Making and Writing Words I. A brief introduction A. Making words is conceptually an engaging and effective instructional task.

Making and Writing Words
    Good morning, everyone. Today’s lecture is about making and writing words. Making words is conceptually an engaging and effective instructional task. For some of us its implementation is daunting.(1)Making and writing words is a variation of making words, a popular spelling and word study instructional activity. In making and writing words, students are guided by their teacher in writing and sorting words using a limited set of letters. Teachers have found that the activity is engaging and appears to be helpful in developing students’ proficiency in word recognition and spelling.(2)The major difference between the two activities is that in making words students manipulate letter cards, while in making and writing words, students actually write the words on a sheet of paper designed to accommodate the activity.
     (3)Making words is an excellent activity for helping students to develop greater awareness of word structure while gaining important practice in spelling. As with any exemplary instructional strategy, variants that meet the needs of particular students are likely to emerge. Making and writing words is a variant of the original strategy that is particularly effective in engaging slightly older students in using letters to form and learn about words.
     (4)As in making words, making and writing words begins with the identification of vowels and consonants to be used in the lesson. Students each write these letters at the top of their making and writing words sheets.(5)Students will write words made from the letter set.
    Here is how the activity might be played out in the classroom:
    The teacher instructs the students to write the following letters in the appropriate boxes on their individual making and writing words sheets: the vowels a, e, i, and o: and the consonants c, n, t, and v.
     (6)The teacher works with the class through the remaining words she had planned. Throughout this work the teacher either pronounces the words or provides clues to help students figure out the word, or both. Thus, making and writing words promotes not only growth in spelling and decoding but also in vocabulary acquisition.
    The final word is always the " challenge word". Students are told that it uses all the letters listed, and they are challenged to write the word in the final box.
     (8)As in making words, the teacher guides the students to apply what they have learned, where they discover new words that follow or transfer some of the same patterns or principles.
     (9)Making and writing words involves students sorting the words they have just written. Using scissors, they cut out each box on the sheet to make individual word cards.
    For word sorting, students organize their cards into categories provided by the teacher. Of course, not all the sorts have to be letter-sound related. Teachers can also have students sort words into semantic or meaning-bearing categories.
     (10)As students become adept at sorting words, teachers may wish to have them name the categories. With each new sort, students not only gain added exposure to the words but they also analyze the words from different perspectives. This gives them greater control over and knowledge about how the words are constructed and what they mean.
    To sum up, today we mainly discussed a variation of making words—making and writing words. Thanks for your listening.