Enhancing Student Literacy Through "Words Their Way" - Phonics, Spelling, and Vocabulary Strategies

1. Words Their Way Study Group Sessions 1-6

2. Tenets of Word Study • Students’ learning of phonics, spelling, and vocabulary is based on their developmental or instructional level. • Students’ learning is based on the way they are naturally inclined to learn; through comparing and contrasting word features and discovering consistencies.

3. How does AISB compare? • End of Year goals • Kindergarten: Middle letter name-alphabetic • Grade 1: Early within word pattern • Grade 2: Late within word pattern • Grade 3: Early syllables and affixes • Grade 4: Late syllables and affixes • Grade 5: Derivational relations

4. Assessment and Grouping • How often will we assess? • Which assessments will we use? • 3. Which documents will be useful in organizing the results?

5. Resources • On-line PD Portal - http://pdtoolkit.pearson.com/ • Words Their Way Supplements

6. Assessment Review • Do you feel confident in scoring the assessment? If not, what is unclear to you? • What did you learn from the assessment/s that you administered? • How will you group your students for instruction? • How will you use the assessment to inform your instruction?

7. Types of Sorts • Sound Sorts Writing Sorts • Pattern Sorts Blind Writing Sorts • Meaning Sorts Word Hunts • Teacher Directed Closed Sort Brainstorming • Teacher Directed Guess My Category Speed Sorts • Student Centered Closed Sort Draw and Label • Student Centered Open Sort Blind Sorts • Repeated Sorts Buddy Sorts

8. Organization • What will your weekly word study routine look like? • What will your word sorts look like? (cut out paper, written, electronic, etc..?) • How will students organize their learning (folder, notebook, envelope, bag, etc..?) • How will you communicate to your parents (letter, website, etc..?)

9. Six Components of Early Literacy • Oral Language, Concepts, and Vocabulary • Phonological Awareness • Alphabet Knowledge • Letter-Sound Knowledge • Concepts about Print (CAP) • Concept of Word (COW)

10. What does the Emergent stage look like? • http://www.pearsoncustom.com/us/coco_wordstheirway/ • Username: lmiller@aisb.hu • Password: Budapest12

11. Letter Name-Alphabetic stage • Stage description • Teacher led group example • http://www.pearsoncustom.com/us/coco_wordstheirway/ • Username: lmiller@aisb.hu • Password: Budapest12

12. What do these students need to learn? • Sight words • Vocabulary • Short vowel sounds (CVC pattern) • Digraphs (ph, sh, ch, wh) • Blends (bl, st, br) • Preconsonantal nasals (-nk, -ng. -mp) • Influenced vowels (r, w, l)

13. What resources are beneficial? • Predictable texts • Personal readers • Word banks

14. Assessment • Ongoing assessment – observe sorting, pasting sorts • Sight word checks • Weekly Spelling Checks – 5 to 10 words (sort words and transfer words) • Resources online - http://pdtoolkit.pearson.com/

15. Children in this stage should…. • Study and apply knowledge of vowel patterns, influenced vowels, homophones, and homographs • Use a (personal) word wall as a resource for spelling high frequency words • Read and write independently for at least 30 minutes a day • Receive explicit vocabulary instruction focused on meaning of words • Experience daily read alouds • Begin using online and print dictionaries as resources • Begin studying simple prefixes and suffixes

16. Benchmark of stages • Emergent – Sound symbol correspondence, development of concept of word • Letter Name – Most single syllable short vowel words are spelled correctly, shift to silent reading • Within Word Pattern – Most single syllable long vowel words are spelled correctly • Syllables and Affixes – Most frequently used and polysyllabic words are spelled correctly • Derivational Relations – Most words are spelled correctly

17. Video Viewing • Organization with students in the within word pattern stage – 2 • http://pdtoolkit.pearson.com

18. Types of sorts • Picture sorts to contrast long and short vowels • Teacher-directed 2 step sorts for long vowels • Open Sorts

19. Benchmark of stages • Emergent – Sound symbol correspondence, development of concept of word • Letter Name – Most single syllable short vowel words are spelled correctly, shift to silent reading • Within Word Pattern – Most single syllable long vowel words are spelled correctly • Syllables and Affixes – Most frequently used and polysyllabic words are spelled correctly • Derivational Relations – Most words are spelled correctly and students display a firm understanding of their morphemic structure

20. Syllables and Affixes • Movement from phonics-based word analysis to structural, meaning-based word analysis, which is the focus in Derivational Relations Stage • Focus on inflectional endings, compound words, syllable patterns, ambiguous vowels, syllable stress, schwa sound • Rather than teaching rules (doubling consonant, change y to i), use word sorts to allow the children to discover the principles at work • Normally achieving students in the intermediate grades will typically take at least 2 years to progress through this stage

21. Derivational Relations • Word sorts relate more to vocabulary development than spelling development (concept sorts) • Focus is on exploring the generative morphemic logic underlying spellings • 60 – 80 % of English vocab is generated through the combination of roots, prefixes, and suffixes (90% of science and tech vocab) • Examine word origins (history, culture) resources pg. 277 – 279 • Whole class instruction is effective during this stage • Assessment should address meaning as well as spelling

22. Re-evaluating the routines • Word Sorts – writing is more useful than cutting/pasting • Word Hunts – extend over longer periods of time (lower frequency) • Draw and Label – create semantic word maps to highlight connections • Word Study contracts – last for 2-3 weeks, 20-40 words, various routines, with formative assessments

23. Word study Notebooks • Word Study – Weekly record of sorts, routines, and homework • Looking into Language – Record of whole group word study of related words, concept sorts, and theme study words • New and Interesting Words – Words students encounter while reading that really grab them

24. Resources to support word inquiry • Visual Thesaurus • Vocab Grabber • Read Alouds • Miss Alaineous: A Vocabulary Disaster by Debra Frasier The Boy Who Loved Words by RoniSchotter Frindle by Andrew Clements Donavan’s Word Jar by MonalisaDeGross

25. Structured Word Inquiry • Dan Allen

26. Future support • Ask me to co-plan a word study cycle • Ask me to observe and provide feedback • Visit another class while they are engaging in word study • Take online course – see me for details