Words Their Way with Struggling Readers: Word Study for Reading, Vocabulary, and Spelling Instruction, Grades 4 - 12, CourseSmart eTextbook

Intended for the classroom teacher, this handy book provides specific guidance, strategies, and tools for helping struggling students, grades 4 and up, catch up with their peers in literacy. The thrust is intervention — specifically, utilizing word study with its hands-on, assessable approach to aid students struggling with the vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension load of middle and secondary classrooms. This text will help you determine student needs, provide you with the strategies to guide each student toward success in content area comprehension, and even outline ideas for fitting these strategies into your crowded schedule. You’ll have the tools you need to help your students acquire the literacy skills they need to meet the ever-increasing demands of school life.   

Table of Contents

Chapter One

Word Study with Struggling Older Readers…Discusses three main areas that impact reading performance: orthographic knowledge, vocabulary and comprehension knowledge, and motivation/engagement.

Chapter Two

The Assessment of Orthographic Development and Vocabulary Knowledge:  Outlines orthographic and vocabulary assessments that get teachers started in developmentally targeted word study instruction.

Chapter Three

Word Study Instruction and Organization:  Principles and Practices…Describes how to organize and manage individual as well as small and whole group activities (e.g., word sorting, writing applications, etc.) to deliver effective developmental word study instruction.

PART ONE…Word Study for Orthographic Knowledge:  Phonics, Spelling, and Decoding

 Chapter Four

Word Study with Older Struggling Readers in the Within Word Pattern Stage…Highlights effective instructional practices that promote phonics, spelling, and decoding knowledge.  Orthographic features covered:  vowel and complex consonant patterns.

Chapter Five

Word Study with Older Struggling Readers in the Syllables and Affixes Stage… Highlights effective instructional practices that promote phonics, spelling, and decoding knowledge.  Orthographic features covered:  syllable patterns as well as accented and unaccented syllables.

PART TWO…Word Study for Vocabulary Knowledge:  Generative and Content-Specific

Chapter Six

Generative Vocabulary Instruction…Highlights effective instructional practices that promote vocabulary knowledge.  Teaches students how to tap into the power of Latin and Greek derived prefixes, suffixes, and roots to exponentially increase vocabulary knowledge.

Chapter Seven

Content-Specific Vocabulary Instruction…Highlights effective instructional practices that promote vocabulary knowledge in specific content areas.  Focuses on general, core academic vocabulary and vocabulary specific to math, science, social studies, and English.