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Michigan Common Core Standards That Align With Word Families

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Michigan Common Core Standards That Align With Word Families

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CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.2.E Add or substitute individual sounds (phonemes) in simple, one-syllable words to make new words.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.3 Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.2 Demonstrate understanding of spoken words, syllables, and sounds (phonemes).

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.2.A
Recognize and produce rhyming words.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.2.B
Count, pronounce, blend, and segment syllables in spoken words.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.2.C
Blend and segment onsets and rimes of single-syllable spoken words.

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I could start including word family work into my reading block each day.

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Word families should help with rhyming. Apparently, students struggled with rhyming last year. However; word families were not taught, last year, only sight words.

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What do I need to do, as a classroom teacher, if one of my students isn't retaining word families?

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This article talks about the importance of learning word families. Word families are crucial when learning how to read. It's all about patterns! The article discussed how it is a lot easier to recognize a pattern in a new word rather than trying to sound out every single letter. When children learn word families, they are able to decode many words. By teaching word families, you are teaching phonics... which lays the foundation for reading.

Mascle, D. (n.d.). Word families and reading strategies. Retrieved from https://www.streetdirectory.com/travel_guide/15495/parenting/word_families_and_reading_strategies.html.

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When we consider all the elements that go into becoming a skilled reader it seems a monumental task and yet some how young children learn the many different decoding skills necessary to them and most become proficient readers within the first few years of school.

However not all young children learn to read with ease and even those who will eventually succeed face struggles on the road to success. One easy way that parents can help smooth the path to reading success for their children is through the use of word families.

Word families, sometimes called phonograms or chunks, can really help emergent readers begin to understand our complicated, and often inconsistent, language by providing some predictable patterns within words. As you and I learned to read, we picked up these patterns effortlessly, and they still help us when we try to decode new words. When we direct our childrens' attention to these same patterns, they too will be able to untangle the seemingly unrelated sounds of English.

When learning to read, patterns are important. Children recognize word patterns and this makes it easier when sounding out words.

For example, let us consider the "all" word family. First, show "all" to the child and have them repeat the sound. Then show the word "ball" and demonstrate how you can "read" the word by first making the "b" sound and then the "all". Repeat it slowly and then more quickly. Now continue with some other members of the "all" family such as call, fall, hall, mall, stall, tall, wall.

Can you see how much easier this method of using "chunks" of letters is compared to sounding out one letter at a time? We break words into chunks naturally as skilled readers and teaching children this skill can help them learn to read.

What is even better is that once children learn the 37 most common word families in English they will be able to decode 500 words. That puts emergent readers well on their way to mastering the entire decoding process. The most common word families include: ack, ain, ake, ale, all, ame, an, ank, ap, ash, at, ate, aw ay, eat, ell, est, ice, ick, ide, ight, ill, in, ine, ing, ink, ip, it, ock, oke, op, ore, ot, uck ,ug, ump, unk.

Word families are indeed an efficient way to get children reading. Once children learn these one-syllable phonograms then they will more easily be able to decode longer words, too.

Exposing your child to word families, teaching the use of these language patterns, and reinforcing the knowledge with rhyming games and activities will help your child learn to read.

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When we consider all the elements that go into becoming a skilled reader it seems a monumental task and yet some how young children learn the many different decoding skills necessary to them and most become proficient readers within the first few years of school.

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I like this idea...
Maybe putting it under my alphabet or by my writing station.

Students do well when things are visible. I notice my students always looking around the classroom at the posters.

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This article explained the "why" for word families. Why are word families important and beneficial?

Elyse (n.d.) stated, "word families, also called phonograms or chunks, provide us with groups of words that have a   predictable pattern or “chunk”. These words have the same ending and they all rhyme. This makes learning a set of words (a word family) easier on our beginning readers" (para 3).

This article discussed a weekly plan for word families as well.

Elyse (n.d.). Word families: Proven method for teaching reading. Retrieved from https://proudtobeprimary.com/teach-reading-with-word-families/.

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A post about the importance of word families and how to teach reading with word families. Daily suggestions, ideas, and activities for teachers provided.
By Proud to be Primary

Teaching Word Families

Today I am sharing about one part of my word study program, how to teach reading with word families. I will be sharing how I run my schedule during the week and provide you with a day-to-day plan of action. I have seen a lot of success with this program. My students are thoroughly engaged, actively learning, and building their reading and spelling skills.

Why Teach Word Families?

Learning to read the English language is a difficult task. The English language follows so many different patterns and rules that it is often confusing for our younger students learning to read.

Word families, also called phonograms or "chunks," provide us with groups of words that have a predictable pattern or "chunk." These words have the same ending, and they all rhyme. This makes learning a set of words (a word family) easier on our beginning readers.

