Word Families

A fellow interventionist at one of our district's elementary schools, peaked my interest with a book she is reading.  Okay, I have got to be honest---she could peak my interest with anything!!  I truly respect her expertise!  Seriously, she is truly is amazing when it comes to anything education!  Anyway, the book is called The Decoding Solution by Scholastic.

 

I haven't read it yet, but --by golly I have it ordered!  After reading a summary about the book, I gathered the book stresses the importance of teaching rimes.  I found two things particularly interesting. 

First, the data researchers collected after implementing the teaching of rimes was phenomenal!   According to the data, teaching rimes (or word families) for ten minutes daily improved students reading levels by up to 2 grades!   After learning the most common word families, students were more capable when decoding an unfamiliar word.

Secondly, research was done on kids of all ages.  As an upper level interventionist it is rather difficult to find strategies, materials and resources to help struggling readers.  Most intervention materials are "babyish" or too young for my fifth and sixth graders.  They literally look at me like, "You have GOT to be KIDDING me!!"  So, for this to be tried out on older kids and proven successful, ordering this book was a no-brainer!

Once my mind started thinking about word families and rimes, it couldn't stop.  Alllllll weekend long I was researching activities and ways to teach rimes.  I am sure my husband was thrilled! haha :)  I found a lot of free resources on the web.  Check out the following links:

Scholastic (48 page resource on word families--with activities and games) 
ning.com (Upper level multi-syllabic word families)
Teacher Created Materials (28 page resource)
Utah Government ( list of high frequency rimes)
FCCR (41 page packet on onset and rimes)
Time to Rhyme (12 page rime packet)

Or, if you want to order the  The Decoding Solution, you can order it by clicking the title.  It is $23.00 not including shipping and handling.

Now that I am obsessed with word families....I have begun to make some of my own games.  I only have one game made using the most common rimes that start with "a".  The game is called Rhyme Time.   Feel free to check it out or purchase on my TPT store!  I am planning on making a game for all of the major rimes.....I will let you know when that is done!

Enjoy your Monday!

Katie