Words Their Way: Word Study For Intermediate Students

Chapter 7, in Words Their Way covers, word study for Intermediate readers and writers: The Syllable and affixes stage. In this stage, the students typically are in the second and third grade, this stage also flows into fourth grade students as well. This stage students have built up a foundation of word knowledge, word structure, and language growth. “During this stage that they systematically study the generalization that governs how syllables are joined” (page 241) Most like these students have studied how affixes and prefixes change the meaning behind words, however in this stage, for the first-time students learn to look at how suffixes could change the spelling of a word. “Examining how affixes and base words combine supports students

Coming across words that may be unfamiliar will help grown a student’s vocabulary, however this cannot be the only source of vocabulary, relying on text is not guaranteed to grow a student’s vocabulary. It is essential to stay involved and active to ensure the growth of a student’s vocabulary is consistent with grade level expectations. “Students must be taught vocabulary directly at all levels, but particularly general academic and domain-specific vocabulary needed in the upper grades. Core standards often refer to three tiers of vocabulary. After basic tier 1 words, tier 2 corresponds roughly to general academic vocabulary and tier 3 is akin to domain-specific academic vocabulary” (page 243-244). General academic vocabulary are words that are be found throughout any texts, such as in a math and science textbooks. Domain-specific academic vocabulary is words in disciplinary studies such as geometry and social studies. It is vocabulary that has specific meaning in relation to the subject being

Scrutinize the word for meaningful parts – base words, prefixes, or suffixes
2. Check the word within a sentence, does it make sense within the content of the sentence and the text?
3. If the word still does not make sense, and is necessary component of the text that is being read, use a dictionary to look up the meaning.
4. Record the new word, to be reviewed again
“Morphemic analysis will become one of the most effective means of developing and extending students’ vocabulary knowledge” (page 245). There are so many words students need to know, it can be a challenge to decide which words are important to focus on. Chapter 7 outlines several questions used to determine which words need to have tackled. “Which words are critical to address in depth before moving into the unit/selections? Which words are critical to address only briefly before moving into the unit/selection?” Which words are critical but might lend themselves to student’s problem solving during their reading? (page 250). Using these questions help narrow the focus of which vocabulary should be