spell The Word (Close Your Eyes Lets Spell
  Together)
• Cover the Word (spell the word over and over
  again)
• Write the Word (Get the White Boards, Markers
  Open your eyes and write the word)
• Check the word with your partner

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Have-a-Go Spelling Checker
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Teacher Resources for Word Study

• http//www.wordcentral.com/ (links and
  activities)
• http//www.spellingtools.com/ (links, articles
  and activities)
• http//wwwfp.education.tas.gov.au/english/wordstud
  y.htm (links, articles and activities)
• http//www.theschoolbell.com/Links/word_walls/word
  s.html (word wall ideas)
• http//davis.dadecountyschools.org/wordstudy/davis
  .htm (downloadable sorts)
• http//teachers.santee.k12.ca.us/Carl/word_way.htm
  (all kinds of word work, including downloadable
  sorts. Some great, some ok)
• http//www.canteach.ca/elementary/songspoems1.html
  
• http//www.poetry4kids.com/poem-60.html Great
  selection of poems!!