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Week 7 Assignment 3

Explain the three levels of words and how you can use word levels to decide which words to teach.
The first level of words is familiar words that are used very often. These words don't have to be taught to students. The next level of words includes those that often appear in print or conversation however they may be difficult for students to understand and read. The words in this tier are the most important for teachers to focus on in a classroom.  The third level includes highly technical and very unique words. These may be words that are part of Science, Math, or Social Studies curriculum. If so, these words can be left to the biology, social studies, and math teacher to teach. When selecting words to teach you, it can be based on materials within the classroom. Fluency does not have to be a separate lesson, instead, let it be embedded within content or reading lessons.
How do you teach your students to "chunk" words as a strategy for decoding unfamiliar words? When do you provide this instruction? The strategy of chunking words for decoding is good as a beginning reading strategy. The more kids read, the more exposure there is to common rhyme patterns which build accuracy and fluency. As children learn to read with more fluency they use a larger unit strategy. When using the "chunking" strategy students should pull out the difficult words from the sentence. Next, literally separate the beginning middle and end of the word and read each part separately. Then the student should read it with increasing speed until they can put the word back together as one word and read it in the sentence. The next day tell the student to use thumbs when they come across the difficult word. After 10 lessons they won't even have to use thumbs. This instruction can be provided in a group lesson when learning specific phonics lessons. This strategy should also be taught for students to self-monitor and use during independent reading.

 Based on Professor Allington's comments and the classroom examples, what are some ways you might foster word study in your classroom?
Some ways that I can incorporate word study in my classroom is by choosing words that are relevant to children's backgrounds and are familiar to them. Choosing words that seem difficult to read but are really simple when chunking it into parts allows students to feel smart once they are able to read the words and understand their meaning. Having a word wall for students to see and hang up new and exciting words learned is an efficient way to ensure that wors taught are remembered by the students. Another way to foster word study is during reading aloud. After reading a page ask students to point out any difficult words, and you can have a group discussion to determine the meaning of the word. I would teach students that looking at the context of the word can help them figure out the meaning of it.

Comments

  1. Annie, I like the way you explained chunking instruction. Thanks for sharing!

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