Teacher’s Module 1

Lesson OutlineWhat is word family

instruction?What does the research say

about word family instruction?

What are helpful

teaching strategies?

What is word family instruction?

Teacher’s Module 1

What is word family instruction?In order to understand word family instruction,

one must first know the difference between onsets and rimes.

• Onset is the first consonant(s) of a word (d)

• Rime is the vowel and consonants that follow the onset (og)

dog

(Hines, 2009; Walton & Walton, 2002)

What is word family instruction?Onset-Rime Practice

Can you identify the onset and rime in these words?

flip boat shatter

fl ip b oat sh atter

What is word family instruction?Word family instruction, or “onset-rime

instruction” as referred to by Hines (2009) is

“the analysis and substitution of word parts from known words to unknown ones at the

onset-rime level” (p.21)

Using word families, if a child can read dog, he/she can learn to read log and frog

and smog too!

What is word family instruction?

Benefits of Word Family Instruction• Breaking words in to chunks, rather than each

individual sound

• Blending is easier with onsets and rimes than it is blending each isolated sound

• Less emphasis placed on differentiating short and long vowel sounds

• Successful strategy for beginning and/or struggling readers

(Hines, 2009; Walton & Walton, 2002; Whitaker, Harvey, Hassell, Linder, &Tutterow,2006)

What does the research say about word family instruction?

Teacher’s Module 1

Research on word family instructionHines (2009)

• 4 first-graders who were at risk for reading

• One-on-one instructional intervention

• Taught 4 short a and short e spelling patterns using color-coded rimes

• an, at, ad, am• et, en, ed, ell

• “Color-coding was intended as visual support for categorization and discrimination” (p.30)

Research on word family instruction Hines (2009)

• Assess students ability to:• Read instructed rime words

• Read new words with same instructed rime spelling pattern

• Read new words with new short a and short e rimes

Research on word family instructionHines (2009) Results

• All four students made positive gains, especially in reading the instructional rime words

(p. 29)

John Tammy Arthur Maria

Number of words

read before

the study

4 7 12 13

Words read 1 month

post study

65 80 90 85

Research on word family instructionHines (2009) Results

•Students also made gains in their ability to read new words with same instructed rime spelling pattern

•Improvements in reading new words with new short a and short e rimes were made, however results were less significant when compared to the other groups

(p. 29)

Research on word family instruction Walton & Walton (2002)

• Extensive research with 92 Canadian Kindergartners

• Studied the effects of rime instruction on student’s reading skills over the course of three phases of experimental studies

Research on word family instruction Walton & Walton (2002)

• Prior to the study, researchers tested students ability to identify• Rhyming words• Letter-sound recognition• Reading rimes• Memory skills

• Randomly assigned students to a variety of treatment and control groups for the study

Research on word family instruction Walton & Walton (2002)

• Treatment groups consisted of:

• Small group lessons

• Brief introduction to rime instruction

• Collaborative learning through 16 different hands-on games to teach

• Rime• Rhyme• Initial phoneme identification• Letter-sound recognition

Research on word family instruction Walton & Walton (2002)

•Treatment Group games included matching, sorting, movement activities, but were not competitive in nature

• Control groups were:• Read stories• Not provided with any formal instruction on

reading or reading strategies

Research on word family instruction Walton & Walton (2002) Results

• The collaborative games and lessons aided the Kindergartners to develop early reading, rhyming and rime word skills.

• Students in the treatment group that focused on rime, rhymes, initial phonemes and letter-sound correspondence demonstrated:

“superior performance…compared to the other groups, especially the control group” (p. 93)

Research on word family instruction Juel & Minden-Cupp (2000)

• Year long study, observing the current teaching practices on word learning and reading of four 1st grade teachers

• Classroom 1 focused instruction on:• Whole word reading and initial consonant identification

using a word wall• Small group reading with little differentiation for

student’s ability levels

Research on word family instruction Juel & Minden-Cupp (2000)

• Classroom 2 focused instruction on:• Onset-rime instruction with sorting word and picture

cards• Differentiated instructional reading groups• All students were taught to POINT and track when

reading

• Classroom 3 focused instruction on:• Peer coaching to learn unknown words• Reading with trade books with little phonics

instruction

Research on word family instruction Juel & Minden-Cupp (2000)

• Classroom 4 focused instruction on:• Differentiated instructional reading groups• Explicit phonics and onset-rime instruction for low and

moderate readers during the first half of the school year

• All students were taught to POINT and track when reading

• End of the year assessments from all 4 classrooms showed that Classroom 4 students improved their reading abilities more than any of the other classrooms

Research on word family instruction Juel & Minden-Cupp (2000) Results

• Average end of the year reading abilities

• Most significant improvement results:“All the children in the low reading group in

classroom 4 were reading at or near an end-of-first grade level in May”

(p. 334)

Classroom Number

Reading Levels

1 Lowest “primer level”2 End of 1st grade level

3 Middle 2nd grade level

4 End of 2nd grade level

What are helpful teaching strategies?

Teacher’s Module 1

Word Family Instructional StrategyWhitaker, et al. (2006) & The FISH Strategy

• The FISH Strategy can be used with students who have a solid understanding of letters and sounds, rhyming words, and letter substitution.

• It is used to help students learn what to do when they reach a word they do not know how to read.

Word Family Instructional StrategyWhitaker, et al. (2006) & The FISH Strategy

• How The FISH Strategy works

(p. 17)

Find the rime

Identify a word you know that ends the same way

Say the rime you know without the first sound

Hook the new onset to the rime

Word Family Instructional StrategyJuel & Minden-Cupp (2000) Recommendations

• Small group lessons

• Direct instruction in• “chunking of words into component units such

as syllables, onset/rimes, or finding little words in big ones” (p. 334)

• “finger point to words as text was read” (p. 334)

• “actively compare and contrast words” (p. 334)

with hands-on materials

• Differentiated instruction

Teacher’s Module 1