I’m a big believer in readers seeing words in context to help them become better readers. By focusing on figuring out challenging words within text, students improve their abilities as readers.
Here’s a word work idea that you can implement during Guided Reading groups, small group time, whole group- really, whenever you have time to squeeze it in! The purpose is for students to see and identify words with different patterns/endings, etc in context.
I compiled a small collection of stories that address a wide variety of word patterns. I made student pages of each passage that you can grab for free below!
You can write the passage on a board/project on a SmartBoard. Explain which types of words your students are looking for while reading today. Then read it to your students, with your students or have them read it to you. After reading, go through and mark up the passage, identifying the various focus words. I recommend using a variety of colors and designs (circling, underlining, squiggle line, etc) for each type of word that is being found. Then follow up by making a list that fit in each category of words.
Happy Reading!
Aylin
