Mwwlp

10 Building Words

Beth has just finished “Making Words” with her first-​grade students. As she and some students were picking up the letter cards, other students were still buzzing about the challenge word that required them to use all their letters for that day. Clearly, these kids were engaged in the process of manipulating letter cards to make and spell words.

We use the term constructivism to describe how children learn by actively engaging in and manipulating their environment. Students learn science by engaging in scientific experiments in the school laboratory. Social studies comes alive when the teacher turns her classroom into a mini United Nations or City Council and engages in the issues of these bodies. Carpenters learn carpentry not by sitting in a lecture hall day in and day out but by working with a master carpenter. Together they build things and engage in instructional conversations that allow the learner to move toward mastery.

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Students can learn words by building words under the teacher’s guidance. In a study of word building, McCandliss and his colleagues (2003) found that elementary grade students experiencing difficulty in reading made significant gains in word recognition, phonemic awareness, and reading comprehension through an intervention called word building. In this intervention students were guided by their teacher in building a chain (series) of words by changing, adding, or subtracting one letter and sound at a time from various positions in words in the chain.

Making Words ( Cunningham and Cunningham 1992) is a word-​building activity. As one part of a more comprehensive reading curriculum for elementary students, Making Words has become a very popular and effective approach for teaching students about words (Cunningham, Hall, and Defee 1998; Snow, Burns, and Griffin 1998; Stahl, Duffy-​Hester, and Stahl 1998) claim that Making Words appears “to be effective as part of an overall approach to teaching reading” (p. 347).

As originally described by Pat and Jim Cunningham, in Making Words, individual students manipulate a limited set of letter squares or cards (one letter per card) in order to form words under the teacher’s guidance. It is much like the age-​old activity in which the teacher provides a word and challenges students to make other words using its letters. The major differences between Making Words and that traditional activity are that the letters in Making Words are not initially provided in the context of any one word—​they are simply listed for the children; the teacher predetermines words to be made from the letters and guides students in making the words. Also, the Making Words activity moves on to making new words that are not fully represented by the original set of letters, and students sort the words they make into various categorical schemes.

Here’s an example of a Making Words lesson that Beth does with her students toward the end of grade 1. She plans the lesson in advance and arranges for each student to have letter cards for the vowels e and i and the consonants c, d, h, l, n, and r. The vowels are usually written in a different color from the consonants in order to differentiate them. Beth also has a larger set of the same letters in a pocket chart at the front of the room in which she (or an assigned student) will make the words she asks students to make.

After distributing the cards, Beth begins by saying individual words, first short words and then longer ones. By this time of the year students know that their job is to make the words as Beth calls them out. Beth has determined the words earlier and now she dictates them—​Ed, in, red, hid, lid, rid, chin, ice, rice, nice, hide, ride, chide, child. The final word is one that uses all the letters (the word that Beth started with in planning her lesson). Students are challenged to figure it out without any clues except that the word uses all the letters. Of course, the word is children, and most of Beth’s students are able to figure it out in a minute or two. As suggested by Cunningham and Cunningham (1992), Beth picks her challenge word from a story students will be reading, a topic under study in a content area, or an upcoming holiday. Next, Beth directs her students’ attention to her pocket chart and demonstrates how new words can be formed from some of the patterns just written. For example, she shows students how the words slid and slide can be made from the id and ide patterns. Students also change chin to chip, chirp, chick, and chicken. On the following day Beth has students write these words on word cards, practice them with a partner, and sort them in various ways—​by word family, by beginning sound, or by presence or absence of a consonant blend or digraph.

Beth becomes quite animated when she talks about Making Words.

I think it’s a fabulous activity! My kids never seem to get tired of it. In fact, they often ask me when we are going to do it again. I’ve even taught some of my parents how to do it at home with their children. . . . ​I’ve seen my students make progress in learning to decode and spell words through this activity that I hadn’t seen before.

