Week 7 Assignment 3

Explain the three levels of words, and how you can use levels of words to decide which words to teach?

There are three levels of words, the ones the students are familiar with and use every day, the words that students or see in texts they are reading, these words still need to be taught. The third level of words are the highly technical words that are unique for a specific topic like chemistry, biology etc.

It is important to use word levels when deciding which words to teach. As a teacher, it is important to put a focus on the second level of words. An important thing to remember is that children from diverse backgrounds and cultures will be exposed to different kind of words so levels of words for each student may vary. As a teacher, when deciding which words to teach must consider the students “in front of her.”

How do you teach your students to chunk words as a strategy for decoding unfamiliar words? When do you provide this instruction?

Modeling to students how to chunk words as a decoding strategy is one great idea. During guided or independent reading when students come across a difficult word they cannot read is the best time to teach students hands on to chunk words to decode. The way to teach students to chunk words is as Professor Allington explained, to allow them to tear the word apart into pieces they can read and then slowly put them together. Another way of teaching the chunking strategy is to have students cover up the beginning or end of word with either a card or with their finger.

Based on Professor Allington’s comments and the classroom examples, what are some ways you might foster word study in your classroom?

I would introduce a new word each day in an exciting manner. Also, during reading time I would stop by words the students might be unfamiliar with and use it as a teaching moment. High volume of reading is the key to fluency, and word acquisition. The more students will read the more high vocabulary words they will know. When coming across a hard word I will also encourage students to think about it in terms of themselves. Like in the video, the teacher read the word “contention” and when she asked her student what it meant, he explained it as a fight between his friend and him. I bet that the student won’t forget the meaning of the word. I would also have my students read in pairs, so that they could discuss difficult words and their meanings, I will be there to guide my students and help them come to an understanding of the words they are having difficulty with.