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Welcome to day 1 of Teaching Spelling through Word Study. To see all of the posts in this series, please click HERE or on the image above. If you’ve read many of my posts, you know I love the word study approach. It’s very much a part of the two FREE reading curricula that I write: Reading the Alphabet and Phonics by The Book. So what exactly is Word Study? Put on your seat belts and buckle up, because here we go…
Traditional Spelling
First, I wanted to drudge up what you probably already know about spelling. Maybe it’s how you experienced spelling as a child. Rote memorization. The equation looks something like this:
SEE Word + WRITE Word = MEMORIZE Word
If we see the word a lot + write (or copy) the word a lot, then the string of letters will stick in our brain. The typical spelling list will look something like this: made, years, know, please, etc. The words chosen for these lists are mostly high frequency words that are unrelated to one another in any way.
We also have our lists of rules: “when two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking” or “the silent e makes the vowel say its name”. But, it doesn’t take much time before we discover that these rules have many, many exceptions.
With traditional spelling, spelling can become rather dull and boring for the student (and teacher). Students are mostly passive learners; simply empty containers to fill. Students often memorize the words for the test, but forget them after they’ve scored their 100’s.
Rote memorization * Unrelated word lists * Lists of rules * Many exceptions * Dull and boring * Passive * Forgettable
Now, contrast traditional spelling with…
The Word Study Approach
Word Study operates under a different paradigm. It is “based on the belief that most words do follow spelling generalizations” or patterns. (Johnston) As a matter of fact, studies show 84 percent of English words are mostly predictable! (Moats) Instead of memorizing lists of unrelated words, students are given word lists that are centered around a specific pattern, like word families. Through studying these patterns, students can begin to “understand how words are built and apply this knowledge” in their reading and spellings. (www.spellingscholar.com)
Students are given word sorts and asked to be active learners as they compare, contrast, sort/manipulate, and classify the words. They are also encouraged to use and apply the word generalizations when they read and write. (Templeton & Pikulski) Peter Johnston says is best in his book Choice Words, “…there are hidden costs in telling people things. If students can figure something out for themselves, explicitly providing the information preempts the students’ opportunity to build a sense of agency and independence.”
Based on the patterned word lists, students begin to form generalizations that sound something like: “Almost every time I see a and i together, it makes the long a sound. And I notice that the a-i is either at the beginning or in the middle of the word.” This generalization can help the student read and spell unknown words that share the same ai pattern.
And a very important difference between traditional spelling and word study: word patterns are chosen specific to the spelling development of the child. This means if the child is ready for long vowel patterns, these are the patterns he studies.
Generalizations * Patterns * Active Learners * Compare * Contrast * Sort * Classify * Apply * Specific for Child
A Little Theory Behind Word Study
Why are Word Patterns Important for Learning to Spell (and Read)?
I love how Pat Cunningham puts it in her book Phonics They Use. “The brain…is not a rule applier but a pattern decoder. While we look at single letters, we are looking at them and considering all the letter patterns we know. Successfully decoding (or encoding) a word occurs when the brain recognizes a familiar spelling pattern…or searches through its store of words with similar patterns.” (pg. 186, 188)
Applied Knowledge of Words
“Word study teaches children to focus on patterns and meaning chunks. In a word study program, children learn to apply their knowledge to a greater number of words than they could learn by memorizing traditional spelling lists.” (Mattmann & Cowan)
How many more words? Well, let’s say that a child has 20 spelling words a week. Now multiply that by 36 weeks for 10 years. Hmmm, 7200 words…that is, if he can memorize them all perfectly. But, the average vocabulary of a high school student is around 75,000 words! 7200 is only 10%! (Johnston) Let’s take the word study approach. The study of the a_e pattern alone can help students learn to spell and read over 100 words (off the top of my head)!
Word Study Resources:
I could go on and on and on…really…there are whole entire books written on this one subject. If you’re a ” literacy nerd” like me, you may enjoy these books, websites, and articles.
- 10 Days of Teaching Spelling Through Word Study {from This Reading Mama}
- Words Their Way-Bear, Invernizzi, Templeton, & Johnston
- Choice Words -Peter Johnston
- Phonics They Use-Pat Cunningham
- A More Effective Way to Teach Spelling-Mattmann & Cowan
- Building the Foundations of Literacy-Templeton & Pikulski
- How Spelling Supports Reading-Moat
- How Words Cast Their Spell-Joshi, Treiman, Carreker, and Moats
- Questions Teachers Ask About Spelling-Templeton & Morris (Reading Research Quarterly)
- Spelling Scholar– FAQ
- Why Do They Get it on Friday and Misspell it on Monday?– Gill & Scharer (Language Arts)
- For even more articles, visit here.
And don’t forget to hop around on the hopscotch board and visit the other amazing bloggers at iHomeschool Network and enter the Pin to Win Giveaway!
~Becky
What a great post!
I’d love to make spelling more fun & interesting for my kiddos. It is starting to feel a little redundant which is leading to bored, uninterested kids.
i’d love to make spelling more fun & interesting for my kiddos it is starting to feel a little redundant which is leading to bored, uninterested kids.
This is a really interesting approach. It really speaks to me this morning. I will be reading a researching today.
I came across these posts today, and I’m wondering–where do you get your lists? Are they part of another curricula or did you make them yourself?
Hi Karen. Thanks for stopping by. Maybe it’s “mommy brain”, but I’m not sure what list you’re referring to…are you asking about my resources?
Yes, I am. Where did you get the lists you use, not just for your example?
My list is a combination of books and articles I read while getting my MEd in reading. I also found several articles here http://www.spellingscholar.com/. Hope that helps.
I am using some word family cards I had found at specialed.about.com to teach my children to read. I can’t link to it because it’s no longer there, but it looks similar to what you used in your examples. Could they work?
I was hoping you’d have something your readers could download.
Have you tried this post from the series? https://thisreadingmama.com/2012/10/24/games-with-word-patterns/ It has some word family freebies and more links at the end.
Do you have them all in one place? It looks like I’ll be searching your site for awhile to find them all.
This link is where I have all my free printables: https://thisreadingmama.com/homemade-printables/
I have an 11 yo girl that has struggled with reading and even more in spelling. She is a good two years behind and I am looking for a different way to teach. Would your curriculum be appropriate for that age?
Are you referring to word study? If so, YES! I’ve tutored many students in reading who were way behind in spelling. I was amazed at how word study helped to fill in the gaps. Let me know if you have any more questions.
What would you recommend for her. I just found your site via kendra at preschoolers and peace. She is 11 and reading a little house book is a struggle. She hates reading and writing is even more dreadful. She has had a difficult beginning with vision therapy, occupational therapy, auditory therapy. She is a healthy child with only this learning difficulty that plagues her. In all other areas she is really smart. Ivemtried many things, I’ve spent many dollars. I don’t know how to motivate her or teach her. She is my third homeschool daughter. And the youngest. My older two are excelling. Thanks.
Hi Susan. First, I wonder if you’d be interested in looking through the 10 posts I’ve written on struggling readers: https://thisreadingmama.com/series-posts/struggling-readers-need/ If you need further direction after that, I’d be glad to help you assess her word understanding by giving her a spelling inventory. I can totally walk you through that and would be willing to “grade” it for you if you could send it to me. If you’d like to discuss further, feel free to email me: beckythisreadingmama {at} yahoo {dot} com. 🙂
This is my first time on the site. I’m learning so much! Hope i win.
Hope i win. I’m new to this?