Wordbuilding

mccandless_beck_sandak_perfetti.pdf
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I recently read an article McCandliss et al. (2003), attached below, that describes an instructional routine called Wordbuilding.  If you've ever taught reading you may have done some form of this, it's sometimes called "chaining" in the classroom.  In an Orton-Gillingham based lesson you could use something like this in the blending drill section.  

Wordbuilding lessons are "sequences of words in which there is progressive minimal contrast from word to word" (Beck & Beck, 2013).  This is an academic way of saying that each word differs by only one letter: fan, tan, tap, top, etc.  This draws students' attention to each letter in the word which facilitates full alphabetic decoding as opposed to only forming a partial representation of the word.  I immediately bought Beck & Beck's  (2013) book (pictured left) for two reasons:  

1. I am tired of coming up with my own word lists for chaining, and this book provides 94 lists!  Yes, 94 lists that target different phonics patterns!

2. I thought this would be a wonderful activity for a paraprofessional to conduct with students.  

Instructional Routine

Upon return to school I plan to still use materials that lend themselves to virtual learning so that my students will be ready if we have school closures, so the platform I'm going to use for WordBuilding is Jamboard.  Below you will find three documents: 

1. Putting activities on Jamboard (a technical guide with screenshots). 
2. A teacher script for conducting the WordBuilding Activities 

Please Note: The sample lesson is based on the first Wordbuilding list.  To get the remaining 93 lists and silly questions that accompany each list, you must purchase Making Sense of Phonics.