Constructivist Approaches to Phonics and Vocabulary Instruction: Word Study that Works!
Timothy Rasinski
Kent State University
www.timrasinski.com “Resources”
Twittter @timrasinski1
A Model of Reading Instruction
Words Word Study
Accuracy in:
Phonics (Word Recognition)
Spelling
Vocabulary
Fluency Fluency Instruction
Automaticity
Prosody
------
Comprehension Guided Reading
Background Knowledge
Comprehension Strategies
Selected Statistics for Major Sources of
Spoken and Written Language
Text Percentage of Rare (uncommon) words
Adult Speech, Expert Witness Testimony 2.8%
Adult Speech, College Graduates to Friends 1.7%
Mr. Rogers and Sesame Street .2%
Children’s Books -- Preschoolers 1.6%
Children’s Books -- Elementary 3.1%
Comic Books 5.4%
Adult Books 5.3%
Abstracts of Scientific Articles 12.8%
Adapted from Hayes & Ahrens (1988). Journal of Child Language, 15, 395-410.
Source: Cunningham, A.E. & Stanovich, K.E. (1998, Spring-Summer). What reading does for the mind. American Educator, 22, 8-15.
Word Harvesting
Whenever reading to your students, reciting a poem, singing a song, or playing a word game in your class if you or your students notice any interesting words, have them call out the words at the end of the read aloud or word game. Write the word on a daily word wall and talk about the meaning of the words and begin to use the words in your own oral language over the next several days. Encourage your students also to use the words in their oral and written language.
If you read to your students every day of the school year and harvest 5-6 words after each read aloud you will have exposed your students to 900-1180 new words over the course of a school year. That alone will have a significant impact on your students’ word knowledge. Since authors purposefully use interesting words in their writing, students will find a treasure trove of words in the materials that are read to them or that they read on their own.
Word Ladders
girl dog black short snow
gill dig block shore show
grill big lock sore shoe
thrill bit lick more hoe
till bat lice mire hole
Bill rat slice wire mole
ball cat slide tire male
bay lid tile ale
boy lit till ail
wit tall mail white main
rain
leaf mean key walk first
lean lean donkey
mean Len monkey
man men monk
main mad honk
mane made Hank
made trade rank
trade tirade rack
tread rock
tree lock run last
1. Anagrams: See www.wordsmith.org/anagram/ Select the “advanced”setting and then select “Print candidate words only” See also www.wordles.com (words in words)
2. For Making and Writing Words article by Tim Rasinski go to www.readingonline.org and search in “articles” under my name Rasinski, or for my 2 articles Making and Writing Words and Making and Writing Words Using Letter Patterns. Both articles have the forms you can download and print out and use for yourself.
3. For more on Word Ladders see – Scholastic, (Tel: 800-242-7737, choose option #3)
Daily Word Ladders for Teaching phonics and vocabulary, Gr 2-3
Daily Word Ladders for Teaching phonics and vocabulary, Gr 4+
4. More Making and Writing Words -- Teacher Created Materials
www.teachercreatedmaterials.com (search for “Rasinski”)
Tel: 800-858-7339
Texts for Fluency Practice: Grade 1
Texts for Fluency Practice: Grades 2 and 3
Texts for Fluency Practice: Grades 4 and Up
Making and Writing Words, Gr 1
Making and Writing Words, Grs. 2-3
5. You can also find my Making and Writing Words book from Carson Dellosa at 800-321-0943, ask for Item Number CD-2600.
The Most Common Word Families (Phonograms)
Word Family (Phonogram) Poems (Authentic Decodable Texts)
-ank and –ad
Happy Hank played a prank
On his mom and dad.
They didn’t like it.
He got spanked. -ay
Now Happy Hank is sad.
TR Bikes are to ride
All of the day.
Places to go
So far away.
Sidewalks and paths
Places to stray.
Riding a bike
What a great way to play
-ob Greg
Diddle diddle dumpling
My son Bob.
