How do you teach word families?

Did you know that teaching word families can be a POWERFUL way to get kids reading and spelling?  You can read about their power in my previous post,  What are Word Families & Why are they Important?

For now, lets take a look at how to teach word families. 

When should you introduce word families?

A great time to introduce word families (in print) is after students have mastered letter names and sounds.  Typically letter sound mastery happens in the second half of kindergarten. 

If your students have not yet mastered letter sounds, you should highlight word families during oral readings.  Teachers can point out rhyming words in nursery rhymes, poems and stories with the explanation of how these rhyming words belong in the same family because of their rime (chunk of letters that follows the onset).   

It is ALWAYS solid literacy instruction to start in the world of sound (phonology) before moving to text.  

How should you teach word families?

Again, for my reading intervention groups, I don't start teaching word families until I know students have mastered all of their letters and sounds. 

Once I know students are ready to move on to word families, I begin my instruction with the the most basic word families--a vowel followed by a single consonant (ex: at, ap, am, it, et, ug, og).  

I introduce one word family at a time using the following routine:

• Step 1: World of Sound (Phonology)

• I read a story or poem which contains the selected word family.  
• For example, if  I am teaching the word family /at/ I ask students to raise a hand, hold up a card or do some sort of movement every time they hear a word that belongs in the /at/ family.

• Step 2: I do

• I brainstorm a list of words that are members of the word family we are studying.  
• I begin by doing this myself, and then ask students if they haven any words they would like to add.  Words can be silly or real!
• I scribe these words on a whiteboard making sure to individually say each letter sound and then blend once the word is written.  I also highlight the rime (word family) at the end.  

• Step 3: We Do (word building)

• Students build words with the at family using an alphabet arc or a letter tile board.
• Teacher: Our word family today is /at/.  What is our word family?
• Students: /at/
• Teacher: lets tap the sounds in /at/
• Students tap and say: /a/ /t/
• Teacher: Lets bring down the letters to spell /at/.  What is the first sound in /at/?
• Students: /a/ and bring down the a
• Teacher: What is the second sound in the word family /at/? 
• Students: /t/ and bring down the t
• Teacher: point and say /at/
• Teacher: lets spell the word rat.  What word?
• Students: /rat/
• Teacher: We have /at/, what sound will we need to put in front of /at/ to make rat?
• Students: /r/
• Teacher: point and say /rat/
• Teacher: Lets change rat to bat.  
• Students: change the /r/ to a /b/
• Teacher: What sound went away?  What sound came in? Point and say bat. 
• We continue this routine until multiple words are encoded and decoded. 

• Step 4: You Do (decodable text)

• This is the application portion which goes from simple to complex.
• First students read /at/ words in isolation. 
• Then, students read those /at/ words in a sentence.  Some high frequency words should be directly taught prior to students reading sentences, as many high frequency words show up in decodable text. 
• Finally students read the /at/ sentences within a decodable story.    

I should note there is no particular order you must teach word families in, although many educators start with the short a word families as these words are often present in children's literature. 

For additional research and instructional tips on word families, check The Timing and Teaching of Word Families form Francine R. Johnston.  Dr. Johnston is a co-author of Words Their Way and taught literacy classes at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro before she retired in 2012.