Making Words
Definition and Purpose
Making words is a teacher directed spelling activity in which children arrange letter cards to spell words. Teachers can choose a key word from a book that children are currently reading and then prepare letter cards that children can manipulate to spell words. As children build words they are practicing what they know about phoneme-grapheme correspondences and spelling patterns. It provides teachers the opportunity to get feedback on what children understand, and they are able to correct confusions, and review phonics and spelling patterns when necessary.
Making words is an effective strategy for teachers to use with English learning students, as the activity is collaborative and hands-on. Sometimes teachers bring together a group of ELs to do a making words activity as a preview before doing the activity with the whole class.
Steps
1. Teachers prepare a set of small letter cards with multiple copies of each letter. They print the lowercase letter on one side and the uppercase letter on the reverse. They can package the cards by letter in small plastic bags or boxes.
2. Teachers choose a word to use in the making words activity without sharing the word with the students.
3. Teachers ask children to name their letter cards and arrange them on their desks, with consonants in one group and vowels in another.
4. Children use the letter cards to make words containing two, three, four, five, six or more letters, and they list the words they can spell on a chart. Teachers monitor work and encourage students to fix any misspelled words.
5. Teachers have children identify two letter words they made with their letter cards and continue to report longer words until they identify the chosen word made using every letter card.
Application and Examples
For example, after reading Diary of a Spider (Cronin, 2011), a group of first graders build short –i and long –I words using the letters in the word spider; is, sip, rip, dip, drip, side, ride and ripe. After spelling these words children use all of the letters to spell the word spider.
Making words is a teacher directed spelling activity in which children arrange letter cards to spell words. Teachers can choose a key word from a book that children are currently reading and then prepare letter cards that children can manipulate to spell words. As children build words they are practicing what they know about phoneme-grapheme correspondences and spelling patterns. It provides teachers the opportunity to get feedback on what children understand, and they are able to correct confusions, and review phonics and spelling patterns when necessary.
Making words is an effective strategy for teachers to use with English learning students, as the activity is collaborative and hands-on. Sometimes teachers bring together a group of ELs to do a making words activity as a preview before doing the activity with the whole class.
Steps
1. Teachers prepare a set of small letter cards with multiple copies of each letter. They print the lowercase letter on one side and the uppercase letter on the reverse. They can package the cards by letter in small plastic bags or boxes.
2. Teachers choose a word to use in the making words activity without sharing the word with the students.
3. Teachers ask children to name their letter cards and arrange them on their desks, with consonants in one group and vowels in another.
4. Children use the letter cards to make words containing two, three, four, five, six or more letters, and they list the words they can spell on a chart. Teachers monitor work and encourage students to fix any misspelled words.
5. Teachers have children identify two letter words they made with their letter cards and continue to report longer words until they identify the chosen word made using every letter card.
Application and Examples
For example, after reading Diary of a Spider (Cronin, 2011), a group of first graders build short –i and long –I words using the letters in the word spider; is, sip, rip, dip, drip, side, ride and ripe. After spelling these words children use all of the letters to spell the word spider.