Using Word Study to Teach Developmental Reading Skills: Components of Word Study (Part 2 of 4)

Understanding Three Components of Word Study

There are three layers of English orthography: alphabet, pattern and meaning. As students move through the stages of spelling development, they usually move from using but confusing elements of sound. Word study helps learners move through stages of development, helping them to master each spelling feature as their understanding becomes more concrete.



Alphabet:
Our spelling system is aphabetuc because it represents the relationship between letters and sounds. This relationship moves in a left to right sequence. In the alphabetic stage, each sound is represented by a single letter and are blended to create a word (i.e. bat  is represented by /b/ /a/ /t/).  It is in this layer where students learn not only consonant sounds; they are also introduced to short vowel sounds and diagraphs. This is where phonemic awareness is strengthened; students learn how to segment sound in simple words using the initial middle and ending sound.

Pattern: 
As orthographic knowledge develops we teach students how to extend their word knowledge by presenting then with word patterns. This guides their grouping and provides them with some form of consistency. This is especially important when introducing vowel sounds and spelling patterns (CVCe, VCCV, etc)

Meaning: 
This component of word study focuses on vocabulary development as well as spelling. As students move on to more sophisticated words, they learn about how groups of letters can represent meaning directly (i.e. prefixes, suffixes, greek/latin roots). Word study in this sense starts to look different, it is more advanced and can go on up through the middle grades ( 6th grade and up).

Understanding the components of word study makes it easier to differentiate instruction throughout the developmental stages of spelling:
Stage 1: Emergent
Stage 2: Letter Name
Stage 3: Within Word Pattern
Stage 4: Syllables and affixes
Stage 5: Derivational Relations

In order to teach word study, it is important to understand what each stage of development looks. It is also important to understand what instruction in this stage looks like. My next scheduled post, Part 3: Using Word Study to Teach Developmental Reading Skills: Stages of Spelling/ Reading, will focus on explaining the the five developmental stages of spelling. In addition, I will highlight resources that you can use to identify what stage of spelling each of your students are in using informal spelling inventories. This post is scheduled to go live on Sunday September 2, 2012. Check back to read all about it.


Read Part 1: Using Word Study to Teach Developmental Reading Skills: Introduction to Word Study

 

Resources:
Bear, D., Invernizzi, M., Templeton, S., & Johnston, F. (2004). Words Their Way. (third ed.). Upper Sadle River: Pearson.

Using Word Study to Teach Developmental Reading Skills: Introduction to Word Study (Part 1 of 4)

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I remember when I was in elementary school I had a spelling pretest on Monday- followed by rote spelling assignments throughout the week. This traditional way of teaching spelling taught us how to memorize spelling words, but I am not sure if it strengthened our reading abilities as developing readers.    Because this type of traditional spelling instruction can be based on memorization, some students may miss core concepts for reading and spelling. For a struggling reader, this may hinder them academically.  So my question is, how do you teach spelling? Reading? It is my understanding that both spelling and reading can be taught hand in hand; strong instruction in one area can strengthen students in the other area. I believe that spelling can be a window into a reader's mind. When I work with students to teach them how to read, I use the word study strategy. Word study, as a teaching strategy, is a routine used for teaching phonemic awareness and developmental reading and spelling strategies. It is an alternative way to teach phonics and is based on the teaching of word patterns. Specifically, word study is a hands-on approach designed to build word knowledge that can be applied to reading and spelling.

Over my next series of posts I will be sharing basic principles of word study that can be applied during your personal instruction (whole group, small group, or one-on-one). All of the materials for word study can be teacher-made, or, you can invest in resources that I have already created. When I first started to explore with study, it was with the book Words Their Way by Donald R. Bear. This became my instructional "bible" when teaching reading! I used it for everything. I paired it with Word Journeys written by Kathy Ganske and used these two texts to support a tutoring program I developed. After using this as a tutoring program for a fews years I decided to share this resource with other teachers. Foundations for Reading: A Word Study Approach Used to Teach Phonics, Vocabualry and Spelling is ideal for beginning and developing readers. It is great for teaching foundational skills. This is resource is also great when working with students who need individualized instruction and/or who need support with mastering basic concepts. This is not a program for reading, but instead a kit full of resources that can be used when implementing word study instruction. Again, a lot of the things I made can be easily constructed on your own if you use the two texts mentioned above along with other resources. If you prefer to purchase this kit, you can visit my Teachers Pay Teachers store for more information.



In closing, I would like to leave with you two important concepts:

• Word study provides students with hands-on opportunites to manipulte word features in a way that allows them to generalize beyond isolated individual examples to entire groups of words that are spelled the same way (Bear, Invernizzi, Templeton & Johnston, 2004). 
• Through exploration, students are challenged to examine words. While doing this, they become familiar with regularities, patterns and conventions of English  orthography needed to read and spell (Bear, Invernizzi, Templeton & Johnston, 2004). 

Does word study sound like something you are interested in learning more about? If so, Using Word Study to Teach Developmental Reading Skills (Part 2 of 4) is scheduled to post on Wednesday August 29, 2012.  I will be discussing three major components of word study. Check in to read all about it!

 These are two great resources to invest in:



Sources:

Bear, D., Invernizzi, M., Templeton, S., & Johnston, F. (2004). Words Their Way. (third ed.). Upper Sadle River: Pearson.