10.1 Making and Writing Words

Although Making Words is very effective in its original form, Tim has developed a variant called Making and Writing Words (MWW) (Rasinski 1999a). Rather than use letter cards or squares, which can be cumbersome (Beth hasn’t mentioned this, but we have noticed that it takes her a few minutes to distribute and collect the letter cards with every lesson), Making and Writing Words uses a form sheet on which students write the words as they are made. Because the form sheet is generic and can be used for any MWW lesson, it alleviates problems associated with creating letter squares, sorting them before and after lessons, and keeping track of letter squares during the lesson. In short, the sheet makes the activity logistically less complex. Since MWW requires some facility in writing, students in the first half of first grade or below may be better suited for the Making Words using the letter squares.

As in Making Words, MWW begins with the specification of letters (vowels and consonants) to be used in the lesson. These are listed at the top of the MWW sheet in the appropriate box (see Figure 10.1). Beneath this listing of letters are empty boxes in which students will write words under the teacher’s guidance and direction. The teacher reminds students that for any one box, they may use only those letters that are listed at the top of the page, and only one use per letter is allowed for any word unless more than one of the same letter is listed at the top.

The first part of the activity begins with the teacher pronouncing words or providing clues for words to be written in each of the boxes. The teacher should have a transparent blank form or access to a computer and projector so that he or she may do the activity with the students. Figure 10.2 shows a typical scenario of how Making and Writing Words might be used.

Figure 10.1 Making and Writing Words

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Figure 10.2 Making and Writing Words

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Each student has a blank Making and Writing Words sheet. The teacher instructs the students to write the following letters in the appropriate boxes:

Vowels a, a, e, i ; Consonants c, m, r

For Part 1, the teacher either pronounces words or gives clues to the words and asks students to write them in the appropriate boxes, beginning with short words and moving on to longer words.

“OK, in box number 1 write a three-​letter word that is another name for an automobile.”

(Students write the word car in box 1.)

“Good, now write car again in box 2 and add one letter to make the word care.”

(Students write the word care in box 2.)

“Now in box 3, write the word ram. Does anyone know what ram means?”

(Students write ram in box 3.)

“In box 4 use the same letters as in ram to make a word that is a part of your body; your hand is attached to it.”

(Students write arm in box 4.)

“In box 5 please write the word rim.”

(Students write the word rim in box 5.)

The teacher may lead the students in a discussion of other words that have the am and im phonograms or rimes. These could be listed on the board.

The teacher continues through other words such as race, cram, cream, and crime. The MWW activity sheet has room for 15 words, but a teacher can stop anywhere. The last word in any MWW activity is a secret word that uses all the letters. Without further clues, students are challenged to determine and spell the final word. In this case the secret word, America, goes in box 10. The final word could relate to something that is under study in another part of the curriculum, an introduction to a story about to be read, or a word related to a current event or time of year.

As in Making Words, after all the words have been written, the teacher guides the students to transfer words they used in Part 1 to new words that follow some of the patterns or principles found in the words just written (Part 2). In making transfer words, any letter of the alphabet can be used—​students are not limited to the letters used in Part 1 of the lesson.

In the boxes marked T-1, T-2, and T-3, the teacher directs students to write words related to those in boxes 1 through 10. In this example the teacher asks students to look over the words they have just written and write the words crust in T-1, carpet in T-2, and hammer in T-3. Students give it a go and then talk about the information they used in Part 1 to figure out the transfer words.

Part 3 of Making and Writing Words involves students sorting the words. Students cut out each word written on the MWW sheet into individual word cards, which can be kept in an envelope as students work with them over the next several days. In the word sorts, the teacher provides students with categories and the students sort their word cards into the appropriate piles. Here are some of the sorts the teacher may pose with the 13 words from the MWW activity:

· Sort 1: Words that belong to the am family, and those that don’t.

· Sort 2: Words that have one syllable, two syllables, and three or more syllables.

