Word work is something they learn in primary grades… but is it?
Word work isn't something that is just learned in the primary grades. I believe we always learn word work even as adults. In the intermediate grades word work isn't just phonemic awareness and phonics but then goes into syllables, suffixes, prefixes, and more. As a student myself I loved learning word work and about suffixes, prefixes, and multimeaning words, it was something that greatly interested me.
-How do we support students who did not master “breaking the code”?
When a student has not mastered "breaking the code" we need to provide support and strategies for them to be able to break the code eventually. I really liked figure 10.3 with the different tier words and how it broke it down in the sections about theses words and how they are used.
-What did you learn in this chapter and how will you apply it to your instruction?
I think the biggest take away for me is that vocabulary needs to be the same across grade levels and within the school so the students get a good foundation. We always talk about this but never take the steps to make sure we are using the same vocabulary throughout the school. I think this should be one of our next focuses, not only for reading but math, science, and social studies as well. If different teachers are all saying the same thing but using different words, how confusing is that for an elementary student who is trying to piece everything together to be able to read and understand.
-Small group instruction is most useful for remediation. Do you incorporate these into your teaching? How could you?
I'm a firm believer in small group instruction. I think it is the best way to help students reach their full potential. Students need to be taught were they are at to then build up to grade level expectations - the easiest and best way to do this is small groups. A teacher's focus can be on those 4-5 students and not 16-20 and we aren't trying to meet every need of every student in our classrooms.
-Name & Summarize (a few sentences) about the “other” chapter you read.
I read chapter 14 as the other chapter. I think spelling isn't always productive in the classroom - I believe that it has to have meaning for the students and relate to something they are learning about instead of just having a list of words to memorize - that they'll forget about the following week and not be able to apply to their writing within a couple days.
"Decoding ability is enhanced when spelling abilities improve." pg. 223 I think this is important to note and rememeber. There has to be meaning to spelling. I think now that we have Words Their Way in our classrooms and are starting to implement it, spelling may improve within our students because we are teaching them at their skill level and giving them skills and strategies to use.