Word Families Throughout the Week

After learning our word families for the week, my students can read and spell a group of words independently. They feel incredibly successful at their accomplishment. They now have a larger bank of words they can read in the books they are encountering.

Teaching my students word families is an incredibly efficient way for me to teach my students how to read. Since we learn word families each week, I wanted to create a set of activities that students find fun and engaging, yet help them to become fluent in reading the words within a word family.

Monday Activities for Teaching Word Families

Each week we focus on two-word families at a time. I start with teaching the short vowel word families and start with the short 'a' word families. The words within those word families often follow a CVC or CVCC pattern. They are simple words that children often know and understand.

I introduce our word families one at a time, and as a class, we brainstorm all the words we can think of that end with that sound pattern. Then, I encourage my students to use our alphabet posters above our whiteboard as a reference. I will say, "take each letter one at a time and put it in front of the letter pattern. Does it make a word that makes sense?" If it makes sense, I ask them to put up their hand and share with the class. I record the words they come up with on our word chart. We discuss the meaning of each word.

Some weeks I like to switch things up, and I will have my students line up and rotate one at a time or in pairs to write down a word that they have come up with. I will sit close by and help if needed.

After we have our list of new words on our chart, my students will copy those words in their word family books. They are practicing their handwriting skills and rereading their new words at this time.

I send our word family book home on Monday for families to practice at home all week.

Tuesday Activities for Teaching Word Families

Each morning during our carpet time, we review our word family words. I use a pocket chart to hold our word family word cards. Our star of the day enjoys pointing to the words as the class reads them aloud.

We also play phonics games to review our words and build our reading skills. I have these activities ready during my small groups and available for students to use during free time or "fast finisher" activities. We enjoy doing puzzles where you have to match a word with a picture.

We use our letter magnets or whiteboard markers to spell out our words. This activity makes a great literacy center!

I use metal drip pans for everything. They are so versatile and functional. They store easy and sit nicely on a shelf or against a wall. Check them out HERE!

I also put up a poster of word family words in the classroom for students to practice reading during the week. They can use this poster if they need ideas during our making words activities.

Wednesday Activities for Teaching Word Families

We review our words again during the morning meeting. I have the students close their eyes and spell words together or one by one aloud. We complete morning messages that have word family words missing. I switch up the activities we do together at the carpet to keep things fresh, so they are thinking in different ways.

We work on our reading fluency. Together, we print, build, make, spin, stamp, and draw our words. We do things where we are reading these words over and over. My students enjoy these activities because they stay busy and have fun too!

We spin to make word family words using a paper clip and record them in our booklets.

We complete our word work with our word family words. By repeating each word in different ways, my students are learning how to read, spell, and understand word meaning.

Thursday Activities for Teaching Word Families

During our morning meeting, we take out our small whiteboards and markers and practice recording our words. Sometimes they sit with a partner and quiz each other, and sometimes I will give them words to record. This exercise is a quick assessment for me to check how they are doing. This activity could also be a part of your small group time. We work more on word meaning. We have a few activities that we rotate through each week to keep things interesting. For instance, we complete our fill-in sheets for morning work, where we have to pick the correct word to fit in an empty space. We also create read, draw, and color books where we have to read a sentence, dray its meaning, and color the picture.

They also have read and write the room mini-books to work on during literacy centers.

Friday Activities for Teaching Word Families

On Friday, we do one final review of our words in the pocket chart before adding them to our word wall. We also have a spelling quiz where I give my students a mix of our spelling words, sight words, and word family words together. They do an excellent job after all this review!

I also have a few simple and fun activities set up for small groups, literacy centers, and "fast finishers" for students to complete for further review. They love to "create" words using Play-Doh and recording the words they find.

Making their word family ties to wear around the class is fun too. They bring these home to show their parents their learning.

Word Families Homework

After printing the word family words in their books, they take them home in their home reading folder. Read about how I set up my home reading program and grab some FREE folder handouts HERE.

Once at home, I instruct my students and their parents that they should be reading through their words each day. They can make them, spell them on a sheet of paper, or any activity they want. Occasionally, I will send an activity home if they are looking for something extra.

Resources for Teaching Word Families

You can check out all of the materials and activities you've seen in this post, in my Phonics are Fun comprehensive word family units for short vowels HERE. There's a bundle available too!

See the word families resource in action!

Classroom Materials for Teaching Word Families

Wanting to grab some of the great learning resources that I used in this post? Check them out on Amazon.

FREE -AT Word Family Activities

To get started, check out the free downloadable resource: short 'a' vowel word family pack of activities. Click the image below to get your copy!

More Helpful Literacy Posts

Home Reading

Teaching Children to Visualize to Build Reading Comprehension

Sight Word Games

Reading Comprehension Strategies

PIN

FREE Sight Word Email Series

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Word Families: Proven Method for Teaching Reading

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A post about the importance of word families and how to teach reading with word families. Daily suggestions, ideas, and activities for teachers provided.

