Resources to Teach Word Families

Word family instruction is important!  As I mentioned in What are Word Families & Why are they Important, word family instruction is a POWERFUL way to get kids reading and spelling!

If you are in need of a solid instructional routine to teach word families, check out How Do You Teach Word Families! 

So, the next question is... what about the resources? 

Before we dive in to materials, I found this quote from the article The Timing and Teaching Word Families by Dr. Francine R. Johnson to be quite helpful.

"The thoughtful use of materials with a high percentage of words with the same patterns as those taught in phonics lessons makes sense (Hiebert, 1998; Stahl, Duffy-Hester, & Stahl, 1998) as it increases the chance that children will make connections between the teacher-directed study of word families and their own encounters with words in meaningful contexts."

As teachers, if we carefully select resources which include directly taught phonics patterns, we will increase a students ability to decode unfamiliar text.  We will be setting students down the path to reading success! Whoop!

So.....resources..... 

In, How Do You Teach Word Families, I broke word family instruction down into four steps. Let's take a look at resources for each of those four steps.

Step 1: World of Sound (phonology)

I use poems, books, riddles, nursery rhymes and songs to introduce students to word families.  Any resource will do, as long as you are selective in your choice.  You will want to make sure the word family pattern you are introducing is used frequently in the text.

During step one, students are just **listening** for the word family pattern.  No text, or spelling is introduced.  Adding movement to this activity (raising hand, standing up, jumping, snapping, etc) every time a word family is heard will increase engagement. 

Step 2: I Do (teacher modeling)

For the I do portion, I am attaching a symbol (grapheme or letter) to the word family.  In this simple step, I will scribe out word family words on marker boards, chalkboards, magnetic letters, etc.

Another great resource for this step are Jack Hartmann's videos!  Hartmann has TONS of free videos on his YouTube channel--and they are GREAT!

Step 3: We Do (word building)

When students are building word family words in we do, I find it best to use an alphabet arc or letter tile board.  

When we make instruction multisensory (physically moving a letter or letter time, pointing and saying, etc.) student's retention is better.  

If you don't have those available during word the word building portion, you can download free letter tiles by clicking to download below!

Need word building letter tiles for your students?

Using letter tiles for word building is a perfect way to make reading and spelling new words multisensory!

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I also have Word family Letter tiles in my Mind Sparks store on Teacher's Pay Teachers, which includes the regular set of word building letter tiles PLUS the 37 most common word families!  

 

Additional ideas for word building would be using strips of paper where initial letters can be threaded through a cutout besides the rime, or word family wheel.  Check out some of the DIY options below!

Step 4: You Do (decodable text)

Application of word families in decodable text is SO IMPORTANT!

For decodable text and word reading Hubbard's Cupboard has some free word family worksheets and decodable readers. The decodable readers from this website do include high frequency words that would need to be pre-taught to students before they are able to read the text. 

I also LOVE using pyramid sentences! As a reading interventionist, I often work with students that see a story, paragraph or even an sentence and they get overwhelmed.  Reading is difficult for them, and seeing a large chunk of text causes anxiety.  

Pyramid sentences present the text in a scaffolded manor starting with the first word, then the first two, then the first three and so on.  The repetition of words and focus on a particular pattern gives students success and decreases overwhelm!  

I also like to include games like Roll, Read and Color,  Slap Words or Color by Codes during literacy centers and small group time. These activities make learning fun and offer variety while still practicing a taught phonics skill.  GENIOUS!