Word Study
What words are appropriate for Word Study?
Only words from the excerpt students can read automatically and out of context are appropriate for Word Study (Axford et al 2009, p. 76).
Assessing Automatic Reading
One way to assess what words individual or small groups of students can read automatically is to play “Your Pile, My Pile”. In this game students read individual words from the excerpt. They are encouraged to read each word automatically and without reference to the text, but the book is open and available for the student to refer to if they need it. After the game the teacher prepares the Word Study from the pile of words the student “wins”.
Below are the instructions and materials required to play Your Pile, My Pile:
Your Pile, My Pile
Applications:
This game is used to assess what words from the excerpt the student can read automatically. The game is suitable for use by teachers working with a single student or a small group, but is not a useful assessment task when used with a whole class.
Instructions:
Cut the cells of the table into individual word cards. Turn each word card face down in a pile on the table between the teacher and the student. Student and teacher take turns to turn over one card at a time. If the student reads the word automatically they place the card in a pile on the table in front of them. If the student cannot read the word automatically then the word goes to the teacher. The teacher takes note of words the student cannot yet read automatically and does not use there for Word Study at this time.
The Primary Goal of Word Study is Vocabulary Building
For EAL/D students the primary goal of Word Study is vocabulary building. Teachers should choose words with this goal in mind.
Selected words from the text:
1. Way
2. Broke
3. Tossed
Teacher Analysis
In this excerpt what is the function of each selected word?
1. Way functions as part of the verb group “on its way”. The verb here is the existing verb “was”. The adverbial phrase “on its way” tells the reader more about the action/location of the storm.
2. Broke functions as an action verb.
3. Tossed functions as an action verb. The relating verb “was” links “The world” with the action metaphor “tossed inside out and upside down”.
Morphemic Knowledge
Way and broke each contain a single morpheme.
Tossed is a combination of two morphemes; the base word “toss” and the suffix “ed”. The “ed” morpheme makes the action (to toss) past tense.
Introducing Word Study to the Students
Script (Lesson One)
Today we are going to look closely at some of the words from our excerpt of Hunwick’s Egg. We will look at the way the words are written to see if we can learn some lessons about the ways words work in English (Mears, 2011).
Here are the sentences we have been studying:
One morning Hunwick sat up and sniffed the wind. A storm was on its way and when it broke what a storm it was! The world was tossed inside out and upside down.
N.B. This script can be paraphrased at the beginning of subsequent Word Study lesson, followed by a quick reminder of content covered in the previous lesson.
Let’s begin by looking at the Smartboard for some information about our three words
Now let’s focus on how each word is written down
Teacher writes each word in turn onto a cardboard strip emphasising the sounds of individual graphemes e.g. w-ay
Teacher models matching sounds to individual letters and chunks
Student cuts each word in turn into chunks following teacher directions.
In group situations teacher models making these cuts and students work on their own photocopies of Word Study words. Teacher and student(s) talk about what each chunk “says”.
Teacher script for the “more tricky” sounds
Way
“ay” says the long “a” sound as in “play” and “day”
Broke
“b” and “r” blend together to make the “br” sound
“oke” says oke (as in joke and poke)
Tossed
The “o” is the short o sound as in “hot”.
The two letters “ed” are pronounced as a single sound. This is either “t” (as in tell) or “d” (as in day).
· It can be difficult to hear whether an Australian English language speaker says “t” or “d”. Either is acceptable in speech, but only “ed” is the correct suffix for writing the verb “to toss” in past tense.
· Teachers should remind students that English verbs are usually changed to simple past tense by adding “ed” to the base word (Derewianka, 2011, p. 27).
· Teachers should also be mindful that “Past tense (verb) irregularities cause major problems for learners of English, particularly as many of the commonly used verbs are irregular” (Derewianka, 2011, p.28).
Students can now practice the reading the words using their chunks
Teacher has their own set of chunks and models each activity before the student does it.
Sliding and saying
· Place words face up on a table in front of the student. Student says each chunk in turn and as they say it they slide the chunk up a centimetre or so
Saying and turning over
· As above except the student turns over each chunk as they say it.
Turning back over (one chunk at a time) and then saying
· Words are face down to begin with. Student turns over one chunk at a time and says each chunk in turn after they have turned it over.
