Download Part I: Sorting Sounds and Words

Primary Word Study: Sorting, Writing, Reading
Part I: Sorting Sounds and Words
1. Sorting: It is important the students sort and practice toward
automaticity. Sorting, categorizing, needs to be automatic. Students
should say it and lay it while they sort. Engage in a routine of sort,
check, and reflect.
2. Talk about the Big Ideas: Ensure that students and teachers discuss the big idea or the idea
that can be extended across words. For example, digraphs are two letters that make one sound
(i.e. sh, th, ch, wh) and blends are two or three consonants that blend together and maintain
their own sounds (i.e. sl, pl, br, tr).
Part II: Writing Sounds and Words
3. Writing for Sounds: Students create two columns on a white board or the teacher provides a
prepared paper with two (to four) columns labeled with a letter at the top of each. The
teacher calls out words that begin with one of the letters. Students repeat the word and write
the sounds that they hear under the correct initial consonant. The expectation is that students
will use the correct beginning sound and provide a letter for any other sound that is
recognized. As young children are working on the alphabet, we are looking for an application
of phonics, not correct spellings.
4. Writing Sorts: A writing sort follow the same procedure as the writing for sounds, with the
exception that we are expecting the students to spell the words correctly. If a child is studying
two rhyming families, a writing sort would ask the child to spell the words in the correct
column for that family without seeing the word.
5. Sound Boards and Word Families: Students create 3-4 categories with a key word at the top of
each column. Students are then required to generate a list of rhyming words that will have a
similar rime (the last chunk of a word starting with the vowel). For example, if the student is
studying the –at, -op, and –ig families, the students would use these categories to generate
lists of rhymes: cat, hat, sat, mat, flat, brat, mop, cop, stop, drop, pig, wig, jig, dig, rig, and big.
This activity is generally supported with the use of a sound board (on pg. 277-278 in WTW).
6. Change-a-Letter: Teachers provide students with one of the words which they are studying.
Students are then required to change the word by adding or substituting one letter. For
example, map could change to cap and then to can and then to ran and then to ram and so on.
Young children should focus on changing the initial consonant first. Over time, they will be
comfortable and change the final letter and eventually the middle vowel in CVC words.
Part II: Making Words
7. Show me. This activity is a favorite with children who are learning word families and short
vowels. Each person gets a folder with an assortment of letter cards. There are three pockets
in which the letters can be placed to make short vowel words as shown in Figure 4.21. You ask
your child to use the letter cards to spell a short vowel word such as mat, hat, or hot. Once he
or she is ready, you call out “Show me.” The emphasis of the game is to create different words
with manipulative letter cards for practice. You can start by using words that are in the same
families, such as bad, sad, or mad in which your child will focus primarily on changing the initial
consonants. Move on to a different family and different vowels. For example, you could
follow this sequence: mad, mat, hat, hot, pot, pet. Add cards with digraphs or blends to spell
words such as ship or fast.
8. Build, blend, and extend. Children build words with letters and word families in this activity
designed to reinforce phonemic awareness and word families. Build, Blend and Extend
encourages children to use analogy as a spelling strategy with word families (“If I can spell cat,
then I can spell fat.”). Create a set of cards with beginning sounds (b, m, st, ch) and word
families (-at, -ap, -ig) based on the patterns your child is studying (see example in Figure 4.19).
Guide your child to build words by putting together beginning sounds and word families (m
and at) and then blend the sounds to read the word (“Mmmmmmm, aaaaaaaat, mat.”). Extend
the activity by asking your child to change one part to make a new word (“How can you change
mat to sat?”). When playing Build, Blend, and Extend with your child, focus initially on one
word family. As you child increases word knowledge, you can try word families with the same
vowel (-at, -ap, -an) and later word families with different vowels (-at, -it, -ot). As your child
learns beginning blends (st, br, pl) and digraphs (sh, ch, th) these can be included too.
Commercial products similar to Build, Blend, and Extend can also be readily purchased.
Part III: Reading and Writing Words in Text
9. Reading words in text: After a few sorting and word building activities it is critical that
students read the words in text. You may provide decodable or leveled text in which students
read, locate and identify words that are under study. You may also write a few sentences
using the words that are under study and ask student to read the line (s) of text.
10. Dictations: The teacher selects several words from the weekly word sort and dictates a
sentence for the students to spell on a white board or in his or her word study notebooks. At
the primary level, these sentences are often nonsensical such as, “The hog sat on a log with a
jug and a mug.” This allows students practice with the words in context and also with sight
words such as the, like, saw, went.