What is word study, phonics and spelling?
Word solving is the foundational piece to fluent reading. In the alphabetic language, phonics describes the relationships between the sounds of language and the symbols of language (letters). As students learn these connections, they are able to recognize letters and words to decode print more effectively and are able to begin making meaning. Letter knowledge, letter-sound relationships, spelling patters, high - frequency words, word meaning, vocabulary and word structure are all crucial competencies for developing our learners' literacy skills. By using our modelling, sharing, guided and independent stages of learning and growth, we are able to develop and reach our ultimate goal for our learners of reading and writing independently. Why is word study important? The purpose of word study, phonics and spelling is to expand and refine students' reading competencies. With understanding sound and letter relationships, students add to their abilities to create meaning from text, turn sounds into text and solve difficult words. Students not only need to acquire phonics and word analysis, but are required to apply the understandings to read and write text. As our learners develop and notice features, parts or patterns, we offer opportunities to work with them to develop speed and flexibility with seeing, saying, making and taking apart words. By weaving word study into the classroom, students build a core to recognize words, develop a system to remember said words, learn developmentally appropriate skills to use in decoding and encoding and expand vocabulary strategies to notice and recall familiar and unfamiliar words. |
For more information on Word Study, Phonics and Spelling check out the DRC |
For more information on Word Study, Phonics and Spelling check out your school's Fountas and Pinnell Benchmark Assessment Kit |
What is phonics and why is it important?
Phonics involves matching the sounds with the individual letters or letter groups. Instruction teaches our learners to decode letters into their respective sounds. Some readers tend to rely heavily on one reading strategy, such as the use of context and picture clues, and they exclude other strategies that might be more appropriate. Fluent readers need have a repertoire of strategies to draw on. What is spelling and why is it important? Like phonics, spelling is an integral piece to word study. As students learn to spell words, they develop vocabulary that is useful to them in reading and writing. To be strong spellers, our learners need to use: phonetic spelling (words that follow regular phonetic rules), visual spelling (remembering words that are irregularly spelled) and analogy spelling (hearing and seeing similarities in words and word parts). Knowing spelling patterns and word parts helps our learners notice, connect and use larger parts of words for solving and writing. |
What can word study look like?
The goal for us as teachers is for our students to become active analyzers and examiners of text as we encourage them to make connections, find patterns, create categories and remember examples they have seen or heard. Spelling, phonics and word study can take place throughout the day in both dedicated times and in context (explicit and implicit learning). Create a space where all students can see and hear easily and are able to sit comfortably. Focus on one principle that is relevant for your learners at that particular time. Find a few clear examples and invite students to share and notice what is articulated. One of the goals of the lesson would be to ensure we can connect the learning experience to student work or other texts the group has read or written. Have dry erase boards, markers and and erasers available or magnetic letters on trays. Picture cards for initial consonants or medial vowels or digraphs and blends are incredibly handy as well. Templates with sound boxes in plastic sleeves are also great for our learners to manipulate.
The goal for us as teachers is for our students to become active analyzers and examiners of text as we encourage them to make connections, find patterns, create categories and remember examples they have seen or heard. Spelling, phonics and word study can take place throughout the day in both dedicated times and in context (explicit and implicit learning). Create a space where all students can see and hear easily and are able to sit comfortably. Focus on one principle that is relevant for your learners at that particular time. Find a few clear examples and invite students to share and notice what is articulated. One of the goals of the lesson would be to ensure we can connect the learning experience to student work or other texts the group has read or written. Have dry erase boards, markers and and erasers available or magnetic letters on trays. Picture cards for initial consonants or medial vowels or digraphs and blends are incredibly handy as well. Templates with sound boxes in plastic sleeves are also great for our learners to manipulate.
Useful Videos
Please watch these videos. They will provide some examples on how you could approach phonics, spelling or word study in your classroom.
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Learning together on the ancestral, unceded territory of the syilx Nation.
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