The making strategy is a popular strategy. This hands-on activity promotes the development of phonological awareness as well as students’ understanding of the alphabetic principle. The making words strategy is a creative way for students to learn spelling patterns and become good decoders. It is also a great hands-on activity to help struggling readers. Making words is a process which involves getting students to actively think about letter-sound patterns and even correspondence as they use letters to make different words. This strategy focuses on multiple aspects of phonics patter as children use their schema to spell multiple words from a "big word". By spelling, students practice creating phonics patters. With repeated practice of this strategy, students will develop an awareness to the similarities and differences among the words they have created. Making words can be used with individuals or with a group. When working in a group, have individual children or pairs form each words.
Picture: The picture provided is a good example of how the making words strategy can be implemented into a curriculum. As evidenced to the right, this student was reading the passage "Little Bat" and now is using their knowledge to construct words related to that passage.
Video: This introductory video is a good little snapshot of the strategy and what it looks like. As Dottie author highlighted the invented purposes of this strategy. This video adds depth to the strategy, providing more detail on why this strategy is effective and it's benefits.
Reading
Choose a word such as thunder and identify all the words that can be made from them. Make seven cards, each containing one letter in thunder. Make larger squares with the same letters for your use at a ledge or pocket chart. Then ask the students to make the words that you say. begin with the shorters words, move gradually to longer words, eventually making your way to the word thunder. The sequence might look like: red, Ted, Ned, den, end ,end, her, hut, herd, turn, bunt, hurt, hunt, under, bunted, hunted, turned, and thunder.
Science
Have the class construct a Venn diagram of words in glossary of textbook or book. Then compare and contrast the differences between these words by having students write the words on a Venn diagram.
Reading
Similar to my picture, read a story as a class. Then have students use word segments to construct words related to that story. These can be manipulatives, fill in the blanks, or found on print.
Physical Education
Work collaborative with class or small group of students to construct word on a board or chart. After word is constructed have students imitate the action. For example, you might add the segment ing to the word skip to create skipping, the class will then skip for an appropriate period of time.
Resources: 1) Jennings, J., Caldwell, J., & Lerner, J. (2014). Comprehension of Informational Text. In Reading Problems: Assessment and Teaching Strategies (7th ed., p. 315). Boston, Massachusetts: Pearson.
2) ""Making Words Strategy" to Strengthen Your Students' Phonemic Awareness and Phonics Skills." YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 08 Nov. 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXX_1k947WI>.