Word Study

 All students are receiving word study instruction in the classroom designed to help them become fluent decoders and spellers.  Students are engaged in a variety of activities each week that focus on three main goals.  The first goal is to teach students how to decode and spell one- and two-syllable words based on words they already know.   The second goal is to help students develop a visual checking system when spelling rhyming words with two or more patterns.  The last goal will be to teach students key words containing the major prefixes, suffixes and spelling changes and how to use these to decode, spell, and build meaning for many multisyllabic words.

 

Research shows that in order to be a proficient speller you must have basic knowledge of word structure.  The purpose for learning to decode and spell words is to transfer this knowledge to everyday reading and writing.  Weekly word study activities will stress the transfer to reading and writing and create automaticity, which is spelling words without thinking about the spelling of the word.

 

Every other week the students will be given a word study test.  Tests will consist of about twenty words from the lessons presented during class.  In addition, there will be transfer words, which are combinations of the prefixes, suffixes, and root words taught during the weekly lessons.