Word Study Professional Development
What is Word study?
How can I implement word study in my
classroom?
What are activities I can implement in my
classroom for word study?
 Word study is an approach to sight
word and spelling instruction that
does not include memorization.
Word study provides students with
unique hands-on experiences with
words and word patterns that
increase word recognition.
 Provide students with information
about patterns that will help them
remember specific words. For
example: in the word “play”, the
“ay” says “ā.”
 Word sorting activities:
Students sort words by their
digraphs, beginning, middle, or
ending sounds, or spelling
pattern.
 Word pattern lists- Students
create lists of words that have
the same pattern. For example,
mat, pat, sat, rat, and bat all
have the rhyme -at.
 Mix and Fix- Students create a
word with magnetic letters,
then scramble the letters and
fix them back to make the
original word. This is used in
the Jan Richardson guided
reading program.
 Word Analogy Building–
Students can build words using
magnetic letters and replace
the letters around the word
pattern. For example, using the
word ending -ing and adding
the letter “s” to make the word
“sing,” then changing the first
letter to make other words.
They could also add base
words, instead of letters to
create words such as
 “jumping.” Analogy charts can
also be used. An example of an
activity with an analogy chart
is to write the word “flap” in
the left column of the analogy
chart, then add the ending -ed
to create the word “flapped” in
the right column of the chart.
Analogy charts are also used
with the Jan Richardson guided
reading program and are a
beneficial tool.
 Word Hunts– Students look
for words in texts, and
highlight the word pattern, or
write them down. Students can
also go on word hunts
throughout the classroom,
school, or the playground.