Word Study in the Classroom

After reading about word study and discussing word study in the classroom, it allowed me to reflect on my first experience using word study in a classroom setting. Two years after graduating college, I entered a school system that used Word Study as a major component to their phonics and spelling instruction. This is not something I had experienced or learned about prior to this first exposure to word study. I noticed how well the students grasped spelling patterns and became better readers because they had the opportunity to explore words. In my opinion word study is so great for students because they get to discover words in the English language as they manipulate them and compare and contrast what they are seeing and hearing in the different words. This creates a more child-centered learning environment because you are differentiating the learning for them as you use activities and word sorts that are based upon features in spelling that would be in the child's instructional level or Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). We are allowing them to seek out the answers and create an understanding of word patterns instead of simply feeding them information by giving them a list of rules to memorize.

In my experience with Word Study in the schools, we would assess our students with the Developmental Spelling Analysis (DSA) which determined the stages the students were at currently. They had preliterate, letter name, within word pattern, syllable juncture, and derivational constancy as the five stages. We had spelling lists to determine the child's word knowledge at each stage of development. This allowed us to determine the child's instructional needs so that we could group them based upon skill. Once or twice a week I would see each group of students for a mini-lesson or "Word Walk" to introduce the new set of words. Together we would look at sight and sound patterns, which is both spelling and phonics patterns. We would focus on the meanings of some words. Then I would begin to model the sort for the students and then they were to sort the words on their own, following the same pattern. We discussed the sort and why each group of words was alike or different. As the week progressed the students would do the sorts independently or with a partner. Independently they were given three choices. They could Sort, Alphabetize, & Write (SAW) which is where they would sort the words in the appropriate categories, alphabetize each category of words, and write the sort in their notebook. Second, they could Write & Draw which is where they must use half the words in sentences and draw pictures to represent the meanings of the remaining words in their notebook. Thirdly, they could do Rhyme Time where they could list as many words as they can in their notebook that have the same "rime" as the words being studied. If the students chose to work with a partner they had another series of activities they could complete. First they could do a Speed Sort where they work with a partner to sort words into their appropriate categories as quickly as they can. Second, they can do a Word Hunt where the two students can skim books in the classroom library to find words that fit the patterns being studied. Third, they can do a Blind Sort where they sort the words without looking at them. The partner reads the words aloud one at a time and the other student points to the category where the word fits.

These various exploratory activities that are completed with the guide of a teacher, independently, and with partners or small groups allow the students to really see and understand the spelling and sound patterns of words in our language. This type of exposure allows the students to retain the word patterns better and allows them to feel more confident in their reading and as they use these new words in their writing because they will have gained an ease with spelling these new words.