Word Study and Fluency Put It Into Practice | Word Study and Fluency

In this activity, you will practice reviewing children’s books to identify common rimes (spelling patterns) for developing word study lessons.

The purpose of phonics instruction is to help students read words encountered in texts. While teachers at a given grade level have a basic idea of the scope and sequence of skills to teach, some texts lend themselves to specific word study skills. Teachers must decide which phonic elements will enable students to read texts more efficiently. Identifying common rimes is critical to learning how to read and write new words.

The interactive activity below: Match Rimes with Books provides practice in reviewing texts and identifying one or more common rimes that are found in multiple words in the text and can be practiced by students during reading.

• How would you introduce the rime to your students?
• How would you challenge your more capable readers in word study?

Tip: Notice that there are two sounds for the –ow rime (e.g. slow and town). To challenge your more capable readers you might contrast the two sounds of –ow or review the two spellings of –ow — ow and ou.

This activity is also available as a PDF document.

Now gather several books you use with your students.

1. Print the list of the 37 Most Common Rimes (PDF), as identified by Wylie and Durrell.
2. Analyze a book you use with your students for multiple occurrences of any of the common rimes.
3. Identify the rime that appears most frequently. Generate a list of the words that include the rime to introduce to your students.
4. Now develop a phonics lesson plan to introduce and practice rimes. Make sure to include the components of explicit instruction as outlined in the Develop a Lesson Plan activity that follows.

Assignment: Copy a sample page from your book. Highlight the common rime and generate a word list to submit.

In this activity, you will design a word study lesson plan that is drawn from the components of explicit instruction and research-based principles presented in the lecture and the readings.

1. Print the Lesson Plan Template (PDF) as an outline for your lesson plan.
2. Review the principles of emergent literacy, phonics instruction, and reading fluency using Dr. Paratore’s lecture posters and your notes from the readings.
3. Watch the following video segment on the framework of a lesson plan. Use the video image below to locate where to begin viewing.

Video Segment – Lesson Plan Design

Find this segment approximately 41 minutes and 50 seconds after the beginning of the video. Watch for about 1 minute.

This video segment addresses the three components of an explicit lesson: Modeling and Demonstration, Guided Practice, and Independent Application. Incorporate these elements into your lesson plan.

Structure your lesson around a book you have taught or plan to teach to your student. When developing your lesson plan:

1. Identify one or more elements of phonemic awareness or phonics that can be taught using this book. (A good starting point would be to focus on spelling patterns using the rimes identified in the Match Rimes activity. You could also focus on consonant sounds and patterns, or word parts.)
2. Decide how you will introduce and model the reading strategy.
3. Provide for students’ guided practice and independent application.

Consider how this lesson is multi-level to meet the needs of all students.

Assignment: Submit your lesson plan.

Optional Viewing

You may want to watch the workshop participants’ critique of the lesson plan. Find this segment approximately 42 minutes and 45 seconds after the begining of the video. Watch for about 3 minutes.

In this ongoing activity, you will collect literacy resources in a Handbook for Effective Literacy Practices to use in your classroom.

Today, you will create a section for word study instruction that covers emergent literacy, phonics/decoding, and reading fluency. Include resources you already use, and plan to use in the future. Place them in the section for Word Study and Fluency. You may want to include:

• texts and materials to develop phonemic awareness skills
• lists of phonemic awareness skills
• lesson plans for phonics skills related to grade-level books
• lists of phonic elements with suggested grade levels for instruction
• word study activities to incorporate into daily routines (use readings)
• activities to use with a Word Wall
• books to teach specific phonic elements
• teacher resources for word study
• activities to promote reading fluency (with accompanying materials)

Review the contents of the handbook for how well they correlate to the principles of Dr. Paratore’s lecture and the readings.

Assignment: Submit a copy of your completed Handbook at the end of the workshop.

In this section, you will review and complete your notes on word study and fluency.

Review the notes you have taken during this workshop. Return to the Word Study Concept Chart you completed in the beginning of this session. Add any new ideas and insights about teaching word study in K-2 to the chart: What You Know, What You Do, and Challenges. In a paragraph, respond to the following questions:

• What did you learn about effective word study by participating in this session? (Add this to the “What You Know” section of the chart.)
• How will this session influence your teaching practices? (Add this to the “What You Do” section of the chart.)
• What questions do you still have? What do you want to know more about? (Add this to the “Challenges” section of the chart.)

Assignment: Submit your responses as a written reflection.