Word Study Why is Word Study Important? Word study achieves two goals: First, it enables students to become fluent readers with a strong vocabulary. Secondly, it gives students the opportunity to fully explore and manipulate words. Word Study isn’t . . . Word study isn’t about memorizing spelling words, but about understanding spelling patterns. It isn’t about manipulating a random group of words , but can compare words that are phonetically similar and have similar roots. It isn’t just another fun activity, but is a purposeful look at word analysis.

Words are powerful! When students learn how words work they’re on their way to becoming fully literate individuals. Learning word roots, prefixes, suffixes, decoding, spelling patterns, and word meanings, means understanding the basics of written words. From there they can communicate and construct meaning.   After all, that’s what language is all about.

Rote drill is not the most efficient way to master a reading or writing skill.  Students need the opportunity to think critically and manipulate words and their concepts.  That way they can generalize words based on the root, prefix, suffix or other commonalities.  Grasping spelling, word recognition, and vocabulary goes beyond memorizing a few rules.  The best way to become proficient in words and their features is to have plenty of opportunities to examine them in different contexts.

What can your child do at home to practice the Word Study Words?

Read with an adult or sibling. Use the Word Study words In your every day conversations.