Word study is an aspect of our work in all of our language groups. Joan’s language group uses the Word Wall as a focus for much of their word study. Most weeks five words are added to the wall on Monday. These words are “frequently used words” which occur often in the books the students read and which they often need for their writing. Following Patricia M. Cunningham’s What Really Matters in Spelling: Research-Based Strategies and Activities, the words also represent a range of consonants, blends, and vowel patterns. We also draw on Word Study 5 Ways (from Katie Wood Ray and Lisa Cleaveland’s About the Authors: Writing Workshop with our Youngest Writers) as a way for students to practice the new words in different ways over the course of the week. They are able to choose how they want to practice the words from a list of different ways of writing and making the words. For example, they may choose to write the words with chalk, crayons, or on a white board. They can make them by snapping together letter Unifix cubes or stamping them with letter stamps. They can use a pointer to find them on the Word Wall. When they feel they have mastered the words they can ask friends to dictate them for buddy spelling tests. The goal for this work is for the students to develop automaticity in reading and writing the words.
We also incorporate the study of word families (rhyming words/chunks) into the Word Wall work. Last week we took a break from adding five words per week to our wall (25 words so far). Instead we reviewed the first 25 words and explored word families based on those words.
