Whole Group Word Study: a Week at a Glance

Whole Group Word Study: A Week At A Glance

The teacher introduces a new word study principle through Auditory, Visual,

Kinesthetic Discovery.

Auditory: Teacher reads 3-5 words and invites the students to listen for a specific principle that has been selected for investigation.

Visual: Teacher reveals the principle of the words or the teacher allows and encourages the students to discover the principle.

Kinesthetic: Teacher provides an opportunity for the students to use multi-sensory experiences to support learning (feeling, seeing, and saying).

Note: A lesson may totally or partially focus on identifying quickly letters, blends, digraphs, vowel patterns, words, and/or reading decodable sentences for fluency.

Day One:

• Teacher prepares the students for the learning by drawing their attention to the principle being investigated and learned.
• Teacher explicitly introduces the principle by using exemplar words or known words as a tool for developing and increasing their knowledge of the word study principle.
• Teacher uses multi-sensory experiences to support the learning (e.g., Elkonin boxes, word/s with word parts cut off to support sound-visual attention, finger spell, counters, kinesthetic tracing, etc.)
• Students apply the principle through guided practice with scaffolding from the teacher as needed.
• Teacher and students describe the learning and teacher records on chart using language, pictures and examples.

Day Two:

• Teacher prepares the students for the learning by drawing their attention to the principle (feature) being investigated and learned.
• Teacher explicitly reviews the principle by using exemplar words or known words as a tool for developing and increasing their knowledge of the word study principle.
• Teacher uses multi-sensory experiences to support the learning (e.g., Elkonin boxes, word/s with word parts cut off to support sound-visual attention, finger spell, counters, kinesthetic tracing, etc.)
• Students apply the principle through guided practice with scaffolding from the teacher as needed.
• Students describe how the learning can be applied during reading and writing events.

OR

• Teacher provides a list of decodable words or decodable sentence/s that follow the principle learned.
• Students read the list of words or sentence/s with a partner.
• Teacher and students describe the learning and provides examples.
• Students describe how the learning can be applied during reading and writing events.

Day Three:

• Teacher and students review the principle using exemplar words as a tool for increasing their knowledge of the principle under investigation.
• Students provide the categories for the sorts.
• Students work in groups to sort and classify student-generated words using student-generated categories.
• Students describe and explain their sorts and classification system.
• Students locate examples in texts.
• Students write about their learning and provide examples.

Day Four:

• Teacher and students review the principle using a word/s as a tool for increasing their knowledge of the principle under investigation.
• Teacher provides words that fit and do not fit the principle being investigated.
• Students read the words and provide the word categories.
• Students compare and contrast words and word principles and sort accordingly.
• Students write about their learning and provide examples.

Day Five:

• Teacher and students review the principle using 10-15 words as a tool for increasing their knowledge of the principle under investigation.
• Students read a decodable text (sentences, paragraph or text) and teacher provides scaffolding and assesses the transfer.
• Teacher dictates 1-3 sentences that include the principle learned and the students encode the sentence/s (may include words from previous lessons).
• Students share their dictation with a partner and receive feedback.
• Students set new learning goals for themselves and teacher makes notes about the transfer.