Writing on a whiteboard (or white piece of paper slipped inside “plastic sleeve”)
· Students write Word Study words on individual whiteboards. Once each word is finished they underline and say each chunk in turn. Students are encouraged to do their own visual checking. Teachers provide the minimum support necessary for the student to self-correct any errors. The goal is for students to take responsibility for “being an editor” by checking and correcting their own Word Study words as much as possible.
Lesson Two
Today we’re going to look again at the chunks of letters that go together to form our words. In the second half of the lesson we will play Go Fish and a game called Battle Chunks.
Phonemes/graphemes
Here are “chunks” of the selected words:
w / aybr / oke
t / o / ss / ed
Morphology
Look at this chunk on the end of “tossed”. If we cut it off and turn it over the word is “toss”. Toss is a good English word. We can use it in lots of way. You remember the meanings of toss from the work we did on the Smartboard. (Briefly discuss)
By adding these two letters to the end of “toss” the word becomes “tossed” (teacher turns the “ed” chunk right side up again). These letters “ed” are a suffix. A suffix is letters added to the end of a word to give the word a different meaning. “Tossed” is different to “toss” because the “ed” chunk tells us it happened in the past. The “ed” suffix gives us extra information about when it happened.
Games to Practise Word Study Words
Go Fish (played in pairs)
Materials needed:
Two complete sets of the chunks that combine to form each of the Word Study words. These can be made by writing the words onto cardboard and cutting each word into phonemic units.
Instructions:
Gather the chunks into a pile. Shuffle. Deal each player 4 cards. Place remaining chunks face down in a pile between the players. Each player looks at their chunks, matches up any pairs and put these to the side. Players then take turns to ask each other questions with the goal of making more pairs. Questions must be in the form “Do you have (sound) as in (word)”
Examples include
· Do you have “w” as in way?
· Do you have “ay” as in way?
· Do you have “ed” as in tossed?
· Do you have “oke” as in broke?
If a player as “Do you have…?” and the other player has the chunk, they must hand it over. If they do not their answer is “Go fish” and the questioner takes one card off the stop of the centre pile.
If either player runs out of cards more can be dealt from the centre pile.
Battle Chunks (played in pairs)
Materials needed:
Two complete sets of the chunks that combine to form each of the Word Study words. These can be made by writing the words onto cardboard and cutting each word into grapho-phonemic units. One small post-it or sticker for each player.
Instructions:
Players arrange their chunks to form words laid flat on the table.
Erect a barrier to prevent players from easily seeing each other’s words. A good way to do this is to stand a folder or book up on the table.
Each player chooses one chunk and hides their post-it or sticker under that chunk.
Players then take turns to try to guess where their opponent’s post-it is hidden.
Players check if their guess is correct by asking questions using the same format as in Go Fish
For example:
· Do you have “oke” as in broke?
If the guess is incorrect, the player slides the “chunk” up slightly so as to remind the “guesser” that the guess was incorrect.
In turn, players nominate letter/sound combinations until both players have correctly guessed where their opponent’s “post-it” is hidden.
Variation
Battle Chunks can be played on a whiteboard with players each writing the letter/sound (grapho-phonemic) combination for each guess.
It can be helpful to have the Word Study words written on the whiteboard for student to refer to:
_ _ way _ _
_ _ broke _ _
_ _ __ tossed _ _ _ _
Spelling Folders
Once students have completed the Word Study component of the Sequence they can record the words in their Spelling Folders. Spelling Folders can be arranged into Common Letter Patterns (Axford et al, 2009, p.77). A useful approach is for students to record the word, the title of the book and the date in the section of the folder allocated to each Common Letter Pattern studied. For example:
ss Letter Pattern
word / title / datetossed / Hunwick’s Egg
missing / Isabella’s Bed
In a Spelling Folder arranged by Common Letter Patterns, students will make 5 entries for their Word Study of Hunwick’s Egg.
These are:
· The vowel plus consonant sound (ay)
· The double consonants (ss)
· The word ending (ed)
· The blend (br)
· The “e” marker (o-e)
Over time the Spelling Folder becomes a record of each student’s close study of Common Letter Patterns through multiple cycles of the Scaffolding Literacy Sequence with different texts.
Cloze Activity for Word Study Assessment
One morning Hunwick sat up and sniffed the wind. A storm was on its w____ and when it br_____, what a storm it was! The world was t______inside out and upside down.
Karen Green U3088603 Scaffolding Literacy PG 2012 Unit Convenor Misty Adoniou