Word Study Mini-Lesson

I asked my cooperating teacher which reading group could most use a word study reinforcement activity, and she sent me home to work with the low reading group’s spelling list.  These children have just entered the Within Word Pattern stage of spelling, and they were currently working with the CVCe long vowel rule.  I found a great idea in our Words Their Way book for a word study game based on Within Word Patterns: a game that is very similar to the card game Go Fish.  I tweaked the activity, added a few words to their spelling list so that everything had a good match, and set up my “Fish Pond” game.

                The game included a game board, cards, and a sheet of rules.  Basically, each child was dealt five cards with a spelling word.  These words fit into one of the following categories: Long vowel ending in e (A, I, O, or U), “oddball” (ending in E with short vowel sound), or short vowel not ending in e (A, I, O).  So if a child had the word “lace,” they would ask their partner “Do you have any long A words that end in e?”  Their partner would either give them such a word to make a pair, or tell them to “go fish.”  In this case, the child would draw the next card from the “fish pond.”  The game ends when all the cards have been put in pairs.  The rules were fairly complicated and wordy written out, but I offered them for those children who could use that reinforcement. However, I started the lesson by reviewing the game rules out loud while modeling for the reading group.  I put the six children into three groups, and helped them decide fairly who would go first.  I had to monitor the groups- and especially one group- carefully to be sure the children didn’t have pairs in their hands that they had missed, or that they weren’t accidentally (or worse- purposely!) withholding a card when their partner asked for that spelling pattern.  I also had to review long vs. short vowels more frequently than I had expected.

                I think the game went really well!  The children were highly engaged the whole time, and I could tell that some of them got better through the game at identifying long and short vowel sounds.  The “oddball” words especially threw them off at first, but they got used to looking for the short vowel along with the ending E.  All in all, this was a great way for them to get practice sorting the words without doing the same sorts they always do- or, hopefully, even feeling like they were doing a sort at all!