Bo Bowen

ICED
March 21, 2011
Leung LITY 3352

Making Words

I = Ideas

Making words also known as group guided invented spelling instructional strategy was
about students sounding out the words. By sounding out the word they were attempting to
apply the skills that they learned in reading recovery to make a word. The article also put
enfaces on using other writing strategies. The other activities should help with the
decoding skills needed. The strategy is done by the teacher giving each child a set of
letters. She starts off with a two letter word, then three, then four, five, six and when she
gets to the last word she makes sure to include all the letters the student was given. The
activity lasts about 15 minutes and the child is able to make 12 to 15 words. The article
goes into further detail and shows you how to make a lesson plan for “Making Words.”
When you start off making words you use one vowel. Each lesson plan uses a different
vowel than the day before. The teacher slowly increases the number of vowels as the
child’s knowledge base increases. Making words can also be used with students in upper
grade levels, “Making Big Words.” The student would be given several letters and
challenged to build as many words as they could and then identifying and grouping any
patterns they see. The student would also be directed to make certain words with the
letters they were provided. The article concluded by saying that it worked because
children enjoyed the way they were learning. It worked academically because they
learned phonemic awareness and letter sound correspondences in small amounts.

C = Connections

While I have no content connections to share, I do have a personal connection. While in

your class you have given us different word building activities. I found them fun and
challenging. I can see where a child would be able to build a better understanding of
words by using this type of instruction. If I would have read this article without having
done the activities in your class I would not have seen how upper classes could benefit
from “Making Words.”

E = Extensions

I feel like every time I go to your class or I read one of the articles/ assignments you
have given us it alters my perception of teaching. I have children in school and I have had
a narrow mind as to how teachers teach. Now granted there are still a few bad seeds that
are in the teaching profession; but through your articles I have read about teachers who
are compassionate and really care about the quality of education our kids are receiving.
D = Decisions

The use of “Making Words” will be used in my classroom and in my home. I think
anything that keeps a child actively engaged in learning is an awesome strategy. I think
the planning at first will come from a book but after a little practice I should be able to do
my own planning and make it more personnel to my classroom.