October 13, 2014

Word Study:

In the The Reading Teacher articles, we saw 3 ways students can learn new words and how each instruction differs from the other.
While wide-reading exposes students to new words via books and pictures, establishment of environment promotes learning outside the lesson or classroom.

So how can we incorporate all strategies to help our students?

With Wide Reading, we can buy books in the library that are either slightly above the average reading level, and/or accurately drawn pictures that make it easy to connect the unknown word to the known image.

With Explicit Instruction, teachers can group unknown words with known words that have some of the same contexts. Instead of using the old word, use the new one.
                   For example: - sheet, blanket, comforter
                                         - cat, kitten, feline
Establishment of Environment is more focused on parental guidance. While teachers can promote challenging words, parents can continue it by making it a game. For example. on the way to school a parent can ask their child how many bridges they see. To get a point, the child has to say the word and point to the object.
     -Word lists from teachers can help with this.