Word Study: What Exactly Is It?

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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