Word Study Minilesson

Allison Kennedy

I am in a fourth grade classroom and there are three different levels. There is the WW stage, the SJ stage, and the DC stage. I wor ed with the lowest word study grou! who are in the "within word# category. $or my word study lesson I conducted a sort with four features and created a game to go along with that !articular sort. Their sort this wee consisted of headings with vowels followed %y the letter "&#. Those included' (ar, (or, (ir, and )ur. I discussed this assignment with my teacher and this was the ne*t sort that she had !lanned for that grou!. The grou!s are %ased off of their testing at the %eginning of the year, so I new it would %e an a!!ro!riate sort. I started off the lesson li e my teacher does every wee , %y introducing the sort. We sounded out each category and then read the words together, em!hasi+ing the a!!ro!riate grou!. ,e*t they sorted the words inde!endently and read them -uietly to themselves to ma e sure that they didn.t ma e any mista es. Then I chec ed their sorts and assisted if there were any errors. /ecause they had already wor ed with the words the day %efore, this was a small review %ut still aided in them really understanding and sounding out the words. ,e*t I e*!lained the game to them. The game I chose to !lay is similar to /I,01. Instead of calling out words for them to cover, however, I read the definitions of the words to them. It was then their tas to thin a%out the definition and what word fit it, and then tell me the a!!ro!riate category 2ir, ar, or, ur3 that it %elonged in. 1nce they did this, they could find the word on their /I,01 %oard and mar it off. 1nce they had four in a row they won. The small grou! I wor ed with really en4oyed this game. They also suggested adding com!letion to

the game and also a "%lac out# version. We had a little time at the end, so we tried them out. This game gave each student a chance to really thin a%out the word and sound it out to find the category instead of 4ust loo ing for the corres!onding letters in each grou!. 1ne !ro%lem that ha!!ened with this game was that if I wasn.t watching closely, the students would try to loo for the words on the %oard to see the correct sort category %y loo ing at the letters. To avoid this ne*t time, I could 4ust fill out the /I,01 %oard with the four category features and have them mar off a category when they identified a word from it. This would %e more of a %lind sort and really assess whether or not they really new it. 5lanning for word study instruction in my own classroom I would definitely conduct a Develo!mental S!elling Assessment 2DSA3 at the %eginning of the year. This would allow me to see what features each child had mastered, which ones they were still wor ing on, and the ones that they had no idea how to do. This would assist me in ma ing my word study grou!s. Similar to how my coo!erating teacher does it, I would li e to have a minimum of three grou!s and a ma*imum of four grou!s 2de!ending on the si+e of the class or the range of ca!a%ilities3. After my grou!s were made, I could %egin instruction. I would start on 6onday %y giving my students their words while in small grou! with me. We would go over the sounds or feature that each category focused on and from there we would read the words together. I would !rovide a few e*am!les of which words went where, and then I would have each child individually sort their words and read them -uietly aloud to themselves. This allows them to hear the words again which hel!s them see if any don.t sound li e they %elong in a !articular grou!. I would then chec to ma e sure they were correct and have them go to their des s and write their

sort out twice. 1n Tuesday I would have them write definitions for at least ten words after sorting them once again. 1n Wednesday I would li e to !lay a game with them as well as write 78 sentences to show they understand the meaning of the words in conte*t. /ecause they have %een wor ing with the same words for a few days, this should come faster than it would if I had 4ust given them the words. 1n Thursday I would have them finish u! anything they hadn.t had time for and if they were done, I would have another game or activity with the words for them to do. 1n $riday, I would give them a s!elling9sort test. I would !rovide the !a!er with the a!!ro!riate num%er of columns for their sort and give them the headings, %ut as I read the words aloud, they would %e re-uired to sort them into the correct category and s!ell them correctly as well. $or all of this, I would need the word sort with the list of words, dictionaries for when the class was writing definitions, a cou!le different games to !lay for each sort, and the handouts for the test at the end of the wee .