Rhyming Words Wordwall

[Tom Donahou]

Chancesare you have a word wall in your room. And if you are anything like the majority of teachers, you have a word wall because you were told to have a word wall, because you know it is good practice to have a word wall, and well, you have to put up those high frequency words/sight words somewhere. But are you making the most out of your word wall? If you are just throwing up three words a week (when you remember), and never looking up at it again save when one of the words falls down, you are probably not getting the most from your word wall.

I always had my students do an activity that involved the word wall during literacy centers. Writing words in abc order, writing sentences for the words, sorting words by the number of letters, building words from magazine fonts, writing the words in rainbow colors, making the words in different media, thinking of rhyming words for each word, roll and writing the word with dice and rearranging scrambled letters to make the words are just some of the activities we did. The beauty of each activity is that it can be used over as you add more and more words to the word wall.

I hope you have found some ideas that you can use with your word wall in the future. Just a few minutes every day really adds up and enables your students to view the word wall as a helpful resource. Let me know your word wall tricks in the comments below!

During word work, explicit instruction on the patterns of English spelling is provided. Students are taught how to use letter patterns to decode and spell new words when they are reading and writing.

At an emergent level, word work will focus on phonemic awareness with activities created to bring attention to rhyme (word endings), rhythm (memory), repetition, alliteration (word onsets), and predictability. For older emergent literacy learners, it is important to keep all activities age respectful.

Every making words lesson has three parts. First students manipulate the letters to make words. This part of the lesson uses a spelling approach to help students learn letter sounds and how to segment words and blend letters. In the second part of the lesson, students sort words according to related words and rhyming patterns. During the transfer step, students are helped to use the related and rhyming words to spell new words.

The word wall is the focus at the end of every lesson, and is a critical component in helping students to use words they already know to help them read similar words they encounter in context or isolation. Word walls are visual displays of core words used to support students in their daily reading and writing. There are three levels of word wall lesson activities: introduce new word wall words, daily review of word wall words, and lesson review.

As the students make the words, one student goes to the front of the room and uses a set of large letter cards to make the word for all to use for self-correction. The student also puts an index card with the word written on it in a pocket chart before quickly returning to their seat to make the next word. After all of the words have been made, the teacher guides the students in sort and transfer activities that help them focus on the spelling patterns in the words they have made. (Children with Disabilities: Reading & Writing the Four-Blocks Way, p. 119-120, 2006)

In the sorting activity, the teacher begins by asking students to read all of the words that are in the pocket chart. The teacher then asks the students to group the words that rhyme and share a spelling pattern. She also asks students if they can sort the words based on any other similarities. Sometimes they sort the words for other features (for example, first or last letter, common vowel, length, meaning, or presence of a capital letter).

In the transfer step of the Making Words activity, the teacher writes other words on index cards. The teacher does not just ask students to read the words. Instead, the teacher asks them to tell which of the words they made would help them read the new word if they encountered it in text. Only after they have identified the correct spelling pattern and put the new word on the chart do they read the new word. (Children with Disabilities: Reading & Writing the Four-Blocks Way, p. 119-120, 2006)

The Word Wall is used in activities every day with new words added gradually and practiced repeatedly until they become words that students can read with automaticity, spell with accuracy, and use to read and spell unfamiliar words.

Beginning with lesson one and every tenth lesson after that, five words are added to the Word Wall. Words are displayed under the letter with which they begin and in the order they were introduced in the lessons (not in alphabetical order).

Students practice the words on the wall every day by clapping, chanting, and writing some of the words. They review the words using a variety of activities. Finally, teachers systematically support students in using the Word Wall in reading and writing activities throughout the day. (Children with Disabilities: Reading & Writing the Four-Blocks Way, p. 112, 2006)

Teachers who use a Word Wall successfully make the words on the wall easy for everyone in the classroom to see. Display the Word Wall in a highly visible location in the classroom and refer to it often to model identifying the key words and/or word patterns that give students the clues they need to decode unfamiliar words.

Word Wall Activities

The interplay between writing and reading is especially important for the emergent reader and writer. We want to help students recognize high frequency words quickly and automatically while reading for meaning. Knowing them facilitates fluent reading and allows the reader to pay attention to new words.

Guess the Covered Word

Guess the Covered Word is an activity designed to teach students how to cross-check letter-sound-based decoding strategies with meaning. The teacher writes a sentence on the board covering one word in the sentence with two sticky notes. One note covers the letters preceding the first vowel (the onset) and the other note covers the rest of the word (the rime).

The teacher reads the sentence to the class, skipping the covered word, and asks the students to suggest words that would make sense in the sentence. The students provide guesses as the teacher writes them on the board. Then, the teacher removes the first sticky note to reveal the onset. The teacher then leads the students in checking each of their guesses to see which would still be possible given the onset that has been revealed. The students provide additional guesses starting with the revealed onset. When all of the words that fit both the meaning of the sentence and the letters have been guessed, the teacher removes the remaining sticky note to reveal the word. (Children with Disabilities: Reading & Writing the Four-Blocks Way, p. 122, 2006)

Teaching Key Words

Identify a single word for each of the high frequency spelling patterns on the list (see Keywords Planning Form). Try to identify words that the student can already read and words that are meaningful to the student. You should eventually have 37 keywords, but you can start teaching the strategy as soon as you have identified 6-8 that the student can read.

Known Words to Use in Teaching the Using Words You Know Strategy

While the student is learning to read the keywords, they should be learning to use keywords they do know to read novel words. Two specific strategies that could be used to help students learn the analogy based approach include word sorts and compare/contrast.

Working with Words

Alberta teachers demonstrate how they use word walls and related making word activities to build literacy skills of all students in their classroom, including students with significant disabilities. (Length: 7 minutes 2 seconds)

The Edmonton Regional Learning Consortium (ERLC) is one of seven regional consortia in Alberta established to support regional professional development needs for all those who influence student learning.

The resources found on this site were developed by the ERLC, a member of Alberta Regional Professional Development Consortia (ARPDC), as a result of grants from Alberta Education, to support implementation.

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