Winter 2005            Volume 3  Issue 1

The Home School Corner

Beyond Rocket Phonics

Why do large vocabularies characterize executives and possibly outstanding men and women in other fields? The final answer seems to be that words are the instruments by means of which men and women grasp the thoughts of others and with which they do much of their own thinking. They are the "tools of thought."

Your child has finished Rocket Phonics and now reads at fifth grade level and he is only 7 years old. What do you do now? Build vocabulary!

Why? Because words are the tools of thought and you want your child to have as many tools as possible. Vocabulary development is highly correlated to successful reading comprehension. (Anderson and Freebody, 1981; Davis, 1944).  Besides higher reading comprehension is linked to higher income so soon you child will take care of you!

The important concept to keep in mind is that you build vocabulary by integrating your child's reading, writing and spelling. Children learn vocabulary indirectly when they hear and see words used in many different contexts-for example, through conversations with adults, through being read to, and through reading extensively on their own. They also learn vocabulary directly when they are explicitly taught both individual words and word-learning strategies.

For those of us that have children who love workbooks Wordly Wise 3000 does this very well. You can start as soon as your child has finished Rocket Phonics Lesson  3.4. Notice that in their exercises they start a word list with the pronunciation and definition. Then each day they give other exercises like matching and synonym, antonym and analogy to focus the mind on applying the definitions in different ways. They even use crossword puzzles!  Also each lesson has an interesting story with the words used in it.

In Depth

Vocabulary - Design Your Own 

If you aren't a Wordly Wise fan, but want something more specific for your child then here is the general game plan. Your child will need multiple exposures to the group of words illustrating different meanings of the words. You can pick out 15 words from a book he is interested in reading or you can let him write and use the words he spells wrong. Once you have the word list be sure to get out the dictionary and write all the meanings and the pronunciation.

Let's clarify our goal. We are not interested in children learning vocabulary words for the SAT test. We are interested in children using these words in every day conversation. This means: the depth and breadth of a learner’s vocabulary is expanded, they have strategies for learning new words independently and they take pride in using them.

How do we select the vocabulary to teach to students? Ask four important questions: 1. Is understanding the word important to understanding the selection in which it appears? 2. Are students able to use the context to discover the word’s meaning? 3. Can working with this word be useful in furthering student’s context, structural analysis, or dictionary skills?  4. How useful is this word outside of the reading selection being taught?  (“A Vocabulary Program to Complement and Bolster a Middle-Grade Comprehension Program.” (2000). Reading for Meaning 116-135.)

With these questions in mind develop a strategy that brings out the new words in your child’s reading and integrate it with your child’s spelling and writing.  Or use your child's writing and pick her misspelled words

Your child will eventually need a strategy to attack words that are not part of this experience. Given that Greek or Latin is the source of 70% of multi-syllable words I would start a Vocabulary notebook with the Greek and Latin affixes and roots and their meaning on the first page. (Affixes are prefixes and suffixes.) Over time your child will develop experience with words containing these roots or affixes. Once you feel your child has enough experience teach her about guessing at the definition by combining the meanings of the roots and affixes.

Of course, using the context of the story to figure out the meaning of the word is a very helpful strategy. Now, that you have selected your words, read them in stories, spell them in spelling lists or crossword puzzles, used them in daily conversation and write them in your own vocabulary book, you are ready for another week of vocabulary. (See why I like Wordly Wise?)

Dear 
Dr. Phonics

My daughter didn't like Simon Says so she started Lesson 3.1. Now she is reading the stories very slowly, she likes it. Am I pushing her too hard?

-- Patricia,  Los Banos, CA

The Simon Says game does two things. It helps your child develop sight words and it develops the reading stamina of reading one sentence and comprehending it.

Leisure reading is knowing by sight 17 out of every 20 words. When your child is reading and blending every blue word in the story she is only at her instructional level because the words have helpers. 

Your job is to read something in 3.1 daily while filling in with easier material for the rest on the lesson. Use the Treasure Hunt to help build the habit of reading a sentence for comprehension. Its a lot of fun  and the child has to understand each clue to get to the next clue. 

        -- Dr. Phonics

My 5-year old wants to skip Simon Says and start reading stories like her older brother. Should I let her?

  -- Patricia,  Los Banos, CA