We are excited to be using Words Their Way: Word Study in Action in school this year! Words Their Way: Word Study in Action is authored by noted researchers Donald Bear, Marcia Invernizzi, Francine Johnston, and Shane Templeton. Words Their Way is designed to teach students phonics, spelling, and vocabulary through engaging, hands-on activities. This powerful approach to word study teaches students to look closely at words to discover letters, vowel patterns, syllable structure, phonics, word recognition and spelling-meaning connections in the English language.
How does Words Their Way: Word Study in Action work?
The heart of word study is sorting or the process of grouping sounds and words into specific categories. Word/picture sorting includes teacher-directed sorts as well as independent or partner sorts. Students will sort their word cards or picture cards and make discoveries and generalizations about the conventions of the English language. They will compare and contrast word features and discover similarities and differences within the categories.
What is Word Study?
Word study is just what it sounds like - a study of words. Students move through weekly word study patterns and activities during the week with a test on Fridays. Student's lists will be on a word study PATTERN (example - all long a words, words with CH, CVC words, or vowels in multisyllable words). The quiz will be on the word PATTERN they have been studying, NOT necessarily on that set list of words. Word study provides students with opportunities to investigate and understand the patterns in words. Knowledge of these patterns means that students needn't learn to spell one word at a time. Take, for example, the difference between "hard c" (as in cat) and "soft c" (as in cell). After collecting many words containing the letter "c," students discover that "c" is usually hard when followed by consonants (as in clue and crayon) and the vowels "a," "o," and "u" (as in cat, cot, and cut). In contrast, "c" is usually soft when followed by "i", "e," and "y" (as in circus, celery, and cycle).
Why Word Study instead of traditional spelling?
Research studies clearly indicate that memorization of lists of "spelling words" does not promote the development of spelling skills. In the past when we've used this traditional approach of "everyone gets the same weekly list and test on Friday", many students who got a 100% on their spelling test could not spell most of the words in their writing! Memorizing a list of words and getting 100% on weekly tests does not necessarily mean your child is a good speller. It may just mean they are good at memorizing words for a test.
Parents are encouraged to support their students' learning of word study by following the home practice activities which can be found in the homework packet. You can help your child practice his or her weekly word study by sorting at home with them every night.