· Sort 3: Words that contain consonant blends, and those that don’t.

· Sort 4: Words that contain long vowels sounds, and those that don’t.

Not all the sorts have to be letter-​sound related. Teachers can also have students sort words into semantic or meaningful categories, such as:

· Sort 5: Words that are things, and words that aren’t things.

· Sort 6: Words that describe things you shouldn’t do inside a home.

Eventually, students can assume more responsibility, including leading the word sorts. Many students will demonstrate a lot of creativity in leading this part of MWW. Additionally, older students can write the word sort categories and words, rather than cutting the words into word bank cards and sorting them manually.

Once words have been made, transferred, and sorted, the words made in the MWW lesson can be added to the classroom word wall and to students’ personal journals for further use. The words can also be used for word games and, perhaps, can be added to a spelling list for further study.

Planning for MWW

As in Making Words, planning for MWW begins with the final or challenge word. Once the challenge word is determined, teachers simply brainstorm words that can be written from the letters, going from short words to longer words, and developing clues. Online resources (see box) are useful for planning MWW. From a list of anagrams for the challenge word, it’s easy to make note of appropriate words.

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Online Resources for MWW

Wordsmith.org (includes links to anagrams in non-English) 

www.wordsmith.org/anagram/

Specialist Online Dictionary 

www.specialist-online-dictionary.com/word-unscrambler.html

Anagram Links and Resources 

www.anagrammy.com/resources/generators.html#finder

The challenge word and sequence of words used in Making and Writing Words should be guided by students’ abilities. Beginning readers may benefit most from five-​ and six-​letter challenge words containing one vowel. Students in late grade 1 through 3 may find words with six to eight letters and two vowels appropriate. Older students in grades 4 through 6 will be appropriately challenged by secret words longer than eight letters and containing three or more vowels. Beth has found that challenge words in the seven-​ to eight-​letter range work very well with her first-​graders in April.

10.2 Making and Writing Words Using Letter Patterns

Readers use letter patterns to help them decode unknown words (Adams 1990; National Reading Panel 2000). The basic patterns readers use are the parts of syllables known as onsets (initial consonant in a syllable) and rimes (the vowel and succeeding consonants in a syllable). Other common patterns are also useful: prefixes, suffixes, and derivations primarily from Greek and Latin.

Making Words and its variation, Making and Writing Words, are powerful activities in and of themselves. Students use individual letters to think about and make words that conform to their teachers’ pronunciation and other cues. This instruction may be made even more powerful, especially for older students, if instead of using individual letters, students engage in the activity using onsets, rimes, and other patterns. Such an activity helps students develop a greater sensitivity to patterns in unknown words they will encounter in their contextual reading. Thus, Making and Writing Words Using Letter Patterns (MWWLP) (Rasinski 1999b) is a somewhat more complex activity to promote word knowledge among older students.

As in MWW, a form simplifies the MWWLP process (see Figure 10.3). To prepare, the teacher identifies the onsets, rimes, and other patterns to be used. One of the best and easiest ways to plan such an activity is to begin with a long word that contains several onsets and rimes. These are then listed in the appropriate boxes. From here the teacher adds other onsets, rimes, and patterns, creating a wide range of words with one, two, and three or more syllables. In Appendix are a number of letter patterns and words that can be used for a MWWLP lesson.

Once the patterns and the words to be used are planned in appropriate order and students have copies of the form, the fun can begin. In the example presented in Figure 10.4, the onsets b, c, l, r, t, the rimes ace, ake, et, ice, ink, ise, y, and the prefix pre are used. To come up with this set of letters and patterns, we began with a multi- syllabic word, in this case bracelet. Using these onsets and rimes, we brainstormed several single and multi-syllable words. Next, we determined other onsets, rimes, and patterns to use with the original set in order to make more words.

