Week 7 Assignment 3

1. Explain the three levels of words and how you can use word levels to decide which words to teach.

The first level of words consists of basic words that students hear daily at home and in school; basically everywhere they go they hear these words.  They do not need to be taught because students naturally are familiarized with them and they become internalized.  The next level includes words that aren't in our everyday talk but they come up often and are relevant in conversation and what is happening in the world around students.  These should be taught because it is important that students know these words in order to understand and be active in the world around them.  These words are accessed in text books and studies in other subjects or even watching television.  These words are taught in ELA when reading a specific article and the associated content vocabulary is studied.  Students need to build on each level of words in order to understand and internalize the next level.  So in order to learn level three words students must know levels 1 and 2.  Students are exposed to level three words in content specific informational texts and these words should be highlighted in some way within the text.  When deciding which words to teach it all depends on what is being taught and what text is being used.

2. How do you teach your students to "chunk" words as a strategy for decoding unfamiliar words? When do you provide this instruction?

Teaching students to sound out words and make sense of phrases in order to figure out unfamiliar words should start early on.  The usage of sentence strips can help students chunk words together to form phrases to help them in become fluent readers and to decode unfamiliar words.  The idea of covering words with your thumb to figure out what goes there is a great way to get students to begin investigating.  Some great activities where words are missing and students have to look at the rest of the phrase or sentence to make sense of what should go in the missing space are really helpful in accomplishing this.  I feel like decoding happens daily even with students in middle and high school.  But it is necessary that students are taught at a young age to decode and how to investigate a sentence or a passage to figure out what makes sense. 

3. Based on Professor Allington's comments and the classroom examples, what are some ways you might foster word study in your classroom?

I like the idea of students contributing to the word wall.  I feel like a sense of ownership of words and a sense of community encourage students to want to become better readers and expand their vocabulary.  In my opinion and experience as a teacher it is essential to provide ample time for students to work in groups and differentiate texts so that they are easily accessed by students.