Skinned his knee
And began to sob.
Gave him a pickle
And corn on the cob
Diddle diddle dumpling
My son Bob.
TR
For more information see Poems for Building Reading Skills. Shell Educational Publishing.http://www.shelleducation.com/rasinski.php or Call: 877-777-3450
Essential Latin and Greek Derivations Worth Teaching
Prefixes
Ante before
Anti against
Auto self
Bi two
Centi hundred
Co (m,n) with, together
Extra more, beyond
Mega large
Micro small
Mid middle
Mono one
Multi many
Pre before
Re again
Semi, hemi half
Sub under
Super over
Tele distant
Tri three
Ultra beyond
Un/In not
Uni one
Bases
Aero Air
Aud Hear
Mand Order/Command
Mater Mother
Pater Father
Phon Sound
Photo Light
Port Carry
Also: Rasinski, et al. (2008). Greek and Latin Roots: Keys to Building Vocabulary. Huntington Beach, CA: Shell Educatonal Publishing.
Making and Writing Words
/ Consonants
1
/ 5
2
/ 6
3
/ 7
4
/ 8
Transfer
T-1/ T-2
T-3
/ T-4
Fr: Rasinski, T. (1999). Making and writing words. Reading Online. Available at http://www.readingonline.org/articles/rasinski/. Permission to photocopy for educational use is granted.
See. Making and Writing Words. Rasinski and Heym. http://www.shelleducation.com/rasinski.php
Making and Writing Words
/ Consonants
1
/ 5
2
/ 6
3
/ 7
4
/ 8
Transfer
T-1/ T-2
T-3
/ T-4
Fr: Rasinski, T. (1999). Making and writing words. Reading Online. Available at http://www.readingonline.org/articles/rasinski/. Permission to photocopy for educational use is granted.
See. Making and Writing Words. Rasinski and Heym. http://www.shelleducation.com/rasinski.php
Triangle / Biplane / Tricycle / TrickleTrip / Bright / Trifocals / Biceps
Triple / Trickle / FREE!!!!! / Triathlete
Bifocals / Bipod / Triceps / Triceratops
WORDO!
MORE VOCABULARY!
Vocabulary Ladders and Time Lines
Make appropriate additions to the following vocabulary time lines. List are synonymous vertically, on top of one another.
Told
Said
Hot Cold
Tall Short
Young Old
Small Large
Old Man
Vocabulary Development: Semantic Feature Analysis (SFA)
Purpose:
Provides students with practice in analyzing words and concepts along various defining dimensions, characteristics, or features.
Procedure:
1. Obtain a blank grid (see template).
2. Identify a topic or theme from which to draw words to analyze.
3. Choose or invite students to choose a set of items, objects, or concepts that fit within the topic of theme (e.g. Topic = Texas Cities, Concepts = Dallas, Houston, Wichita Falls, etc.; Topic = American Leaders, Concepts = Washington, JFK, FDR, LBJ, etc.). The concepts are listed in the left hand column.
4. Brainstorm, alone or with students, features or characteristics that one or more of the concepts possess (e.g. Topic = Texas Cities, Features = Population over 500,000; Major sea port, southern half of state, state capital, contains military base). List the features along the top row of the grid.
5. Students use the features to analyze the concepts. Initially students can place a yes or no in each box to indicate the presence or absence of the feature. As students become more adept at using SFA, they can rate the degree to which each concept contains such a feature (e.g. 1 = does not possess the feature at all, 2 = possess the feature to some degree, 3 = possesses the feature to a very high degree -- very descriptive of the concept).
6. Students should discuss their reasoning with their classmates after completing the grid analysis.
7. After completing the analysis, students can write definitions for each concept using the various features or attributes that were the basis for the analysis (e.g. Houston is a large Texas city located in the southern part of the state; it is a major sea port but is not the state capital...).
Semantic Feature Analysis Topic: ______
Columns = attributes
Rows = exemplars
2