How do you build word knowledge? Is it by handing a student a dictionary and saying learn all these words? The answer is no. It is not that simple. Building word knowledge takes time, but, if taught effectively, it can can work great for students.
In Patricia and James Cunningham's article, they discuss lesson planning and ideas for activities involving making words. One idea they shared was to give the students an assortment of letters. From these letters, the students have to build as many words as they can.
For example, you give them the letters C A W T P.
They respond with: cap, cat, pat, paw, tap
By giving them the opportunity to build words themselves, you can assess and see how wide or narrow their word knowledge is and check for false words (for example, taw is not a word).
In Ruth Yopp and Hallie Yopp's article, they presented another great way to work on making words with students. For the lesson, you have students read a passage and ask each student to pick out the ten most important words. This will allow students to work on focusing on the key points throughout the text while also building their word span.
One idea I found that seemed like a great lesson plan is called Word Family and pictured below. You could do this with any objects so maybe a spider with multiple rhyming legs for Halloween or a snowman for the winter. The teacher provides the base letters, like -all below. Then, the students must list as many words as they can that have those same base letters, like call, fall, tall.
These all seem like great ways to teach students how to make words. However, when I was younger I mostly remember singing rhyming songs or laughing with friends as we tried to create silly words that rhymed with one another. What about you?
1. Do you remember playing rhyming games when you were younger and trying to create words?
2. Does it help when creating words to know how to make them rhyme with one another?
3. What were some techniques your teachers used to help you when you were first learning to make words?
While reading your post the part about the how many words can you make with these letters stuck out to me. I remember this used to be one of my favorite things about going to eat because the coloring books would have activities like that one in it. Usually it was done seasonally like how many words can you get out of Halloween or Christmas Carols. I think these do a creative job by making kids use their brains but it seem like a fun game.
ReplyDeleteCasey, I loved the activity you included in this post! How fun! This could also be something that we practiced the whole, building upon new ideas and harder words, and even changing the shapes to match the seasons. This is really cool! Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I especially liked the Word Family lesson plan you mentioned. I think that's a great way to incorporate word study into the classroom! To answer your second question, I think knowing rhyming words is a great way to learn how to create words you don't already know. I even use this technique now when I come across words I have never seen before. In my opinion, using word patterns through rhyming is essential.
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