Figure 10.3 Making and Writing Words—​Letter Patterns

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Figure 10.4 Making and Writing Words—​Letter Patterns

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Now, given this set of patterns we would guide students in making the words listed below . The words are listed with some semantic clues, although in many cases the teacher may want the students to make the words after simply hearing them.

1. prerace

2. trace

3. Tracey a girl’s name that uses the word in box 2

4. rice a grain food that is used often in Asian and Mexican dishes

5. rise

6. baker

7. bakery a place where a baker works

8. blink when your eyes shut and open quickly

9. brink on the edge

10. brake

11. brace

12. ice rink a place to go skating in the winter (two words)

13. trinket

14. try

15. bracelet

In the transfer section of the MWWLP form, the teacher challenges students to make and write new words. The new words contain some of the word parts and patterns used in the initial section of the activity, but not all. Students use existing knowledge to make and write the words in this transfer section. Here are some words that the teacher may have asked students to write in the transfer section.

T-1. icy

T-2. crinkle

T-3. practice

T-4. letter

T-5. laced

T-6. spiced cake

As with MWW, the third and final part of MWWLP has the students cutting apart the words and using them for practice, word games, and word sorts. Word sorts for words in Figure 10.4, for example, could include the following:

· By word family: words containing the ace rime, words containing ice, words containing ake, and all other words

· By number of syllables: one syllable, two syllables, and three or more syllables

· Words that have more than one meaning, and those that don’t

· Words that describe things (nouns), words that describe actions (verbs), and all other words

· Words that have positive connotations for you, words that have negative connotations for you, and words that have neither negative nor positive connotations.

The word sorts and word card games and activities (see Chapter 14) can take place over a day or two. Words can also be added to a word wall. Students can be encouraged to use the words in their oral speech and writing to further enhance their knowledge of the structure and the meaning of the words.

MWWLP is a good activity for older students who must deal with considerably longer and more complex words than in the previous grades. MWWLP allows students to examine in detail the structure of more sophisticated words, thus giving them some strategies for decoding them.

10.3 Word Ladders

Word ladders (Rasinski and Zutell, 2010) is another word-​building activity, similar in nature to the intervention used in the McCandliss study described earlier in this chapter. In doing a word ladder, the teacher guides students in writing a series or ladder of words by manipulating one or more letters and sounds in order to make each subsequent word. In the process of building the words in the ladder, the teacher engages students in an instructional conversation in which she draws students’ attention to the meaning of the words, their pronunciation, and spelling features within each word (e.g., blends, digraphs, etc.). Below is a word ladder that begins with word and ends with read:

Word

Change one letter to make the activity a person does when he or she has a job.

Work

Change one letter to make something that can be used as a stopper for a bottle.

Cork

Change one letter to make the center of an apple.

Core

Change one letter to make a word that means to protect or look out for another person, animal, or thing.

Care

Subtract one letter to make another word for an automobile.

Car

Change one letter to make a word that means a long way off or a long distance.

Far

Add one letter to make a word that means the price paid to ride on a bus or train.

Fare

Change one letter to make a word that means to act with boldness or courage.

Dare

Rearrange the letters to make what you do with words (the first word in the ladder)

Read

Although it is not necessary for the first and last words in a ladder to connect in some meaningful way, doing so makes the word ladder a game-​like activity ( Rasinski 2005a, 2005b, 2008). After having done word ladders regularly with their teacher, students can create their own word ladders to share with their classmates. As with the other activities presented in this chapter, once the words have been made, they can be sorted in various ways, added to the classroom word wall and to students’ personal word journals, and used for other word game activities throughout the week.

In Conclusion
Manipulating a limited set of letters, with the guidance and support of the teacher, in the process of building words challenges students to explore the nature of the sound-​symbol relationship in a way that allows all students to be successful. We have found that most students thoroughly enjoy these game-​like activities. Done as a regular part of the word study portion of the reading curriculum, students develop their understanding of how words work and overall facility in spelling and writing.