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This bundle is available on Teachers Pay Teachers. It includes lesson plans for 20 word families. It is suggested that you focus on one word family per work. It includes plans for five days a week.

This looks like an engaging way for students to learn word families. I especially like how it includes a parent letter and suggests some ideas for students to practice at home. It is super important to have the line of communication open between home and school.

This bundle has students making word family houses and includes an easy reader book just to name a few.

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What is KinderWordFamilies® Curriculum?

KinderWordFamilies® was created by a teacher for teachers! This supplemental phonics curriculum is made up of 20 weeks or 100 instructional days. KinderWordFamilies® is a researched based explicit supplemental curriculum program. The teacher has 100 directed teacher lesson plans to follow and all needed material for the lesson to be a success is included. Furthermore, KinderWordFamilies® is systematic curriculum program. This simply means that the students follow the same routine each week.
**WATCH A VIDEO EXPLAINING THE PROGRAM IN DETAIL HERE! **
Please note that you can change the order of the word families to fit your needs. There are also opportunities for your advanced readers to benefit from KinderWordFamilies™ with an advanced reader available each week as well. Below is a quick description of how each day of the week is broken down.
How can I use this program?
Teachers see the benefits of teacher explicit word families and can be used as part of your guided reading lesson, RTI lesson, intervention lesson, whole-group phonics, or used for a para or aide to assist in the learning process!
What does a week of KinderWordFamilies™ look like?
Monday: introduce the word family, display the word family poster, read together the word family poem, search for skill-based words within the poem, sort the word family cards, independent practice

Tuesday: review the word family, reread the word family poem, resort the word family cards, build word family words with magnets, independent practice

Wednesday: review the word family, auditory word family work, word family interactive reader, build word family words with magnets, independent practice

Thursday: review the word family, auditory word family work, word family flashcards, word family interactive reader, word family generator, build word family words with magnets, independent practice

Friday: review the word family with the interactive game, word family flashcards, skill assessment, student easy reader
What is included in KinderWordFamilies™?
-20 weeks of EXPLICIT teacher scripted lesson plans (5 days of lesson plans per week)

-20 printable easy readers and 20 advanced readers (black/white and color versions)

-20 INTERACTIVE easy readers and 20 advanced readers

-26 INTERACTIVE games

-Daily practice sheets

-Weekly word family poster

-Weekly word family flashcards

-Weekly word family word sorts
What word families are included?
Week 1 -- -at: cat, mat, hat, fat, rat, bat

Week 2---an: can, man, fan, ran, van, pan

Week 3-- ag: rag, wag, bag, flag, sag, tag

Week 4--ap: cap, map, nap, gap, tap, sap

Week 5--ad: bad, sad, pad, mad, lad, dad

Week 6-- ig: dig, fig, wig, pig, big, rig

Week 7--in: tin, fin, win, bin, pin, kin

Week 8--ip: dip, lip, hip, sip zip, rip

Week 9--it: kit, sit, pit, bit,hit, fit

Week 10--ob: cob, sob, bob,job,rob,mob

Week 11-- og: log, frog, dog, fog, hog, jog

Week 12--op: top, cop, mop, pop, hop, shop

Week 13--ot: hot, dot, cot, pot, tot, rot

Week 14--ed: bed, red, wed, led, fed, sled

Week 15--en: hen, den, pen, wren, ten, men

Week 16--et: jet, vet, pet, get, wet, net

Week 17-- ub: cub, sub, tub, rub,grub,stub

Week 18--ug: rug, hug, tug, jug, bug, mug

Week 19--un: bun, run, nun, spun, fun, sun

Week 20--ut: hut, cut, shut, rut, gut, nut
I already own several of your other programs. How is this different? Do I really need this?
That last question is ultimately your decision. However, I can do my part in best explaining how this program can be used and how it differs from my other programs! This program explicitly teaches word families! None of my other programs do this as they progress through the vowels at a much faster pace! Furthermore, this program offers great benefits and excitement with the interactive components! Those can be used alongside any curriculum program!
Have additional questions?
Be sure to view the HUGE preview and the video listed above! If you have any questions at all about this packet please email me at littlemindsatworkllc@gmail.com

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word families, word family

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What is KinderWordFamilies® Curriculum? KinderWordFamilies® was created by a teacher for teachers! This supplemental phonics curriculum is made up of 20 weeks or 100 instructional days. KinderWordFamilies® is a researched based explicit supplemental curriculum program. The teacher has 100 directed teacher lesson plans to follow and all needed material for the lesson to be a success is included.

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How much time should be spent on each word family? A week? Two weeks?

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I would like to focus on reading, specifically word families.

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Is there a certain order to teach word families to students?

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How can I teach word families to students?