Word Study

It is a frequent phenomenon for kids learning how to read and write, to make up their own spelling of words. They write exactly what they hear, and because of the complex English language, their spelling generally makes no sense compared to the correct spelling of those words. While some may see this as children being careless or unintelligent, it is proven to be quite the opposite. In Patricia and James Cunningham's text Making Words: Enhancing the invented spelling-decoding invention, it is said that "In general, as children improve in their phonetic sophistication of their invented spellings, their later success in learning to read words becomes much more likely." After doing research, it is seen that children attempting to spell words increases their ability to read those words. Invented spelling seems to trigger something in the brain to recognize the words later and make sense of their phonetics, which will help children understand unfamiliar words in a challenging sentence. Instead of seeing children's invented spelling as simple playfulness and naive, we should recognize this as a step in their learning to become more sophisticated readers and writers. Invented spell in is a beneficial and healthy thing.

Knowing a word, really knowing a word, can be a difficult and thorough process. To fully know a words, in the eyes of Beck and McKeown, "requires a long process that involves multiple exposures in may contexts." There are some words that we know the definition, spelling, usage, etc., while other words we have simply heard here and there and recognize them when we hear them in familiar context. However, those words are not included in the words that we actually know. One extremely useful way to help children discover and learn new vocabulary is the "Ten Important Words" in which a student selects 10 important from a reading. This helps students connect words with a topic, and they then discuss and define the words to determine their meaning. Other beneficial strategies to learn new words are identifying where you might hear a word, listing synonyms and antonyms, draw pictures that depict the meaning, create a semantic map, act out the word, or find other sentences using the same word to figure out the meaning. Each of these strategies gives students exposure to new words, with alternative ways to remember the meaning. It is important to get students to engage with the text and not simply skim over words they are unfamiliar with, but rather, define and explore new words to broaden their vocabulary.